Filters are configured to return a subset of records that meet specific criteria. To determine where to apply a filter in your configuration, consider the following questions:
- What is the scope of your filter? Should your filter apply to the entire set of records in your output or only to some of the data in the file?
- How many records do you expect to be in one output file?
Refer to the following scenarios for more information about where you should apply a filter in your configuration:
- When a filter should to be applied to the entire set of records, and you are expecting multiple records in the output:
- You must configure a filter on the topmost array parent in your mapping configuration. This is likely to be the case most of the time. This also applies to integrations that are configured to use the character separated/delimited output types, which return multiple records or rows of data.
- When a filter should to be applied to the entire set of records, but you are only expecting a single record in the output file that doesn’t have any headers or footers:
- It is customary to configure the filter on the root element, but you can also configure a filter on an object or array parent that contains all other destination fields. This scenario is most common in integrations that are configured to use XML output types, but can also be applied to integrations that are configured to use JSON and fixed width files output types. This is because all of these output types can have a root parent that is not an array.
- When a filter should not be applied to the entire set of records:
- You must configure a filter on the appropriate parent field that is below the root element. For example, if an integration is configured to use a character separated/delimited output type and the integration includes all employees who work at a particular location, but only returns specific types of contact details. This integration would require you to configure a filter on the root element to limit the employees returned based on work location, and another filter on the Contact Details parent field to limit the types of contact details that are included for each employee.