Filter on numeric attribute and take care of absent value

[LeComptoirDesPharmacies]

Hi Everyone,

We are somewhat blocked with a capability that we want to provide to our customers.
It is a classic slider where user select a value (eg. 15) and we want to display all records where stock (aka. an attribute) is above.
This should be good using numeric filter like stock >= 15.

In addition, we have some records with an infinite number of stock so we create some records without stock attribute.
We followed this documentation filter-by-null-or-missing-attributes and had the idea to put a tag IS_LIMITED_STOCK on records where stock is present. This would result in the following filter : stock >= 15 OR NOT _tags:IS_LIMITED_STOCK.

However there is one main problems : The following documentation mixing-type-of-filters-in-or-conditions tell that we can not mix numeric and tags filters.

O.K ! So maybe use a custom attribute named "is_limited_stock" with a boolean value that we could use through numeric notation (See Note about boolean attribute in numeric filters).
This would result in the following filter : stock >= 15 OR is_limited_stock = 0.

It seems great and seems to work, however we do not succeed to get a proper way of include this filter using react-instantsearch library.
As we are using UI widget with the need to produce a refinement that can be cleared using clearsquery we do not want to use Configure.
Instead we created a copy of the Range connector and are ready to customize the getSearchParameters method to add the OR is_limited_stock = 0 part.

But it seems easier writing than doing. 😫
We found a ton of topic discussing this problem (See related issues below) but did not find a clear solution yet.

What are our best options ?

1. Use setQueryParameter on filters and break other Configure nodes of the application ?
   Is there a way to get current filters value in getSearchParameters and maybe merge the new filter using 'and' ?
   Could it avoid breaking Configure nodes ? Is it robust / production-ready ?
2. Always produce records with a stock attribute and, for unlimited one, put a magic infinite number like '99999' ?
   This solution is easier in term of filtering but it will "corrupt" a bit the data and it force all my clients (app) to know that '99999' means unlimited and should be replaced/ignored.
3. Create a stock attribute sibling that will be filled like in point (2) but only used for filtering purpose.
   Ex: onlyFilterStock
4. Any idea that you have in your bag will be welcomed. 🙏

Related issues :
https://github.com/algolia/algoliasearch-helper-js/issues/429
algolia/react-instantsearch#686
https://github.com/algolia/algoliasearch-helper-js/issues/290
https://github.com/algolia/algoliasearch-helper-js/issues/748
https://github.com/algolia/react-instantsearch/issues/725

Yours faithfully,
LCDP

[Haroenv]

There's many ways to solve this, and ideally you would be able to put Infinity, but that doesn't work, but what do you think about adding a value of let's say 10000 (much higher than regular stock) so it shows up in the filter, and manually add a max value to the range slider?

[LeComptoirDesPharmacies]

Hi @Haroenv,

Thanks for this answer. As we are using "min-only" filters, we followed your advice using solution (2).
In order for client to know if the value is a magical number, we added a boolean attribute next to it.

Yours faithfully,
LCDP

[Haroenv]

That sounds like a solid solution with these constraints!