Is there a way to show a row or column as a filter in the filter area instead of having to filter by clicking the filter button on the column itself?

Hello, Bill!
 
Thank you for reaching out to us.
 
Kindly note that by design, it is possible to place one field to rows, columns, or report filters in Flexmonster component.
 
We suggest adding custom filter controls for the fields from rows and columns outside the Flexmonster component to achieve the desired behavior. Here is the brief algorithm:
1. Define the filtering area outside the Flexmonster component.
2. Hide the reportFilters area in Flexmonster using CSS:

.fm-page-filter {
  display: none !important;
}

3. Get all fields defined in rows, columns, and report filters, and create new filtering controls in the filtering area for them:

flexmonster.on("reportcomplete", () => {
    const filters = [...pivot.getReportFilters(), ...pivot.getRows(), ...pivot.getColumns()];

    //your code here
}

The reportcomplete event here ensures that all the operations are performed after Flexmonster is fully loaded.
4. Use our openFilter() API call to open the filter pop-up when clicking on the new controls.
5. Add the reportchange event listener to synchronize new filtering controls with changes applied from the Field List.
6. (optional) Switch off default Flexmonster filtering:

report: {
    options: {
      showFilter: false,
      //other options
    },
    //other report properties
}

 
We have prepared a JSFiddle example to illustrate the idea: https://jsfiddle.net/flexmonster/ypvsmw1u/.
 
Please let us know if the suggested approach works for you.
 
Kind regards,
Solomiia

Hello, Bill!

Hope you are doing well.

Our team is wondering if you had a chance to try the suggested approach and create the filtering area outside of Flexmonster component. Could you please let us know if it works well for your case?

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Kind regards,
Solomiia

Hello, Bill!

Thank you for your feedback.

We are glad to hear that our suggestions were helpful in finding the solution.

Feel free to reach out to us in case of any other questions.

Kind regards,
Solomiia