Introduction
The homeview of most shipment application provide additional filtering options which enhance search capabilities within these statistic.
Advanced Search with filters
Filters are useful to exclude data from a statistic which is not relevant to the actual analysis.
Three possible ways exist if the user wants to narrow the search result.
- the user may qualify the search result by using the general filter option located in the main menu bar as described below.
the user may apply temporary filter criteria to the current statistic
Temporarily applied filters are not stored and they have to be defined each time the user create a statistic.
- the user defines his own filters with the most usual selections.
These filters get stored and are available anytime the user plans to create a statistic.
General filter option
branch filter: opens a selection window where the branches can be selected which are to be included in the search run.
On the left side of the selection window all available branch(es) are listed.
The right side of the windows shows the already selected branch(es).
A branch is selected by using the 
button and it will be removed from the list of selected branches by clicking the 
button.
Clicking the 
button will close the windows and the selection remains unchanged.
Clicking the 
button will close the window and the changes will take effect.
user defined filters: opens a sub-menu which offers a variety of functions. Please see User defined and stored filters
filter by date range:
The kind of the requested date range is displayed lefthand of the text fields. In the example shown below, an economic date is requested.
When hovering the mouse cursor over a text field which is intended to receive a date entry by the user, a small calendar icon appears on the right border of this field.
Placing the text cursor in such a field induces the same effect.
By clicking onto this symbol, a calendar window opens up, enabling the user to select a valid date.
filter by text search:
The displayed records in the list of search results is affected immediately if the user starts typing.
The result list is actualized permantly whilst the user modifies the search value.
It is important to consider, that the search will be done over all listed categories and not only for shipment number or customers name for example.
As shown in the result list, the destination of the shipment SE-000001 is Hongkong. If the user starts typing HK the result will display exactly one row, the
shipment SE-000001. If one enters the letters AE, all records for Air Export will be displayed. The user should keep in mind, that the search run is done
over all existing columns which can take an amount of time if the amount of data is large enough.
Temporarily applied filter
Use the 
button to expand the filter bar as shown below:
The filter bar will be expanded to enable the user to define his settings.
Temporary filter settings
Filter criteria affecting all sub-criteria
To ascertain the filter rules, the user tells the program how to handle the relationship of the subsequent criteria:
Match all means that all subsequent defined criteria must apply to get the required and expected result - a so called and - condition.
Match one means that at least one of the subsequent defined criteria must apply to get the required and expected result - a so called or - condition.
Filter criteria
The user theoretically may define as much filters as needed. Multiple rows of these filter options can be added using the 
button, or removed using the 
button.
Each row of filter options comprises the following:
Definition of Criteria
The filter row is comprised of several elements; the object of the search, the comparison criterion and the value of the object itself which may be a date, a location, a time period or a mode of transport. A complete description of the filter row is in the table below:
The filter elements can be defined:
- Service date
- Order Date
- ETA
- Pieces
- Gross weight
- Volume
- Customer
- Consignee
- Shipper
- Export Agent
- Export Gateway
- Departure
- Arrival
- Departure IATA code
- IATA destination code
depending on the filter element chosen the the following criteria are available:
- begins with
- corresponds to
- contains
- does not correspond
- is equal to
- is greater
- is smaller
- is between
- within the last
- is
- is not
After a short time of data collection applying the filter rules to the data the result will be shown in the list below the filter criteria.
User defined and stored filters
The abovementioned completely applies for these type of filters.
Here we will show how to define a stored filter:
The home view contains a filter bar with a drop-down list, showing choose filter if none is selected.
By clicking onto this list, a sub-menu gives access to to:
- deactivate an active filter (none actived in this example)
- choose one of the users predefined filters
- organize user filters
Activate a predefined filter
By clicking on the filter name, this filter will be activated.
The filter will be activated and takes effect immediately. The result list shows the effect and the name of the filter is displayed as title of the drop-down list .
Deactivate an active filter
By opening the drop-down list the user may choose the topmost item to deactive the appropriate filter. When leaving the drop-down list, the title of this drop-down will be choose filter again.
Organize filters, i.e. create, edit and remove filter definitions
A new filter may be added by clicking on the button.
An existing filters may be deleted by clicking on the button.
If defining a new filter, the user is free to choose to name the filter by entering the name in the appropriate text field.
Please refer to the section Temporary filter settings mentioned earlier on this page.
The settings will be saved by clicking on the button and ignored by clicking on the button.