Search for Records

An important function of any software package is the ability to quickly retrieve stored information. TSM is a relational database and thus relies on primary keys as well as text indexing to aid in data retrieval. A primary key is a field that uniquely identifies a record in a database. You will not see this term used anywhere in TSM – Primary Keys are always referred to as ID’s – “Customer ID”, “Product ID” etc. In reality, each record in TSM has 2 unique identifiers – the ID and the sequence number. The former is alphanumeric and is designed for operator’s use, as it is always easier to remember combinations of letters and numbers rather than pure numbers. Sequence numbers are never displayed on the screen, they are used internally for relational links in the database, however they have one important role which is to determine display order of records in certain TSM modules. For instance, in the example below the products detail on the Job Card is ordered the way they are because of the order they were entered – the earliest in the sequence appears at the top.

The user is still able to display TSM data in the order they require using TSM Reports.

There are 3 ways to search for a record in TSM. Which one you use greatly depends on the circumstances under which the record needs to be retrieved and what information about it available to the user.

Using the arrow keys at the top of any module will eventually take the user to the record they are after. This is not practical if there are more than a handful of records in the module (as might be the case with time records against a job for example). For this reason there are several searching utilities available in TSM.

What follows is a more detailed explanations of the searching functions.

Located at the top of most major modules – such as job cards, employee, customer and product maintenance and others, the Search button invokes a Search module which offers a range of functions with some differences specific to the module the button is located on. To search for a record using the search button:

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1. Open the necessary module.<
2. Press “Search” at the top of the screen.1<
3. Select the field in which to search in from the drop-down list at the top. This list will differ from module to module.

Note: Not all fields are searchable.<

1. Enter the search string. This can be many things – all or a part of a record ID, a key word in the description, the street address or a phone number. If you want to display the whole record list, you can leave the search string empty or enter an asterisk “*”. This only works for alphanumeric fields (will not work with the Job Number for instance).<
2. If the searched field is alphanumeric, an additional dropdown will appear on its right. This contains two options specifying if the search string is mean to be at the beginning (“Begins With”) or in the middle of the field (“Contains”).<
3. Press Enter or Tab on the keyboard to start the search or the “Select” button on the right if no search string was entered. TSM will either display nothing – the search string is either too specific, or a match does not exist in the field or it will display some matches. If the resulting list is too long, the search may be refined using some of the other fields provided – Incomplete Jobs Only and job date range in the case of the Job Card search screen. The details below the results listing display some particulars of the selected record to aid its identification.<
4. You can use the arrow button next to the search field to order the results in ascending or descending order.<
5. Press “Select” to bring up the desired record or “Cancel” to return to the module.<

[]The Looking Glass Icon can be found in a variety of locations on numerous modules. Its function varies according to the context. It is used for populating the field it is adjacent to with data found on some other module. For instance, pressing this button next to any of the 3 Customer ID fields on the front of a job card pops up the Customer search screen. Selecting a record in this screen then populates the Customer ID field back on the job card with it’s ID.

Search Screens evoked with the looking glass icon contain one extra button “Add New”. If the operator realizes that the record they are looking for in the process of creating another record does not exist, they can take a detour to create it before continuing with the main task. Pressing the “Add New” button will bring up the record’s module. The user will need to press “Save” and “Exit” to return to the module they were originally on.

Note: No other modules will be available from the Action Menu whilst the new record is being added.

Double-clicking on the Customer ID field on job cards takes the user directly to the Customer Module. Its search functionality can be used to find a record, which will populate into the Customer ID field back on the Job Card upon pressing “Exit”.

Quicksearch functions are built into some key fields on various TSM modules – most prominently the Job Card number, Product ID, Customer ID and Employee ID on their respective modules. The text within them is displayed in red.

To use Quicksearch simply enter the search string into the field and press Tab or Enter. If a match is found, the record will be displayed. If several matches are found, the first of them will be displayed. The arrow keys at the top will allow the user to browse though the matching records..

Job Card quicksearch contains some additional functionality. Firstly, the primary search field is numeric. For this reason, the user must know the exact job (or invoice) number they are looking for. TSM will not attempt to “guess” the job number if no exact match is found. Secondly There is a second quicksearch field located underneath the job number, which allows querying a variety of other fields – Billing Customer ID, Invoice number, Job Type, etc…The module’s cursor will be positioned at the first matching record and the arrow keys at the top will allow the user to scroll between them. Clearing the search string out of the quicksearch field will again all possible job cards to be browsed for in the module.

Not really a search function, however particularly useful with Job Card quicksearch. Ticking this box will limit the records visible in the module to incomplete jobs only. If a record you know is there is not coming up on the Job Cards module, check if this box is ticked – the job may be a completed one and is not visible because the option is ticked.

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If the Customer the record belongs to is known, you can use the Contact Maintenance history tabs. Each contains some rudimentary sorting functionality and a “View” button that will bring up the selected record.