Relationships

The Relationships tab provides a powerful means to refine searches, allowing you to perform searches as simple as finding "all of the CIs connected to an email server" or as complicated as "all of the CI connected to an email server with 2 Gb of RAM that were created between March 2, 2005 and March 2, 2006 but not made by Vendor X or were made by Vendor X but have Pentium III processors". The Filter on Relationships tab only refines searches on the CI Types you selected on the Choose CI Types page, filtering them based on the relationship criteria that you select.

You can have both an Attributes and a Relationships filter at the same time. Any results would fulfill the criteria of both filters.

Build a Simple Filter

To filter search results based on relationships:

1. After selecting CI types to search on, select the Relationships tab.
2. In the Available Related CI Types field, click on the relationship on which you want to base the filter. Only relationships common to all of the returned CIs are listed in the drop-down field. You can also select multiple relationships by using the Shift+left mouse button and/or Ctrl+left mouse button combinations.
3. Click the top arrow button next to the field to move the selected relationships into the Related CI Types to Filter on field. You can add additional relationships at any time by highlighting them and using the top arrow button. You can also move relationships back by clicking on them and then clicking the second arrow button. Filtering is performed immediately and you can view the results in the Results tab. When you click the arrow button, the Attributes of Related CIs tab becomes active.
4. To further refine the filtering, click the Attributes of Related CIs tab. To filter on related CI attributes:
1. In the drop-down field, select the attribute on which you want to base the filter. Only attributes common to all of the returned CIs are listed in the drop-down field.
2. Select the operation for the search in the second drop-down field. Operations are determined by the type of field you are searching. The following field types allow the following operations:
• Character (single or multiple line), Web Site, FTP File/Site, and Email Address
• is—Find CIs where the entire contents of the field match the entire contents of the specified filter string exactly.
• begins with—Find CIs with a matching string at the beginning of the field.
• ends with—Find CIs with a matching string at the end of the field.
• contains—Find CIs with a matching string anywhere in the selected field.
• is not—Find CIs where the entire contents of the field do not match the entire contents of the specified filter string exactly.
• does not begin with—Find CIs in which the beginning of the field does not match the specified string.
• does not end with—Find CIs in which the end of the field does not match the specified string.
• does not contain—Find CIs in which the field does not contain the specified string.
• Integer and Real Number
• equal to—Find CIs in which the field value is equal to the specified filter value.
• greater than—Find CIs in which the field value is greater than the specified filter value.
• less than—Find CIs in which the field value is less than the specified filter value.
• greater than or equal to—Find CIs in which the field value is greater than or equal to the specified filter value.
• less than or equal to—Find CIs in which the field value is less than or equal to the specified filter value.
• not equal to—Find CIs in which the field value is not equal to the specified filter value.
• Date and Date Time
• is—Find CIs in which the date in the field is the same as the specified filter date.
• is not—Find CIs in which the date in the field does not match the specified filter date.
• is before—Find CIs in which the date in the field is before the specified filter date.
• is after—Find CIs in which the date in the field is after the specified filter date.
• is on or before—Find CIs in which the date in the field is the same as or before the specified filter date.
• is on or after—Find CIs in which the date in the field is same as or after the specified filter date.
• during the previous—Find CIs in which the date in the field falls before the specified period. The period can be specified as X days, weeks, months, years, or hours, where X is any number. For example, you could request CIs that were created during the previous 2 weeks. The time for this field begins with the moment at which the search is run. Therefore, if the search is run at 4:00 PM on a Tuesday, the search period is from 4:00 Monday (the day before) until 4:00 Tuesday (the current day).
• during the next—Find CIs in which the date in the field falls after the specified period. The period can be specified as X days, weeks, months, years, or hours, where X is any number. For example, you could request CIs that were created during the previous 2 weeks. The time for this field begins with the moment at which the search is run. Therefore, if the search is run at 4:00 PM on a Tuesday, the search period is from 4:00 Tuesday (the current day) until 4:00 Wednesday (the next daay).
• within range—Find CIs in which the date in the field falls within the period specified. Options are: today, yesterday, the day before yesterday, Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday of last week, this week, last week, the week before last week, this month, last month, the month before last month. The days refer to 24-hour days. For example, "yesterday" means the 24 hours of yesterday from midnight to midnight.
• Drop-down
• is one of—Find CIs in which the field value matches the specified filter value(s). More than one value can be selected.
• is not one of—Find CIs in which the field value does not match the specified filter value(s). More than one value can be selected.
• Multi-select
• has any of—Find CIs in which the field value(s) not matches any of the specified filter value(s).
• has all of—Find CIs in which the field value(s) not matches all of the specified filter value(s).
• has none of—Find CIs in which the field value(s) do not match any of the specified filter value(s).
• Checkbox
• is TRUE—Find CIs in which the checkbox is checked.
• is not TRUE—Find CIs in which the checkbox is not checked.

3. After selecting the field and then the operation, complete the third field by entering the filter value or values. The third field may be a drop-down field, date field, date/time field, or character field.

4. After completing the fields, click the Apply button to accept the filter value. When a search is conducted, FootPrints returns the CIs that have the relationships and attributes you selected on this tab. If you click the Results tab at this time, the matching CIs are displayed.

NOTE

Related CIs selected on the Relationships tab do not appear in the Search results. This tab only serves to refine the CIs found from criteria on the CI Types and Attributes tabs based on related CIs.

5. If you wish to save this search, including the attributes filter you've created, select the Save tab, enter a name and description for the search, and click the Save button. Refer to Saved Searches for details on how to run a search you have saved.

You can return to the Relationships tab at any time to refine the relationships and related CIs selected.

Build More Complicated Filters

You can run searches that filter results based on multiple attributes. In addition, you can nest the filters at varying levels. To do so:

1. After selecting CI types to search on, select the Relationships tab.
2. Build a simple search as described in the procedure above.
3. After clicking the Apply button, click the Add button. The relationship filter you built is displayed with a new Filter Editor below it. The new Filter Editor is connected to the existing filter by a line and the word "AND".
4. Use the new Filter Editor to build an additional relationships filter per the procedure above. After you click the Apply button, the new filter is displayed below the first filter.
5. You can continue to build additional levels of filtering in this same manner and use the additional controls to make the new filters "AND" or "OR" filters. You can also drag and drop filters that you have built to change their order and associations.

Refer to the Attributes topic for additional details on building complex filters and the filter controls.