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Procedures for Using Filters in Siebel Answers

This topic explains how to work with filters:

Creating Filters in Siebel Answers

This topic explains how to create a filter.

To create a filter in Siebel Answers

  1. Display a request to which you want to add a filter.
  2. In the right pane, click the Criteria tab.
  3. Click the Filter icon in the column with the values that will be used as criteria for the filter.

    4. The Create/Edit Filter page appears.

  4. Enter the filter criteria:
    1. In the Operator drop-down list, select an operator.

      2. NOTE:  A comparison operator is used to compare each value in the specified column with other values that you specify. If the statement evaluates to true, the filter retains records with values in the specified column that meet the filter criteria. It filters out records with values that do not meet the filter criteria, and does not display these records in the results.

    2. In the Value text box, do one of the following:
      • Enter the value to which you want to compare the column values.
      • Select a value in the Filter Choices area.
    3. You can also compare the values of the column to an expression. To include an additional value in the filter criteria, click the Add Another Value link, and repeat Step a and Step b.
  5. Click Finished.
  6. After you create a filter, you can perform the following functions:

Saving Filters in Siebel Answers

This topic explains how to save a filter.

To save a filter in an existing folder in Siebel Answers

  1. Create or edit a filter.
  2. In the Request Filters area on the Criteria tab, click the Save Filter link at the bottom of the page.

    3. The Save Filter page appears.

  3. In the Save Filter in Folder drop-down list, select the folder in which to save the filter.
  4. In the Name of Filter text box, type the name of the filter.
  5. Click Save Filter.

To save a filter in a new folder in Siebel Answers

NOTE:  The folders used to store filters are not the same folders used to store saved requests.

  1. Create or edit a filter.
  2. In the Request Filters area on the Criteria tab, click the Save Filter link at the bottom of the page.

    3. The Save Filter page appears.

  3. Click the Create New Folder link.

    4. The Create Filter Folder page appears.

  4. In the Group Folder drop-down list, select the group in which to add the new folder.
  5. In the Subfolder text box, type the name of the new folder.
  6. Click Create Folder.

    7. The Save Filter page appears.

  7. In the Save Filter in Folder drop-down list, select the folder in which to save the filter.
  8. In the Name of Filter text box, type the name of the filter.
  9. Click Save Filter.

Creating a Global Filter in Siebel Answers

If you have the appropriate permissions, you can create a global filter for use in exercising dashboard-wide control over requests that are embedded into a dashboard page. To do this, you define prompts for values to be used to filter all requests on the dashboard page, in the current context.

Global filters act as an independent control for the entire dashboard, and can update any report on that dashboard that shares columns with the global filter. The column needs to be filtered based on a specified value or the Is Prompted option, as described in Creating Filters in Siebel Answers.

Global filters are typically built by creating a new report. You can define the columns and operators for the global filter, and specify how users who view the report select the global filter values. You can also remove a column from an existing global filter.

A sample construction for a global filter is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7.  Sample Construction for a Global Filter

Click for full size image[

Figure 8 shows how the sample global filter shown in Figure 7 appears as one or more prompts, at the top of the screen on the dashboard page. The user's selections from the prompts determine the content of the reports embedded in the dashboard page.

Figure 8.  How a Global Filter Looks in a Dashboard

To create or modify a global filter in Siebel Answers

  1. In Siebel Answers, select the subject area that contains the column to use as the filter.
  2. Navigate to the Views tab in the right pane.
  3. Click the Global Filter link.
  4. Type the caption for the global filter prompt in the Caption box.

    5. You can include HTML markup tags such as <b>, <center>, <font>, <table>, and so on, in the caption.

  5. (Optional) Type a description in the Description box.

    6. NOTE:  It is recommended that you supply a description. Descriptions are displayed when Web Administrators use the Catalog Manager.

  6. Select the column to use as the filter from the subject area in the selection pane. You can select any number of columns.

    7. NOTE:  The number of columns you include in the filter can affect performance. For example, columns that present drop-down values require a request to the Siebel Analytics Server to populate. In general, it is recommended that you limit the number of columns to nine or less.

    To remove a column from the filter, click the Delete icon for that column.

  7. Select the operator to use from the Operator drop-down list.
  8. Select the Control type to use to select specific filter values.

    9. The choices are Calendar Applet, Drop-Down List, and Edit Box (Free From Text).

  9. If you chose Drop-Down List, in the Show list, indicate what values you want to appear in the drop-down list.

    10. You can show all values or develop an SQL statement to limit the drop-down list to certain values.

  10. In the Default to list, choose the value that you want the control element to default to initially.

    11. This is what users viewing the report will see initially. You can show the report defaults, all choices, or a specific value. If you select a specific value, a field appears in which you can type the value.

  11. In the Label box, you can type a name to use for the filter label.

    12. If you leave the Label box empty, the column label is used as the filter label.

  12. When multiple columns are included, you can reorder them by clicking the Order By icons.

    13. This controls the order in which selectors are displayed.

  13. If you want the selected prompt and all other prompts below it to be displayed on a new line in the filter, click the box in the Group list.
  14. When you are done, click Finished.

Modifying Filters in Siebel Answers

When you create or modify a filter, you can use the Filter Choices form to help select the values you will specify as filter criteria. For example, you may want to filter several records from the results, but you cannot remember the range of values that appear in the selected column without looking at the request results. You can use the Filter Choices form to display the values from the selected column and then select which values to add to the filter criteria.

This feature is useful for limiting lengthy lists. For example, suppose you want to see results for the state of Alaska. You could type an A into the Match text box, and the Limited Choices list will show only the values that begin with the letter A. If you have set other constraints in the filter, the list will show only the choices within those constraints.

To modify a filter in Siebel Answers

  1. Display the request that contains the filter to edit.
  2. In the Request Filters area, click the Edit link for the filter.
  3. Make your changes to the filter definition.
  4. Click Finished.

Removing Filters in Siebel Answers

This topic explains how to remove filters from a request.

To remove a filter from a request in Siebel Answers

  1. Display a request that uses a filter.
  2. Select the filter to remove, and click the Remove link for that filter.

    3. The Request Filters area shows the updated list of filters for the request.

To remove all filters from a request in Siebel Answers

  1. Display a request that uses a filter.
  2. Click the Remove Filters link.

    3. All filters associated with the request are removed.


 Siebel Analytics User Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003