Either/or filtering

[shearerg]

Hi,

If left unfiltered, some of my reports can return a reasonably large number of rows which slows down initial loading of the report, and presents unrequested data. These reports are often a candidate for alternative filtering choices, such as by a product number OR a product description, so I was hoping to avoid the need to set either as 'Required'.

However, this means that when the report is initially opened it is effectively unfiltered, and proceeds to return the top 1000 data rows. In this case, what would be really nice, would be the capability to indicate that one OR the other of the filter values must be provided ... but not both.

I assume that the standard way to avoid this situation is to set initial default values. The awkward aspect of this method is that one of the filter values has to be cleared before the query of interest can proceed.

Is there another method for handling alternative filtering methods, other than providing a separate report?

I've just thought that one method could be to create a view which combines multiple fields in order to provide a single field for filtering. In the example above this field would be a concatenation of the product number and product description. Any other suggestions welcomed.

Regards,
Greg Shearer

[Carsten Sørensen]

Hi Greg,

There is a feature on the Options tab - "1st page loads blank" - that will load the filters without the 1000's of records initially.

Best regards,
Carsten

[shearerg]

Excellent! Apologies for not noticing.

[shearerg]

However, just noticed that the "1st page loads blank" option doesn't seem to have an effect when reports are put together in a package .....

[Carsten Sørensen]

The packages origins from being able to bring a number of higher level reports together - e.g. for scheduled emailed dashboards etc. Filter handling across multiple reports in that respect including default / inheritance etc. is rather complex. I agree that 1. page loads blank - from a consistency point of view - should also work like that on packages - but currently - you are correct that the setting doesn't have impact.

Best regards,
Carsten