Visual Query Builder

Visual query builder

The visual builder lets you construct precise searches by clicking, without learning any syntax — combine conditions with AND / OR, nest groups, and see results update live.

Where to find it: Inventory → More menu → Visual search.

The panel

Opening Visual search reveals one panel with three ways in — use whichever suits you, they all build the same query:

1. Ask in plain English — type a request and press Enter to fill the builder. See Natural-language search.
2. Power search — a compact field:value text box. See Text query syntax.
3. The graphical builder — the AND/OR group below, built entirely by clicking.

Building a query graphically

• Match all / any. The AND / OR toggle at the top of a group decides whether items must match all of its conditions or any of them.
• NOT. The NOT button beside it flips the whole group, keeping the items that don't match — "not in the attic", "nothing from this manufacturer". The wording next to the toggle updates to say what the group now does.
• Add condition. Select Add condition to add a rule — pick a field, an operator, and a value. Alongside the text and number fields you'll find dates (expiry, warranty), money ([[unit cost, purchase price and current value|Valuation-and-Spend]]), and fixed choices (condition, tracking mode, dead-stock reporting) — plus tags, capabilities and your own custom fields.
• The value box matches the field. A date field gives you a date picker, a choice field a drop-down of exactly the values it accepts, and a yes/no field a Yes/No toggle — so there is nothing to spell correctly.
• Tags. Choose the Tag field and type a tag name: contains matches part of the name (expo finds expo-2026), equals the whole name. An item matches if any of its tags does.
• Has any value. Most fields offer a has any value operator, which asks only whether the field is filled in. Pair it with NOT on the group for questions like "items with no part number" or "anything without a category".
• Add group. Select Add group to nest a sub-group with its own AND/OR — this is how you express things like "(low quantity OR on order) AND in the garage".
• Clear. Remove everything and start over with Clear.

Results update as you build, and the panel shows how many items currently match. Changes you make from the results themselves — stepping a quantity up or down, editing an item, removing one — show on the cards straight away, just as they do in the ordinary item list.

💡 Tip The three inputs interoperate: type a request in plain English or the text box to populate the graphical builder, then fine-tune the conditions by clicking. It's often fastest to start with a rough phrase and adjust.

ℹ️ Note While the visual builder is active it supersedes the quick-search box, the status chips and the category/tag filters, so you're always seeing exactly this query's results. Close the panel to return to quick search.

The selected location still applies

The location you have selected in the Inventory sidebar is not superseded — it scopes the query. Select Garage and search for quantity < 5, and you get the low-stock items in the Garage, not in the whole inventory. The result line above the list says which location the query ran in, so you can always see the scope you are under.

To search everywhere, select All items at the top of the sidebar before you run the query.

💡 Tip A query that names a location itself — "items in the shed" in the plain-English box — overrides the sidebar instead of fighting it. The query then decides where to look, so it still finds Shed items while Garage is selected.

Keeping a query

Happy with a query? Save it to recall it later.

Related pages

• Text query syntax — the field:value language the box accepts.
• Natural-language search — build a query from a plain phrase.
• Custom fields & capabilities — the attributes you can filter and rank on.