TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Editing the Filter
• Using the Example picker
  • Picking a Host field from the Example picker
  • Picking an existing example
  • Saving a custom filter in Example Picker
• Filter form where SAP is the host system

Introduction

If you are the Sender of data, it is possible to specify a filter (at Activity level) to control what data to upload. Filters can be defined while creating ILAP exchange agreements (IEAs) or later while editing IEAs. This article will describe editing an existing IEA filter, and this information is reusable for the process of creating a filter in the creation process of an IEA.

Note that you can only define filters for upload of schedule data - not download.

Editing the Filter

When opening an IEA in in edit mode, you will see "Activity Filter" label with a status next to it ("On" or "Off") indicating if a filter is defined or not for the IEA. By pressing the "pen icon" (see below), you will open the form for editing it.

Pressing the "pen icon" opens the form below for editing Filter

There is one thing to explain before continuing with describing the form for editing a filter:

There are 2 versions of the form, depending on Connector used by sender - if you use SAP then you need to read the last section of this document, otherwise the following form will be seen: 

Activity filter form. Note the "Example filter picker" dropdown that can assist you in building the filter.

The "simplest" way to define a filter is to simply type it in the Filter textbox... 

However, this does require some expertise of what the syntax looks like as well as what "fields" are available to use in this particular filter (depends on what Connector is used), and this is not a trivial task to have complete control over!

Therefore there is an "assistant" Example Picker available for you to learn from and use to build the Filter formula (and "yes" the syntax is identical to the one used for building mapping formulas for Configs).

The Example filter picker has 3 useful sections to expand.

Using the Example picker

You can build filters using 2 types of fields:

• Host fields (seen in top section in example picker)
• Core fields (Where field is prefixed with "Activity." - most of the examples seen in the middle section ("Example filters") are of this type)

Here is an example that illustrates a filter using both of these types (2 host fields and 1 Core field):

(baseline_early_start != Null) && (Activity.IsCancelled = False) && (uf_ref2="KE")

The schedule that the filter above is applied to - the blue row is the only one that meets the criteria.

The summary log entry for upload confirms that 1 activity met the given filter:

Picking a Host field from the Example picker

As mentioned, the sender's Host System (from selected Connector) determines which Host fields are available to filter on. Therefore this section of the Example picker is very useful for knowing which fields are available:

Screenshot showing how host fields can be filtered to narrow down the list before selecting one to use.

Notice that when your filter is not blank, and you select a Host field, it will be appended to the end of the filter with an " && " added before it. This is a reminder that you need the "&&" (the "and"-operator) if you have a filter based on more than one field.

Picking an existing example

Note that all the examples have parentheses around them. This is strictly speaking not required, but when you add multiple examples (i.e first one and then another in sequence), then you will see the practicality (improved readability) of this, since it automatically adds (as mentioned above) a " && " between the examples you picked. E.g.:

(baseline_early_start != Null) && (Activity.IsCancelled = False) && (uf_ref2 = "KE")

Saving a custom filter in Example Picker

It is sometimes useful to save a filter for later use - a "custom made" filter. This is possible by pressing the "+ Add current filter as custom filter". Before you so do, it is highly recommended that you write some descriptive text in the "Description" field so that this can be seen in the picker row together with the formula at a later date. making it easier to recognize:

Screenshot showing Custom filter list (common to entire tenant). Notice that you can mark one or more rows as "starred" and filter out only these by selecting "View starred only" as seen in top right of screenshot.

If you type a different Description for the same custom filter, then you will be asked if you wish to update the description for the filter. 

Notice that you can delete a custom filter row by pressing the "garbage can"-icon. But keep in mind that you delete the custom filter for the all users in the Tenant. 

As a best practice, you should not delete any custom filter that you are not the "creator" of - as it may be a bit annoying to find that one or more of your custom filters are suddenly "gone" from the list by someone else having deleted them...

Filter form where SAP is the host system

SAP is the exception when it comes to the Activity filter. SAP operates with 2 levels of filtering (see 1 and 2 below). This and other aspects of the form will be explained here using the marked numbers in screenshot:

Screenshot showing the aspects of the SAP filter form, and are explained below.

1. The first filter selects SAP Orders, using a server side filter that uses a very different syntax from the normal filter in IDE. The Orders that pass this filter are loaded to client side together with all their operations, and the second filter is applied to limit the operations to use in upload.
   
   
2. The second filter (as mentioned above) uses the regular filter syntax, and limits the Operations for the Orders that passed the first filter.
   
   
3. Example picker for Order Filter. Has 3 sections: ...and here you can see how different the syntax is for this type of filter:
   
4. Example picker for Operations Filter. Identical to the one used in non-SAP settings.
   
   
5. Press button if you wish to save a filter to your "custom" list for later use. It is a good idea to also specify a description (right above the button) so that you can more easily identify the filter later.
   
   
6. This setting is necessary if you are using a preceding IEA to import (download) data into SAP and then you want to use the created items as export (upload) filter. It is only enabled if you have the Frequency setting set to "Predecessor IEA":