Experimenting with filters

Now it's time for some experimenting with filters. We want to accomplish a couple of things through our experimentation. First, to get more comfortable with how filters are entered; and second, to see the effects of different types of filter structures and combinations. If we had a database with a large volume of data, we could also test the speed of filtering on fields in keys and on fields not in keys. However, the amount of data in the basic Cronus database is small, so any speed differences will be difficult to see in these tests.

We could experiment on any report that allows filtering. A good report for this experimentation is the Customer/Item list. This reports which customer purchased which items. The Customer/Item List can be accessed on the Role Tailored Client Departments menu via Sales & Marketing | Sales | Reports | Customer | Customer/Item Sales.

When we initially run Customer/Item Sales, we will see just three data fields listed for entry of filters on the Customer table as shown in the following screenshot:

There are also two data fields listed for the entry of filters on the Value Entry table as shown in the following screenshot (which has the Value Entry FastTab expanded by clicking on it so we can see its predefined filter entry options):

For both the Customer and Value Entry, these are the fields that the developer of this report determined should be emphasized. If we run the report without entering any filter constraints at all, using the standard Cronus data, the first page of the report will resemble the following:

If we want to print information only for customers whose names begin with the letter A, our filter will be very simple, and similar to the following screenshot:

The resulting report will be similar to the following screenshot, showing only the data for the two customers on file whose names begin with the letter A:

If we want to expand the customer fields to which we can apply filters, we can access the full list of other fields in the customer table. We can either click on the drop-down symbol next to a filter field that is not already in use or click on the Add Filter button to add a new filter field with a drop-down list access. If the number of fields available for filtering is longer than the initial list display allows, the bottom entry in the list is Additional Columns. If we click on that, we might end up with a display like the following. Notice that the lists are in alphabetical order, based on the field names. If the list of available fields is too long to display in the second column, that column can be scrolled up and down:

From these lists, we can choose one or more fields and then enter filters on those fields. If we chose Territory Code, for example, then the request page would look similar to the following screenshot. If we clicked on the lookup arrow in the Filter column, a screen would pop up, allowing us to choose from data items in the related table, in this case, Territories:

This particular Request Page has FastTabs for each of the two primary tables in the report. Click on the Value Entry FastTab to filter on the item related data. If we filter on the Item No. for item numbers that contain the letter W, the report will be similar to the following screenshot:

If we want to see all the items containing either the letter W or the letter S, our filter would be *W* | *S*. If we made the filter W | S, then we would get only entries that are exactly equal to W or to S because we didn't include any wildcards.

You should go back over the various types of filters we discussed, try each one and try them in combination. Get creatpe! Try some things that you're not sure will work and see what happens. Explore a variety of reports or list pages in the system by applying filters to see the results of your experiments. A good page on which to apply filters is Customer List (Sales & Marketing | Sales | Customers). This filtering experimentation process is safe (you can't hurt anything or anyone) and a great learning experience.