Back-end & front-end filters

Concept of creating back-end and front-end filters (filters on cube/dataset data and object data)

You can filter either on back-end data (cube/dataset data) or front-end data (object data). Back-end filters apply filter on cube/dataset data, while front-end filters apply filter on front-end (for example, cross-tab) data.

Note:  

In cube/dataset data filter (back-end filter), the system will display all dimensions available in the cube/dataset and will not display any measures. Back-end filter on measure or custom measure columns are not available.

In object data filter (front-end filter), the system will display all columns (dimensions, measures, and custom measures) available in front-end object (for example, cross-tab). It will not display any other columns available in the cube/dataset except the columns that are used in front-end objects, e.g. in a cross-tab.

Some filters and their types are displayed in the below table.

Example 1 – Applying back-end filter and front-end filter

The below sales cross-tab shows product category wise gross sales for different states.

Applying back-end filter:

The below sales cross-tab shows the data after applying the back-end filter – Year = 2014.

Here, though the 'Year' is not present in the cross-tab, you can filter it through the cube/dataset data. So only the records of 2014 will be loaded to the cross-tabs.

Applying front-end filter:

The below cross-tab shows the data after applying the front-end filter – “State = Florida and Ohio”.

In this example, you can not apply the front-end filter on 'Year' since the column is not present in the cross-tab. Front-end filters are always applied on the columns used in front-end object, e.g. Product Category, State and Gross sales columns in this cross-tab. In back-end filter, the data will be fetched from the cube/dataset after applying the filter (e.g. filter on 'Year') and loaded to the cross-tab, and it minimizes records in the front-end. 'Year') and loaded to the cross-tab, and it minimizes records in the front-end.

Note: This article is based on Smarten Version 5.X. This may or may not be relevant to the Smarten version you may be using