Whilst the Generic Inquiry definition has a “Show Archived Records” option, this is not as flexible as the “Show Deleted Records” option.
With the Show Deleted Records option you can then use a parameter to include/exclude the display of these records. This was because there was a field on the records that indicates if the record was deleted. This is useful.
With Archived Records, no such field - unless someone can inform me of some magic way of filtering. A end user cannot be expected to go in and toggle Show Archived Records on and off. Thus you are left with show only non archived records or show all with no user control when running the GI. Thus not useful. For most users they will need to have 2 Generic Inquiries. One quick GI that does not include Archived Records and another GI that includes Archived records. Clearly not efficient and confusing for end users.
Solution? Unless someone can inform me of some magic way of filtering which would be the most efficient approach, there is a solution. As an example, List of Sales Orders GI. Include the Option for Show Archived Records. Create another GI on the Sales Orders but where Show Archived Records is turned off. Use the 2nd GI as a Datasource for the 1st GI. The first GI can then test if a record is archived or not. Problem solved - as long as it works efficiently for when the site has 100,000’s of records.
Since the Report Designed has more options in this area, perhaps there is a field on the SOOrders and SOShipments that indicates if the record is archived.
