Criteria

The Criteria of a report are tools used to filter the results of a query. A criterion contains a reference to a single field of a query target; the report will only display those records with a value for that field that passes the criterion. A user can create a criterion by dragging and dropping a target field from the "Select" section of the Queries & Reports page into the "With Criteria" section, or by using the following panel:

In all cases, this panel allows the user to select the field to use for the criterion, select the mode of the criteria, which dictates how the criteria interacts with users and reports, and optionally flag the criterion as trended, which allows it to be used on the Trend Viewer. The other fields that appear on this panel depend on the selected mode, and there are three possible modes to choose from:

• Default: A criterion is always visible on the left filter of a report. It does not filter the results of the report until the user enters some value to compare against the values of that field in the report. When creating the criterion, the user chooses an input method based on the data type of the selected field, which controls how a user viewing the report can enter or select a value to compare against the field. A user can
• Optional: A criterion does not appear on the left filter of a report by default, but can be added using the "Add" button under the list of default criteria. It will not be applied to the report unless a user has added it and entered a value. As for a default criterion, the user selects an input method.
• Hidden: A criterion never appears on the report itself. Instead, when a user creates the criterion, he or she sets a fixed value that the criterion will always compare against the value of the selected field using a selected operation.

The screenshots below show three criteria, one of each mode, and how they appear on the Queries & Reports page.

In the first example, the "Plate Number" field is a default criterion, the "Last Update" field is an optional criterion, and the "Moving State" field is a hidden criterion. When the system displays the report, it shows these criteria on the left filter as follows:

At the start, only the default "Plate Number" criterion is shown, but since the optional "Last Update" criterion exists, a user can press the "Add" button to reveal it. Pressing the "Cancel" button will once again hide the optional criterion, but as the user has not yet selected any filtering value for it, the criterion is inert. The hidden "Moving State" criterion is never shown, but it is applied behind the scenes such that the report only displays the records with the "In Transit" state. Depending on the situation, no criteria may be necessary for a report, or many may be.