Customizing dropdown and search box behavior for different data types in UI

Frontend
1

Hey everyone, I’m working on a frontend project and I’m stuck with some issues related to data types in dropdowns and search boxes. I’ve been using custom converter classes with annotations to change how Date and Boolean objects are shown in the UI. Here’s what’s bugging me:

  1. The Date stuff works fine, but for Boolean, I have to use a specific converter ID and add it manually in the HTML every time. It’s getting tedious.

  2. I changed booleans to show as Yes/No in the UI, but now my filter boxes on boolean columns are acting up. They don’t seem to understand that Yes/No relates to true/false. I don’t want to change everything to strings in the backend because I need to keep the original data types.

Has anyone dealt with similar issues? How can I make these data types play nice with search and filter functions without messing up my backend? Any tips or tricks would be super helpful!

2

hm, interesting problem! have you tried a custom filter for your booleans that maps yes/no to true/false?
maybe a reusable dropdown could help avoid manual converter adds.
what’s your frontend framework?

3

I’ve encountered similar challenges in my projects. One effective approach is implementing a custom directive or component for handling boolean values consistently across your UI. This can encapsulate the Yes/No display logic and the true/false mapping for filters.

For the date issue, consider creating a reusable date formatter service. This centralizes date formatting logic and can be easily injected where needed, reducing repetitive code.

Regarding search functionality, you might want to look into creating a custom search predicate. This allows you to define how different data types are searched, including your custom Yes/No boolean representation.

These solutions have worked well in my experience, improving both code maintainability and user experience.

4

yo zoe, sounds messy. have you tried a global boolean converter? that might remove manual addition hassle. also, a custom filter component to map yes/no to true/false could help fix the search issue. try that out!