List Filter Online Query Builder: Conditions, Groups and the CAML Query Behind Them

Overview

The Query Builder is the part of the Vitextra List Filter Online web part where a page editor defines the predefined filter — the set of conditions that every item must satisfy before it appears in the web part. Users cannot see or remove this filter; they only narrow the result further with the filter pane and the column header filters.

The predefined filter is stored as a tree of conditions and groups and is translated into a CAML query that SharePoint executes on the server. Nothing is loaded into the browser and filtered afterwards: the list returns only the items that match, page by page, which is what keeps the web part fast on large lists.

Typical uses of the predefined filter:

• Show only the documents created or modified by the current user.
• Show only the records of the last 12 months on a dashboard page.
• Show only approved items, items with attachments, or items whose Status is not Closed.
• Build a page per department from one list without creating a view per department.

Where to find the Query Builder

1. Open the page in edit mode and select Edit web part on the List Filter Online web part.
2. In the property pane, scroll to the Filter group. The label Filter view by: is followed by a preview of the current filter — No filter applied when nothing is defined yet.
3. Select Edit Filter. The Query Builder opens in a large side panel.
4. Build the query, then select Save to apply it or Cancel to discard the changes. The web part re-renders immediately with the new filter.

The Query Builder is available only after the site and the list or library are selected in the Data source group, because the list of fields and their types comes from the selected list.

Conditions and groups

A query consists of two kinds of building blocks.

• A condition is one comparison: field — operator — value, for example Amount — Is greater than — 5000. Some operators need no value (Contains data, Is Current User, Today).
• A group holds conditions and other groups and joins them with one logical operator — AND (every member must be true) or OR (at least one member must be true). The toggle on the left edge of the group switches between the two.

The panel always has one root group; it cannot be deleted. Inside any group, the Add button offers two commands:

• Condition — adds an empty row to the current group;
• Group — adds a nested group (AND by default) that you fill in the same way.

Groups can be nested up to ten levels deep. Every row and every nested group has a delete icon on the right; deleting a group deletes everything inside it.

The query in the figure reads: Title is not empty and begins with "C" and (created by me or modified by me) and (created in the last year or modified in the last year) and (has attachments, or the Customer is filled in and the Amount is greater than 5,000).

Operators by column type

The operator list of a row depends on the type of the selected field. The table lists the operators the Query Builder offers for each supported column type.

Contains data and Does not contain data test whether the column has any value, the same way IsNotNull and IsNull do in CAML.

The value editor also follows the column type: a date picker for dates (two date pickers for Between), a numeric field for numbers and currency, a people picker for Person or Group, a term picker for Managed Metadata, a Yes / No list for Yes/No and Attachments, a list of statuses for Approval Status, and a text box for text, choice and lookup columns.

Static and dynamic conditions

A static condition compares the column with a fixed value you enter: a date, a number, a text, a person. The value is written into the query as is. Between covers both dates inclusively, by calendar day; if only one of the two dates is set, the condition becomes an open-ended On or after or On or before.

A dynamic condition is resolved by SharePoint at the moment the query runs, so the same page shows different items to different users and on different days:

The number for Last X and Next X is entered in the value field of the row. Last X Months and Last X Years are converted to a start date when the query is generated, so a page that says Modified — Last X Years — 1 always covers the last twelve months without anyone editing the filter.

How the predefined filter combines with user filters

When a user applies a filter in the filter pane or in a column header, the web part does not replace the predefined filter. It builds a new query in which the predefined filter and the user filters are joined with AND:

<Where>
  <And>
    <!-- the predefined filter from the Query Builder -->
    <!-- the conditions selected by the user in the filter pane -->
  </And>
</Where>

Consequences worth knowing:

• Users can narrow the result but never widen it beyond the predefined filter. A page filtered to Created By — Is Current User never shows another person's items, whatever the user selects in the pane.
• Sorting, grouping, totals and the Excel export all work on the combined result.
• Saved filters and filter links (see KB10253. Saving Filters and Sharing a Link to a Filtered View in List Filter Online) store only the user part of the query. The predefined filter is part of the page configuration and travels with the page.

From the tree to CAML

CAML, the query language of SharePoint lists, allows exactly two operands inside <And> and <Or>. A group with three or more members therefore cannot be written as one element; it has to be folded into a chain of nested pairs. The Query Builder does this folding for you, together with the type-specific details: the Type attribute of every value, LookupId for lookup columns and IncludeTimeValue for date comparisons.

The query from the figure above produces a <Where> clause of about 70 lines. Its skeleton — with the comparisons shortened — looks like this:

<Where>
  <And>
    <Or>  <!-- created by me OR modified by me -->
      <Eq><FieldRef Name="Author" /><Value Type="Integer"><UserID /></Value></Eq>
      <Eq><FieldRef Name="Editor" /><Value Type="Integer"><UserID /></Value></Eq>
    </Or>
    <And>
      <Or>  <!-- created in the last year OR modified in the last year -->
        <And> <Geq Created 2025-10-21 /> <Leq Created <Today /> /> </And>
        <And> <Geq Modified 2025-10-21 /> <Leq Modified <Today /> /> </And>
      </Or>
      <And>
        <Or>  <!-- (customer filled in AND amount > 5000) OR has attachments -->
          <And> <IsNotNull Customer /> <Gt Amount 5000 /> </And>
          <Eq Attachments 1 />
        </Or>
        <And> <IsNotNull Title /> <BeginsWith Title "C" /> </And>
      </And>
    </And>
  </And>
</Where>

Each Last X Years row became an <And> of two date comparisons, each OR group became an <Or> element, and the four members of the root AND group became three nested <And> elements.

Viewing the generated query

To see the exact CAML that the web part sends — including the predefined filter, the current user filters, the view fields, the row limit and the grouping:

1. In the property pane, expand Developer tools and switch on Enable developer mode.
2. Save the page. A developer tools menu appears at the right end of the command bar of the web part.
3. Select CAML Query. The query opens in a dialog and can be copied.

Predefined filters on large lists

On lists with more than 5,000 items SharePoint executes a query only if the first condition that narrows the result uses an indexed column. The predefined filter is the first thing that runs, so it decides whether the page opens at all.

• Start the root group with a condition on an indexed column (Created, Modified, Author, Editor and ID are indexed by default; others can be indexed in the list settings).
• Prefer AND at the root: an OR between two non-indexed columns cannot use any index.
• Dynamic date conditions (Last X Months, Today) are good first conditions when the date column is indexed.

The details, the index warning in the filter configurator and the one-click index creation are described in KB10257. Filtering Large Lists: Indexed Columns and the 5,000-Item Threshold.

Limitations

• The Query Builder works with the columns of one list or library — the one selected in the data source. Conditions on columns of other lists are not possible.
• Lookup and choice values are matched by the text you type; there is no picker for them in the Query Builder.
• A nested group that contains no conditions is ignored when the query is generated.
• The maximum nesting depth is ten levels. In practice two or three levels cover almost every scenario; a deeper tree is hard to read in the preview.
• The predefined filter is not shown to users. If users need to know why some items are missing, say so in the web part title or on the page.

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