Filters: Why does Input value sometimes default to true on string types?

[erondpowell]

Preflight Checklist

• I have completed all Troubleshooting Steps.
• I'm on the latest version of Directus.
• There's no other issue that already describes my problem.

Describe the Bug

When filtering radio buttons, if you set the operator to no-value-required operator like null, is not null, empty, is not empty, etc. then switch back to an operator that takes a value, it automatically sets the input value to true, however radio buttons appear to be stored as String type, not Boolean. This happens on the other string type Fields I have tested so far.

This seemed like a weird behavior so I'm adding it into bugs... but there are no console errors, so maybe it is just a silly question! 😄

Why start with -- as default Filter Value then switch to true even in cases where it seems like true can't even be filtered for?

To Reproduce

Screen.Recording.2022-03-02.at.2.20.21.PM.mov

Errors Shown

no.

What version of Directus are you using?

9.5

What version of Node.js are you using?

cloud

What database are you using?

cloud

What browser are you using?

safari

What operating system are you using?

Mac

How are you deploying Directus?

cloud

[azrikahar]

Agree that this is a point for UX improvement 👍

---

Notes on what's happening here

When we switch to null/nnull/empty/nempty, the value is set to true:

directus/app/src/interfaces/_system/system-filter/nodes.vue

Lines 264 to 269 in 962af79

	case '_null':
	case '_nnull':
	case '_empty':
	case '_nempty':
	update(true);
	break;

But since contains/ncontains etc doesn't have a switch case, it defaulted to using the original value which is true but casted into a string:

directus/app/src/interfaces/_system/system-filter/nodes.vue

Lines 280 to 282 in 962af79

	default:
	update(Array.isArray(value) ? value[0] : value);
	break;

[erondpowell]

Cool. Thanks!

[rijkvanzanten]

@erondpowell We'll leave this open as an improvement. We should clear the value when you switch operators to/from a type that's incompatible with that value 👍🏻

[erondpowell]

@erondpowell We'll leave this open as an improvement. We should clear the value when you switch operators to/from a type that's incompatible with that value 👍🏻

Got ya, jumped straight from email and didn't read Azzy's first line 👍