Allow all entries to be searched and filtered when limiting entry sources for entry fields

[mijewe]

When configuring an Entries field's "Sources" setting, you can select which sources entries can be selected from.

When "All" is checked, the entry selection modal shows an "All entries" item in the sidebar that lets you search and filter across every source at once

When "All" is unchecked and only a subset of sources is selected instead, that "All entries" option disappears from the modal. The sidebar then only lists the individually selected sources, with no way to search or filter across all of them together.

This is a problem because the client might not remember which section an entry is in. As a developer, my only option is to give access to all sources but this isn't the desired behaviour.

This was originally raised back in 2018 (#2822) but never picked up, and the underlying limitation is still present in current Craft versions. The use case hasn't gone away: you still need to limit sources to keep users away from entries used purely for relational data, but that shouldn't mean losing the ability to search across the sources you've allowed.

Expected behavior
Even when a specific subset of sources is selected, the modal should still offer an "All entries" option that searches and filters across that whole selected subset, not just across a single source at a time.

Actual behavior
No combined search/filter view is available when more than one source is selected; users must click into each source individually to find an entry.

[brandonkelly]

It was unintentional that “All entries” wasn’t getting listed as a source option, so I just fixed that for the next release. (4643ac7)

So if you want to include “All entries” along with specific other sources, you will be able to do that as of the next release.

[brandonkelly]

Could this be revisited so "All entries" scopes its search to only the selected sources, and is positioned directly under "All" in the settings list rather than sorted alphabetically?

Agree that’s awkward. Will look into that.

Fixed the sorting issue for the next release (2e8fcf2 ), however that was only actually the case within the settings; regardless of the order they are shown there, entry selection modals will display them in the same order you’ve defined on the Entries index page.

[brandonkelly]

Craft 5.10.11 is out with that fix.

[CraigClem]

Thanks for confirming, and for the sorting fix.

The use case we're trying to solve is being able to limit which sources are selectable — to keep certain entries out of reach — while still letting users search across the sources they are allowed to use.

Since "All entries" mirrors the unrestricted Entries index page rather than the selected subset, we're currently stuck choosing between full access or no combined search at all.

Would it be possible to have "All entries" scope its search to just the selected sources instead?

[brandonkelly]

Would it be possible to have "All entries" scope its search to just the selected sources instead?

No. It is a source just like all the others, with a predefined definition of which entries it is going to show, regardless of the context.

[mijewe]

Hey Brandon,

Craig's right, the original problem we want solved with this feature request is: if the admin limits a relational field to a subset of sections, there's currently no way for the CMS user to search across the selected sections; they have to go through each one individually.

So for me this isn't resolved. We'll look into a custom module in the meantime, but this feels like it should be core behaviour.