Filters are a type of “saved search”. The filter enables the user to create a search pattern and save that pattern for later use. If a new site, player or content is later added that meets the criteria of the search, the next time the filter is viewed, the new item will show up in that filter’s view. For the Sites and Players this enables the user to create sub-sets that can then have entities assigned to them as a group.
For example, a department store network could create a filter called “Checkout” and target only the checkout players within all the stores and departments. These “Checkout” players could then have a specific entity assigned to them.
Filters can search against the hierarchy textual data, the built-in attributes for the element or attribute set data.
Clicking on the “Filter” icon will enable the user to manage the filters. Either choose from a previously saved filter or click the “Manage” button to modify the filters.
Click on the “Add” button to add a new filter, or the “Delete” button to remove an existing filter. To edit an existing filter, select the filter, make the changes to the search fields, and click the “Save” button. Next time the filter is selected the new search results will be displayed.
When creating a filter, the search can be based on three sets of data for each element. The first data set is the built-in element attributes, such as Site Name, Player MAC or content duration. These built-in attributes will always be available for filters even when there are no attribute sets associated with the elements.
The second data set is the elements hierarchy information. In the case of sites and players, the information that is available we depend on the number of levels or the hierarchy and the name of each level. For example the site hierarchy could be setup on the Network as: State / City / Store / Site
In this case the “State”, City” , “Store” and “Site” will be available search options when building a site filter. This same concept also applies to the Player hierarchy. The available search fields in the Player filters will depend on the number of levels and the name of each level.
In the case of the content filters, the structure of the folders is not available to the search. Content filters can only search for the built-in attributes (such as file name or duration) and attribute set data assigned to the content. The content “hierarchy” is not searching as it is with Site and Players.
To create a new site, player or content filter, start by click on the “Filters” icon and then on the “Manage Filter” button.
Create a new filter by click on the “+” (add filter) button.
When a new filter is created, it defaults to having one search expression. Another search entry can be added by clicking on the “+” (add) button.
To remove a search entry from a filter, click on the “-“(remove) button. A filter must have at least one search expression.
Any vs All
When a filter is created, is can include multiple search expressions that can be combined to create the overall “filter”. The search can be combined with “Any” or “All”. When “any” is selected, if even one search matches the site, player or content the filter will be a match. If “All” is selected, every search must match a site, player or content to be a match.
For example, when using “ALL”, the search is for a site with Store Type = “Type A” and a second search for “Language = English”. The site must be a “Type A” store AND have the language set to “English”. If the “Any” option was selected instead, the site Store Type was “Type A” OR the Language was “English”.
ANY is the same as OR
ALL is the same as AND
Equals vs Not Equals
In addition to Any and All, the search expressions could search for elements that are NOT equal to the search by changing the “=” to “!=” in the search bar. For example, if the search was for “Store Type” != “Type A”, the filter would match all sites there were NOT “Type A”.
= is the same as “EQUALS”
!= is the same as “NOT”
Sub Searches
The searches can be combined and they can be “nested”. A nested search can be used to in a similar way to adding brackets to an equation so the search is evaluated before the non-nested searches. All nested searches are evaluated first and the results passed to the search above.
Click the “Sub-Expression” button to add a nested sub-search.
The “All” or “Any” selection applies to all the search expression in that “group”. The diagram below shows how the “All” and “Any” are applied to the “groups”.
This example filter would find sites in New York in the Store or Menswear department or, sites in the New Jersey in the Sports or Appliances departments.
This filter as an expression that would look like this:
City = New York (Department = Store OR Department = Menswear) OR City = New Jersey (Department = Sports OR Department = Appliance)
All the search rules can be combined to create complex search expressions.