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Assistance Tracker Help Files -goal 5

Goal 5. Carry out custom searches using Queries.

Step 1. . Log-in (see Step 1 of the previous Goal). Only NTSC specialists can carry out custom searches.

Step 2. Click on the menu item ‘Queries’, shown in the Requests table that appears after logging-in:


Step 3. Perform an existing query by:

  1. Select the query from the drop down list named ‘Query’, shown in the image below. This is a list of queries that you have saved in the past.
  2. Clicking on the ‘Perform Query’ button. A typical Requests table will appear as shown in the following image:

Step 4. Create a new query by:

  1. Clicking on the ‘Create New Query’ button shown at the top of the previous image.
  2. Completing ‘query clauses’. The examples below show how these clauses work.
  3. Filling in a name for the query in the field named ‘Query Name’ (see below).
  4. Checking to make sure the query gives the desired results by clicking on the ‘Perform Query’ button.
  5. Saving the query by clicking on the ‘Save Query’ button. Once saved, the query will appear in the previous step’s ‘Query’ list (note that each query is associated with a specific project -make sure that the correct project has been selected).

Step 5. Export the results table of a query by:

  1. Performing a query.
  2. Clicking on the ‘Export Results’ button. The results will be exported to a comma-separated-value text file, which can then be saved.
  3. When using the text file in Excel, make sure to use the Excel menu item 'Data - Get External Data - Import Text File' to import the data (copying directly into Excel won't work). Also make sure to use the "Delimited file" and the "Comma" Delimiters options.

Step 6. Edit an existing query by:

  1. Clicking on the 'Update Query' button. The 'query clauses' used in the query will appear, similar to the image below.
  2. Edit the query and save the edits by clicking on the 'Update Query' button.

Example 1. Location Query: This query returns all requests made to the WNTSC where the 'Search Term' has been listed as ‘Oregon’. It contains two ‘query clauses’:

  1. Get requests for the WNTSC alone.
  2. ‘AND’ where the ‘Search Term’ ‘EQUALS’ ‘Oregon’. Remember that it takes one night before newly added or edited search words become effective.

Example 2. Keyword query: This query returns all requests made to all of the NTSCs that had the keyword ‘Soils’ in either their titles, keywords, or locations fields. It contains two ‘query clauses’:

  1. Get requests for ‘All NTSCs’.
  2. ‘AND’ where the ‘Title’ (is) ‘LIKE’ ‘soils’.

Example 3. Quarterly Report Query. This query returns all requests made to the WNTSC in the first quarter of 2005. . It contains three ‘query clauses’:

  1. Get requests for the ‘WNTSC’.
  2. ‘AND’ where the ‘Date Created’ is ‘GREATER THAN’ ‘01/01/2005’.
  3. ‘AND’ where the ‘Date Created’ is ‘LESS THAN’ ‘04/01/2005’.

Example 4. Specialist Query. This query returns all requests made to the WNTSC for one specialist. The second ‘And’ clause limits the results to those that have occurred after 12/31/2004. It contains three ‘query clauses’:

  1. Get requests for the ‘WNTSC’.
  2. ‘AND’ where the ‘Specialist’ is EQUALS’ ‘Boyle, Kevin’.
  3. ‘AND’ where the ‘Date Created’ is ‘GREATER THAN’ ‘12/31/2004’

Goal 6 -Administration

Each Center has one administrator in charge of the requests completed in their center. This goal targets those administrators.

Projects: Assistance Tracker considers each Center to be one 'project' with a person in charge. The person in charge, or project administrator, has limited capacity to edit the properties of a project. Most importantly, they can add or delete specialists from their Center's project. One administrative project is available that keeps track of properties that are shared by all of the Centers.

Users: Users can be added to the user list using a two step process. First, click on the Administration tab, click on the Users tab, click on 'Create New User', fill out user properties, and click on 'Save'. Second, click on the Administration tab, click on the Projects tab, click on your project's hyperlink, and add the new project member to the project member list.
Specialists who retire or move, should have their email changed to 'retired' or their new address. Specialists can be deleted from projects, but their requests will not be deleted.