In Data Grid 2, columns configured with a reference set association can only be filtered using the Dropdown filter widget. Text filters and other filter types cannot be connected to reference set columns.
For reference sets with a large number of values, the dropdown filter creates two significant issues:
Performance - loading a large reference set into a dropdown puts unnecessary strain on both the server and the client. Even with lazy loading enabled, the incremental round-trips add latency and the full interaction model is built around enumerating discrete values — which does not scale well.
UX - a common need is filtering records by a substring match on a referenced attribute — for example, finding all records linked to objects whose identifiers or codes contain a certain string. With a dropdown, a user finds and selects each matching option individually. The dropdown search input is cleared after every selection, making this flow tedious and error-prone when there are many options available.
A text filter with contains mode handles both of these gracefully: it runs server-side, avoids loading the full reference set into the client, and lets users find records with a single input.
Please allow other filter types to be used on reference set columns in Data Grid 2, filtering against a specified attribute of the referenced entity. This would restore parity with the legacy Data Grid, which supports all fitler types on reference set attributes, and significantly improve usability for large datasets.