Instances filtering

You can control the instances displayed in the Active Instances view by setting a filter expression in configure mode or edit mode. When you limit the number or type of instances in a view, you can focus on a particular area of interest.

In the view, you can display instances that satisfy certain criteria that you define during the configuration or the personalization of the Active Instances view. By setting filtering criteria based on one or more business measures, you can determine which process instances will be displayed in view mode in the Active Instances view.

You can build a formula of business measures and specific values that represents the filter expression. The filter expression can be simple or complex. A simple expression consists of a filter criterion based on only one business measure. A complex expression includes filter criteria based on multiple business measures, combined together by Boolean operators, such as AND, OR, and NOT. Each criterion in the filter expression is defined by specifying a value-or a range of values-for the measure you select. The values for measures are based on the nature of each business measure. For example, a numeric business measure requires a numeric value and a logical operator. A duration business measure requires an operator (for example, <,<=...) and a duration (number of days, hours, minutes).

The filters you specify apply only to the instances of the business measures group that you selected in the first page of the configuration wizard. Filters do not apply to child instances (activities, local subprocess, and global subprocess). You can also specify filters by editing the filter expression text using conventional text-editing commands (Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete).

Regardless of the business measures names, they all fall into a number of filter types. When you configure or edit the Active Instances, you can filter the resulting instances according to one or more filter types. The following filter types are supported by WebSphere® Business Monitor.

Filter types
Filter type Explanation
Numerical Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a numerical value (Integer or double) such as cost, credit amount, or number of employees. You can select the numeric value range by using the logical operators (<=, <, >=, >, =) and then entering the required value. Example: Credit amount > "1000"
Duration Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a time-duration value (days, hours, or minutes), such as elapsed time duration, working time duration, or process-cycle time duration. You can select the duration range by using the logical operators (<=, <, >=, >, =) and then entering the required duration values. Example: Working time duration >= "0d 8h 0m".
Date Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a date value, such as starting time, completion time, or date of birth. You can select the duration range by using the logical operators (<=, <, >=, >, =) and then specifying the required date value from the calendar. Example: Date of Birth >= "June 14, 2005".
Boolean Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a Boolean value (true or false), such as credit approved, vacation balance full, or order completed. You can select the required value for the business measure, either true or false. Example: Credit Approved = "True".
Text Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a text value, such as first name, last name, and address. You can select a text filter option: matching, containing, or not containing, and then typing the required text. Note: You can filter by case-sensitive text. Example: Customer name = exact "John".
State Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a current state, such as Ready, Running, and Suspended. You can select a state filter option. Only results matching the selected state show. For a process, you can filter by any of the following options: Running, Suspended while Running, Suspended while Failing, Completed, Terminating, Terminated, Failing, or Failed. For a Local process, you can filter by any of the following options: Running, Completed, Suspended, Terminated, Failed, or Failing.
Is Delayed Select this type when you want to filter by a business measure that has a current status. You can select one of two status filter options: delayed or on time. Only results matching the selected status show. Example: Is Delayed = "False".

When the filter is defined with one or more criteria, only the process instances that match the filter criteria will be displayed. For example, if some instances are delayed and others are on time, you can set a filter criterion to display only the instances that are delayed. You can use the AND operator to append another criterion that further filters the delayed instances to display only ones that have exceeded a certain value of another business measure.

If you decide to define filter instances, during configuration or personalization of the Active Instances view, you can select each measure that you want to include in the expression and define the required values for each. Alternatively, you can type and paste part or all of the expression in the proper field.

Whatever method you use for defining the filter expression, you should validate the expression before applying it to ensure that the expression has no syntactic errors. Only instances that satisfy your expression criteria will be displayed in view mode of the Active Instances view. Having a valid expression does not mean it will yield instances. If your expression includes criteria values that do not match the actual instances values, it will not produce instances. Be sure that you define business measures values that are within the scope of the actual instances values to prevent this problem.

Related concepts
Active Instances view
Cooperative views
Related tasks
Configuring Active Instances view
Modifying Active Instances view visual appearance
Administering instances
Drilling down instances
Setting filter criteria
Administering dashboards and views
Related reference
Active Instances view reference
WebSphere Portal information
DB2 Alphablox

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