PeopleZen: Feedback Forum > Using FilterZen and PeopleZen to create a "view"
Hi Bill, have you checked the CAML Filtering mode checkbox in the FilterZen Web Part for Contains to work?
This should definitely work not only with interactive but also with hidden filters. In the PeopleZen Web Part settings tool-pane, under the Filtering section, there's this check-box option labelled For interactive FilterZen filters, use Ajax-based live filtering (instead of page-reloading post-backs; recommended unless your Filter Web Part also contains non-interactive filters or is also connected to other non-PeopleZen Web Parts). Do your results change if you change its setting? (Note you may need to fully reload, not just refresh, the page to really see all filtering changes get picked up, by not pressing F5 but completely renavigating-to the page.)
So theoretically the hidden filters should work regardless of the above checkbox but I'm just wondering if it makes any difference in your setup.
Lookup-like drop-down filters for User Profile properties are coming to FilterZen soon... for now there is no direct way of listing those values, though.
ROXORITY
Thanks,
CAML filtering is set, and the Contains part works great, as long as I have "Allow users to pick a filter value" checked. When I don't have that checked, but do have the the "Optionallly pick the default filter value" set as well as the "If empty, always fall back to this filter value" set, that is when the filter does not appear, is this what you mean by "hidden"? If so, it is as if the values for Default are ignored when the "Allow users to pick" is not checked. See below for the discovery with Emulate Search.
It does not appear to make a difference whether I have the Ajax-based live filtering checked or not. As soon as I do not have the "allow users to pick" unchecked, I see my whole unfiltered list again.
Found part of the problem. I had the "Emulate search" selected, so the initial "hidden" filter never got sent. Uncheck this and initial behavoir works. But when I added a second filter allowing fill-in choices, the first display worked fine, but when I changed the next paramter, in this case "location", my Department default was then ignored.
The workaround is not that bad, just have both displayed with a single "Choice" for the Department. Then everytime the Filter executes, all values are sent.
Will my work around for the other List Values work until FilterZen understands the Profile Database? I'll try it and let you know as well.
This is cool, thanks for the info and pointers.
Bill Dewey
"If empty, always fall back to this filter value" and "Optionallly pick the default filter value" etc --- you can ignore all these and leave them un-checked, if you have a default filter value defined then this will always get sent.
Generally for every setting you can ignore it unless you know for sure you'll need it.
So I understand after un-ticking "Emulate search" it worked again --- until you added a second interactive filter in addition to the previous non-interactive (ie. "hidden") filter?
This should theoretically work. I just tried that particular combination and it works just fine at our end: Screenshot --- you'll see a combination of interactive filters and a non-interactive (no "allow users to pick") Choice filter for Department that does its job as expected, once these settings got Applied and the page was fully reloaded.
ROXORITY
Finally able to test this again. You are correct, the problem occurs after I add the second filter. One thing that I notice that is different in your screen shot is that you have no "Filter" button displayed. I figured out how to remove the button, and I do not have "Emulate Search" checked, but as soon as I enter data in the second field, Office in my case, I see all the Departments listed. I will send you, in an email, the 4 screen shots. There is one of adding each of the 2 fields, and then the results displayed.
As I noted before, the work around is pretty simple, just use a "single choice" in the choice list and let it be visible, not a real big deal.
Next question. Is there a way to make a Text Filter, not a Choice, pass multiple values?
Thanks!
Bill Dewey
OK, I'll be waiting for your screenshots.
Regarding your next question: yes this is possible, you first need to establish a delimiter of your own choosing to serve as a way to split up the text box content. Once you've decided on such a phrase or character, enter it in the 5th text box inside the Advanced Filter Properties section of your text filter, more specifically the one labelled "(Advanced) Post-processing: send multiple values for the specified filter name taken from the resulting filter name-value pair(s), separating the value(s) with:"
ROXORITY
Boy, these web parts are SUPER! Prior to finding PeopleZen, I was using a 3rd party tool to dump our Active Directory to Excel, then loading into a SharePoint List. I could then create a View by Department, for example. This would be a great use for PeopleZen, but I cannot figure out how, well I have found one way I will describe below, to do this in an "ideal" way. I tried setting a filter for a Text Filter:Department with a default value of a single Department, set to use "contains", CAML query, not allowing the user to enter values. This does not seem to work unless I allow users to enter values, then I can make this a Choice Filter with a single Choice, but again the field has to allow the user to enter values. Having this field displayed, while I can make it work, is not ideal. Is there a way to set a filter on a specific column without having the field displayed in FilterZen? Also, is there any way to use "Lookup" on the columns in the PeopleZen Profile list? Or would I have to create a SharePoint list to use for the lookup values?
Thanks, hope this makes sense.