Options when search results are empty

[mcsmom]

I was working on a new set of things and I thought since I already know what I want some smart groups to be, why not just set them up now. But when I do the search and get no results I don't get the option to create a smart group (or anything else). First I needed to make sure that at least one record would meet the criteria. 
It's a small think but it seems a bit counter intuitive that I can't set my smart groups up in advance of adding data.  Maybe I'm wrong and this has been thought about before?

[Erik Hommel]

A smart group is basically a search query that is run every time you open the group. It makes sense to me that you can not do that if the search query shows no results? But if more peeps see this as a gap in CiviCRM core you could always suggest it as a future feature?

[mcsmom]

It's not that you can't do the query, the query runs, it just can't be saved. So to set things up in advance you need to basically create fake data. So for example I'm setting up some fields, and I know now that I will want a smart group made up of people who answer yes to one of the fields. Right now I have to set someone to yes before I can create that group even though I'm not collecting data yet. It's basically extra steps, not terrible but not really necessary and definitely not intuitive.

[Erik Hommel]

I think intuitive is a subjective term 
As stated, if more peeps think this is a necessary feature I would certainly advocate suggesting it. It is not something I personally have missed or have heard from my customers. But that is subjective too :-)

[ayduns]

I've bumped into this a few times when trying to set up a collection of smart groups as saved searches.  It would be convenient to be able to save the smart group definition regardless of whether it has current members, although it is usually easy enough to create dummy data to allow the group to be saved then revert the data.

[petednz]

Yes it has caught us out too when we are setting up sites for clients and pre-empting what they will need by way of groups and as per the original post we have to make a dummy contact with all the right factors. Not a biggie but just one of those minor short lived irritations.

[joanne]

Would it be useful to add this info (need at least one result for search to create smart group - add a dummy contact to set up beforehand) to the user and admin guide  http://book.civicrm.org/user/current/organising-your-data/smart-groups/ ?

[mcsmom]

Yes definitely, since I don't think the behavior is documented anywhere (at least that I found).  But I do think it is a UI issue as well, certainly at least there should be an appropriate message.   I'll take a look at that as well.