Expert Build Filter

Starting with the Easy Build at No the next steps are the same for either method. They are:

Key:	Options:	What happens:
F6	Add New Filter	The Filter Header screen will appear, once the Filter is finished it will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list so that you can run it whenever you like.
OR
F7	Add then Run	The Filter Header screen will appear, once the Filter is finished it will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list and it will also be run immediately.

Filter Header Screen: This screen is used to Add a New Expert Build Filter. This method of adding a new filter is not restricted at all. You may change any or all of the defaults.

Filter Header
Filter ID:	_____________
Description:	_____________________________________
Files Used:	___	1=Contact, 2=Activity, 3=Contact/Activity 4=Contact/Contact, 5=Activity/Activity
Focus File:	___	1=Contact, 2=Activity
Filter Type:	___	D=Dynamic, S=Static, U=Unique
Filter Owner:	________
Security Class:	___	U=Unsecured, S=Secured	Last Used
			Date
			Time
			User
			Count

When you press enter the Filter Maintenance screen will be displayed.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
___	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________

COMPARE TYPE ENTRIES
EQ equal	GT greater than	GE greater or equal	%W wildcard	%L list
NE not equal	LT less than	LE less or equal	CT contains	%R range

F3 - Exit	F4=Prompt for Field	F5=Field List	F6=Add List Entry	Enter=Save
F7=Filter Header	F9=Insert Line Above Cursor	F11=Sequence		F12=Cancel

Let's use the same Filter example that we used for Easy Build Filters. The following Expert Filter example is looking for all company contact records in California. The criteria is the data in the STA (State) field found on data layout one. The data in the field is all upper case. You would therefore use these steps to add your Filter:

1. include if field: Key STA (for State) or prompt for the field ID using F4

2. compare type: tab to compare type, Key EQ (equals). All of the available compare types are listed at the bottom of the screen.

3. On the 1st line under compare number: Key CA for California. The data in the database is maintained in upper case and each State is abbreviated using Postal Codes for that State. If you type the data as it appears in the database you will have no need of converting it to upper case.

You have now finished with this simple Expert Build Filter and when you Press Enter the program will place apostrophes around the data, "CA". Press Enter again to save the changes to the new Expert Build Filter. If you added the Filter using F6 the Filter will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list and will need to use an option 1 next to the Filter ID (Press Enter) to run it. If you added the Filter using F7, the Filter will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list and it will run immediately.

An active filter changes the sequence and view so that you can move forward (F) and backward (B) through all the company contact records (data layout one) that are in the State of California. The Filter ID (name) appears in the top bar on the contact record screen just to the right of Sequence. The Filtered group of California records is displayed alphabetically by PID. With an active Filter the F4 list function also changes so that the list is based only on the contact records that match the criteria of the Filter, in this case, all company contact records in the State of California. You can take a look at the statistics screen to see how many contact records are in your active filter.

Filter Statistics Screen

To view filter statistics: Press: I (as in Information) This opens an Information screen with statistics. The middle portion of the screen displays active filter statistics.

Filter Information, displays the filter ID if one is active. Key indicates the sequence of records in the filter. Records indicates the number of records in the filter. Description shows a description of the filter.

These statistics are very helpful as a tool to determine if your filter is effective. The display will tell you the number of contact records in the database and the number of contact records in the filtered group of the active filter. As an example, if you know that you have about 15% of your contact records with an address in California and the display says that there are 100,000 contact records you would expect the filtered contact record count to be near 15,000. If it is wildly different you might wish to recheck your filter criteria and or view the filtered contact records to see if you can determine any problems with your criteria. The filter is only as good as the data and the selection of your criteria.

To close the data layout screen, press enter

Function Keys:

Key:	What happens:
F4	A list of existing filters is displayed
F7	The Filter Header screen is displayed
F11	The Filter Sequence screen is displayed, select sequence fields, using number 1 through 4 (up to 4 fields maximum) maybe defined.

Additional System Function Keys:

Key:	What happens:
F3	Exits out of your current procedure. Exits out of ActionWare when you are viewing the contact record screen
F12	Cancels the current procedure and returns you to the previous screen

More About Expert Build Filters

The value of using Expert Build Filters is that you have many more values to choose from for selecting criteria for your filter. Suppose we wanted all the records in California and New York in our filter. We would need to use two lines and field ID's for searching and and OR in between both lines.

Expert Build Filters use Boolean logic when performing the searches. Using the And and Or values are logical conditions. You use AND if the record must meet all conditions you specify. This means the filter searches for records that meet the condition specified on the first line AND any subsequent lines with AND's. Use OR if the filter must meet one of several conditions. This means the filter searches for contact records that meet the condition specified until another OR line occurs. In our new example, a filter searching for California plus New York contact records we would require the use of the OR value between the lines for CA and NY. There is NO State called CANY and if we were to use AND for a value the filter search would be on CANY. Our expanded sample filter would look like this: 

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	STA	____	____	__	EQ	CA____________________________
OR	STA	____	____	__	EQ	NY____________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
____	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________
___	_______	____	____	__	___	______________________________

COMPARE TYPE ENTRIES
EQ equal	GT greater than	GE greater or equal	%W wildcard	%L list
NE not equal	LT less than	LE less or equal	CT contains	%R range

F3 - Exit	F4=Prompt for Field	F5=Field List	F6=Add List Entry	Enter=Save
F7=Filter Header	F9=Insert Line Above Cursor	F11=Sequence		F12=Cancel

You would use these steps to add your Filter:

1. include if field: Key STA (for State) or prompt for the field ID using F4

2. compare type: tab to compare type, Key EQ (equals).

3. On the 1st line under compare number: Key CA for California. The data in the database is maintained in upper case and each State is abbreviated using Postal Codes for that State. If you type the data as it appears in the database you will have no need of converting it to upper case.

4. and/or, Key OR

5. include if field: Key STA (for State) or prompt for the field ID using F4

6. compare type: tab to compare type, Key EQ (equals). On the 2nd line under compare number: Key NY for New York.

You have now finished with this expanded Expert Build Filter and when you Press Enter the program will place apostrophes around the data, "CA" and "NY". Press Enter again to save the changes to the new Expert Build Filter. If you added the Filter using F6 the Filter will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list and will need to use an option 1 next to the Filter ID (Press Enter) to run it. If you added the Filter using F7, the Filter will be saved on the Select/Maintain Filters list and it will run immediately. The results of this filter will be sequential display of all contact records in California and New York, alphabetically starting with California.

More Filter Examples

Previously we have given filter examples only using the compare value of EQ. One example searches for all contact records in California and another sample filter searching for all contact records in California OR New York. The following examples use each of the compare values except %W, %L and %R.

Example #1 NE = Not equal to

In this filter we want all contact records in California except for those in San Francisco. The State field ID is STA and the City field ID is CIT.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	STA	____	____	__	EQ	"CA"____________________________
AND	CIT	____	____	__	NE	"San Francisco"___________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	________________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	________________________________

Example #2 GT = greater than

In this filter we want all contact records in San Francisco with all the Zip codes greater than 941xx. The City field ID is CIT and the Zip code field ID is ZIP.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	CIT	___	____	__	EQ	"San Francisco"___________________
AND	ZIP	___	____	__	GT	"941"___________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	________________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	________________________________

Example #3 LT = less than

In this filter we want all contact records in San Francisco with all the Zip codes greater than 941xx but less than 94199. The City field ID is CIT and the Zip code field ID is ZIP.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	CIT	____	____	__	EQ	"San Francisco"___________________
AND	ZIP	____	____	__	GT	"941"___________________________
AND	ZIP	____	____	__	LT	"94199"_________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	________________________________

Example #4 GE = greater than or equal to

In this filter we want all contact records in San Francisco with all the Zip codes greater than and equal to 94111. The City field ID is CIT and the Zip code field ID is ZIP.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	CIT	___	____	__	EQ	"San Francisco"___________________
AND	ZIP	___	____	__	GE	"94111"__________________________
____	_____	____	____	__	____	_________________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	_________________________________

Example #5 LE = less than or equal to

In this filter we want all contact records in San Francisco with all the Zip codes less than and equal to 94111. The City field ID is CIT and the Zip code field ID is ZIP. I.

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	CIT	___	____	__	EQ	"San Francisco"___________________
AND	ZIP	___	____	__	LE	"94111"__________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	_________________________________
____	______	____	____	__	____	_________________________________

Example #6 All owned contact records: In this filter we want all contact records "owned" by userID, xxxxxxx. Whenever a contact record is created the userID of the person creating the contact record is automatically updated in the OWN field (presuming you are using the default).

Filter Maintenance
and /or	include if field	position /length		upper case	compare type	compare number, or "characters" or &fieldName	or %V (dept) or %T (date) or %U (user id)
	OWN	___	____	__	EQ	"xxxxxx"_________________________
____	_____	___	____	__	____	________________________________
____	_____	____	____	__	____	________________________________
____	_____	____	____	__	____	________________________________