Angular Data GridFilter Component

Filter components allow you to add your own filter types to AG Grid. Use them when the Provided Filters do not meet your requirements.

The example below shows two custom filters. The first is on the Athlete column and demonstrates a filter with "fuzzy" matching and the second is on the Year column with preset options.

Implementing a Filter Component

The interface for a custom filter component is as follows:

interface IFilterAngularComp {
   // Mandatory - params for filter operations (see below for more details)
   agInit(params: IFilterParams): void;

   // Return true if the filter is active. If active then 1) the grid will show the filter icon in the column
   // header and 2) the filter will be included in the filtering of the data.
   isFilterActive(): boolean;

   // The grid will ask each active filter, in turn, whether each row in the grid passes. If any
   // filter fails, then the row will be excluded from the final set. A params object is supplied
   // containing attributes of node (the rowNode the grid creates that wraps the data) and data (the data
   // object that you provided to the grid for that row). Note that this is only called for the
   // Client-Side Row Model, and can just return `true` if being used exclusively with other row models.
   doesFilterPass(params: IDoesFilterPassParams): boolean;

   // Gets the filter state. If filter is not active, then should return null/undefined.
   // The grid calls getModel() on all active filters when gridApi.getFilterModel() is called.
   getModel(): any;

   // Restores the filter state. Called by the grid after gridApi.setFilterModel(model) is called.
   // The grid will pass undefined/null to clear the filter.
   setModel(model: any): void;


   // Optional methods

   // Gets called every time the popup is shown, after the GUI returned in
   // getGui is attached to the DOM. If the filter popup is closed and re-opened, this method is
   // called each time the filter is shown. This is useful for any logic that requires attachment
   // before executing, such as putting focus on a particular DOM element. The params has a
   // callback method 'hidePopup', which you can call at any later point to hide the popup - good
   // if you have an 'Apply' button and you want to hide the popup after it is pressed.
   afterGuiAttached?(params?: IAfterGuiAttachedParams): void;

   // Gets called every time the popup is hidden, after the GUI returned in getGui is detached
   // from the DOM. If the filter popup is closed and re-opened, this method is called each time
   // the filter is hidden. This is useful for any logic to reset the UI state back to the model
   // before the component is reopened.
   afterGuiDetached?(): void;

   // Gets called when new rows are inserted into the grid. If the filter needs to change its
   // state after rows are loaded, it can do it here. For example the set filters uses this
   // to update the list of available values to select from (e.g. 'Ireland', 'UK' etc for
   // Country filter). To get the list of available values from within this method from the
   // Client Side Row Model, use gridApi.forEachLeafNode(callback)
   onNewRowsLoaded?(): void;

   // Called whenever any filter is changed.
   onAnyFilterChanged?(): void;

  // When defined, this method is called whenever the parameters provided in colDef.filterParams
  // change. The result returned by this method will determine if the filter should be 
  // refreshed and reused, or if a new filter instance should be created.
  // 
  // When true is returned, the existing filter instance should be refreshed and reused instead
  // of being destroyed. This is useful if the new params passed are compatible with the
  // existing filter instance. When false is returned, the existing filter will be destroyed 
  // and a new filter instance will be created. This should be done if you do not wish to reuse
  // the existing filter instance.
  // 
  // When this method is not provided, the default behaviour is to destroy and recreate the
  // filter instance everytime colDef.filterParams changes.
  refresh?(newParams: IFilterParams): boolean;

   // Gets called when the column is destroyed. If your custom filter needs to do
   // any resource cleaning up, do it here. A filter is NOT destroyed when it is
   // made 'not visible', as the GUI is kept to be shown again if the user selects
   // that filter again. The filter is destroyed when the column it is associated with is
   // destroyed, either when new columns are set into the grid, or the grid itself is destroyed.
   destroy?(): void;

   // If floating filters are turned on for the grid, but you have no floating filter
   // configured for this column, then the grid will check for this method. If this
   // method exists, then the grid will provide a read-only floating filter for you
   // and display the results of this method. For example, if your filter is a simple
   // filter with one string input value, you could just return the simple string
   // value here.
   getModelAsString?(model: any): string;
}

Custom Filter Parameters

The agInit(params) method takes a params object with the items listed below. If custom params are provided via the colDef.filterParams property, these will be additionally added to the params object, overriding items of the same name if a name clash exists.

Properties available on the IFilterParams<TData = any, TContext = any> interface.

Function

A function callback to be called when the filter changes. The grid will then respond by filtering the grid data. The callback takes one optional parameter which, if included, will get merged to the FilterChangedEvent object (useful for passing additional information to anyone listening to this event, however such extra attributes are not used by the grid).

Function

A function callback, to be optionally called, when the filter UI changes. The grid will respond with emitting a FilterModifiedEvent. Apart from emitting the event, the grid takes no further action.

Column

The column this filter is for.

ColDef

The column definition for the column.

IRowModel

The row model, helpful for looking up data values if needed. If the filter needs to know which rows are a) in the table, b) currently visible (i.e. not already filtered), c) which groups, d) what order - all of this can be read from the rowModel.

Function

Get the cell value for the given row node and column, which can be the column ID, definition, or Column object. If no column is provided, the column this filter is on will be used.

Function

A function callback, call with a node to be told whether the node passes all filters except the current filter. This is useful if you want to only present to the user values that this filter can filter given the status of the other filters. The set filter uses this to remove from the list, items that are no longer available due to the state of other filters (like Excel type filtering).

GridApi

The grid api.

TContext

Application context as set on gridOptions.context.

IDoesFilterPassParams

The method doesFilterPass(params) takes the following as a parameter:

Properties available on the IDoesFilterPassParams<TData = any> interface.

IRowNode

The row node in question.

TData

The data part of the row node in question.

Associating Floating Filter

If you create your own filter you have two options to get floating filters working for that filter:

You can create your own Custom Floating Filter.
You can implement the getModelAsString() method in your custom filter. If you implement this method and don't provide a custom floating filter, AG Grid will automatically provide a read-only version of a floating filter. See Custom Filter And Read-Only Floating Filter.

If you don't provide either of these two options for your custom filter, the display area for the floating filter will be empty.

Sometimes you will need to create custom components for your filters that also contain popup elements. This is the case for Date Filter as it pops up a Date Picker. If the library you use anchors the popup element outside of the parent filter, then when you click on it the grid will think you clicked outside of the filter and hence close the column menu.

There are two ways you can get fix this problem:

Add a mouse click listener to your floating element and set it to preventDefault(). This way, the click event will not bubble up to the grid. This is the best solution, but you can only do this if you are writing the component yourself.
Add the ag-custom-component-popup CSS class to your floating element. An example of this usage can be found here: Custom Date Component

Accessing the Component Instance

AG Grid allows you to get a reference to the filter instances via the api.getColumnFilterInstance(colKey) method.

// let's assume an Angular component as follows
@Component({
    selector: 'filter-cell',
    template: `
        Filter: <input style="height: 10px" #input (ngModelChange)="onChange($event)" [ngModel]="text">
    `
})
class PartialMatchFilterComponent implements IFilterAngularComp {
    ... // standard filter methods hidden

    // put a custom method on the filter
    myMethod() {
        // does something
    }
}

// later in your app, if you want to execute myMethod()...
laterOnInYourApplicationSomewhere() {
    // assume filter on name column
    api.getColumnFilterInstance<PartialMatchFilterComponent>('name').then(angularFilterInstance => {
        angularFilterInstance.myMethod();
    });
}

The example below illustrates how a custom filter component can be accessed and methods on it invoked:

Implementing a Filter Component

Custom Filter Parameters

IDoesFilterPassParams

Associating Floating Filter

Custom Filters Containing a Popup Element

Accessing the Component Instance