Advanced Filtering & Filter Trees

What Are Filter Trees?

Filter trees allow you to create hierarchical faceted navigation — for example, a “Category” filter that shows top-level categories, and when a user selects one, it expands to show subcategories. This is essential for large catalogs with deep category structures like Clothing > Men’s > Jackets > Winter.

How to Create Filter Hierarchies

1. Navigate to Dashboard > Search Configuration > Filter Trees > Create New
2. Select the field to use as the hierarchy root (e.g., “category”)
3. Define parent-child relationships between values
4. Configure display options (expanded by default, max depth, etc.)
5. Save and publish

Filter Tree Editor

• Visual drag-and-drop interface for arranging the hierarchy
• Import hierarchy from CSV — useful for large category trees
• Preview how the tree will look to customers before publishing
• Supports up to 5 levels of nesting

Per-Value Filter Configuration

For each individual filter value, you can configure:

• Custom display name (e.g., show “Men’s Clothing” instead of “mens_clothing”)
• Custom sort order within the filter list
• Show or hide specific values
• Minimum count threshold — hide values with fewer than N matching results

Suggest Facets (AI-Powered)

ExpertRec can automatically suggest which fields make good facets based on your product data:

1. Navigate to Dashboard > Search Configuration > Suggest Facets
2. Review the AI-generated suggestions
3. Enable or disable each suggestion with one click
4. The AI considers field cardinality, data type, and usage patterns

Match Options

Configure how filter values match against product data:

• Exact match — Filter value must exactly match the field value (default for most fields)
• Partial match — Filter value can be a substring of the field value
• Fuzzy match — Allows minor spelling variations

Configure per-field in Dashboard > Filter Configuration > Match Options.

Best Practices for Filter UX

• Show the most important filters first (category, price, brand)
• Use price range sliders instead of discrete price values
• Show result counts next to each filter value
• Collapse less-used filters by default, especially on mobile
• Always show a “Clear all filters” option
• Limit to 8-10 visible facets maximum to avoid overwhelming users

Mobile Filter Considerations

• Use a slide-out drawer for filters on mobile (configured in the mobile filter template)
• Larger touch targets — minimum 44px height for filter options
• Show active filter count in the filter button (e.g., “Filters (3)”)
• Use the mobile-specific filter template for optimized layout