Add dynamic search criteria

You can add dynamic search criteria to tables, asset comparison tables, and bar charts. Like a symbol collection, a table or bar chart with dynamic search criteria will update to show only those assets that meet the specified criteria. You cannot specify the units to display with dynamic search criteria. All units are reverted to the database units when dynamic search criteria are applied.

Note: An asset comparison table can only show dynamic search criteria and cannot be converted into a symbol collection.

1. To add dynamic search criteria, right-click the symbol and select Add Dynamic Search Criteria.

2. In the Search Criteria pane, click the arrows to expand each search criteria and view more options.

   You can refine your search by selecting the following:

   1. Database

      Select a single PI AF database that contains the assets you want to retrieve.

   2. Search Root

      Enter the "search root" asset in the asset hierarchy. A search root is any specified node of an asset hierarchy. Once an asset is set as a search root, the collection only searches that asset and its children, but will not search the data hierarchy above the search root. The search root must consist of an asset hierarchy separated by backslashes, without including the PI AF server and database. For example: Parent Asset\Child Asset\Child Asset 2.

      To see all the descendants of the asset, such as grandchild assets, select the Return All Descendants check box.

      Note: If you do not set the search root but select the Return All Descendants check box, AVEVA PI Vision retrieves all the assets from the selected database.

   3. Asset Name

      Enter the name of a specific asset. Use wildcards, such as question marks (?) and asterisks (*), to stand for single or multiple characters, respectively.

   4. Asset Type

      Find assets associated with a specific asset type and the values of up to five asset attributes:

      • Asset Type

        Select an asset template. AVEVA PI Vision finds assets created from the selected template.

        Note: Templates are managed in PI AF and they represent groups of assets that have attributes in common.

      • Asset Attribute

        To find desired assets by their asset attributes, click the plus (+) sign, select an attribute from the list, select an operator, and enter a value.

        If the value type of the attribute is enumeration set or Boolean, then click the arrow to select the value from a list. For more information, see the PI Server topic Enumeration sets.

        For example, to see assets in the collection with temperature above 100 degrees, select your asset type, select Temperature as the Attribute, then select > from the list, and enter 100 in the value field.

        Depending on the attribute type, you can select one of the following operators:

        Operators	Description
        =	Is equal to
        ≠	Is not equal to
        <	Less than
        <=	Less than or equals to
        >	Greater than
        >=	Greater than or equals to
        In	Include multiple, non-numeric text values separated by semicolons.

        Note: PI AF does not support searches of attributes with an integer value type and a default UOM configured. See the PI Server topic Create attribute templates.

   5. Asset Category

      Select the asset category for the assets in the collection.

   6. Number of Results

      Enter the maximum number of assets you want to see in your collection.

   7. Asset Order

      Choose how you want the assets to be sorted. For example, if you are showing the fill levels of numerous fuel tanks, you might want to always see the fullest tanks first.

      If you did not select an Asset Type above, you only have options to sort the assets alphabetically by name, either Ascending by Name (A – Z) or Descending by Name (Z – A).

      To gain the ability to sort the assets by their attribute values, first select an Asset Type above in the Search Criteria pane. Then, under Asset Order, in the Sort by field select the attribute that you want to sort the assets by. Choose to list the assets in either Ascending (low to high/A - Z) or Descending (high to low/Z - A) order, based on the values of the attribute that you chose to Sort by.

      Note: The ability to sort by attribute values is not allowed if the SearchFilterValueSecurity setting in your web.config file is set to Disable.

3. Select Refresh to perform the search.

   Note: If you receive an error stating that the number of matching assets exceeds the maximum allowed, it means that the number of results exceeds your AFDBMaxSearchResults setting. The default limit is 1000, which you can edit either by changing the AFDBMaxSearchResults setting in the PI Vision web.config <appSettings> section directly, or you can use IIS Manager to edit the setting on the Application Settings page under the PI Vision application. There is no maximum limit for the AFDBMaxSearchResults setting but it affects all PI Vision searches for AF elements, so increasing it can potentially result in slower performance.