The two Filter Type options (Child Filter and Entry Criteria) serve two different purposes.

Filter TypePurpose
Entry CriteriaThis is required for approvals to be intiated from the Shopping Cart. To improve performance, the system will check if there are any Entry Criteria search filters that match the attributes in the Shopping Cart and set the approval status to Approval Required. You can have the entry criteria at the line item to set the approval status to Approval Required or Approval Triggered.
Child FilterThis is required to have a header level approval step entry criteria that makes use of the line item fields for the products in the Shopping Cart. After you create a child filter, you then need to create step entry criteria using child filters that mirrors the expression used in the child filter.

Configuring Search Filters

Search filters of type Entry Criteria are used to check whether the contents of a shopping cart require approval before it can be finalized.

If you want approvals to be triggered at the Shopping Cart Header level, then you need to configure search filters based on the Product Configuration context object. If you want approvals to be triggered at a specific Cart Line Item level, then you would configure search filters for the Line Item context object. Additionally if you want consolidated approvals for the whole Cart/Product Configuration, then you would create both.

Configuring Search Filters - this adds Product Configuration to the Search Filter object picklist so you can create search filters that use these objects for their entry criteria

To create Search Filters (Approvals) - the Search Filters are used to determine if the products in the Shopping Cart require approval. 

To configure Search Filters (Approvals)

  1. Go to Setup > Build > Create > Objects and select Search Filter (Approvals).
  2. From the Custom Fields & Relationships section, select Business Object.
  3. From Picklist Values, click New and enter the API names for the cart and the line items:Apttus_Config2__ProductConfiguration__cfor Header level approvals andApttus_Config2__LineItem__cfor Line Item level approvals.
  4. Click Save. The values are added to the Picklist Values list.
  5. Click Back to Search Filter (Approvals) and from the Custom Fields & Relationships section, select Filter Type.
  6. From Picklist Values, click New and enterChild FilterandEntry Criteria.
  7. Click Save.

The values are added to the picklists, which are required to create search filters.

You can create Search Filters (Approvals) for controlling which carts are checked to see if they need approval.

The search filter field size accommodates 16000 characters.

To create Search Filters (Approvals)

  1. Click  and select Search Filter (Approvals).
  2. Click New Search Filter (Approvals) and select either:
    • Product Configuration - select this if you want the filter to be at the Product Configuration/Shopping Cart (Header) context object level.
    • Line Item - select this if you want the filter to be at the Line Item context object level, which are the individual line items within the cart.
  3. Click Next to display the Configure Filter page.
  4. From Filter Type, select one of the following:
    • Child Filter - This enables you to have step entry criteria within your approval process that references the child record fields of the main context object. Typically this enables you to use Line Item fields with your Product Configuration approval process. The Line Item Child Filters you create here, enable you to have them available for approval step entry criteria.
    • Entry Criteria - is used to indicate that the search filter will be used for the Approval Required check, which checks to see whether the quote or quote line item values require the shopping cart to undergo approval. You are effectively having an additional level of entry criteria for approvals here, before the system searches for matching approval processes. You must have at least one of these for approvals to be available from the shopping cart.
  5. Enter a required Filter Name and Sequence. The sequence is used to determine the order in which the search filters will check if approvals are required.
  6. Enter the filter criteria, which is used to determine if the quote requires approval.
  7. Click Save.

The Search Filter is now active and if it is a Filter Type of Entry Criteria it will be used by the system to determine if a Shopping Cart requires approval.

You must create an approval process that can be used with the Shopping Cart.