About Area Filters

You define an area filter to specify which types of item file are copied to a deployment or library cache area. For details about defining areas and associating them with a project/stream, see About Areas.

Defining an area filter and associating it with the deployment or library cache area enables you to specify that only certain types of item file are automatically copied to that area.

You can define a series of filename matching patterns and specify that files matching those patterns are either to be included in the filter, or to be excluded from the filter.

The management of Area Filters in the Administration Console enables you to:

- List (query) existing area filters in the Dimensions CM base database.

- Create an area filter in order to add a series of file selection criteria for that filter.

- Add, edit, or delete a file selection criteria for the items to be included in a deployment.

- Add, edit, or delete a file selection criteria for the items to be excluded from a deployment.

- Create a new area filter by copying the details of an existing one.

- Delete an area filter.

You associate an area filter with a deployment or library cache area using the Administration Console Area Definitions option. See Defining Areas.

Audit Filters

You can also use filters that you define to control an audit process. An audit filter selects the files to be fixed that are flagged as errors during an audit operation. For example, if an audit filter has the pattern *.txt then only files with the suffix .txt " are re-fetched to the area to fix the problems. All other file types are not fixed.

NOTE Audit filters do not alter the list of files to be examined or affect the success or failure of an audit.

You can specify audit filters in the following ways:

- On the AUDIT command use the /FILTER qualifier to specify a filter. This only affects this specific audit.

- On the RAWS command use the /FILTER qualifier to attach a filter to a specific project or stream and area. This filter will always be used until it is changed with another RAWS command.

- In the web and desktop clients attach a deployment area to a project or stream and select an audit filter. For details on assigning deployment areas, see the Dimensions CM Help Center.

NOTE The filter on the AUDIT command replaces any filter specified on the RAWS command.

Correct Use of Area and Audit Filters

Area and audit filters can easily be confused. The correct use is as follows:

- Area filters: used to exclude files from deployment areas and to delete files from areas when they are audited.

- Audit filters: used to exclude files from the AUDIT command /FIX process.

CAUTION! Do not attach an audit filter by accident to an area (as an area filter) as this may have unintended consequences. For example, to prevent the audit process from fixing *.exe files use an audit filter. However, if by mistake you attach this audit filter as an area filter, the result is that the *.exe files are deleted from the area during an audit.

How are the Area Filter Criteria Evaluated?

When Dimensions CM is about to copy item files to a deployment or library cache area, it first checks to see whether there is an area filter associated with it. For a given item revision and area filter, the rules are evaluated according to the following criteria (in order):

1. If the area has no area filter defined, the item revision is transferred into the area.

2. Otherwise, if the item revision matches an exclusion rule, the revision is not transferred into the area.

3. Otherwise, if there are no inclusion rules, the revision is transferred into the area.

4. Otherwise, if the item revision matches an inclusion rule, the revision is transferred into the area.

5. Otherwise, the item revision is not transferred into the area.

NOTE When you assign a project or stream to an area, you specify a folder offset for the location of the files for that project/stream. Any file matching pattern will need to Any file matching pattern will need to take account of the fact that different projects/streams are likely to have different folder offsets relative to the base directory for the area.