It checks some conditions and if they are not met, it will end the workflow. If the condition in the Filter action is met, the remaining workflow actions configured under the Filter Action will be executed. If the condition is not met, then you will see a message in the workflow history list and the workflow will end.

The following message you will see in the history list:

“The item under workflow did not meet the filter criteria”.

Where we can use this action?

Let us consider your Lists/libraries having multiple content types.  The Nintex workflow you have attached with this list should run when an item is created, but you only want to run this workflow for certain content types, the Filter action is very useful for it.  This means, the only the single Filter action will run, rather than a Set a Condition->End Workflow or Run If->End Workflow.

This is one of the way to minimize the size of your workflow.  When a workflow is bigger in size and design it is very hard to modify it later and the challenge is to transfer the ownership of that workflow from development team or support team.

How to Configure this action?

This is my whole workflow

When you run the workflow, if the condition defined in Filter action is not met, the workflow will stop there and you will get the below message in your history list :

In our sample workflow after the filter condition, I have used a Log in History List action to check this.  If the condition defined in Filter action is met, the message given in the Log in History List action should display in the history list like below:

Hope you understood the usage of Filter Action in Nintex Workflows