# A Report of 'Custom Filters' **URL:** \ **Category:** Ideas\ **Created:** [March 14, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311 "2021-03-14T18:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brinycoolie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e56c9b/32.png) [@Brinycoolie](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Brinycoolie)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/1 "2021-03-14T18:30:25Z")
I had a moment of frustration this afternoon when I could not locate a filter I ‘thought’ I had made some time ago. Of course, I hadn’t, I probably just wished I had…but it got me thinking that it would be very useful to have a filter report, an inventory of filters and how they were composed so I could annotate it for future use. Does anybody know if such a thing exists already? or do we need to supplicate one of the filter writers to help us out? brian ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/2 "2021-03-14T20:21:09Z")
I [linked my `custom_filters.xml` as a Media object](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/managing-your-complex-custom-filters/593/2) and manage them that way. The Category silos for filters makes using the filter editors inside Gramps too awkward. This allows me to cut&paste [filter definitions for sharing](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/sharing-custom-filters/997). Plus I can use Notes to archive them. ---
**Author:** ![DaveSch](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/davesch/32/40_2.png) [@DaveSch](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/DaveSch)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/3 "2021-03-14T20:31:51Z")
I am not sure if this helps but the custom filters a user puts together is saved in custom\_filters.xml stored in your [user’s version folder](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_User_Directory) which is the gramps## folder. I always try to make sure I have a backup of this file but as an xml file it would be easy to edit down to single filters for archive. The active file obviously only contains what you currently have. Delete a filter and the xml also deletes it. ---
**Author:** ![PLegoux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/plegoux/32/413_2.png) [@PLegoux](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/PLegoux)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 8:22am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/4 "2021-03-15T08:22:18Z")
> [@emyoulation](#): > > The Category silos for filters makes using the filter editors inside Gramps too awkward So I describe them outside of Gramps, in [my own gramps usage description page](https://www.notion.so/plegoux/Mon-Gramps-2a7a76aa8b164aeeac5479f2a98c981b#dbbdd181db4545c08c0c08ab3659375f) on Notion. I’ve defined them a codification to be sure description part of filter name is not an issue for filters calling another filters and if I went to change some filters name sometimes. ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/8ed640541341019f680590ea52531e1b4c2c8e26.png) The most important thing is to have a unique number in filter title to be able to research it if you change the description part of the title. ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/5 "2021-03-15T14:34:02Z")
Just a thought but… if a Custom Filter report was written (and it would be a nice complement to the [Database summary report](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_Reports_-_part_6#Database_Summary_Report) for managing your Tree development), then an option to also include a list of Rules (with Descriptions & whether an add-on) would make the reading Report less dependent on external references for [built-in](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Gramps_5.1_Wiki_Manual_-_Filters#Which_filter_rules_in_which_Category.3F) and [Add-on](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Rule_expansions) rules. ---
**Author:** ![Russty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Russty](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/Russty)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/a-report-of-custom-filters/1311/6 "2022-03-14T19:37:01Z")
I don’t know much about XML, but I have enough computer programming experience to get an idea what it’s doing. For those who don’t know, EXCEL can ‘read’ xml files. It will create an XML table that I find easy to read. - Right click the file and choose “open with Excel” - Click the radio button for “As an XML table” - Click ‘OK’ - Excel will warn about a missing schema. Click ‘OK’ Excel will create a table with headings: type, name, function, class, use\_regex, value. Now you have a list of your filters. One can sort, annotate. etc.