Dynamic Dynamic Filters

Hello,
I am attempting to use dynamic filters on merge replication to filter rows. In my front end app I am using the ActiveX Merge object to set the Host_Name property. My question is: Is it possible to set the host name to a more complex string?
example:
.HostName = "Col = 'Val1' OR (Col = 'Val2' AND Col = 'Val3')"
The problem I am running into is that the sql wizard for creating the dynamic filters runs a check on the sql statement and won't allow something like:
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Host_Name()
Technically if I could somehow bypass the wizard to enter the filter rules this should work. Anyone know if this is possible? Or possibly another way to work around this so that you can pass more than 1 value to the where clause? I suppose you could do so
mething like:
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Col = Host_Name()
HostName = "'Val1' OR (Col = 'Val2' AND Col = 'Val3')"
Would this be the only way? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I'm unsure on what your filtering condition is. For instance your filter
should evaluate to a boolean true or false. Yours evaluates to hostname.
You can use a UDF to extend the functionalty of your filter or you can do
stuff like this
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[authors] WHERE host_name() like 'p%'
or use a subquery
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[authors] WHERE host_name() in (select
Servername from ServerList where state='ca')
Hilary Cotter
Looking for a book on SQL Server replication?
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
"Steve" <Steve@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D7626D05-A0A6-4F19-963D-8B588A20AC6E@.microsoft.com...
> Hello,
> I am attempting to use dynamic filters on merge replication to filter
rows. In my front end app I am using the ActiveX Merge object to set the
Host_Name property. My question is: Is it possible to set the host name to a
more complex string?
> example:
> .HostName = "Col = 'Val1' OR (Col = 'Val2' AND Col = 'Val3')"
> The problem I am running into is that the sql wizard for creating the
dynamic filters runs a check on the sql statement and won't allow something
like:
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Host_Name()
> Technically if I could somehow bypass the wizard to enter the filter rules
this should work. Anyone know if this is possible? Or possibly another way
to work around this so that you can pass more than 1 value to the where
clause? I suppose you could do something like:
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Col = Host_Name()
> HostName = "'Val1' OR (Col = 'Val2' AND Col = 'Val3')"
> Would this be the only way? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
>
>
|||Yes mine purposely evaluates to hostname. What I am trying to do is set the filter to:
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Host_Name()
and then set hostname to something like:
Col = 'Val1' OR Col = 'Val2'
So that the resulting select will look like:
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[Table1] WHERE Col = 'Val1' OR Col = 'Val2'
Or whatever other complex WHERE clause that I choose. The problem is that it won't except the above filter. My work around listed above should work (I have yet to test it). Although I am interested in other possibilites to achieve the same results. This s
eems fairly basic unless I am missing something?
"Hilary Cotter" wrote:

> I'm unsure on what your filtering condition is. For instance your filter
> should evaluate to a boolean true or false. Yours evaluates to hostname.
> You can use a UDF to extend the functionalty of your filter or you can do
> stuff like this
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[authors] WHERE host_name() like 'p%'
> or use a subquery
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[authors] WHERE host_name() in (select
> Servername from ServerList where state='ca')
>
> --
> Hilary Cotter
> Looking for a book on SQL Server replication?
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
>
> "Steve" <Steve@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D7626D05-A0A6-4F19-963D-8B588A20AC6E@.microsoft.com...
> rows. In my front end app I am using the ActiveX Merge object to set the
> Host_Name property. My question is: Is it possible to set the host name to a
> more complex string?
> dynamic filters runs a check on the sql statement and won't allow something
> like:
> this should work. Anyone know if this is possible? Or possibly another way
> to work around this so that you can pass more than 1 value to the where
> clause? I suppose you could do something like:
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
|||Steve,
you could have a mapping table which relates values (Val1 and Val2) to
hostnames. In your example there would be 2 rows:
-- MAPPINGTABLE --
hostname1 val1
hostname1 val2
If you include this table in the filter, you can achieve the clause you want
to create.
HTH,
Paul Ibison
|||Paul,
I am not familiar with mapping tables and I have been unable to find any information relating to them. Could you provide an example of what you mean or possibly a link to some information? Thanks.
|||Steve,
it's easiest if I explain how I set up a test: I had 2 tables - region and
HostnameLookup - shown below. The HostnameLookup table defines the multiple
values I'm interested in. I use dynamic filters to filter the HostnameLookup
table using HOST_NAME() and a join filter to join to the region table.
Editing the 2nd step on the merge agent's job to include: -Hostname
PaulsComputer means that only 2 regions get replicated. I've listed the
exact text below in case you want to recreate it to test.
HTH,
Paul Ibison
Region
RegionID RegionDescription rowguid
-- -- --
1 Eastern 9A6377F0-70DF-4A5C-962D-B41A41EFA82B
2 Western C0CAEFAD-7B8C-43D6-87ED-920494A5C60C
3 Northern 6CD9AA33-BE2D-4DCF-B447-745A3B86818E
4 Southern B4826E41-96D6-457C-8645-DD4984AE3BF5
HostnameLookup
RegionDescription Hostname rowguid
-- -- --
Northern PaulsComputer 2367C78A-1001-417B-A3B1-1C74B23F8131
Southern PaulsComputer 4F563C4D-8479-4A7D-A938-490DD514F12A
Filter Clause for HostnameLookup:
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[HostnameLookup]
WHERE HostnameLookup.Hostname = HOST_NAME()
Filter Clause for Region:
< All rows published >
Join Filter:
Filtered table is HostnameLookup
Table to FIlter is Region
SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[HostnameLookup]
INNER JOIN [dbo].[Region] ON Hostnamelookup.regiondescription =
region.regiondescription
Edit the 2nd step on the merge agent's job to include: -Hostname
PaulsComputer
Run the snapshot then merge agents and only 2 regions should be replicated.
|||Hi Paul,
I saw your suggested solution in another web page
http://www.replicationanswers.com/Merge.asp
I was wondering if this Host_Name() is a function that will return the
computer name of the device/desktop that the subscriber database is residing
on?
If I am using mobile devices as subscribers and they have a web service
method called Reader_Id() which returns the unique id of the mobile device,
can I modify your solution accordingly?
Thank you.
"Paul Ibison" wrote:

> Steve,
> it's easiest if I explain how I set up a test: I had 2 tables - region and
> HostnameLookup - shown below. The HostnameLookup table defines the multiple
> values I'm interested in. I use dynamic filters to filter the HostnameLookup
> table using HOST_NAME() and a join filter to join to the region table.
> Editing the 2nd step on the merge agent's job to include: -Hostname
> PaulsComputer means that only 2 regions get replicated. I've listed the
> exact text below in case you want to recreate it to test.
> HTH,
> Paul Ibison
> Region
> --
> RegionID RegionDescription rowguid
> -- -- --
> 1 Eastern 9A6377F0-70DF-4A5C-962D-B41A41EFA82B
> 2 Western C0CAEFAD-7B8C-43D6-87ED-920494A5C60C
> 3 Northern 6CD9AA33-BE2D-4DCF-B447-745A3B86818E
> 4 Southern B4826E41-96D6-457C-8645-DD4984AE3BF5
> HostnameLookup
> --
> RegionDescription Hostname rowguid
> -- -- --
> Northern PaulsComputer 2367C78A-1001-417B-A3B1-1C74B23F8131
> Southern PaulsComputer 4F563C4D-8479-4A7D-A938-490DD514F12A
>
> Filter Clause for HostnameLookup:
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[HostnameLookup]
> WHERE HostnameLookup.Hostname = HOST_NAME()
> Filter Clause for Region:
> < All rows published >
> Join Filter:
> Filtered table is HostnameLookup
> Table to FIlter is Region
> SELECT <published_columns> FROM [dbo].[HostnameLookup]
> INNER JOIN [dbo].[Region] ON Hostnamelookup.regiondescription =
> region.regiondescription
> Edit the 2nd step on the merge agent's job to include: -Hostname
> PaulsComputer
> Run the snapshot then merge agents and only 2 regions should be replicated.
>
>