Custom group interaction with the report filter

You cannot combine a banding qualification with another type of qualification (such as attribute qualification or metric qualification) in a custom group element. However, you can add that qualification to the report filter so that it will determine the values of the custom group elements. You can then specify how the custom group interacts with the report filter.

When a custom group that uses attribute qualifications is included on a report with a report filter, the report filter is applied to the individual custom group elements. However, if you create a custom group using metric qualifications or banding qualifications, report filters are not applied by default to the custom group elements.

This can cause incorrect data to be returned in some scenarios. For example, a custom group displays revenue totals for customers in columns that represent the range of revenue that the customer has contributed. A customer that has contributed $7,500 in revenue is shown in the column for customers that contributed $5,000 to $10,000 in revenue. This custom group is included on a report that has a report filter that restricts results to data only for the year 2027.

In this scenario, the report filter is evaluated after the custom group. If the same customer that has a total of $7,500 only had $2,500 in 2027, then the report would only display $2,500 for that customer. However, the customer would still show in the $5,000 to $10,000 in revenue range because the custom group did not account for the report filter.

You can define the interaction between the report filter and the custom group to avoid this scenario, by using the Custom Group interaction with report filter property. This property has the following options:

No interaction - static custom group: Report filter qualifications are not applied to custom groups that use metric qualifications or banding qualifications. Filtering is applied only after the custom group has been evaluated.
Apply report filter to custom group: Report filter qualifications are applied to custom groups and are used to determine the values for each custom group element.
Apply report filter to custom group, but ignore related elements from the report filter: Report filter qualifications that do not qualify on attribute elements that are used to define the custom group elements are applied to custom groups. These filter qualifications are used to determine the values for each custom group element. For example, a report filter that qualifies on the Customer attribute is not applied to a custom group that also uses the Customer attribute to define its custom group elements.

Prerequisite

This procedure assumes that you have already created a custom group. For instructions, see About custom groups.

To specify the custom group interaction with the report filter

Edit the custom group. How?
From the Custom group menu, select Options. The Options dialog box opens.
Clear the Use default value inherited from Database Instance check box.
Select one of the following from the Custom Group interaction with report filter drop-down list:
- To apply filtering after the custom group has been evaluated, select No interaction - static custom group.
- To apply all filtering to custom groups, select Apply report filter to custom groups.
- To apply only filtering that does not use the same attribute elements as the custom group qualifications, select Apply report filter to custom group, but ignore related elements from the report filter.
Click OK to return to the custom group.
Save the custom group. How?