Help with Action tool and filtering

[CBorns]

Hello,

I want to be able to have my data output only be for the selected vendors I am interested in. 

I am first cleansing my data set and then after the data is clean, I wish to only have the workflow output be the vendors I select. 

I tried this by adding a Filter tool after my data cleansing, connecting the Filter to an Action tool with a Drop Down tool, with the idea being I can run the workflow using the wand, I will then get a drop down asking which vendors I would like to choose, select those vendors, and then the output only contains those vendors. [The vendor = Name of offsetting account"]

However, when I do this, instead of getting a list of the different vendors I am only able to choose the different V-String Fields. Not a filter OF the Name of offsetting field

[T_Willins]

Hi @CBorns,

A couple of things:

First, can you share the configuration of the Action Tool?

Second, your post indicates you want to select vendors (more than one).  A Drop Down tool will only allow a single vendor to be selected.

[apathetichell]

One more thing to add:

When you are using a name/value list generated from your workflow a few thing to remember:

1) NAME AND VALUE must be equal.

2) the list must be crosstabbed (ie - the Names must be columns headers)

3) Any spaces will become "_" and you'll have to turn them back to " " to match any spaces in your data source...

I believe your issues are primarily about 2). You will need to crosstab your values into column headers to put them through the listbox/dropdown tools.

[CBorns]

Hi T_Willins,

Good point about the drop down. I chose List Box instead. 

Here is a screenshot of my Action tool config. 

And the Filter tool: 

[T_Willins]

HI @CBorns,

Thanks for the information.  It lets us see how you have it configured.  Attached is a simple workflow that updates the List Box tool from the input data and shows how the Filter tool gets updated by the Action tool.  The formula I used in the Filter tool makes it easier to configure the List Box and Action tools.  Let me know if you have questions, but I think this will give you the information to complete this part of your workflow.

Action tool setup

Filter Tool formula

List Box tool setup

Workflow

[CBorns]

Thanks T_Willins,

I am a lot closer than before but I am still having an issue. 

After I select the vendor I want from the List Box. The output generated is blank. 

Not sure where I went wrong. Apologies. 

[BenMoss]

it’s worth noting that if the input changes in each run then the list box will not reflect the latest values in the data.

Remeber that your user will make the selection before hitting run, and therefor we cannot expect that the list box / drop down to reflect the latest data, as it hasn’t yet been run.

A much better approach to this problem would be to make use of a chained app (which is pretty much designed for this kind of usecase) and there are plenty of resources available on the community to help your learning with this.

Ben

[T_Willins · Accepted solution]

Hi @CBorns,

The issue is in the Action Tool string to replace.  Since the List Box is only replacing the vendor(s) selected, it should only be replacing the vendor values in the Filter tool and not the entire formula.  It should look like this:

Also, what @BenMoss stated is correct.  To dynamically update the list of vendors to chose from you would need a chained app where the first app provides the list for the you to choose from in the second (chained) app.  

[CBorns]

Thanks! 

[CBorns]

thank you I will check this out!