One of the biggest changes in Robot/SCHEDULE 10 is its graphical user interface (GUI). When you’re using a GUI and have only a small number of items in a list, it’s easy to find a specific item. Just grab the scroll bar and scroll down until you see the item you are looking for. However, many Robot/SCHEDULE users have hundreds of jobs in their Job Schedule List (JSL).

If you’re sorting the JSL by job name, you can use the “jump to” feature to locate a job. Simply start typing the name of the job you are looking for and Robot/SCHEDULE moves the cursor to that job.
If you’re sorting the JSL by an attribute other than job name, you might want to use a data filter. Robot/SCHEDULE provides some predefined filters and also allows you to create your own easily. A data filter is a way to create and display a user-defined subset of jobs.

Benefits of data filtering
The Data Filter Manager lets you do the following:

• Create and save custom data filters that produce subsets of lists.
• Enter your own combinations of attributes for which to search.
• Determine how simple or complex a filter needs to be to accomplish its task.
• Sort your filtered list by any standard sort criteria. (This is something that F9 Select Search in the green screen could not do.)
• Use filters on many lists, such as All Jobs in the Explorer, JSL, Job Completion History, Group Completion History, Job Monitor Events, Work with Spooled Files, and Schedule Forecasts.
• Share your filters with other users via the import/export functions.

Creating a data filter
Let’s look at an example of how easy it is to create a sophisticated data filter. Suppose you are on the Job Completion History window and you want to find Robot/SPACE command jobs that are currently on hold. Click the funnel icon next to the Data Filter field to display the Data Filter Manager.
You will notice that a number of data filters have already been defined by our development and support teams. You cannot edit these predefined data filters, but you can copy them as a basis for a filter you want to create and edit the copy.

For example, to create a new filter from scratch (not based on a predefined filter), click the New button. The List Filter window displays and allows you to enter a name for the new filter and the filter criteria. Click OK to create the filter and use it to filter the list.

Choosing which conditions to match and how they are joined together is important. Selecting match “all” requires that jobs in the subset have all of the criteria listed. Selecting match “any” requires that they match only one criteria.

Use caution when selecting match all. It can be surprisingly easy to select two conflicting criteria that result in a subset of zero jobs. For example, if you select Job Type is Command on one line and Job Type is Program on another, the subset has no jobs that match all criteria.

If you define a filter that is particularly useful for a list, you can designate it as the default filter for that list. Whenever you display the list, Robot/SCHEDULE remembers your selected default value and displays that view first. The default selection is saved on your PC, so other users
accessing Robot/SCHEDULE from other PCs are not affected.

More notes on filters

• Blank lines are ignored.
• Filters created for the JSL can be used with All Jobs in the Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer.
• You can add as many criteria as you like by using the plus (+) button.
• You can export data filters using the Export button on the Data Filter Manager dialog. The filter is stored in an XML file, which you specify. You can share these files with other Robot/SCHEDULE users and import them into Robot/SCHEDULE by clicking the Import button in the Data Filter Manager dialog.
• If you refresh a list, the currently selected data filter continues to be used until you change it.
• All operations that you can do while viewing all records can be done when using a filter.

Contributed by Jared Dahl, Software Engineer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 7:30 am and is filed under Robot/SCHEDULE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.