1. A method, comprising: accessing a database, wherein the database is based at least in part on a hierarchical data set comprising data items organized according to a file system hierarchy; analyzing the hierarchical data set to determine one or more filterable items based on intrinsic and extrinsic metadata of one or more data items of the hierarchical data set; displaying the one or more data items in a database view; displaying the one or more filterable items organized under one or more categories in a display area adjacent to the displayed database view, wherein the one or more categories are dynamically generated based at least in part on the intrinsic and extrinsic metadata such that, if none of the one or more data items falls under a given category, the given category is not displayed; filtering the database view in response to a selection of a filterable item, wherein the filtering comprises removing at least one of the one or more data items from the database view; and in response to removing the at least one of the one or more data items from the database view, removing one or more corresponding filterable items from the display area adjacent to the displayed database view.