Lotus notes view categorised by multi-value field exports multiple records

Question

I have a multi-value field which is the first Categorised column in the view (to enable filtering). The view displays individual records correctly, and for multi-values, the documents repeat under the respective headings. Which is how lotus notes view works and all well and basic uptil then.

When I filter by category using SETVIEWINFO, the view displays each document only once, ie I can see only one row per document in the filtered view. That is fine, too.

However when I select that document and export to excel, multiple rows of same documents get exported. This is probably because the same document appears under different Categories as well, and when I select the documents to export they all get exported.

How can I ensure that only one row as seen in the filtered view gets exported to excel.

I have searched a lot, on stackoverflow and elsewhere but I haven't found a specific solution to this issue.

Answer 1

I would just make a flat view and do the export from there. It can even be a private view in a local replica if you don't want to add overhead to a production database. If you need this to be something that users can do regularly, well... I guess you're going to have to add that as an additional view - maybe even name it "Export from Here" or something.

Answer 2

The suggestion above led me to experiment with filtering a flat view. (Thanks Richard). I enabled Search Bar on the view using view Action button. (The Search Bar functionality of lotus enables one to generate 'Search Results' filtered by value in Search Bar. This works only if the application is Full Text Indexed).

In fact, this is a better filter solution than @SETVIEWINFO, as the user is not restricted to filtering based on a Single value in the first column. 'Search' enables one to filter on any field and also allows one to use operators OR and AND. Atleast thats what my initial research has revealed. Adding the answer here to help anybody else who may need an alternate solution.