“Filtering” a list of work items involves entering filter criteria so that only some of the work items are shown in the list, rather than all of them. Filtering a list of work items allows you to display only the work items you are interested in. For example, you may only be interested in work items that arrived in the work queue after Dec. 15, 2004. You can filter the list so that only those work items are shown.
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by selecting Filter... from the View menu on the work item list.
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If a filter expression is still active, the Filter icon will be shown with a green check mark (as shown below), and if the filter dialog is displayed, the previously entered filter expression will be shown in the Expression section. 
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Notice the “465 items will be returned” message in the upper left part of the example filter dialog. This is the number of work items that will be returned if you click on the
OK button to display the work item list. If this is a large number, you should enter a filter expression so that a smaller list is returned, making it easier to find the work items you want to work on.
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Choose a field to filter on. A “field” in this context is not necessarily a field that appears on a form in a work item — although it can be. These also include “system fields,” which contain information about the work item that is stored in the system, such as the date/time the work item arrived in the work queue, whether or not the work item is “new” (i.e., unopened), etc.
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Choose an operator that will be used in your filter expression, e.g.,’=’ (equals), ’<’ (less than), ’>’ (greater than), etc.
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Enter the value to be compared against the value in the field you chose. (The value entered in the Value field must match the data type for the field selected. For information about the valid data types, see
Value Data Types.)
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At any time while building the filter expression, you can “apply” the expression by clicking on the Apply button. The “
##### items will be returned” message is updated to inform you of the number of work items that satisfy the filter expression you’ve built. This is the number of work items that will be listed when you click on the
OK button.
You can also click the OK button at any time without first clicking the
Apply button — this causes any filter expression(s) you’ve entered to be applied and the list displayed. But you will not know the number of work items that will be returned in the list until after the list is displayed — clicking
Apply first allows you to know how many will be returned before the list is displayed.
Also note that you can use the Close button to close the filter dialog without applying the filter expression (assuming you have not yet clicked
Apply). Any expression you’ve entered will remain on the filter dialog, so that if you return to the filter dialog again prior to closing the work item list, the expression you had entered will still be available.
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System Fields - These fields contain information that is provided by the system, e.g., the date and time the work item arrived in the work queue, the case number the work item is associated with, etc.
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Case Data Fields - These fields contain case data that was entered into a field on the form associated with a work item, e.g., a customer name or invoice number.
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Work queue parameter fields - These are special fields that can be used to store work queue-specific data. Unless the system administrator assigned different names to these fields, they appear in the Field drop-down list as WQ Parameter1 - 4, as follows: 
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The Oper. field allows you to select an operator for the filter expression. Click on the arrow on the right side of the
Oper. field. The following drop-down list is displayed:
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Equal to (regular expression equality operator 1) |
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Enter the value in the Value field that you would like compared to the value in the field you selected in the
Field field.
The value entered in the Value field must match the data type for the field selected. (For information about the valid data types for each of the system fields, see the list of system fields on
page 96.)
The iProcess Workspace (Browser) also provides information about the format required for other types of fields selected from the Field drop-down list. In the following example, the client is telling you that since the “Forwardable” work item flag has been selected, the valid values are
1 (for forwardable) and
0 (for not forwardable):
You can use the following “wild card” characters in the value you enter in the Value field when filtering on text fields (note that wild cards can’t be used with non-text fields (for a list of the field types, see
System Fields Available for Filtering Work Items)):
The special SW_NA value can be used in filter expressions to list work items that contain a field that is empty (the “NA” means “not assigned”).
Note, however, this value must be typed into the Expression section (free-form area — for information about building free-form expressions, see
Building a Free-Form Filter Expression). If it is typed into the
Value field, the system will enclose
SW_NA in quotes in the expression — you don’t want quotes around it.
For example, to list the work items containing an Occupation field in which a value has not been entered:
Conversely, to list the work items containing an Occupation field in which a value HAS been entered, type in this expression (using the “not equal” operator):
You can enter the entire expression free-form in the Expression section, if desired. Or, you can select the field and operator from the
Field and
Oper. field drop-down lists. You may or may not be able to enter the entire value in the
Value field, depending on the filter field chosen. If required, modify the expression in the
Expression section so that it is in the form shown above.
The SW_DATE system field contains the current date. You can use this system field in filter expressions. For instance, you can search for all work items that have arrived in the work queue today (see the example below).
Note, however, this value must be typed into the Expression section (free-form area — for information about building free-form expressions, see
Building a Free-Form Filter Expression). If it is typed into the
Value field, the system will enclose
SW_DATE in quotes in the expression — you don’t want quotes around it.
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Click the OK button. This causes any filter expression(s) you’ve entered to be applied and the list displayed. But you will not know the number of work items that will be returned in the list until after the list is displayed.
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Click the Apply button. The system will apply the filter expression and calculate how many work items satisfy the expression. This number is shown on both the top and the bottom of the filter dialog (22 in this example): 
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If you clicked Apply, and the number of work items that will be returned from the iProcess Engine is satisfactory, click the
OK button to display the work item list (for information about the work item list, see
Work Item Lists).
Anytime you add, delete, or modify a filter expression on the filter dialog, and have not yet clicked the Apply button to apply it, the following message is shown to notify you that the changed filter expression has not been applied:
Note that if you apply the filter expression, then view the work item list, the Filter icon will now contain a red check mark to indicate that a filter has been applied on the list:
Logical ANDs and ORs are entered into a filter expression using the AND/OR field. Click the arrow to display the drop-down list and select either AND or OR. When you select an AND or OR, another set of fields is displayed, in which you can specify the clause that will be ANDed or ORed to the preceding clause.
In this example, both clauses must be true for a work item to be returned in the list.
In this example, either one of the clauses can be true for the work item to be returned in the list.
((SW_EXPIRED = 1 AND SW_URGENT = 1) OR SW_CASEDESC = "C*”) AND SW_PRONAME = "LOAN"
After specifying filter criteria in the Field,
Oper., and
Value fields, the filter expression appears in the
Expression window:
The expression that appears in the Expression window is what is actually sent to the iProcess Engine. You are free to edit this text in any way desired. Note, however, that the results may not be what you expect if the expression is not in the format required by the iProcess Engine. For example, dates must be enclosed in exclamation characters (!07/05/2006!), times must be enclosed in the ‘#’ character (#18:30#). These special characters are automatically added for you when you use the
Field,
Oper., and
Value fields to build the expression.
You can also add parentheses to the expression in the Expression window to create more complex filter expressions.
The system field names that appear in the Expression window (e.g., SW_DEADLINEDATE) are listed in the table of system fields on
page 96.
The “favorites” feature allows you to save your favorite (i.e., commonly used) filter expressions. This allows you to quickly select an expression by name, rather than requiring you to enter each element of the expression.
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Click on the Favorites button on the filter dialog. The Favorites Manager dialog is displayed.
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In the field on the bottom of the Favorites Manager dialog, enter the name you would like to give the filter expression you are saving in the favorites (the entry in this field defaults to the current date and time). 
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Click Save to save the new favorite.
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The text in the Description column in the table below corresponds to the text in the
Field field drop-down list on the
Filter dialog. When you choose a field from the
Field field drop-down list, the actual system field name (e.g., SW_CASEDESC) is entered in the filter expression in the
Expression window on the
Filter dialog.
* The actual name that appears in the
Filter field drop-down list for the work queue parameter fields may be different than those shown here if the system administrator has assigned different names to them.
icon, or 
