Evaluate and Implement CQL EXCLUDE Support in Dynamic Filter Widgets

[rowheat02]

Description

Current Behavior

• Users can define a default filter that is applied when no items are selected in the Dynamic Filter Widget.
• If the default filter is not defined, it is inclusive. If defined, that will be applied when no filter item is selected.
  

Objective

On the default filter(when no filter item is selected on the dynamic filter widget), the user can only decide whether to include all features or exclude all features.

Tasks

• Review the support_exclude branch for implementing the CQL EXCLUDE filter.
• Verify that EXCLUDE can be safely integrated into Dynamic Filter Widgets without causing GeoServer errors.
• Propose UI here in the issue comment section or in a draft PR.
• After UI finalization, complete the work to support default filter as "Inclusive" and "Exclusive" only.

What kind of improvement you want to add? (check one with "x", remove the others)

• Minor changes to existing features
• Code style update (formatting, local variables)
• Refactoring (no functional changes, no api changes)
• Build related changes
• CI related changes
• Other... Please describe:

Other useful information

[rowheat02]

I continued from the given branch. Two-mode "Include all" and "Exclude all" is achievable rather than the default filter.

Screen.Recording.2026-02-13.at.18.20.10.mov

I have proposed no selection behaviour as in the video above.
Tooltip:

[offtherailz]

Id suggest
No selection mode:

• no filter: when nothing is selected, no filter will be applied to the layer by this tool
• exclude: when nothing is selected, a filter that excludes all data will be applied.
• custom: current behaviour (with filter button)

Asking confirmation to @tdipisa about my proposal and about proceeding on this task.
Btw, did the exclude attempt worked as expected @rowheat02 ?

[michaellinhq]

Hi, I reviewed 'Evaluate and Implement CQL EXCLUDE Support in Dynamic Filter Widgets' and can start immediately. I can deliver a first usable version quickly and iterate based on your feedback. If this scope still matches your priority, I can proceed right away.

[offtherailz]

Good to know @michaellinhq . We commented almost simultanuosly 😄 .

I did this attempt implementation here and we are already following the development. Thank you very much anyway ❤️
Your contribution is always welcome, even if we already finished here and there is no reason to make you work on this too.

[offtherailz]

@ElenaGallo, could you please test this on DEV ? Thank you