By default, when you create an Analysis file, filtering is global and affects all the pages in the Analysis. This means if you filter something on one page, it will affect visualizations on other pages for the same data table.
In some cases, this is the desired effect, especially when you use one page to make selections and then you use a subsequent page to show details of those selections. However, in many other cases, you may want to limit filtering to be specific to a page or some pages. This can be accomplished by using multiple Filtering Schemes in your Analysis file. To turn on multiple Filtering Schemes, goto Edit > Document Properties, and then make the Filtering Schemes tab active. On that tab, check the ‘Show filtering scheme menu in Filter Panel’ checkbox. It is on this tab, you can also create additional filtering schemes.
Once you are done, you can click OK, and you will now see a new section in the top of each Filter Panel which allows you to select which Filtering Scheme you want to apply to the current Page.
You can create as many Filtering Schemes as you would like and then apply them to various pages as needed.
When would this be useful? Anytime you had an analysis file but wanted to break down the analysis into various categories, and show the results per category. For example, suppose you are creating an Analysis file for that will show data across 3 major regions (North America, EMEA, and APJ). You may want to setup the Analysis so that there are a couple pages for all the data combined, then a couple pages specific to each region. In this case, you setup a Filtering Scheme for each region and also for one global view of your data. Then, you select the appropriate Filtering Scheme for each page. In each Filtering Scheme, you filter the data to only show the rows specific to either a region or one for the global view.
While a topic like Filtering Schemes is a very powerful topic, it may not be the most intuitive to understand and locate without proper training. In fact, our Essentials training course for users covers many features and functionality which may go unnoticed inside TIBCO Spotfire Professional. Users who have been using Spotfire for years still find value and learn something new when attending these courses. See the following commercial to learn for yourself.
If you are interested in attending any of our Essentials training courses, using classroom or blended delivery, please visit our user pathway page to learn more about the course and its schedule.