Define and manage filters

A filter is a rule you define to conditionally allow or automatically stop certain asynchronous notifications from delivering to your destination(s) (i.e., notifications you receive). You should use filters to:

• Reduce noise: Prevent irrelevant data from reaching your system.
• Manage workflows: Only process notifications that meet specific criteria (e.g., only accept PatientAdmin messages for patients in the cardiology department).

There are two types of filters:

• Send if: Conditionally allow certain notifications based on one or more defined rules.
• Block all: Don’t allow any notifications for this subscription.

You can apply, or link, filters to subscriptions that rely on either Redox data models or Redox FHIR®.

Filters are one of many operations that can be applied during log processing. Learn about operations.

• All environment users can view filters. However, a user must be assigned to an engineer or a support role to create or edit filters. Learn about user roles.

  Recommendation about PHI in filters

  If you choose to filter fields with PHI, users assigned to an observer role might unintentionally access confidential data. Keep in mind that access to filter contents is managed by a different permission from the one managing access to log payloads.

• Before creating a filter, identify the specific field path (JSON or FHIR®) you want to filter on.
• To create a filter, select a subscription with async traffic (an event notification that goes one way).
• To edit a promoted filter, first edit the staging version of the filter, then re-promote to production.

Follow these instructions to review all the filters in your environment at once.

1. Log in to the Redox dashboard.
2. From the side nav menu, click the Operations drop-down.
3. The Operations options expand. Click the Filters option.

   
4. All existing filters in the environment display.

On the Logs page of the dashboard, any filtered logs have the Filtered icon.

Selecting the log opens the processing stages, which have a Filtered label and icon if a filter was applied. You can select the processing stage to view the log details, then click the filter label to see the specific filter details. These details include the status of the log and the outcome of each filter rule.

Filter details

For Block all rules, the filter details show that the message was blocked due to the defined filter rule.

For Send if rules, the log details show an outcome for each rule.

If you have multiple Send if rules, the rules are evaluated in the order they’re defined. If a filter rule isn’t met, any subsequent rules aren’t evaluated.

Outcome	Notes
Satisfied	The criteria for this filter rule was met. The next filter rule was evaluated.
Unsatisfied	The criteria for the filter rule wasn’t met. Any subsequent filter rules weren’t evaluated.
Skipped	A previous filter rule was unsatisfied, so this rule wasn’t checked at all.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. Click the New button.
3. The create form opens. Enter a human-friendly name for the filter. This name appears on the Filters page.
4. In the Type field, select either Block all or Send if. Follow the instructions for the relevant type.

   

   Option A: Block all filter rule

   Block all restricts any notifications for the given subscription. Only deleting the filter will allow notifications to resume. Blocking is helpful when preparing for a new integration that’s not quite ready for go-live.

   1. From the Type drop-down, select the Block all option.
   2. Click the Create button.

      
   3. Your new filter is saved. To apply it to your traffic, follow the instructions for linking a filter.

   Option B: Send if filter rule

   These conditional filters are the most common, since they allow you to moderate the event notifications you receive from one of your connections.

   1. From the Type drop-down, select the Send if option.
   2. From the Data model drop-down, select the expected data model in the subscription you want to link the filter to.
   3. Under the Rules section, click the Select field path drop-down to view a list of fields and select the field you want to filter on.
   4. A modal opens to test the field path and value. You can change your selection by clicking the Field Path drop-down again to view a list of fields.

      Array field paths

      Some fields are arrays, meaning there might be multiple values at one field path. You can tell if a field path is an array if it has brackets ([]) in the title. In this case, if any value within the array meets the filter rule, then the filter applies.

      
   5. (Optional) Once you have the correct path, use the validation tools to test your choice. Keep in mind that Redox doesn’t validate the filter like this. But it does give you an idea of whether you selected the right field path by using an existing log payload.
      1. Find a log payload for the subscription you want to filter. Learn how to search for logs.

         
      2. Copy and paste the log payload into the Test message section.

         
      3. On the right side of the modal, under Field values, the value that displays is the one found at the field path you selected.
      4. Click the Select button on the bottom right of the modal.
   6. The modal closes. In the second drop-down, select is in or is not in.
      1. is in: The field path value must equal something in the defined value set. In other words, if the specified value(s) exist, the notification should be sent.
      2. is not in: The field path value must not equal something in the defined value set. In other words, if these value(s) exist, the notification shouldn’t be sent.
   7. Enter the relevant comma-separated values. You can also use null as a string value in the value set if you want to filter by whether the field path is populated.

      Comma-delimited value sets

      Trailing or leading spaces are ignored, unless you add them within quotation marks. If a value has a comma within it, you must use quotation marks to distinguish it from the other values. For example, you could specify an order code is in the value set 100,200,300. But if one of the codes is 10,000, you have to use quotation marks (e.g., 100,”10,000”,200,300).

      Case-sensitive values

      Pay attention to case when you enter the value set. Value matching is case-sensitive for both “is in” and “is not in.” For example, New won’t match new.

      
   8. To add a rule for another field, click the Add rule button. Populate the fields for the new rule. Or click the delete icon to remove a rule.

      
   9. Once you’ve finished defining all the necessary rules, click the Save button. Alternatively, you can click the Cancel button to discard the filter.

      Filter details in logs

      The filtered status and details will appear in related logs. Learn about filter statuses and outcomes.

   Filters for data model event types

   Remember that filters are for async event types. As an example, if you create a filter for the Redox Notes data model, the filter applies to the Notes.New, Notes.Replace, and Notes.Delete event types. But it doesn’t apply to Notes.Query. Learn the difference between async and sync event types.

   However, if you want to receive only one event type, you can create a is in filter on the $.Meta.EventType field. For example, if you only want to receive Notes.New event types, set the field path to $.Meta.EventType and the value to New. This filter ensures you won’t receive Notes.Replace or Notes.Delete event types.

If you’re creating a filter for a subscription that relies on Redox FHIR®, the instructions are the same with a couple of minor differences when selecting the FHIR® field path.

In the Select field path modal, you can click the Switch to Advanced Mode option to directly edit the field path or enter one that doesn’t appear in the drop-down list. We don’t recommend advanced editing for FHIR® beginners.

In advanced mode, you can click the JSONPath Expressions link to open help text definitions. Switch back to template mode anytime.

When validating the FHIR® field path, you have the additional option to toggle between Field values and Output paths to test that you have both correct. The value tells you what value would be filtered, and the path tells you the location in the FHIR® payload.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. Find the filter you want to edit and click anywhere it in its row.
3. Under Filter details, click the Edit button at the top right. For promoted filters, follow the instructions below these.
4. The edit form opens. Edit any details or defined rules, or add new ones.
5. When you’re finished, click the Save button.

A filter can only be linked to one subscription. You have to create one for each subscription you want to filter.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. Find the filter you want to edit and click anywhere it in its row.
3. The Details page opens. Fill out the fields under the Links section.
   1. From the Connection drop-down, select the connection you want to link the filter to.
   2. Click the Subscription drop-down. A modal opens with a list of the selected connection’s subscription(s). Click the radio button of the subscription you want, then click the Select button.
4. Click the Link button.

   
5. The filter automatically applies to the subscription’s traffic. For block all filters, all traffic for the selected subscription is restricted until the filter is removed.

   Filter details in logs

   The filtered status and details will appear in related logs. Learn about filter statuses and outcomes.

A filter can only be linked to one subscription. You have to create one for each subscription you want to filter.

Also, a subscription can only have one filter link. This means there’s a 1:1 relationship between filters and subscriptions. Learn about subscriptions.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. Find the filter with the link you want to manage and click anywhere it in its row.
3. The Details page opens. A filter can only be linked to one subscription. To add a new link, you have to delete the existing filter link.
   1. To view an existing link in context, click the link to open related logs.
   2. To delete an existing link, click the three-dots icon to the right of the subscription, then the Delete option. A modal opens to confirm that you want to proceed. Click the Delete button to continue or the Cancel button to discard the changes.

      
   3. To add a new link, you must first delete an existing link. Then, follow the steps to link a filter.

During implementation, you can build and test a filter in a staging environment. Once you’re confident it works, you can promote it to production. Promoting an asset saves time and avoids introducing errors by rebuilding it in a different environment. Learn about promoting assets.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. From the Environments drop-down, make sure you’ve selected the Staging environment.

   
3. Find the filter you want to promote and click anywhere in its row.
4. The Details page opens. Click the Promote button.
5. A modal appears to let you know you’re exiting the staging environment and proceeding to the production environment. Click the Proceed button. Otherwise, click the Cancel button to discard the promotion.

   
6. The Details page in the production environment opens. Add a filter link to a subscription to apply the filter in your production environment.

Every time you edit a filter, you create a new version of the asset. You can restore a version of a filter that’s not currently in use. This may be helpful when troubleshooting to see where an error might have been introduced or to resolve an error by using a version that worked previously.

1. Follow the steps to view filters.
2. Find the filter with a version you want to restore and click anywhere in its row.
3. The Details page opens. Click the Restore button.
4. A modal appears to restore a version. From the drop-down, select a version to restore.

   Restore notes

   Restoring means activating a version that’s not in use. That means you can go backwards or forwards a version.

   Keep in mind you can’t restore a version that’s already in use or an asset that’s been deleted.

5. The diff view shows what’s different between the current and selected version. Review the differences. When finished, click the Restore button.

   Versions after editing

   If you edit an asset after restoring a previously used version, a new version is created.

   For example, let’s say you were on version 3 and you restore version 2. Then you make and save edits to version 2. This creates version 4 of the asset. At that point, you can still restore to version 3 at any time.

   
6. For promoted assets, restoring a version only applies to the current environment. If you restore a version in staging, you may need to re-promote the asset if you want to apply it to production as well.