Brava, Jenny. Not equals searches are rife with problems. I hope Gallery
Systems is listening too.
It's bad enough for system administrators who understand why it doesn't
work, but the general user doesn't understand at all. It would almost be
better not to have a "not equals to" option.
I have another work around. It involves creating 3 object packages and
populating the third package with the records I want in SQL. See attached
syntax. As Jenny points out, object package doesn't work if you are dealing
with very large groups of records.
Mary Ellen
Mary Ellen Guerra
Collection Database Administrator
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, DC 20560-0970
Tel: 202-275-1553
Fax: 202-275-1707
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/27/06 09:12AM >>>
Jeri is right; you can do what she suggests, and we definitely do. But
these methods are both workarounds. The lack of ability to do negative
searches (on fields with one-to-many relationships) for absence of images,
constituents, attributes, status flags, inventory stamp, etc., is one of
the
few major problems we have with TMS.
The media method Jeri suggests only works if there is NO media on the
record. We are at the point of wanting to search for records with images
of
a publishable quality (here defined as rank >4). Cannot do it. The
object
package method isn't an option, because the object packages would be too
big. And the login method doesn't work because there is some media on
most
records.
So, we have set up a special flag form and assigned yes/no flags for
things
like:
Images good enough for the web (based on Media info)
Inventoried (based on Location info)
On the web (based on Status flag)
I have to update these flags in SQL but then anybody can do the searches.
For example, once a week I use SQL to set the Inventoried stamp to 1 for
every record that has an inventory transaction in its location history.
Then anybody can run a quick and easy search for Inventoried=no to find
those records that have no stamp.
But this is still a workaround, because the flags are not "live".
If Gallery Systems is following this thread, this is an area that can be
greatly improved. I don't know how many times I have had to explain this
situation to our users, and most of them just don't get it, and I don't
think they should have to.
Cheers,
Jenny
Jenny Wilker
Manager, Collection Information
Philadelphia Museum of Art
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jeri Moxley
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching question
Hi Dee Dee,
These searches are possible through the interface, though you may need
to add a field or two to the query configuration. For both of these,
you'll rely on the "Not Equal to" feature in Advanced Query.
1. Objects with no Media attached:
Because it's the one field I've found that seems to work reliably for
this search, I most commonly use an Objects module advanced query search
of:
LoginID (MediaXrefs) <not equal to> *
The asterisk acts as a wildcard - so, in effect, the query is "Media
Xref LoginID not equal to anything". Note that, in my experience, the
Rendition Number field doesn't return results with this query - I don't
know why.
2. Objects with no donor:
This one's trickier. If you search for "Role not equal to Donor", you
may very well get some records with Donors in your results because the
search returns any record for which it is true that there is a
constituent who is not a Donor (for example, we have a few records with
both a 'Donor' and a 'Contributor' (contributed funds) under
acquisition-related constituents).
So - the trick is to first search for all records with Role = Donor and
make an object package of those records. Then, go to advanced query and
search for all objects where "Object Package Name is not equal to XXX
(the name of your saved package of objects with donors)". From that
point, you can narrow the search further. Of course, object packages are
not dynamic, so you have to update the object package each time you run
the query.
Good luck!
Best,
Jeri
--------------
Jeri L. Rojas-Moxley
TMS Specialist
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
212-423-3509
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Valdeva Ives
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 5:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Searching question
Hi everyone,
We are new to TMS in general and have some query questions.
Does anyone know if there is a way to search for data that isn't there
via TMS (not using SQL queries from the back end)?
Some questions that have been asked are:
1. How do you search for a list of objects that have no media attached
to them?
2. How do you find all of the objects that don't have a specific type
of constituent attached? (eg. objects with no donor)
I can generate these queries from SQL but it would be nice if the
non-technical staff could do it for themselves. Is the only option to
use a list view or report?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Dee Dee
--
Valdeva Ives
Application Developer and Support Specialist Digital Information and
Technology Harvard University Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.384.9389
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