The Filters tab allows users to specify one or more filter statements that define the records that will appear in the view.

Each filter statement has the following components:

• Service
• Field
• Operator
• Value

When creating a filter, you must specify values from left to right; the values in subsequent columns change based on the previous selections.

Service

In the Service column, you select the service which will serve as the data source for this filter statement. In most cases, this is the service whose records the view will display. Selecting another service allows the view to be filtered by data in a related service. For example, a view showing all people who have placed orders since the beginning of the year displays records from the Persons service, but the filter is based on information from the Orders service.

For each service, you can also create a filter statement with either Record History, Lists, or Topic Codes selected as the Service. A view with this filter statement will display records that are linked to Record History, Lists, or Topic Codes records. For example, if you want to create a view of employees that appear in a particular list, then you would select Lists as the Service and enter a statement of ListID = [enter ID]. Or, if you want to display people who have the Business topic code selected, you would select Topic Codes as the Service and enter a statement of Topic Code Exactly Matches Business.

Note that the list of options in the Services drop-down list may vary from service to service depending on the configurations set by your system administrator.

Field

In the Field column, you select the field that filters the data from a list of fields in the selected service. For example, if you want to filter Persons records based on company affiliation, you would select Company from the Field drop-down list. Or, if you want to filter Contact Log records based on date, you would select Date from the Field drop-down list. Note that not all fields may display in this list, depending on how your system administrator has configured the service.

Operator

In the Operator column, you select the type of logic for the filter. The operator compares the value of the selected Field for each record in the service with the contents of the Value column. For example, to create a filter that returns all Contact Log records whose date is greater than January 1, 2005, the operator would be greater than (>).

The available options in the Operator drop-down list vary depending on the type of Field selected (not all options may be available for all fields, depending on how your administrator has configured the service). Note that in order to view available options in the Operator drop-down list, you must first specify a Field. Also, for more information on the Proximity operator, see Using the Proximity Search Wizard.

Value

In the Value column, you enter characters, a phrase, or a number that the system will use as the basis for the filter. The Value field uses the operator selected in the Operator column to determine the type of match. For example, to create a filter that returns the Contact Log records whose date is greater than January 1, 2005, you would enter 1/1/2005 as the Value.

In general, you manually enter text or numbers into the Value column, but, in some cases, the Filters tab provides you with additional options to facilitate selection:

• If you select a field that uses the Datetime format from the Field drop-down list, an ellipsis (…) button appears in the Value field. Clicking this button opens a Date Selection Box.
• For the date-based filter, the use of NOW, TODAY, and GETDATE() should all retrieve the current date. You can further manipulate that by adding plus or minus a specific number of days. For example, OrderDate >= TODAY-7 will retrieve records with an order dated within the last week.
• If you select a field that has a defined list of possible values in the Field column (such as a Person's State), the Value field includes a drop-down list with these values. You can either select a value from the drop-down list or manually enter a value in the field.
• If you select a field that is linked to another service from the Field drop-down list (for example, filtering based on CompanyID in a Persons view), an ellipsis (…) button appears in the Value field. Clicking this button opens a Link Box to the related service.
• When Between is selected as the Operator of a filter statement, an ellipsis (…) button appears in the Value field. Clicking the button will display the Select a Range dialog and a user can input the appropriate range as shown below:

• If you select a field that has no defined list of values in the Field column, a list of the first 100 possible values may appear in the Value field. Note that these possible values are only a suggestion: Only the first 100 values appear in the list, even if the field contains more than 100 values. If the field contains less than 100 values, then all of the values appear in the list. You can either select a value from the drop-down list or manually enter a value in the field.
  • Note that this feature is designed for character-based fields. It does not apply to fields with the following data types: text, ntext, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), datetime, or numeric.