Facets Exposed Filters

When to Use

When you want facets integrated into the Views exposed form — the recommended approach in Facets 3.x. This gives you native Views AJAX, BEF widget support, and simpler configuration.

Decision: Why Exposed Filters?

Feature	Block-Based (2.x)	Exposed Filters (3.x)
AJAX support	No	Yes (native Views AJAX)
Configuration	Separate facet admin	Directly in Views UI
Multiple displays	Must recreate per display	Shared across displays
Widget control	Facets widgets only	BEF widgets (checkboxes, links, sliders)
Layout flexibility	Place blocks anywhere	In the exposed form area
Processors	Full processor support	Full processor support
Performance	Separate query overhead	Single Views query

Pattern: Setup

Enable modules:

drush en facets_exposed_filters better_exposed_filters

Create a View using a Search API index
Save the View (critical — source must exist before facets can find it)
In the View, add a Filter Criteria → Look for the "Facets" category
Select the field you want to facet on
Configure the facet processors in the filter settings
Optionally: Change the View's exposed form style to "Better Exposed Filters"
Configure BEF widgets per filter (checkboxes, links, etc.)

Pattern: Filter Configuration

When you add a facet filter in Views:

The facet entity is auto-created
You configure processors directly in the filter settings dialog
Widget type is controlled by BEF (not Facets widgets)
AJAX is handled by Views AJAX setting

New in 3.0.4, the facet filter settings also carry:

Ensure that only one result can be displayed — once an option is selected, only that option stays visible until it is deselected
Depends on exposed filter — only render and apply this facet after the selected exposed filter has an active value; when that filter changes, this facet is cleared before the form is submitted (client side, via the facets_exposed_filters/dependent_filters library)

Pattern: Sub-Module Architecture

facets_exposed_filters provides:

FacetsFilter — A Views filter plugin (src/Plugin/views/filter/FacetsFilter.php)
ViewsDefault — Search API display plugin for Views defaults
ViewsAttachment — Search API display for View attachments
ExposedRangeSliderProcessor — New in 3.0.4. A facets processor (id exposed_range_slider, running at pre_query and post_query, weight 60) that supplies min/max range data to an exposed numeric facet. It only supports facets whose source offers a range query type
ExposedRangeSlider — New in 3.0.4. A Better Exposed Filters widget plugin (#[FiltersWidget(id: 'facets_exposed_range_slider')], extending BEF's Sliders) that renders such a facet as a noUiSlider range slider. It becomes applicable only once the exposed_range_slider processor is enabled on the filter
FacetsExposedFiltersHelper — New in 3.0.4. Request-scoped helper shared by the module's hook classes

The FacetsFilter acts as a bridge: it appears in the Views UI as a standard filter but internally creates and manages a Facets facet entity.

With BEF as the exposed form style:

Facet filters render as BEF widgets (checkboxes, radio buttons, links, sliders)
Auto-submit works for facet filters
Secondary options/collapsible work for facet filters
Soft limit works for facet filters

Without BEF (plain exposed form):

Facet filters render as standard dropdowns
No auto-submit
No enhanced widgets

Common Mistakes

Not saving the View first — The facet source doesn't exist until the View is saved. You'll get a warning.
Expecting block-based features — With exposed filters, facets are not blocks. They're part of the form. You can't place them in arbitrary page regions (use configurable_views_filter_block for that).
Overridden display filters not supported — The docs explicitly state this: "Overridden display filters are not (yet) supported."