Applying filters

You can apply filters to business views and data components such as tables, crosstabs and charts of a web report so as to narrow down the data displayed in the web report.

Applying filters to business views

When creating web reports, you can choose to apply some filter to the specified business view to narrow down the data scope of the data component using the business view.

In Web Report Studio, filters for business views are defined into two categories: predefined filters and user defined filters. As the name suggests, predefined filters are defined in advance when creating or editing the business views in JReport Designer, and user defined filters are created on business views while they are used.

Filters can be applied to a business view in the report wizard.

1. In the Bind Data screen of the Web Report Wizard or in the report wizard, select the business view that you are going to add filters to from the Data Source drop-down list, and then click the Filter button on the right. The Query Filter dialog is displayed. See the dialog.

   

2. The dialog has the basic and advanced modes for you to define a filter using either simple expressions or complex expressions.

   When it is in the advanced mode, you can also choose to apply a predefined filter of the specified business view from the Query Filter drop-down list. If you prefer to define a filter on your own, select User Defined from the drop-down list, and then define the filter according to your requirements. You can also edit a predefined filter if required and save it as a user defined filter to the business view.

   • To define a filter using simple expressions:
     1. Make sure the dialog is in the basic mode.
     2. Select the field on which the filter will be based from the field drop-down list.
     3. From the operator drop-down list, set the operator with which to compose the filter expression.
     4. Type the values of how to filter the field in the value text box, or select one or more values from the drop-down list.
     5. If you want to add another condition line, from the logic operator drop-down list,
        • To add a condition line of the AND relationship with the current line, select AND, then define the expression as required.
        • To add a condition line of the OR relationship with the current line, select OR, then define the expression as required.

        Repeat this to add more filter expressions if required. To delete a condition line, click on its left.

   • To define a filter using complex expressions:
     1. Switch the dialog to the advanced mode.
     2. Click the Add Condition button to add a condition line.
     3. From the field drop-down list, select the field on which the filter will be based.
     4. From the operator drop-down list, set the operator with which to compose the filter expression.
     5. Type the values of how to filter the field in the value text box, or select one or more values from the drop-down list.
     6. To add another condition line, click the Add Condition button and define the expression as required. Then click the logic button until you get the required logic to specify the relationship between the two filter expressions. The logic can be AND, OR, AND NOT, or OR NOT.
     7. Repeat the above steps to add more filter expressions if necessary.

        To group some conditions, select them and click the Group button, then the selected conditions will be added in one group and work as one line of filter expression. Conditions and groups together can be further grouped. To take any condition or group in a group out, select it and click Ungroup. It is the equivalent of adding parenthesis in a logic expression.

        To adjust the priority of a condition line or a group, select it and click the Up or Down button.

        To delete a condition line or a group, select it and click the Delete button.

3. After you finish the report wizard, the specified filter will be applied to the business view, so that your report will get data that meets the filter condition only.

Filtering the data components in a report

There are the following ways you can take in order to filter the data components in a web report: using the Filter dialog, using the Filter panel, using the Filter web control, or via shortcut menu.

Using the Filter dialog

When using the Filter dialog to filter report data, you can only make the filter applied to a specific data component in the current web report.

To filter report data using the Filter dialog:

1. Click Menu > Edit > Filter, or the Filter button on the Standard toolbar. The Filter dialog is displayed. See the dialog.

   

2. From the Apply to drop-down list, select the component in the web report to which you want to apply the filter.
3. Define the filter using either simple expressions or complex expressions.
4. When done, click OK to apply the filter.

The Filter dialog provides an entry to all the filters used in the current web report except query filters. You can click the Inspector button to view the detailed filter information.

Using filter controls

You can also use the Filter web control to filter one or more data components that use the same data source in a web report. A filter control can do filtering based on one field. For details, see Using filter control to filter report data.

Using the Filter panel

The Filter panel on the left of Web Report Studio is used to filter data components in the current report that are using the same business view. To do this:

1. Add group and detail resources into the Filter panel by clicking + on the panel title bar. Each added group/detail and its values are housed in a separate box. Group and detail objects can be selected from the business views used by current report.
2. Select the values you would like to filter the report data. The selected values applies a filter condition to all the data components in the current report that are using the same business view, regardless whether the data components contain the fields holding those values.

   You can make use of the Ctrl or Shift key to do multiple selection.

The value selection applies a filter condition and the logic is as follows:

• For one value selection:

  Selected_Field=Selected_Value

  For example, Country=USA

• For multiple selection:

  (Selected_Field1=Selected_Value1 or Selected_Field1=Selected_Value2) and (Selected_Field2=Selected_Value3 or Selected_Field2=Selected_Value4)...

  For example, (Country=USA or Country=China) and (Year=2008 or Year=2009)

The following shows more about working with the Filter panel:

You can use the buttons on the bottom of the Filter panel to deal with the value selection in the panel.

• Back
  Goes back to the previous value selection status and refreshes the report data accordingly.
• Clear
  Removes all the value selection histories and all the filter conditions based on the selections, and refreshes the report data accordingly.
• Forward
  Goes forward to the next value selection status and refreshes the report data accordingly.

After right-clicking on a group/detail name title bar, these options are available for managing the group/detail object.

• Search
  Displays the quick search toolbar in the basic mode right above the value list which enables you to search values in the group/detail object. You can also use the button on the group/detail name title bar to launch the appropriate quick search toolbar. For detailed usage about the quick search toolbar, refer to Select Values dialog.
• Clear
  Cancels the selection of values in the group/detail object. You can also use the button on the group/detail name title bar to achieve this.
• Clear All
  Cancels the selection of all values in all the group and detail objects.
• Sort
  Sorts the values in the group/detail object in the ascending or descending order.
• Delete
  Removes the group/detail object from the Filter panel and the filter you created with the object will be removed from the report too. You can also click X on the group/detail name title bar to remove it.

Cascading relationship between filters

The Filter panel can be regarded as a collection of special filter controls which apply to all data components using the same data source. While common filter controls can choose the data components they apply, still under the circumstance of using the same data source.

When there are filter controls, including the special ones in the Filter panel, that apply to the same data components, and when these controls' fields have cascading relationship, the cascading relationship will be revealed when you select values in the controls.

For example, there is a filter control based on the field Country, a filter control on City, and another on State. The first two share one table while the third shares nothing with the other two. In this case, Country and City values will show cascading relationship, but State values will not participate. You select USA in the Country filter control, the values in the City filter control will change as follows if the control has scrollbar: the cities belong to USA are displayed in the upper area of the filter control, and the other cities are put in the lower area and grayed out. For the case that the City filter control has no scrollbar: all the values remain their positions and the values not belonging to USA are grayed out. In both cases all the values are selectable. But the State values remain as before, since the selection of them will not affect the data components that the Country and City filter controls control.

Using the shortcut menu

You can also use filter-related commands on the shortcut menu to filter the data in a table. To do this, point to any value of the field other than the group by field, by which you want to filter data, then right-click to show the shortcut menu. You will see the Filter item which provides a submenu containing the following commands:

• Remove Filter
  This command is enabled after you have applied filtering on the field. Clicking this item will remove all filters on this field.
• First N
  Shows the First N item with which you can filter data to display records that meet the First N condition. You can select a number from the submenu or enter a positive integer into the text box on the submenu to specify the First N condition.

  For example, if you select 5 from the First N submenu for a certain field, then only the records with the field value equal to one of the first five field values will be displayed.

• Last N
  Shows the Last N item with which you can filter data to display records that meet the Last N condition. You can select a number from the submenu or enter a positive integer into the text box on the submenu to specify the Last N condition.
  

  For example, if you select 5 from the Last N submenu for a certain field, then only the records with the field value equal to one of the last five field values will be displayed.

• Field values
  "Field values" is not the name for a command on the Filter submenu, but represents some items which are the values of the field you have right-clicked. Selecting any field value listed here will make the table only display records with the field value equal to the selected one.
• More
  This command is enabled if the Filter submenu cannot list all field values. When it is enabled, clicking it will show the Select Values dialog, with which you can search for and select values conveniently with the help of quick search toolbar.