Filtering Report Data

As you probably know, Prolog offers over 400 standard reports to put your data into a “printer friendly” format. The majority of these reports can be limited to the currently viewed record using the Quick Print feature, however often times it is essential to be able to filter reports on more than just the current record.

Prolog offers the ability to create custom filters on any report through Report Manager. Here is how:

1. Open Report Manager.
   
2. Select the Report to filter.
   
3. Select the Designer tab.
   
4. Under the Record Filters sub-tab, double click the field you would like to filter on. By default only the most common fields are availble to select. You can view all fields by changing the drop down list at the bottom to “”.
   
5. When the Quick Filter dialog pops up, select the comparison operator and the filter value. The filter value can either be “hard coded” value or you can have Prolog prompt you for the value when you run the report by preceding the value with “@@”. For example a value of “@@Enter Date” would tell Prolog to ask you for the date before running the report.
   
   Below shows the creation of a runtime filter prompt asking the user to enter a value for the Date Created field as well as what the user sees when they run the report.
   
   
6. Click Ok.
   
7. Repeat steps 4-6 to create additional conditions. These conditions can be either AND’s (condition1 and condition2 must match in order to displayor OR’s (condition1 or condition2 must match in order to display).

In the example below, the report, Request for Information [Summary Log, Grouped by Company], would only display RFI records where the Importance field was set to “High”, was not closed, and was created on or before the date specified by the user when prompted.

In order to be able to save your custom filters for future use in the same report, they must either be in Public or Secure folder of Report Manager. You can do this by “linking” a report definition to the actual report:

1. Right click on the report in the Secure folder of Report Manager.
   
2. Select Copy.
   
3. Right click on the Public or Secure folder of Report Manager.
   
4. Select Paste.
   
5. When prompted, select No to create a link to the actual report.

   
   
   

6. You can optionally rename the report title and subtitle to indicate the filters you are creating.
   
7. Create your filters using the steps provided above.
   
8. The Save button will now be available.

You can also apply to the same techniques to create custom filters on queries inside of Query Manager.

Utilizing custom filters can go a long way to help relieve the need for custom report modifications in addition to helping you get the exact information you need quickly out of the system.

Additional information, such as the items below, regarding the use of filters can be accessed via the Prolog help system, or by clicking here.

• Filters created in queries can be imported into reports which use the same data group by utilizing the drop down box at the bottom of the Designer sub tab of Report Manager.
  
• Prolog has an extensive collection of predefined variables which can be utilized in filters.
  
• Prolog offers advanced filter operators, such as Like and Between.