Dear colleagues,
We at Gallery Systems want you to know that we are listening. We are
reviewing the issues raised in this listserv thread and will address
each of them in a detailed posting early next week.
Thanks for you all you input and helpful suggestions.
Best regards,
Jay
______________________________
Jay Hoffman
CEO
Gallery Systems
261 West 35th Street, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10001-1902
t 646 733 2239, ext. 238
f 646 733 2259
c 917 696 5457
w http://gallerysystems.com
______________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Jeffrey Smith
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching question
One other tricky junction in the data structure between exhibitions and
their related loans and objects is that ExhObjXrefs, ExhLoanXrefs, and
LoanObjXrefs all contain information that is really of one piece in
planning and managing exhibitions and their objects. When planning both
database and report use, it's wise to have a hard look at this.
At a certain point, ExhObjXrefs and LoanObjXrefs part ways, and SQL
views are needed to bring this information together to avoid dilemmas in
structuring reports. Ultimately, the lack of a centralized "place" for
object information in the contex of an exhibition and it's loans would
really help.
As was mentioned earlier, some interrelated fields can be added to
another module's queries, but not as many we could use!
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/27/06 11:48AM >>>
Agreed to everything said so far.
Regarding the exhibitions/objects status searching, we were also
struggling with exhibition-related data that we wanted to search on and
see in the objects module side, so I created a form/screen in the
objects module with several of the "free" fields available in the
objcontext table. One of the fields I added is "status in exhibition."
This has helped tremendously having this information on the objects
side, though we are still using exhibition records to grab all of the
objects related to the exhibition.
One downfall to this is objects from our collection that are used in
special exhibitions multiple times. When we use an object from the
collection in a special exhibition, the exhibition-related fields in the
objects module will have to be deleted and re-entered for the next
exhibition. Fortunately we use this view and fields mostly for loaned
exhibitions. So it works well for us, but there are drawbacks.
My 2 cents.
Ella Rothgangel
Collections Database Administrator
Saint Louis Art Museum
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-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Jonathan Thristan
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching question
Agreed. Querying for records where a value is 'not equal' to 'x' isn't a
substitute for querying where a value is 'equal' to 'null'?
Whilst we're on the subject of querying, our standard gripe is that it's
not possible to query for the statuses related to objects, displayed on
the Objects tab of an exhibiton record, from within the Objects module.
But I think... This may be included in next version of TMS
Jon
Jon Thristan
Collections Information Manager
Tate
-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Mary Ellen Guerra
Sent: 27 July 2006 16:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Searching question
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
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>>> [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
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-----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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