Filtering a Structure Using Attribute Criteria

For more information, see Selecting the Context for the Filter.

1. To specify whether to include a specific type of object in the filtered structure, do one of the following:
   • If you want to keep the selected type of object in the structure, do nothing. Keep is the default behavior.
   • If you want to remove a certain type of object from the filtered structure, click Keep to switch the value to Remove.
   Notes:

   • The default behavior when you opt to Keep objects with a specified attribute in the filtered structure is to keep the children of those objects in the filtered structure as well. You can select Hide children of attribute criteria resultsfrom filter's context menu to hide the children of those objects in the filtered structure.
   • When you opt to Remove objects with a specified attribute from the filtered structure, the whole matching branch is excluded from the tree. If all the child objects are removed from a node, the node itself is excluded.
   • When you opt to Remove objects with a specified attribute from the filtered structure, the Hide children of attribute criteria results command is no longer available from the filter's context menu. By default, the children of objects with the specified attribute are filtered from the structure along with their parent objects.

   Important: If a child object meets your filter criteria, its parent objects, all the way up the structure to the root object, are displayed in the filtered structure, even if they do not meet the filter criteria themselves. This is because there cannot be a floating leaf object in the structure without a parent object connected back to the root object. Whether to display the intermediate parent objects in this situation is not affected by the Keep or Remove settings, or by the Hide children of attribute criteria results setting.

2. To specify the type of object that you want to either keep or remove from the filtered structure, do one of the following:
   • If you want to filter the structure by all object types (Objects), do nothing. This is the default behavior.
   • If you want to filter the structure by a specific object type, click in the Objects field to select an object type to filter by from the list.

3. To make your selections apply to only a custom subtype of the selected object type, click Extension, then from the list, select the custom subtype.
   Note: This action is only available for objects for which there are custom subtypes defined and if you selected a specific object type to filter by. It is not available if you opted to filter by all object types.

1. To specify the value for an attribute of the selected object type to be included in the filtered structure, from the Enter Attribute list, select an attribute.
   Note: If Objects is selected as the type, you can access only a restricted list of attributes (Title, Name, Description, Revision, and all parametric predicates in 6WTags).

2. To specify how to filter by that attribute, from the list, select an operator:

   For many attributes of an object, the following operators are available:

   Operator	Description
   equals to	This matches attributes whose value is the exact string that you enter or the exact value that you select. For example, if you enter MyString, any attribute whose value contains MyString is included in the filtered structure. It matches an object whose title is MyString. It does not match an object whose title is MyString Name, My StringName, Its MyString, or MyStringName.
   contains	This matches attributes whose value is anywhere within the string that you enter or the value that you select. It is the equivalent of using a wildcard at the start and at the end of the entered expression. For example, if you enter MyString, any attribute whose value contains MyString anywhere within it is included in the filtered structure. It matches an object whose title is MyString Name, MyString, ItsMyString or MyStringName. It does not match an object whose title is My StringName.
   starts with	This matches attributes whose value starts with the string that you enter. It is the equivalent of using a wildcard at the end of the entered expression. For example, if you enter MyString, any attribute whose value contains MyString as the initial text is included in the filtered structure. It matches an object whose title is MyString Name, MyString, or MyStringName. It does not match an object whose title is ItsMyString.
   ends with	This matches attributes whose value ends with the string that you enter. It is the equivalent of using a wildcard at the start of the entered expression. For example, if you enter MyString, any attribute whose value contains MyString as the final text is included in the filtered structure. It matches an object whose title is ItsMyString or Name of MyString. It does not match an object whose title is MyString or MyStringName.
   is empty	This matches objects that: have an attribute, but which value is empty have no attribute For example, when you filter a structure and select this operator, all the objects that either have an attribute that is empty, or have no attribute are matched.
   is not empty	This matches objects that have an attribute which value is not empty. The usual rules apply to the branch, and the children if the Keep children option is selected.

   Notes:

   • For some text-based attributes, Boolean-based attributes, and enumeration-based attributes, only the equals operator is available.
   • For integer-based attributes, the following mathematical operators are available: equals to, lower than, greater than, strictly lower than, strictly greater than, and between
   • For date-based attributes, the following operators are available: on, after, before, strictly after, strictly before, and between. When you are filtering a structure by a date attribute, such as Creation Date, and use the before, after, or between operators, you can specify a time on the selected date. You cannot specify a time when you select the on operator for a date attribute.

3. To select or enter the attribute values to filter by, do one or more of the following:
   • Click in the field, scroll through the list, then select a suggested value from the list. The list of available values is limited to 100.
     Notes:

     • Any value that you have previously selected for that attribute is a historic value, which is indicated by the icon next to the value in the list.
     • Any custom value that you enter is indicated by the icon next to the value in the list. After attribute validation, custom values become historic values and their icons change in the list.
     • Historic and custom values are stored in local storage, so they are lost if you empty your web browser cache. They are not shared between web browsers.
   • Start entering your value, then select a suggested value from the list. The list progressively filters as you enter more characters.
     Recommendation: For attributes where only a specific set of defined values is available, such as a user name, select a value from the list instead of entering a custom value. Selecting a defined value makes it more likely that the filter will return results.
   • Enter a custom value, then press Enter.
     Notes:

     • You cannot enter any of the following characters as part of any attribute value to filter by:

       " [ ]

     • An asterisk (*) is treated as a literal character, not as a wildcard, in filter criteria.

   Tips: If you have entered other criteria, you can click Refresh suggested values to filter the list of values to only those entries that match the previously entered criteria. You can use Shift + click to select multiple values from the list at once.

   For each value that you select or enter, a tile is added to the search field.
4. To add another attribute to filter the same type of object by, click Add an attribute.
5. To validate the selected filter criteria, click Validate the filter criterion.

1. Specify the type of object that you want to include in the filtered structure. See Step 3 for more information.
2. Click Remove the attribute next to the Select attribute field.
3. Click Add a group of attributes.
4. To specify the scope of the attributes that you want to include in the filter, do one of the following:
   • To use all the specified attribute values to filter the object in the structure, from the list, select All. This is the equivalent of using the AND operator between the selected attributes. If all the attribute values match, the object is included in the filtered structure.
   • To use any of the specified attribute values to filter the object in the structure, from the list, select Any. This is the equivalent of using the OR operator between the selected attributes. If any of the attribute values match, the object is included in the structure.

5. Specify the first attribute of that object and its value that you want to filter the structure by. See Steps 3 and 4 for more information.
6. To add another attribute to the group, click Add an attribute.
7. Specify the next attribute of that object and its value that you want to filter the structure by. See Steps 3 and 4 for more information.
8. After you have specified all the attribute values in the group, to validate the selected filter criteria, click Validate the filter criterion.

1. Specify a type of object that you want to filter the structure by. See Step 3 for more information.
2. Specify the attribute values of that object that you want to filter the structure by. See Step 4 for more information.
3. To end the current step in the sequence and start a new one, click Add an attribute in sequence.
   Note: Each step can filter by the attributes of a different type of object in the structure.

4. After you have defined all the object types and attribute values in the filter sequence, to validate the selected filter criteria, click Validate attribute sequence.

For more information, see Saving a Filter.