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Filter tasks based on all parents

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Level 2
What I'm trying to do is filter for tasks in which no parent has a custom field completed. I'm very comfortable with text view. Context: We have a custom data field "Billing Milestone" (empty or "Yes"). We check off specific tasks as "Yes" to indicate they are billing milestones. Keep in mind that most of these tasks are parent tasks. None of the children have the custom data "Yes." Just the parent task has that. Now what I want to do is grab all of the task not under a billing milestone. Any ideas? New approaches welcome too. Thank you!
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Level 5
If every task has a custom form, the easiest way forward would be to create a "recursive" calculated field called Parent Billing Milestone. Here's the pseudo-code: If this task has the Billing Milestone field as Yes, Then Yes Else If the Parent has the Parent Billing Milestone as Yes Then Yes Else No It may take a few recalcs if you have deep task hierarchies, but then you'll have a structure in place, if you need to enforce deep hierarchies, you could add a few Else If Parent.Parent.Parent Billing Milestones to each calculation level. On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 9:58 AM Brandon Keller, CTS < reportingforum@communitylists.workfront.com> wrote: > What I'm trying to do is filter for tasks in which no parent has a custom > field completed. I'm very comfortable with text view. > > Context: > > We have a custom data field "Billing Milestone" (empty or "Yes"). We check > off specific tasks as "Yes" to indicate they are billing milestones. Keep > in mind that most of these tasks are parent tasks. None of the children > have the custom data "Yes." Just the parent task has that. > > Now what I want to do is grab all of the task not under a billing > milestone. > > Any ideas? New approaches welcome too. Thank you! > > -----End Original Message----- >

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Level 1
Hi Brandon, Can you tell us more about the custom form? Are there lots of fields, or just this one?

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Level 2
Thanks for the speedy reply, Melinda! My concern with custom calculated fields is the data becoming stale quickly. From what I understand a task's custom calculated fields are only recaculated wihen that particular task is changed. So if a parent three levels up gets changed (in my case, someone unchecks "Billing Milestone," a task 3-4 levels underneath might not get it's custom calculated field updated.

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Level 2
Joe, Our custom form for tasks is pretty hefty. This particular field is just a single checkbox, but the custom form it lives in has a bunch of custom fields.

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Level 10
Hi Brandon, Thanks for highlighting that. I know you can force a custom field to do a full recalculation by editing the custom form and ticking that box, but this is not really practical to do frequently. Does anyone know if there are any circumstances when a full recalculation will automatically happen? If not, what do you think about the pros and cons of a feature request to enable it? Are there times when you would not want it to recalculate? Regards, David

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Level 2
I've had several conversation with WF about this exact issue. My understanding is there is not a way to have a calculated custom field to automatically recalculate. I would love it if there was and would support a feature request along these lines. However, I also understand that this would impact processing speeds as the system would need to be constantly going out and looking for the most current value. Amy

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Level 1
Doug DenHoed likely has a programmatic system for this kind of operation. You might check with him to find out what would be involved and the limitations. Joe Bagley, PMP, PSM-I IT Project Manager | IT Finance CUNA Mutual Group