13.2 Elements of a Saved Search
Key Takeaways
Criteria exclude records before anyone sees them. Available filters, such as Customer with Show in Filter Region checked, let the viewer narrow rows without rewriting those rules.
On a transaction search, Main Line set to Yes shows the primary line, one row per transaction, and skips item lines. No shows one row per item line. Journal Entry searches do not use this filter.
Audience chooses who can run the search. Public makes every role able to run it. Allow Audience to Edit must be checked before that audience can overwrite the same search.
Highlighting adds a color, bold text, or an image to rows that meet a condition, such as a ship date before today. The highlighted rows stay in the results.
Show List When Only One Result is on the Analytics subtab. Checked, one match stays on a list. Cleared, that record opens. Summary types, SQL, joins, and HTML are not on this exam.
A saved search is the reusable query from the last section. Its elements are criteria, results, available filters, audience, highlighting, and a formula. Three settings also change the rows: Show Inactive, Show List When Only One Result, and Main Line on a transaction search. Summary types, SQL, joins, and HTML are not on this exam.
One sales-order search carries every element. The sales team needs open sales orders, one row per order, a way for each person to narrow the list by customer, access limited to sales roles, and a visible mark on orders whose ship date has passed.
Criteria
Criteria are the filters on the Criteria subtab. They decide which records are included, and they remove the rest before anyone sees results. For this search, set the transaction type to Sales Order and the status to Pending Fulfillment. That is the open status used when a sales order is waiting to be fulfilled. Orders in other statuses never reach the list.
On a transaction search, add Main Line on that same subtab. Help defines the main line as the Primary Information field group, as opposed to the item lines on the tabs. Set Main Line to Yes, which Help also calls true, and results show one row per transaction with the item lines skipped. Set it to No, or false, and each item line is its own row, which can still carry some main-line values. Leave the filter off and both kinds of rows appear. A main-line results column marks header rows with an asterisk. Yes means the primary transaction line, one row per sales order.
Main Line does not work when the type is Journal Entry. When it is true, Account (Main) shows the header account. Help's invoice example is accounts receivable on Account (Main), while each item line keeps its own account. A sales order does not post to the ledger, but Main Line still chooses one order row or every item row.
Results
Results are the columns on the Results subtab and the sort of those rows. For the open orders, show Date, Document Number, Name, Status, Ship Date, and Amount. Set Sort By to Date so older open orders appear first. A column can have a custom label. Adding a column does not pull in an order the Pending Fulfillment criteria already excluded.
Available filters
Available filters are set on the Available Filters subtab. Help separates them from criteria. Criteria exclude records. Available filters are extra, optional filters that viewers use to narrow the rows in front of them. They can appear as dropdown lists or as multi-select boxes, and each one can have a custom label.
Add Customer to this search and check Show in Filter Region. A salesperson can then select one customer and see only that customer's open orders, without editing the saved status rule. Check Show as Multi-Select when the viewer should pick more than one customer. Leave status and Main Line on Criteria so those rules stay in force for every person who runs the search.
Audience
Audience, on the Audience subtab, decides who can run the search and view the results, and whether those people can edit the definition. For this sales-order search, select the internal sales roles and leave Public unchecked. When Public is checked, the internal and external role lists are dimmed and every role can run the search. Help says to avoid Public when the results hold sensitive data, and to limit the audience with the fields on this subtab instead.
By default, only an administrator and the search owner can edit the definition. Check Allow Audience to Edit when sales roles should save changes under the same name. Otherwise they use Save As. Customers, vendors, and most partners cannot run saved searches, including public ones. An external user who is given access still needs permission for the record type and sees only that user's own records. You can run a search when it is public or when the audience includes you by name, role, department, subsidiary, or group.
Highlighting
Highlighting draws attention to selected rows. It does not delete them. On the Highlighting subtab, set a condition, then choose an image, a text color, a background color, bold text, or a combination. Enter a short description if the footer should show a legend for that condition.
For past-due orders, set the condition on Ship Date so a date before today is marked. Use bold text and a background color, and add a legend such as past-due shipment. The order stays on the list because it still meets the Pending Fulfillment criteria.
Formula
A formula calculates a value when the search runs. The types are Formula (Date), Formula (Numeric), and Formula (Text). Help documents Formula (Text) with TO_CHAR, which turns a date into text such as the day name, day number, and month. On this search, that is a text column for the weekday of the ship date.
Summary types, SQL, joins, and HTML are not on this exam. Skip summary groupings, SQL syntax, join paths, and HTML formatting for this objective. A simple formula field that uses a function Help documents, such as TO_CHAR, is the formula topic this objective includes.
Settings that change the rows
Show List When Only One Result is at Home > Set Preferences, on the Analytics subtab, under Search. Check it and a one-result search stays on a list. Clear it and that single record or transaction opens. One open sales order then opens the order, or stays on a one-row list, based on that box. A checked box also turns off the global-search capital-letter prefix that forces edit mode.
Show Inactive is the inactive-record control, and the label depends on the page. On a list, Show Inactives displays inactivated records of that type. On a saved search, set the Inactive criteria filter to Yes or Either to include them, and to No to leave them out. That filter is what includes an inactive customer on this sales-order search. The global-search plus sign does not apply here. Include Inactives in Global & Quick Search, on the Analytics subtab, covers only the header search and the Quick Search portlet, and it is cleared by default.
Main Line is the third row-level switch. It is a criteria filter on a transaction search, set at Yes for the primary line of each sales order and at No for every item line. It is not a checkbox on Set Preferences, and it does not apply to a Journal Entry search.
What each piece changes
| Element or setting | What changes |
|---|---|
| Criteria | Records that fail the filters, such as a status other than Pending Fulfillment, are excluded before the list appears. |
| Results | Columns and sort change, such as Date, Document Number, Name, Status, Ship Date, and Amount, without deciding which orders qualify. |
| Available filters | The viewer can narrow the list, for example by customer when Show in Filter Region is checked, without rewriting the criteria. |
| Audience | Selected sales roles can run the search while Public is unchecked, and Allow Audience to Edit controls whether they can overwrite it. |
| Highlighting | Rows that meet a condition, such as a ship date before today, gain bold text, a color, or an image, and they remain in the list. |
| Formula | A Formula (Text), Formula (Numeric), or Formula (Date) value is calculated when the search runs, such as TO_CHAR on a date. |
| Show Inactive | Show Inactives on a list, or Inactive set to Yes or Either on search criteria, includes inactivated records. No leaves them out. |
| Show List When Only One Result | Checked, a one-result search stays on a list. Cleared, that single sales order opens. Set it on the Analytics subtab at Home > Set Preferences. |
| Main Line | On a transaction search, Yes shows the primary line, one row per sales order. No shows every item line. Journal Entry searches ignore this filter. |
Use the Oracle NetSuite Foundation practice questions to test the same six elements and the three row settings.
On a transaction saved search, the Criteria subtab sets Main Line to Yes. What appears in the results?
Every item line, with the primary information removed from the results.
The primary transaction line, one row per transaction, without the item-line rows.
Journal entries only, because Main Line runs only when the type is Journal Entry.
A formatted income statement for the transactions that passed the other criteria.
An open-sales-order search already keeps only Pending Fulfillment orders. Viewers must narrow those rows by customer without changing the saved status rule. Where does Customer belong?
On the Audience subtab, because the audience selects the customer column for each role.
On the Highlighting subtab, because a background color drops every other customer.
On the Criteria subtab in place of status, because a viewer filter cannot exist beside a status rule.
On the Available Filters subtab, with Show in Filter Region checked.
A sales-order search returns one order, and NetSuite opens that order instead of showing a one-row list. Which setting causes the order to open?
Show List When Only One Result is checked on the Analytics subtab at Home > Set Preferences.
Main Line is set to No, so each item line opens as a separate transaction.
Show List When Only One Result is cleared on the Analytics subtab at Home > Set Preferences.
Allow Audience to Edit is checked, so any single result opens in edit mode for every sales role.
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.