Inprotech: Searching for Cases in Multiple Countries

Another piece of potentially “hidden” functionality that I had reason to use recently was the ability to search for cases in multiple countries. This was added a few years back as a part of a sale for a firm who wanted to be able to report on cases for a client in a particular “region”, as defined by the marketing department eg. Asia Pacific, North America, South East Asia, South America.

The country pick list that is used from the case enquiry screen is different from the pick list used in other places in the system in that it allows the selection of multiple entries by using Ctl-click and Shift-click in the usual manner for multiple selections. Upon doing this the case enquiry will then return all the cases in countries selected.

The pick list itself also has “selection” criteria at the top of the dialog. It is possible to select all countries within a group or all those with a particular country attribute. I can’t remember what the attribute search was actually for. Hard to see, for example, a list of all cases in countries with single class applications being particularly relevant! Anyway, I am sure there was a reason for it, I just can’t remember it. These country selection criteria then limits the countries displayed in the body of the pick list so that the you can easily select the countries necessary.

You can also select multiple countries in the country entry field itself. Simply enter the desired country codes separated by a semi-colon, eg. US; CA, will return United States and Canada.

To be able to search on a region for marketing purposes, as mentioned above, it is then necessary to set up a new country group in the Country program that includes the countries defined to be in the region. From Cases, then use the Country pick list to select the multiple countries in the new group. You can then add extra search criteria for the client and maybe the property type. For example, all of a particular client’s trademarks in the South East Asian region. If you are using the Family field to define the clients brand name then this could further filter the list.

I am not sure how often this type of thing would be a requirement for many users but if it is there is a way to get the information out!!