After you have run a search query, sometimes it is useful to save the query for later use. For example, you may have created queries for several projects, listing all the open bugs and new features in each project that are to be completed by a certain date, so you can keep an eye on their progress.

Instead of recreating this search query every time you want to check up on the statuses, you can save the query as a filter, which can be reused at a later stage. You can think of filters as named search queries that can be reused.

Other than being able to quickly pull up a report without having to recreate the queries, saving search queries as filters provides you with other benefits:

• Sharing saved filters with other users
• Using the filters as a source of data to generate reports
• Using the filters for agile boards (see Chapter 3, Using Jira for Agile Projects)
• Displaying results on a dashboard as a gadget
• Subscribing to the search queries to have results emailed to you automatically

A few things to keep in mind when creating and using filters as the data source for gadgets and agile boards are as follows:

• When you are creating a filter for agile boards, make sure you select the relevant projects as part of your search query.
• When you are creating a filter for gadgets and agile boards, make sure you share the filter with the same group of users that has access to the gadgets and boards. Otherwise, they will not see any results.

We will explore all of the advanced operations you can perform with filters, and explain some of the new terms and concepts, such as dashboard and gadgets, in later sections. However, let's look at how we can create and manage filters first.