Contents

• Expression-based Quick Search
  • Recommendations for Effective Searches
  • Error Messages
• Classic Search and Exact Matches Only
• Filter Panel
  • Where is the Filter Panel?
  • What is in the Filter Panel?
  • Page filters
    • Creating a page filter
    • Editing and deleting page filters
    • Tips for using page filters
  • Filter widgets
    • Adding a filter widget to the Filter Panel
    • Removing a widget filter
    • Tips for using widget filters
  • My filters
    • Creating a new My filter
    • Sharing My filters

Expression-based Quick Search

Flow Production Tracking Pages have Quick Search capabilities that support expressions (AND, OR, NOT, "", -) in search requests.

Expression-based functionality is the default Quick Search method in Flow Production Tracking. Other search options are available in the search menu:

• Classic Search
• Exact Matches Only
• Expression-based Search

Each expression can be used individually or in combination. Expression-based capabilities use subtractive analysis to allow you to use the following expressions:

Expression	Description	Examples	Notes
AND or <space>	Refine search results by specifying search terms that must appear in your selected fields	blue AND car	By default, individual terms included in your search query are treated like an AND, so searching blue car is equivalent to blue AND car.
OR or ,	Combine search queries by specifying search terms where at least one of the terms appears in your selected fields	blue OR green blue,green	Though they may not look the same, examples 1 and 2 are considered equivalent expressions so they will return the same results.
NOT or -	Exclude words from your search by using the NOT operator or putting a - in front of a word	NOT vehicle -vehicle	If using the - prefix, do not include a space before your search term.
" "	Search for an exact phrase by placing your search terms in quotes	"find this phrase"	This is not the same as the “Exact Matches Only” option. Using quotes finds an exact phrase, which may also be part of the value of an existing field. So if one your entities contained a field that said don’t find this phrase, the example search to the left would also find that entity.
( )	Get more specific by including groups of search terms. You can use ( ) to group terms that you want to specify together.	("repair vehicle") OR (blue OR green OR red) AND (-drednot)	Terms included in parentheses are treated just like normal search, so you can also specify operators inside of the parentheses, like (red OR blue).

Recommendations for Effective Searches

• For more accurate results, when conducting a multi-term searches, use quotations (" ") to define the search terms. For example, "repair vehicle".
• Using parentheses can help avoid ambiguous searches that return unexpected results. For example, if you are searching for cars that are red or blue, try formatting your search query like car (red OR blue). Without parentheses, car red OR blue would return anything that contains both car and red or anything that contains blue.
• Special characters like "" and ( ) are reserved for expressions. If you need to search for results that contain one of those special characters, add a \ (backslash) "escape character" before the special character. This “escape sequence” tells Flow Production Tracking to treat the character like any other search term.
  • For example: outside \(day\) will search for results that contain “outside” and “(day)” including the parentheses.

Error Messages

When a search with expressions is incomplete, you will be presented with an error message. An example error may look something like this:

Syntax error
Expected a search term or group, an operator ("AND" or "OR"), end of input, or space but " found.

If you have multiple errors, one error will be present at a time in the order in which the expressions appear until resolved.

Classic Search and Exact Matches Only

You can still use the Classic and Exact Match Only quick search bar without having to enter in any filter information. It will search on a pre-determined list of keywords.

If you can't find what you're looking for, you can add additional parameters to the search by selecting them via the small drop-down arrow in the quick-filter panel.

Filter Panel

The Filter Panel is where you can filter results on a page. Filters allow faceted searching within a set of records to quickly narrow down large lists of information. For example, if you’re looking at a list of Shots and you select the "In Progress" status, you’ll only see Shots that are in progress.

Where is the Filter Panel?

Open the Filter Panel by click on the “Filter” button, in the upper right hand corner of the page. This button appears on most pages where you have multiple results. To keep the Filter Panel pinned open, select the arrow below the “Filter” button.

What is in the Filter Panel?

There are three different filters:

1. Number of filters active on a Page
2. Page filter
3. Widget filter
4. My filters

Page filters

Page filters are public filters visible to everyone that are saved with the page—these define the data that’s on the page, and can be a complex set of filter conditions. Page filters give quick access to commonly filtered results. For example, you might have a “Trailer Shots” page filter on a Shots page, or "Animation Tasks" on a Tasks page.

Creating a page filter

1. Select “New Saved Filter” and give the filter a name. Try to be as descriptive as possible when naming your filters, especially if the page is shared with others.
2. Add the individual conditions that the Page filter describes, such as “Status is not omitted.”
3. Select “Create.” Remember to save the page to keep your filter on the page.

Editing and deleting page filters

To edit a page filter, hover over the desired page filter and click on “Edit.” To completely delete the page filter, select Delete. Remember to save the page after to keep this new setting.

Tips for using page filters

• You can make as many page filters as you’d like, but only one page filter can be active at any one time.
• Give your page filters a descriptive name, especially if you plan on sharing your page with others.
• The page filter you have active when you save the page will be saved as the default page filter, and will be pushed to the top of the Page filter list.
• Anybody can create a page filter, but only those users with permission to save pages can save a page filter.

Filter widgets

In addition to page filters, you can visually search through the many Shots, Assets, Tasks, and other things you’re tracking in Flow Production Tracking. When you’re on a list of records, you’ll find a series of widgets you can click to filter down your results. You can also interact with your data in real-time using bar graphs and data grouping to help summarize the list of results by designing a canvas page.

Adding a filter widget to the Filter Panel

You may want to use different filters than the ones shown by default. To add other filter widgets to the Filter Panel, use the “More Filters” menu at the bottom of the Filter Panel.

Removing a widget filter

You can remove filters you don’t want using the gear menu on each filter type.

Tips for using widget filters

• Selections within one filter type are OR-ed.
• Selections between filter types are AND-ed.
• If you add filters for different types of things (e.g., a Status and a Sequence) you’ll narrow down the list of things you see.
• The more types of filters you add, the narrower the list gets, but if you select more options within one type of filter, you will expand the list of things you see.

My filters

You can also create your own personal filters that that apply to any page. Setting up a "My filter" works the same way as setting up page filters. However, you can use them on any page of that record type, and then turn them on and off dynamically just by selecting them in the Filter Panel. For example, if you make a “My Tasks” filter on an Assets page, that filter will show up in the Filter Panel on any Asset page you can see. Note that these "My filters", as the name implies, are only visible to you by default.

Creating a new My filter

Add a new custom filter by selecting the + button next to My Shot Filters:

Sharing My filters

Once you have created a custom "My filter," you can then share that filter with other users by clicking on the sharing icon.