Three brainstorming ideas:

1. We can put a hidden text field with id="committee_id" using the simple text field macro (don't necessarily need a hidden typeahead field) in the filings_filter.jinja which would allow committee_id to work in a URL (including unverified comms)

   Remaining issues with this solution:

   • FIXED with Fix coalesce error in ofec_filings_all_mv openFEC#5424 unverified committees still need to be fixed for q_filer typeahead (@fec-jli and @hcaofec have fix)
   • Frontend issue: How to display the tag checkboxes in the filter panel to make sense to the user
   • API issue: You cannot combine committee_id and q_filer in the same URL or API query to the filings endpoint. (Tested on OpenFEC.)

2. Or we could put two fields here instead:

   • one typeahead-only field field labeled Commitee id (with id="commitee_id")
   • And the existing typeahead/free-text field labeled Committee name or id(with id="q_filer")

   Remaining issues with this solution:

   • Would still need to resolve the API issue of not being able to combine committee_id and q_filer in the same API query to the filings endpoint. (Tested on OpenFEC.)

3. Or maybe we can just redirect( in proxy app), URLS with /filings/?committee_id... to filings/?q_filer... because arguably it is a legacy pattern. Or redirect with this JS, with a pushState or replaceState to convert committee_id to q_filer in URLS: (Tested and works well)

      const queryx = this.parseParams(this.getVars());
      if (queryx.committee_id &&  /\/filings/.test(window.location.href)){
  
         if (queryx.q_filer) {
           queryx.q_filer  = urls.ensureArray(queryx.q_filer)
           queryx.q_filer.push(...urls.ensureArray(queryx.committee_id))
        }
       else {
          queryx.q_filer = queryx.committee_id
       }
    delete queryx.committee_id
    const urlx = new URL(window.location.href.split('?')[0])
    let new_query = URI.buildQuery(queryx) 
    let new_url = `${urlx}?${new_query}`
    history.pushState(null, '', new_url);
    //OR TO USE `replaceState` INSTEAD 

NOTE: Also @fec-jli mentioned that, of the two parameters, q_filer is the more "expensive" option and we should only call it when doing a free-text search, otherwise call the API, with committee_id, but which endpoint? This changes everything mentioned above :-(

sample api urls:
https://fec-dev-api.app.cloud.gov/v1/filings/?q_filer=C00780197 (return 9 rows)
https://fec-dev-api.app.cloud.gov/v1/filings/?q_filer=C007801 (return 122 rows)

Had a convo with back-end and database about this issue and we came to the following three issues that need resolution:

1. Front-end solution to resolve issue - need to understand front-end limitations before addressing 2 and 3.
2. Bookmarks need to function
3. Database generated table can potentially be updated to reflect q-filer

Follow-up Typeahead research ticket #5800