LEX Online Manual Content

The Filter Factory

This is a place where you can store and construct LDAP filters. The Filter Factory is a central dialog which can be launched anytime in the application with the CTRL-I hotkey or the menu option Tools - Filter Factory.

Menu options: Filter Factory

If you are filtering the object list for certain objects, dealing with attributes which you want to be searched for in a complex LDAP filter, or you want to have a place where you can load a filter from disk to edit it and use it later in a directory search: The Filter Factory is the perfect place for this.

Inputs and Outputs of the Filter Factory

Here are the two occasions within LEX where you can use the LDAP filters which was stored or constructed in the Filter Factory:

Object List filtering
Complex Directory Search

Elements of the Filter Factory

Basically, the filter factory is a place where a filter string can be stored. This is the content of the text box which is the main element of the Filter Factory dialog. You can edt the string directly in the text box if you want - or use copy and paste mechanisms to transfer filter strings from and to the clipboard.

These are the buttons available in the Filter Factory:

Construct Button
This button opens the Filter Constructor dialog, which can display any valid filter string in it's logical structure and which helps you built up even complex filter hierarchies in seconds.

Edit Button
This can only be used if the filter string in the Filter Factory is a valid LDAP filter which consists of one filter criterion only (=> no AND or OR conjunction). In this case, the Single Filter editor is opened for this criterion. This is the way to edit a simple LDAP filter quickly without the constructor hierarchy.

Empty Filter Button
If you want to search or see ALL objects without any filter, the can't just set the LDAP filter string as an empty string. In fact, an LDAP filter always have to include a valid filter criterion. So if we want to 'erase' the filter, we set it to the criterion (objectClass=*) which means 'Objects of all classes (=all objects...)'. This is what this button does.

Save Button
You can save the content of the Filter Factory to disk here. So the filter can be loaded easily later on if you need it again. LEX stores the appropriate filter files in the Profile and Filter Storage Path in the subdirectory 'LDAPFilter' as text files.

Load Button
You can load a previously saved filter here. LEX stores the appropriate filter files in the Profile and Filter Storage Path in the subdirectory 'LDAPFilter' as text files. When you use the pull down menu of this button, LEX searches this subdirectory for files and gives you the possibility to immediately load the filters without any further dialog action. Even if you never saved an LDAP filter before, there should be some filter examples which were installed together with the application.

Quick-load of LDAP filters

You can structure your filter set into different categories by just saving the filters in different sub directories. LEX detect these sub directories with the filter files and shows them as a sub menu structure:

LDAP filters in a structured hierarchy

Global Search Button
Instead using the LDAP filter from the Factory somewhere else, you can just do a quick global search with it here. Global means that a directory search is started with the current filter string in the Filter Factory. The search base is the current LDAP root container of your connection.

OK Button
This stores the current filter string in the internal LEX Filter Factory and closes the dialog. The filter string is preserved even when you shutdown and restart the entire application.

Cancel Button
This closes the Filter Factory dialog without saving the changes on the LDAP filter string.