Filter in retool while using server-side pagination

[nhanhv]

I didn't find any solution for filtering in retool when using paging at the server, is there any solution for this problem?

[Tess]

Hi @nhanhv This filter UI will not filter your table if you have server side pagination enabled

If you want to filter paginated data, you'll need to filter the data on the query. Otherwise, you could disable server side pagination, which would allow you to filter client side

[dguzzo]

Hi @Tess , for the developer experience here it'd be great if Retool could key off the table's configuration to disable or otherwise show a hint that table filtering won't work when server-side pagination is on:

It's confusing to see the filter option — especially as it's a default Add On — but have it do nothing with no explanation in this pagination setup:

At the very least, it'd be appreciated if Retool's official table guide docs (as of Nov. '24) could mention that, like sorting, filtering directly won't work, and needs to be done on the server via parameters; at present that page only mentions sorting in this regard:

Sorting of tables using server-side pagination must be done on the server. You can write queries that use the table's sortArray property to achieve this.

(In my case I'll just remove the filter add-on and maybe add a user-facing disclaimer about lack of filtering.)

[Tess]

Thanks @dguzzo I'll share this feedback internally!

[samthing]

+1 to the @dguzzo 's request!
I had someone from my operations team ask why they were unable to filter on a table and I came here to learn it was because of server-side pagination.