Body: <p>I'm using CiviCRM to (in part) manage a large group of translation volunteers for our organisation. I've got everything set up quite nicely, using custom fields and groups to help our staff manage translators able to work in different languages, know whether they have already had a translation requested, etc. I've got the various smart groups set up as menu items, so other staff can quickly see which translators are available in which languages, which are occupied, etc.</p>
  
  <p>We have a custom date field for "date finished last translation", so staff know if a translator has recently finished a translation. One thing I'd like that I can't work out is how to list this date field in the smart group search. At the moment that search displays their name, email, and their language. However, whenever I add the "date finished last translation" field as "is not empty" or "is not null" it returns no contacts, even though I know there are contacts who have that field completed. If we get it working, staff will be able to easily see who has most recently completed a translation, so not ask them again.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-06-06T16:14:57.907Z
Comments.Text: wow, congrats on finding an interesting usage of CiviCRM. could I ask why you chose to use a datefield vs an activity for tracking when something is completed? a screenshot, some more details on your civicrm version, platform (drupal/wordpress), etc. would also help.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Zachary
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-06-06T20:21:43.290Z
Comments.Text: I am also wondering whether Activity would be a better fit. It would be the track i would head down
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-06-06T21:30:05.363Z
Comments.Text: Thanks. I went this way because the translations (as an activity) aren't as important as what the translators are doing at any one moment - being able to see if they're occupied or not for example. The date thing is much less important than being able to see whether a translators is/isn't occupied at the moment (we really avoid sending the same person more than one thing at once), this would just make things even nicer.  We're on drupal, version 5.5.1
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cozy4907
Tags: <custom-fields><search>
Title: Search builder "not empty" "not null" question
ThreadText: # Search builder "not empty" "not null" question
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-06-06)
  
  I'm using CiviCRM to (in part) manage a large group of translation volunteers for our organisation. I've got everything set up quite nicely, using custom fields and groups to help our staff manage translators able to work in different languages, know whether they have already had a translation requested, etc. I've got the various smart groups set up as menu items, so other staff can quickly see which translators are available in which languages, which are occupied, etc.
  
  We have a custom date field for "date finished last translation", so staff know if a translator has recently finished a translation. One thing I'd like that I can't work out is how to list this date field in the smart group search. At the moment that search displays their name, email, and their language. However, whenever I add the "date finished last translation" field as "is not empty" or "is not null" it returns no contacts, even though I know there are contacts who have that field completed. If we get it working, staff will be able to easily see who has most recently completed a translation, so not ask them again.
  
  **Tags:** custom-fields, search
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: wow, congrats on finding an interesting usage of CiviCRM. could I ask why you chose to use a datefield vs an activity for tracking when something is completed? a screenshot, some more details on your civicrm version, platform (drupal/wordpress), etc. would also help.  
  > **username_2**: I am also wondering whether Activity would be a better fit. It would be the track i would head down  
  > **username_0**: Thanks. I went this way because the translations (as an activity) aren't as important as what the translators are doing at any one moment - being able to see if they're occupied or not for example. The date thing is much less important than being able to see whether a translators is/isn't occupied at the moment (we really avoid sending the same person more than one thing at once), this would just make things even nicer.  We're on drupal, version 5.5.1  
  
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