Designing Filters

DRAFT

The actual process of designing a filter begins with the requirements – what does the filter need to find? Then, each detail of the criteria can be added to the filter as Filter Elements. The trick is to think in detailed terms, and to ask, What needs to be true for each object so that it can be found by the Filter?

Creating a New Filter

Once a new filter is created using the Add New Filter icon in the upper right corner of the top margin of the Browse Filters tab, the new filter is opened in a Filter tab.

The Filter tab includes several sections. The first section is the filter properties which includes the filter name, description, design notes, and team that owns the filter.

The Filter Designer

Once the Filter’s name is entered, and the team is selected, clicking on the Design section will save the filter and open the Filter Designer’s surface ready to add Filter Elements.

The Filter Designer surface has all the Filter Elements on the left panel. They can be dragged on the surface.

The filter’s definition is displayed in abbreviated near-English, or pseudo code, at the bottom on the Filter Designer.

At the top right of the Filter Designer is a sizing slider, which is useful if the filter becomes large and complex.

The Delete (X) icon in the top right removes all the Filter Elements from the Filter Designer and essentially starts over.

By default, the Filter Elements all find objects based on the object’s current information. However, most of the Filter Elements have advanced options to examine historical data.