Query by Form

Query by Form

The Query by Form is the most frequently used search dialogue box in Calm. It is available from the Museum, Archive and Library menus, by clicking the menu button for the database you wish to search, then clicking the button to search the database in question, for example the button to search the Catalogue database. 

While you are viewing a record the Query by Form can be accessed by clicking the button in the side button strip, by pressing the F5 key on your keyboard or choosing the SearchDialog... option from the Search drop down menu.

Searching the Catalogue database

• From the main menu click on the Archive, Museum or Library menu button
• Click the button, then click the button
• The default Search Dialogue box appears, see the illustration below.

 

To search using the Query by Form you can type words or numbers into the fields in the search dialogue box, when you click the button Calm will retrieve records which contain the specified terms in the specified fields. Any field left blank in the search dialogue box is not involved in the search. Read the sections below for more detailed information on searching with the Query by Form.

Search Options in the Query by Form

There are various searching options available in Calm, including the Boolean searching options and, or, not. The different search options may be accessed by clicking on the small, blue Match buttons which appear immediately after the field labels in the search dialogue box, by using the buttons on the right hand side of the Query by Form or by pressing the Options button in the search dialogue box.

Match buttons

The Match buttons are the square buttons immediately following the field labels in the search dialogue box. They produce some or all of the following options when clicked. 

         Text fields                         Numerical fields              Date or period fields 

       

The Match button options function as follows:
 

contains	The default setting. Look for records where field contains searchstring
does not contain	Look for records where field does not contain searchstring
exactly matches	Look for records where field exactly matches searchstring i.e. contains all characters entered, even unindexed ones such as a hyphen, for example St.John-Smith.
does not exactly match	Look for records where field does not exactly match searchstring, used for text fields.
is empty	Look for records where field is empty.
is not empty	Look for records where field is not empty.
is equal to	The default setting. Look for records where field equals the searchstring.
is not equal to	Look for records where field does not equal the searchstring.
is less than	Look for records where field is a smaller number or earlier date than the searchstring.
is less than or equal to	Look for records where field is equal to or a smaller number/earlier date than the searchstring.
is greater than	Look for records where field is a larger number or later date than the searchstring.
is greater than or equal to	Look for records where field is equal to or a larger number/later date than the searchstring.
is	The default setting. Look for records where field is the same as the searchstring.
is not	Look for records where field is not the same as the searchstring.
is started with	Look for records where field has searchstring as the first date in a range.
is ended with	Look for records where field has searchstring as the final date in a range.

To use one of these searching options:

• Open the Query by Form and type the search term into the field on which you wish to search.
• Click the Match button immediately after the name of the field on which you wish to search.
• Select the option you wish to use, this will place a tick next to it, click
• After you have run the search, the options under the Match buttons will revert to the default.

Buttons on Query by Form

On the right hand side of the Query by Form there are a number of buttons including Find, Widen, Narrow and Exclude. The options are described below, please note that not all the options will be present in every Query by Form in Calm.

Find	Creates a new hit list containing records that match those specified by the dialogue
Widen	Extends an existing hit list to also include those records that match those specified by the dialogue
Narrow	Contracts an existing hit list so that it only contains records that match those specified by the dialogue
Exclude	Drops records from the hit list that match those specified by the dialogue
Save	Saves the contents of all the fields currently in the dialogue box. You have the opportunity to name your saved search.
Recall	Recalls a previously saved search dialogue
Recall Last	Recalls the field contents that were used in the previous search
Options	Introduces new search options (See below)

Options button

The Options button on the right of the Query by Form toggles between these options being visible or hidden.

Features with a dot in their option buttons are enabled. To enable or disable a feature, click on the appropriate button.
When the required set of features is enabled, enter your search terms and click .
The search will obey the options you have just set. Search options are stored from one Calm session to another, until you change them again.

Fields, Or	If a searchstring has been entered in more than one field, find records where field1 equals searchstring1 OR field2 equals searchstring2
Fields, And	If a searchstring has been entered in more than one field, find records where field1 equals searchstring1 AND field2 equals searchstring2
Words, Or	If a searchstring consists of more than one word, find records where field equals word1 OR word2
Words, And	If a searchstring consists of more than one word, find records where field equals word1 AND word2
Words, Phrase	If a searchstring consists of more than one word, find records where field equals word1 AND word2 in the same order
Synonyms, Off, On, Wider	Turn synonyms handling off and on. If synonyms are off, synonyms are ignored - only the actual search term will be found. If synonyms are on, when you search for a term for which a set of synonyms has been defined, Calm will find occurrences of the search term and all its synonyms. If wider is chosen, a search for a synonym will match with the trigger term and other synonyms as well as the actual search term. For further information see the section on Synonyms.
Completion, On, Off	Turn term completion on or off. As words are typed into the search dialogue boxes Calm attempts to complete them using the system indexes. This acts as a guide to what has already been typed into the system. You can turn this feature off here if you wish, however please note that it is possible to ignore a completion you are being prompted with by pressing the DELETE key on your keyboard. This will delete the completion text to the right of your cursor, but not the text you have already typed.

Customising the Query by Form

The search dialogue box can contain up to 11 fields, in any order. The fields Any Text and Record Type are always present; however all the other fields in the dialogue box can be replaced. The Query by Form may be modified, and the field order within it changed, via the Administration menu from the main menu in Calm.

Any Text Field Searching

The Search dialogue box by default contains a search field called AnyText. This field is used to search for a term in every text field in the records in a database. Please note that this type of search will not search in non-text fields, such as date, number, or tree fields. To perform a search on Any Text field: 

• Open the search dialogue box
• In the AnyText Field, type the term you wish to search for, click the button.

Calm will retrieve all records with your search term in any of the text fields.
The search term should be highlighted in the hit colour.

To find out how many records are in your hit list, see the record counter in the tool bar, as shown below:

You can use the previous, next, first and last arrow buttons in the tool bar to navigate between the records in the hit list.

Field Specific Searching

To search more specifically you may wish to search on a particular field or fields:

• Open the Query by Form.
• Place the cursor in one of the specific fields in the Query by Form such as Title or ObjectName. Type the term on which you wish to search, click

Calm will retrieve the records which contain your search term in the specified field in the database.

It is possible to search on more than one field at a time by typing search terms into multiple fields in the Query by Form.

Searching Pick List Fields

When Picklist fields are included in your Query by Form they appear with drop down arrows.

Click the drop down arrow to reveal the Picklist, click on a term in the Picklist to insert it into the Query by Form. (A blank entry is also included in each Picklist, so that you can close the drop down list without having to cancel the search).

When searching on a picklist field in the Query by Form, Calm will not allow you to search on a term that does not appear in the picklist for the field in question. If you wish to search on a term that does not appear in the picklist you will need to use the Command Line Search facility.

Picklists can be modified using the Admin program.

Searching on Authority controlled fields

When the field on which you are searching is an Authority controlled Field, you may be prompted with a pop-up list of contents which has been typed into the field in question previously.

You may select field contents to search on from the list of Authority prompts by clicking with your mouse or alternatively by using the arrow keys on your keyboard to select an option and the RETURN key to enter it into the search dialogue box.

Searching on Subject Thesaurus Fields

Certain fields are designated as Subject Thesaurus fields; they contain a term from the Subject Authority file.

When you start typing into a Subject Thesaurus field in the Query by Form, a pop-up window appears displaying the thesaurus. You can browse the thesaurus including cross references for guidance on the most appropriate search terms to use. Click on the term on which you wish to search and click OK to insert it into the Query by Form.

Searching on Poly hierarchical Thesaurus fields

Certain fields are designated as Poly hierarchical Thesaurus fields; they contain a term from one of the Poly hierarchical Thesauri, which are Authority File databases in Calm.

When you start typing into a Poly hierarchical Thesaurus field in the Query by Form, a pop-up window appears displaying terms from the thesaurus. Click on the term on which you wish to search and click OK to insert it into the Query by Form.