Filters

This article covers:

• Global filters;
• User group filters;
• Shared filters;
• Personal filters;
• Promote personal filters to shared filters;
• Deleting filters and filter items.

PPO administrators can limit what functionality users have access to by assigning them to a user group and restrict the data that they have access to by using global and user group filters.

This article deals exclusively with the maintenance of user access to data (filters). Please see the following knowledge base article for information on maintaining functionality (user groups).

You can distinguish between the Global, Personal and Shared filters on the list page based on the icon shown next to it. 

Global filters

Global filters are created by the administrator and are designed to increase ease of use. These are commonly used to filter out completed or archived items, such as Tasks where the actual progress is 100 percent, Issues that are closed, Risks that are resolved, or Projects that are completed.

On a list page, the global filter will be shown as per the below screenshot (globe icon).

If the user has access to disable global filters, the user will be able to select the Remove icon (x) in order to disable it.  Example below has the global filter applied and there are 27 open tasks on the list.

Once the global filter is removed, all the items previously filtered out by the applicable global filter will appear on the list page.  With the "Only Open Tasks" global filter removed you can now see 49 items on the list.  

For the PPO administrator to be able to create and maintain global filters, they must have access to the Administration Menu and the Filters menu item.

To create a global filter click on the Filters menu item. The Filters page will open, showing the option "All User Groups" at the top of the page and a filter line for each entity.

Click on the Add Filter button next to the entity filter drop down.

The Filter Add page will open.

Specify a name, filter items, and an evaluation expression for the filter. For more information on setting up filters, see this knowledge base article. 

Note: there is a limit to the length of an evaluation expression.

After the filter has been specified, click on the Submit button.  The newly added filter will appear on the Filters page.

Only one global filter can be applied per entity however every filter can have multiple filter items which allows for fairly complex filters. It is always recommended to start simple with filters and then to increase in complexity when it is clear what is required. 

User group filters

For each user group, specific entity filters (e.g. Projects, Issues, Documents) can be set-up to allow users access to only certain data (e.g. only projects that belong to the financial programme and only documents where status is final or approved). This allows the PPO administrators to maintain security across PPO, ensuring users have access only to the relevant items.

To set up a user group filter, click on the Filters menu item. The Filters page will open, showing the option "All User Groups" at the top of the page and a filter line for each entity. This is the global filters page, discussed previously in this article.

To create a user group filter select the user group for which you would like to specify a filter from the User Group drop down list at the top of the page.

Then click on the Add Filter button (+) next to the relevant entity. An example of a project entity filter would be to allow the user group to only see projects where the programme is "Business & Market Growth".

Once the filter has been created click on the Submit button to save the filter. 

Shared filters

Shared filters are set up by the PPO Administrator and can be used by all users on PPO. These filters can be used on the Home Page, list pages, and on reports and dashboards.

To create a new shared filter, click on the Filters menu item under Administration. The Filters page will open, showing the option "All User Groups" at the top of the page and a filter line for each entity. 

Click on the Add Filter button next to the relevant entity. Create the filter as required and click on Submit button. For more information on setting up filters, see this knowledge base article.

The administrator has the option to share the filter or to keep it hidden. To share the filter with all users on the instance, the "Is Shared?" field should be selected as True.

If the "Is Shared?" field is selected as True, the filter will be published as a shared filter and will be available to all users on PPO. All shared filters for the entity will appear in the drop-down list on the Filters page.

The last step is always to ensure that the correct global filter is selected on the Filters page. When you publish your shared filter, the system will select the newly added shared filter as the active global filter, which is not necessarily desired. Select the correct global filter and click on the Submit button.

Personal filters

On a list page, personal filters will be shown as per the below screenshot.

Users have the ability to create their own filters. This allows the user to create any desired view on their Home Page, List pages, Reports and Dashboards.  The Add Filter option will appear on fields where a user defined filter can be set up.

To create a filter click on the Add Filter button and specify the filter as required. For more information on creating filters see this knowledge base article. 

Promote personal filters to shared filters

If you have access to the Filter functionality under the Administration menu you can access a personal filter from the list pages in PPO and promote it to a shared filter for all the users to use. Select the personal filter from the list (highlighted in blue below).

The Filter Edit page will open.  Under the Actions menu, select Promote to Shared.

Deleting filters and filter items

Global filters, user group filters and shared filters can only be deleted from under the Administration menu item, while personal filters can be deleted by the user from anywhere within PPO. For detailed information on how to delete filters, please see the following knowledge base article.