This feature has thwarted my many attempts to implement it.

In my application I have a list of tasks at different progress states
and for different sites and assigned to different users.  Users come
onto the system and work on all of the tasks in a particular state,
site or combination of both.

At the moment I have an index page with a <table-plus> listing of
tasks.  Users use the filters to select the subset of tasks they wish
to work on.  The problem is that working on each task takes the user
away from the index screen.  When they have completed the task and
return to the index screen, their filter parameters have been reset
and they now need to reselect their subset of tasks they are working
on.

The users would like the filter parameters to remain in use in their
current session until they change them.

Remembering them is simple enough - just put them into the session in
the controller.  The problem is how to restore them.

Firstly, for each filter-menu, a separate form is constructed for each
filter-menu with the action attribute set to the request_uri so as to
return the filter parameters to the browser.  Therefore it is not just
a simple case of restoring the filter parameters from the session -
the request_uri needs to be fiddled with so that the restored
parameters are returned to the browser.

The next problem is determining if the user is returning to the index
page or just changing the filter parameters.  If they are returning
then the filter parameters will be all blank and should be restored
from the session.  If they are changing the filter parameters then the
new parameters need to be saved in the session.  The gotcha is when
the user changes all of the filter parameters to 'All' ie blank.  The
application now thinks the user is returning and restores the filter
parameters, overwriting the users changes.

I have tried all manner of tricks to detect if the user is returning
to the page but to no avail.  As there is only one path back to the
index page I tried modifying the url but because <filter-menu> uses
the request_uri, the modified url gets returned to the browser for
subsequent reuse.  I also thought about using a hidden field to flag
updates but the way <filter-menu> implements multiple forms makes it
impossible to insert a hidden field. I could modify the request_uri in
the controller by appending a parameter to it and that modified url
will get passed back to browser for use in subsequent filter changes.
If the parameter is missing then I know that the users is viewing the
page for the first time or are returning from somewhere else. However
that isn't as straightforward to do as it sounds.

I'm open to suggestions as to how to implement this feature.

Thanks

Dean

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