Editing Filters

There are two ways to create filter expressions in Visualizer. One is to use the context menu on cells in the Main Grid, the other is to type the expression in the filter edit box.

Creating filters from cell data

The simplest way to create a filter expression is to right click on a cell in the Main Grid. This will pop up a menu with an "Add Filter" item. Under that item are various predicates which can be added to the current filter expression based. All of them use the value in the cell as the predicate value and current column. They vary only in the comparison operator and whether the predicate is negated.

For example, given a slice with the destination address of 10.12.0.0/16, to display only slices that affect traffic going to same network you would right-click on the cell in the row for the slice in the 'Destination Address" column. Then under "Add Filter" select "Intersects".

The filter display is updated to have that predicate.

If you are not editing the filter, then the result is immediately applied and the main grid is updated. If the filter edit box is active, then the predicate is inserted in editor at the current cursor location. It is not applied until the filter as a whole is applied.

You can add additional filters for other columns. The predicates are connected by the "and" binary operator so that the displayed slices must match all the predicates. For example, suppose you wanted to exclude slices with the "deny" action. Right click on a cell with "deny" and select the "does not contain" predicate.

This changes the filter expression and applies it to the main grid.

If the filter editor is not currently open you can remove predicates by right clicking on a column and use the "Remove Filter" item. This can have several items in it. The "All Filters" item always appears and will erase the entire filter expression and stop filtering. The "Column Filters" will remove all predicates that refer to the column. If there are any such predicates, they will be listed in the menu and can be removed individually.

Removing predicates via right click is not available when the filter editor is open. If you need to remove a predicate simply delete it using the text editor.

Note that none of the actions contain "deny" because we have filtered those out.

Direct editing

In addition to using filters generated from slice data, the filter expression can be edited directly via the "Edit Filter" button to the right of the filter tab. Pressing the button opens up a small edit panel and several other buttons.

Button	Action
Apply	If the edit box contains a valid filter expression, it replaces the current filter expression and is used to filter the main grid.
Reset	Erases the edit box then copies the current filter expression to it. This "resets" the expression being edited to the current expression.
Close Editor	Close the edit box. The current contents are left as is.

The edit box uses the Guided Editor to provide hints as you type. You can also use a right click on a cell to add a predicate to the edit box. This inserts the text for the column filter at the current location in the edit box. It is not guaranteed to create a valid filter expression. Note also that no logical connector is inserted, only the predicate itself.

If the editor is closed it is automatically reset to the current filter if the filter is altered. Any partial edits will be discarded. This is done to keep the editor synchronized with the active filter which is the expected behavior.