Creating Custom Filters (History Explorer)

By creating custom filters, you can search through the entire database for specific content and then quickly retrieve and display the results in History Explorer. You can create a custom filter for displaying specific data by selecting Custom from the filter controls or by opening the Custom AutoFilter dialog.

A custom filter is an SQL query that is applied against the data in the database. History Explorer displays all data that matches the conditions that are set in the query. Data that does not match the conditions is ignored. A simple filter consists of three parts: a database field to search, an assignment operator, and a filter value. When you run a filter, History Explorer completes the following operations:

To filter for more information, you can define additional filter clauses by adding a second condition separated by a Boolean operator. A Boolean operator defines how multiple filter statements apply to each other.

Using Custom Filter Controls

You can create custom filters by using the filter controls in the active pane. When you click Custom in the View list, you can configure a number of options to customize your filter. These options are described in the following table.

Example: Creating a Custom Filter

The following example filters the BarTender System Database for all BarTender print jobs that might have successfully printed. This means that all print jobs that were cancelled or that resulted in a printer error do not appear when the filter is run.

To create this filter, you configure the "Last Status" database field for the "Cancelled" or "Error" values. If either of these values are found, then the corresponding database entry is hidden from view. All other entries appear in the filtered results.

Option	Example	Description
Boolean Operator	And Or Not And Not Or	The logical operand that defines how multiple filter condition statements are linked together.
Action		A control that you can use to insert a new condition, create a new group of conditions, or delete all existing conditions and groups.
Add Condition		A control that adds a new condition to the group.
Available Fields	Computer Copies Job Name	A list of fields that are available to search.
Assignment Operators	Begins with Equals Is between	The criteria that the value must meet to be included in the filter results.
Filter Value(s)	<enter a value>	The values that the filter searches for when it runs.
Field Comparison		A control that you can use to compare the contents of two or more fields rather than comparing a field value to a user-defined filter value.
Add Additional Value		A control that inserts an additional value to a list of values. This option is available only when you use the Is any of or Is none of assignment operators.
Delete Condition		A control that removes a condition from a group.

In the View Selector pane, click Custom in the BarTender: Print Jobs view. The Filter pane appears.
In the View list in the Filter pane, click Custom.
Click the Add Condition icon ().
Click the Available Fields value (by default, this is set to [Computer]), and then click Last Status.
Click the Assignment operator value (by default, this is set to Equals), and then click Is none of.
Click the <enter a value> field to open the text input field.
In the list, click Cancelled.
Click the Add Additional Value icon ().
Click the <enter a value> field to open the second text input field.
In the list, click Error.
Click Apply Filter to run the filter and return all matching database records.