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Explanation of items in the form Genus Type the first few characters of the genus, click the down arrow button and then select the genus from the drop-down list.. Species Type the first

Seeds Database User Guide

Written: 19 May 2000 Revised: 29 January 2000

17 September 2005

© CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products

Australian Tree Seed Centre

PO Box E4008 Kingston Canberra ACT 2604 AUSTRALIA

Table of Contents

Before you start 1

Forms 1

Form Controls 2

Important Concepts 3

Terminology Used in System 7

Seedlots 7

Bulk and Individual Seed Collections 7

World Zones and Country Groups 7

Regions 8

Getting Started 9

Starting the Seed Database 10

Seeds Database Main Menu 11

Seed Store 12

Seedlot 13

Individual Tree Form 15

Taxa 16

Treatments 16

Collectors 17

Prices 17

Costs 18

Contacts 19

Customer/Contacts 20

Contacts 21

Countries/Regions 21

Region Form 22

Query Customer Form 23

Query Contacts 23

World Zones 24

Country Groups 24

Query/Report 26

Query Store by Seedlots or Species 27

Query Store by Selected Parameters 28

User Defined Query Report 30

Stock Management 35

Query Active Customers 35

Query Seedlot History 36

Query Taxa History 36

Query Shipments 37

Print or Email Seed Catalogue 38

Order Entry 40

Quote/Consign 41

Selecting customer's name and address 43

Create a quote 43

Enter the details for bulk seedlots 44

Enter the details for individual seedlots 45

Auto select individual tree numbers 45

Quote details 47

Print quote or order documents 49

Email a quote 49

Bulk Up 50

View a quote or order 51

Sponsors 51

Carriers 51

Charge Type 52

Print Tax Invoice 52

Viability Standards 54

Viability Test 55

Viability Test Schedule 56

Viability Tests per Year 56

Standards Query/Update 57

Standards Report 59

Seedlots in Standard 59

Recalculate Storage Statistics 60

Display Storage Statistics 60

Appendix 1 - Table Definitions 61

Table: Address 61

Table: Carrier 61

Table: ChargeType 61

Table: Collector 61

Table: Contact 61

Table: ContactType 61

Table: Country 61

Table: CountryGroup 62

Table: Customer 62

Table: CustomerAddress 62

Table: CustomerType 62

Table: DocHeader 62

Table: DocLine 63

Table: FixedCosts 63

Table: Genus 63

Table: IndividualTree 63

Table: Price 63

Table: Region 63

Table: Seedlot 63

Table: SeedlotHistory 64

Table: SeedlotStore 64

Table: Species 64

Table: SpeciesStore 65

Table: Sponsor 65

Table: TaxaHistory 65

Table: Treatment 65

Table: ViabilityTests 65

Table: Zone 66

Table: ZoneCountry 66

Appendix 2 - View Definitions 67

View: CustomerAddressView 67

View: DocumentExView 67

View: DocumentHeaderView 67

View: DocumentView 68

View: IndividualView 68

View: SeedlotView 69

View: ZoneDocView 69

View: ZoneView 70

Before you start

Before you start to use the Seeds Database, you should be familiar with the forms and form controls used in the system A form control is a component of a form like a button or text box The following sections will describe each of these components and describe how they

function in the system

Apart from the functions of forms and form controls there are also a number of important concepts about the way the systems works that you must fully understand Read the section

on important concepts very carefully

Forms

There are a number of types of forms used in the system but the two main types are menus and data entry forms

Some of the other types of forms used are -

Message boxes used to display system messages;

Dialogue boxes used to select options or gather parameters for reporting;

And Datasheets used to display information in a spreadsheet like style

An example of a data entry form is shown below

At the top of the form you will notice the form name is displayed in the title bar This is the name by which this form is referred to in this documentation Below the title bar is an area in black that contains a number of buttons each bearing a standard icon Following the black area is the main body of the form that has a number of form controls including, text boxes, combo boxes, radio buttons and a standard button

The following sections will list each of the controls used on the various types of forms and

describe how they function

Form Controls

Control Description

Menu button:

The square button to the left of the text menu entry is the menu button

Click on the menu button to move to a submenu or a form

Exit button:

This button is located only in the Seeds Database Main Menu Click on this button to exit the system

Clear Form button:

Use this to clear details on the form and reset any default values

Save button:

This saves the data on the form to the back end database If you don't click the Save button, you will lose the data you have entered

Delete Record button:

Use this button only if you are the authorised person to delete records

Once a record is deleted it is gone, there is no way to undo a delete

Exit Form button:

Use this button to exit a form and return to where you started from

A combo box is a text box with a drop down list attached

Click on the arrow and the drop down list will become visible allowing you to select a value from it The drop down lists often display more information than is required to fill the text box This is to overcome the

fact that often the value for the text box alone may have duplicates or it may be meaningless without this additional information

Combo boxes often copy extra data to a form This extra data is sometimes visible and sometimes not, but it is always crucial to the operation of the system So if there is a combo box on a form then use it

to select the value you require rather than just typing it into the text box part of the control

Radio button:

Radio buttons are used where a data item can have only one of two opposite values like "true" or "false" When you click in the circle the black dot toggles to the opposite of what was displayed when you clicked the control

A black dot in the circle indicates that the value is switched to the positive (or true) while an empty circle indicates the value is switched to the negative (or false)

Standard button:

A button on the bottom of a form (such as the Contacts button on the left) leads to another related form When you exit from the related form you return to the form that you started with

Important Concepts

The Seeds Database is a client server computer system designed to assist in the collection,

storage and distribution of tree seeds It may be installed as a single user system on a single

computer or it may be scaled up to a multi user system on a local area network

Regardless of whether you have a single user or a multi user system, the architecture is

exactly the same There is a back end database where your data will be stored and a front

end, or client application, consisting of menus and forms that are used to either enter data or

to access the information in the back end database

The interaction between the client application and the backend database must be clearly

understood When you select a record, say for example, details of a seedlot, the data for that

seedlot is retrieved from the back end database and displayed on your screen by the client

application You may enter new data or amend the existing details on the screen but these

changes are not written to the back end database until you click the Save button

When the client application retrieves a record it assumes you are working on that record

alone and it will apply all changes you make to the record that was retrieved If you decide

you want to proceed to some other action, like entering a new record after you have retrieved

a record, then you must click the Clear Screen button to signal to the system that you have

finished with the record you retrieved If you don't click the Clear Form button in this situation

you may cause unintentional updates to be written to the record you originally retrieved

The Client application relies heavily on the use of Combo boxes and Defaults to speed up the

task of data entry and insure the consistency and integrity of your data

The basic function of a Combo boxes has been described above however there are some

important performance issues relating to Combo boxes if you are running the Seeds

Database on a network These issues are also relevant if you are running the system on a

single computer but they are of less importance

The drop down list portion of a combo box is nearly always connected to a number of fields

from the rows of a table in the back end database Usually, when you click on the arrow of a

drop down list all the fields from the rows of the table are retrieved from the back end

database and loaded into the rows of the drop down list This is reasonably fast and efficient

if there are only a few records to retrieve but if there are a lot of records in the table then this

will impact your network performance and the speed of the client application In addition to

these raw performance aspects you should also consider the prospects of having to scroll

through even a 100 records to find the one you want

Obviously the optimum situation is to retrieve the minimum number of records possible to

satisfy your needs To achieve this, enter the first few characters of the value you are

searching for in the text box portion of the combo box before you click the arrow of the drop

down list It doesn't matter if you enter character data in upper or lower case as the back end

database has been configured to be case insensitive

The example following demonstrates this technique using a section of the Seedlot form

Fast Search Strategy

Enter the letter ‘a’ in the Genus text box and then click the arrow of the drop down list This will show all the Genera starting with the letter 'a'

If the value 'Acacia' is selected from the drop down list this value will be copied to the text box

In the Species text box enter the letters 'man' When the down arrow is clicked, the drop-down list displays ‘mangium' the only species beginning with the letters 'man' for the Genus Acacia

With both the Genus and the Species drop down lists you can see that a code is displayed along with the relevant names These codes are used by the system and demonstrate you should select records rather than just typing them in the text box

As previously stated, drop down lists nearly always connects to a database table but

sometimes this isn't the case Where there are only a few options for data values and these

don't change then they are contained within the client application An example of this would

be the hemisphere codes for latitude Regardless of whether the drop down list is connected

to a database table or the values are contained within the client application the control

behaves exactly the same

When you enter some characters in the text box portion of a combo box then click the arrow

on the drop down list the system will either return values starting with the characters you have

typed when there is the potential to return a lot of records or it will position you in the list at the

record starting with the characters you have entered if there is only a small number of records

likely to be returned The exception to this is rule is with Customer names The characters

you enter in the text box portion can occur anywhere in the Customer name eg 'smi' would

The reason for this is that it is very difficult to devise a system where names are entered in a

consistent manner In the list above Mr John Smith may be entered as John Smith, Mr John

Smith, Mr J Smith, J Smith and J Smith All these names may be the same person but as far

as the system can determine they are different customers

By constructing the search of customer names in this manner you should be able to locate the

record you want while avoiding duplication

Where a List box has the potential to return a large amount of records the client application

will, where possible, fill in a default value for you if you click the arrow on the drop down list

before entering any characters in the text box portion With the Genus and Species combo

box example used above the letter 'a' would be entered in the text box portion if you entered

nothing and immediately clicked the arrow

The one place where a default has not been used is Seedlot Given the potential for different

uses of this field, either numeric or alphanumeric, it is difficult to be prescriptive about the

default to be used You must to remember to always to enter the starting characters of the

Seedlot before you attempt to select a Seedlot from a drop down list

Combo boxes are not the only place default values are used When a data entry form is in a

state ready to accept a new record i.e when it is first opened or after you click the Clear Form

button, you will notice that sometimes a number of fields are filled in for you The example

below illustrates the use of these default values

Default Values

When you first open a form or when you click the Clear Form button you will notice that some fields have values already entered These values are the defaults values for that field You should either overtype these fields with your real data or leave them alone if the data is missing for the field in question

Zeros in the field indicates that the program expects a numeric value If you remove the zero from the text box then the value of this field will be set to "Null" or "Nothing" which is not interpreted as a valid numeric value This may cause unexpected problems in the system

When you retrieve a record from the database a lock is placed on that record so that no one

else can change that record while you are working on it If you attempt to access a quote that

somebody else has locked then the data will be retrieved but you will not be able to update it

In the situation where you are trying to edit a quote you may come across two situations where locked records prevent you from completing your task The first is where the quote itself is in use by somebody else and the second is where somebody else is updating a seedlot you wish to include in the quote

As the client application takes a snapshot of the back end database when you select a record

it cannot detect when a lock has been released You must click the clear button and reselect the record again once the other user has released the lock

This locking mechanism is only applied to the sensitive areas of the database - seedlots, both bulk and individual, and document (quotes and orders) It is important that you do not retrieve records from these tables and get distracted with another task or walk away from your screen Obviously, if you have records locked for extended periods of time you will prevent other people from doing their work

To recap on what you should have learnt from this section: -

• Always click the Clear form button before you attempt to add a new record after you have been updating existing records

• If possible, always use values from the drop down list of a combo box

• Always enter a few characters of the start of the value you are searching for in combo boxes that have the potential the return a lot of data

• Leave default values alone if your data is missing a value for that field

• Click the Clear button and reselect the record if you encounter a lock applied by some other user

• Do not lock records from the Seedlot, Individual and Document tables for extended periods of time

Terminology Used in System

Within the Seeds Database there are a number of terms used that may require some

clarification

Seedlots

A Seedlot is a collection of tree seed of a particular species, at a specific location, on a specific date Collections of the same species at the same location and a different date should have a different seedlot number

Bulk and Individual Seed Collections

Seed of a species is always collected from individual trees and it can be either kept separate

or mixed together to form a bulk quantity The collection as a whole is allocated a Seedlot number If the collections from the individual trees are kept separate then the quantity from each tree is allocated a separate Individual Tree number and these are referred to as

individuals If the seed from each of the trees is mixed together then this is referred to as a bulk

The number of individuals mixed to make a bulk is always recorded Bulks are identified by seedlot number only but individuals are identified by seedlot number and individual tree number A seedlot can have bulk only seed, individual only seed or a combination of both bulk and individual

Tree breeders generally prefer to purchase individual seed in preference to bulk see as the identity of one parent (the mother tree) is known Bulk seed is normally used in the initial stages of species introduction concentrating on the suitability of the species in the area

World Zones and Country Groups

World zones and country groups are used for reporting of sales of seed if you are in the business of exporting to different countries

A World Zone is simply a name given to a particular set of country groupings You may have any number of World Zones with differing Country Groups for different reporting purposes A world zone may encompass the whole world of it may be a smaller section of it

You could have a World Zone name of, say, "World Zone 1" which encompasses the entire world

A Country Group within this World Zone may be called "South Pacific" which, for example, may contain the following countries:

This would then enable you the answer such questions as "what have we shipped to the South Pacific in the last 12 months use World Zone 1"

Regions

A region is a subdivision of a country It can be a political boundary like a state or a province

or it can be any other sort of subdivision that you desire If you are going to use political boundaries it is advisable to use the ISO standard Country Subdivision Codes refer ISO 3166-2

Subdividing your countries into regions makes it easier to organise your customer list when you have a lot of customers in a particular country Even in situations where you don't have a lot of customers dividing countries into regions may still be of value for reporting purposes

If you don't want to subdivide your countries then you must have a least one region that covers the entire country e.g -

Country Papua New Guinea

Region Papua New Guinea

Getting Started

There a two phases you will need to go through when setting up a new Seeds Database The first

is to enter the data for all the secondary tables in the database These secondary tables provide the data for the combo boxes used in other parts of the system

Taking the time to complete the entry of this secondary data will have a number of benefits:

It will greatly speed up the task of data entry in the major functions of the system;

It will reduce the likelihood of duplication and errors in the data entry process;

It will impose a level of standardization on your data;

And it will increase the integrity of you database

Once you have populated the secondary tables you can move on to the next phase which is performing the major functions of the system like entering seedlots, producing quotes and orders and entering germination data

There is no specific order that the secondary data should be entered in This will depend largely upon the availability of the data and the nature of your organization As a guide, the lists following show the prerequisites for entering data into the major parts of the system

Before you start entering Seedlots you must:

• Enter your taxa (Genus & Species) data

• Enter your collectors

• Enter your price categories

• Enter your pre-treatments (optional)

Before you start entering Customers you must:

• Enter or update countries and regions

Before you start entering Quotes or Orders you must:

• Enter your customer names, addresses and optionally, contacts

• Enter your carriers

• Enter your sponsors

• Enter your fixed costs

• Enter your charge types

Before you start entering Viability Tests data you must:

• Enter the relevant seedlot

Starting the Seed Database

1 Select the Start button , go to Programs menu then select Seeds Database

Microsoft Access will start and the Seeds Database login screen below will be displayed

2 Type in your Name and Password and click OK

If you click Cancel at this screen the Seeds Database will shut down completely requiring you

to return to Step 1 above before you can continue If you make a mistake then simply go back and correct it, don't click Cancel

Before you attempt to log in your Database Administrator will have to assign you your login name and password

User names and passwords are case sensitive so make sure Caps Lock and Num Lock are

turned off before you attempt to log in You can tell if either Caps Lock or Num Lock is on if its

status light is lit The Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock status lights are located above the numeric keypad to the right of your keyboard

NB For the demonstration version of Seeds Database, type Test for both your name and

Seeds Database Main Menu

The Seeds Database main menu is the entry point into the system It provides a number of submenus that group the functions of the system that are common to each other

The Seeds Database Main Menu has the six sub-menus:

• Seed Store Enter and view seedlots and related data

• Contacts Enter customers and related data

• Order Entry Seed quotations and orders and related data

• Query/Report Query the database and produce reports

• Viability Standards Germination test results and standards

• Utilities Database administration

To select a submenu click the square button to the left of the text label that describes the option

The Exit button on the top right hand corner is the only way you can exit from the Seeds Database Clicking this button will close the Seeds Database down completely

Seed Store

The Seed Store submenu provides options to enter information on new seed collections and related data

The Seed Store submenu has six options:

• Seedlots Enter bulk and individual seed collection data

• Treatments Enter treatments for seed germination

• Collectors Enter names of collectors

Seedlots is the major option and this is where new bulk and individual seed is entered The other options - Taxa, Treatments, Collectors, Prices and Costs allow you to enter secondary data that is not expected to change greatly over time

In a new system you will spend much more time entering the secondary data, especially the Taxa data As the system matures you will spend little or no time on these options and the focus will move to entering Seedlot data

Seedlot

The seedlot form is where you enter new seed collection data Information about species identity, source of seed, location of collections, collection details, germination details, and the bulk and individual tree weights are entered The individual button on the bottom left of the screen brings you to another form where you can enter individual tree numbers

Explanation of items in the form

Seedlot This is a unique ten-character number assigned to a new seedlot If

you type a number that has already been assigned, the Database will not accept the number The seedlot number may be numeric or alphanumeric

Genus Type the first few characters of the genus then select the genus

from the drop-down list The letter ‘a’ is the default search value but

it can be changed to any letter or combination of letters to narrow down the search Note that letters have to start from the left-most end of the text box otherwise an error message box will pop up New Taxa cannot be entered here This is done through the Taxa Form on the Seed Store menu

Species This text box is similar to Genus Type the first few characters of

the species and select the species from the drop-down list The list displayed will only include those species you have entered for the genus you have selected

Latitude Latitude is entered as a six-digit number The first two digits

represent degrees, the next two digits are minutes, and the last two digits are seconds Then select N or S according to which part of the hemisphere the seedlot was collected from

Longitude Longitude is entered as a seven-digit number The first three digits

represent degrees, the next two digits are minutes, and the last two digits are seconds Then select E or W according to which part of the hemisphere the seedlot was collected from

Altitude This is the altitude of an area where a seed collection was made Location This is the general location where a seed collection was made

(proximity to nearest town, creek, road, forest or other geographical entity)

Provenance This is a name that designates genetic commonality and it can be

used to group together different seedlots that share the same gene pool

Country Type the first few characters of the country and then select from the

drop name list

Initial Weight This is the weight of cleaned seed when it is first entered into the

Database This weight is never altered

Bulk Weight This is the weight of bulk seed The default value is zero

Reserved Bulk This is the total bulk weight of seed that has been reserved through

quotation for seed sales The default value is zero

Initial Individual This is the weight of individual trees when they are first entered into

the Database The default value is zero

Total Individual This is the current weight of all the individual trees in a seedlot The

default value is zero

Reserved Ind This is the total individual weight of seed that has been reserved

through quotations for seed sales The default value is zero

Collector Code linked to the name of seed collector or seed supplier

Date Collected Date the seed was collected Dates are in YYYYMMDD format Parents This is the number of individual trees that contributed to the bulk Individuals This is the number of individual trees in a seedlot

Treatment This is the pre-treatment code Type or select from the drop-down

list Multiple treatments are allowed in the text box

Viability This is the number of germinants per 10g of seed

Year Tested This is the year the seedlot was last tested

Retest If the radio button is checked, the seedlot has been retested

otherwise it is an initial test

Store This is the code for the location where the seedlot is kept in the

seed store

Price This is the price category allocated to the seedlot

Restrict Check this radio button if the seedlot is restricted Restricted

seedlots are those of special values or use for certain projects only Seed Orchard Check this radio button, if the seed was collected from a seed

orchard

Individual Tree Form

The Individual form is accessed from the Seedlot form by clicking the Individual Button You cannot add individuals until you have saved the data on the main Seedlot form

Explanation of items in the form

Seedlot Individual Trees are allocated the same seedlot number as the bulk

seed from the same location

Tree Number This is the unique number given to seed collected from an individual

tree If you click the down arrow, the drop down list of tree numbers will appear displaying entered tree numbers and their respective weights

Initial Weight This is the weight of seed per individual tree when it is entered into

the Database The default value is zero

Stock Weight This is the current weight per individual tree number in the

Database

Reserved Weight This is the weight of seed per individual tree reserved by quotations

for seed sales The default value is zero

Viability This is the number of germinants per 10 grams for the individual

tree

Taxa

The Taxa Form is for entering, editing and displaying taxa names and codes

Explanation of items in the form

Genus Type the first few characters of the genus, click the down arrow

button and then select the genus from the drop-down list

Genus Id This is the genus code

Species Type the first few characters of the species, click the down arrow

button and then select the species from the drop-down list

Species Id This is the species code Species codes must be unique by

themselves not in combination with the genus code

Author This is the author of the currently accepted taxonomic description of

the taxa

Rotap Code Australian standard code for rare and endangered plant species

(Relevant to Australia only)

Treatments

The Treatment Form is for entering, editing and displaying pre-treatments applied to seed to promote germination

Explanation of items in the form

Treatment This is the pre-treatment code

Treatment Description This is the pre-treatment description

Collectors

The Collector Form is for entering, editing and displaying names and codes of collectors of seed

Explanation of items in the form

Collector Id Code to uniquely identify the seed collector

Collector name Full name of the collector

Prices

The Prices Form is for entering, editing and displaying price categories for the sale of seed You can specify different prices for bulk seed depending on the quantity purchased and you can also set a minimum purchase price for individuals

The prices entered here exclude the handling charge that must be entered in the Costs section of the system

Explanation of items in the form

Price Id Code used to link a price category set to a seedlot

Price Category Weight range to which a price is assigned

Limit Low The starting point of the weight range

Limit High The end point of the weight range

Price per gm Price per gram of seed

Costs

The Cost Form is for entering; editing and displaying fixed costs for goods and services other than the supply of seed

Explanation of items in the form

Cost Description Description of the goods or service

You must always have an entry for handling, as it is integral to the system This is the cost of selecting, packing and shipping a seedlot

Contacts

The Contacts submenu provides options to enter customer names and addresses as well as countries, regions, world zones and country groups

The Contact sub-menu has six options:

• Customer/Contacts Enter names and addresses of customers

• Countries/Regions Enter countries and regions within countries

• Query Customers Query customers by country or region

• Country Group within Zones Assign countries to groups within World Zones

Customer/Contacts

The Customer form is where you enter customer names and addresses and optionally, individual contacts for the customer

Explanation of items in the form

Country Type the first few characters of a country and select from the

drop-down list

Region Type the first few characters of a region and select from the

drop-down list A region is an area that is a sub-division of the country, e.g State If there is no requirement to sub-divide the country, then enter the country name again

Customer Customer refers to an individual and/or organisation Type in

the new customer name then select the drop-down list to see

if the customer has already been entered (Note: It is better to type in unique words that form part of the customer’s name If you type commonly used words, e.g company, then you get

a lot of names in the drop-down list) If the customer has not been entered then proceed, if the customer is already there then exit from the form It is important not to enter a customer more than once

Address Type new address, or if address has already been entered,

select from the drop-down list

Restrict to region Check this radio button if you want to find the customer in a

particular region If it is not checked, you will be given the customer names from the entire database

Fax The fax number

Contacts Button Opens the contacts form

NB The Phone, Fax and Email entries on the customer form are linked to the address for that customer not the customer themselves This allows you to establish different contact numbers for the same customer at different addresses

Contacts

The contacts form is where contact details for an individual from a customer's organisation can be entered

Explanation of items in the form

Contact Name The name of a person or job role within the customers

organisation

Contact Type Classification for the type of contact

Countries/Regions

The Countries form is where you enter country names and information regarding

requirements for the export of seed to these countries

When the Seeds Database is shipped it will include a Country Table populated with a list of the two character Country Ids and Country Names conforming to International Standards Organisation, (ISO), standard 3166-1

You should review the details of the countries you do business with to ensure that the

additional parameters are correct for your organisation

Explanation of items in the form

Country Name Type the first few characters of a country and select from the

drop-down list If the country name is not in the list then enter the new country name

Country Id This is a two-character International Standards Organisation

(ISO) code for all countries (refer ISO 3166-1)

Permit Required Check this radio button if an import permit is required for seed

to be imported into to the selected country Legals Required A few countries, especially South American countries, require

seed export documents be certified by officials from their respective Embassy

Phyto Certificate Required Check this radio button, if a phytosanitary certificate is

required to accompany the seed package

Courier Zone This is the global regional zone used for courier companies

Example: The form shown above is for India India has a country id as ‘IN’ An import permit is required for all seed imports to India from Australia and a phytosanitary certificate is required

to accompany the seed

Region Form

The Region form is accessible through the Countries form A region is an arbitrary area within

a country that is used to narrow down the search of customer details Where no regions are applicable the country name is entered again for region

The example below shows a number of regions defined for India

Query Customer Form

The Query Customer form allows you to extract information on your customers by country or region

Select the country and optionally a region and click the run button

World Zones

The World Zones data entry form allows you to create world zones for reporting purposes A world zone may encompass the entire world or just a section of it

Explanation of items in the form

Country Groups

The Country Groups data entry form allows you to create Country Groups within World Zones and assign countries to them

Explanation of items in the form

Zone Description filled in from selection of Zone Id

Group Id Number in the range 1 to 9999

Group Name Description of country grouping

Country Name Description filled in from selection of Country Id

Select the a zone you have already created and either select a Country Group that exists or enter a new County Group Id and Country Group Name then select a Country to add to the Country Group Repeat until all the Countries you require are added to the Country Group Keep repeating this process until all the Country Groups for the Zone have been created and all the relevant Countries have been assigned to them

Query/Report

The Query/Report submenu has options to search and report on the database in a variety of ways

The Query/Report sub-menu comes with nine options:

• Query Store by Seedlot or Species Extract standard report by seedlot or species

• Query Store By Parameters Extract standard report by variety of parameters

• User Defined Query/Report Query database by any parameters

• Query Active Customers Query customers that purchased seed recently

• Query Seedlot History Query all activity for a seedlot

• Print or Email Seed Catalogue Print or Email catalogue of species in stock

Query Store by Seedlots or Species

In this form you can search for multiple seedlots or multiple species but not both at the same time

Explanation of items in the form

Seedlot Type in the first few digits of the seedlot number and then select the

seedlot from the drop-down list The seedlot number will be transferred to the bottom part of the form Add additional seedlots

by repeating the same process Click the Run button when finished Genus Type in the first few characters of the genus and then click the down

arrow to select the genus from the drop-down list Add additional genera by repeating the same process

Species Type in the first few characters of the species and then click the

down arrow to select the species from the drop-down list Add additional species by repeating the same process

By default the report just lists bulk seedlots that still have some seed in the store The radio

buttons at the bottom, Include Individuals and Include Empty Lots allow you to expand the

report to include information for Individual Tree seed and Seedlots that no longer have any seed in the store

Query Store by Selected Parameters

In Query by Form you can include in your query one or more attributes at one time Using several attributes you will narrow the output to the particular seedlots you are interested in

Controls specific to the form

The Map Output button is an alternative to the Run button and is use to map the output rather than to produce a report This should only be used if you have the mapping package installed

The arrow button expands the data you have entered in Latitude and Longitude fields

to form a box around the point you have specified of the dimensions you selected from the Box Size drop down list For instance if a box size of 1 was specified then a 1degree box would be defined The North, South, East and West boundaries define the box

The Altitude you enter is taken as the upper limit of the area you are interested in and 0 is taken as the lower limit

You can modify any of the values on the right after you have clicked the arrow but be careful not to enter a nonsensical value eg A northern limit that is further south that the southern limit

Explanation of items in the form

Genus Type in the first few characters of the genus and then click on the

down arrow to select the genus from the drop-down list Note: you have to select the genus from the list rather than typing the complete genus name

Species Type in the first few characters of the species and then click the

down arrow to select the species from the drop-down list You have

to select the species from the list rather than typing the complete name of the species

Seedlot If you know the seedlot number then type in the number to find

information about that particular seedlot To search a range of seedlots type the seedlot to start and end with

Country Use this option to search for seedlots coming from a particular

country Type in the first few characters of the country and then click on the down arrow to select the genus from the drop-down list State Type in the name of the State if you want to restrict seedlot to a

particular state within the country

Date Collected This option is to search from seedlots collected within a particular

period Type in the start date and the finish date The date format is YYYYMMDD

Include Individuals Check this radio button if you want to include individual tree

numbers in the search

Include empty lots Check this radio button if you want to include empty seedlots in the

search Empty seedlots are those that have no more seed in store They are never deleted from the database and are useful

information about the seedlot eg geographical information on where the seedlots were collected from

Latitude Latitude is entered as a six digit number The first two digits

represent degrees, the next two digits are minutes, and the last two digits are seconds Then select N or S according to which part of the hemisphere the seedlot was collected from

Longitude Longitude is entered as a seven-digit number The first three digits

represent degrees, the next two digits are minutes, and the last two digits are seconds Then select E or W according to which part of the hemisphere the seedlot was collected from

Altitude Type in the value for altitude to limit seedlots that only occurs at a

particular altitude For example you may want to exclude all high altitude seedlots if you plan to grow trees in the low lands

Northern Limit This is the latitude for the northern limit This option widens the

search area stretching from the starting latitude to the latitude value

of the northern limit

Southern Limit This is the latitude for the southern limit This option widens the

search area stretching from the starting latitude to the latitude value

of the southern limit

Eastern Limit This is the longitude for the eastern limit This option widens the

search area stretching from the starting longitude to the longitude value of the eastern limit

Western Limit This is the longitude for the western limit This option widens the

search area from the starting longitude to the longitude value of the western limit

Altitude High This is the value to limit the high altitude range of the seedlot Altitude Low This is the value to limit the low altitude range of the seedlot

Box Size This enlarges the size of the output area in degrees based on the

latitude and longitude entered Four size ranges are available 1, 3,

5 or 11 degrees can be selected from the drop-down list An entry for 0 is also in the list but this should only be used when outputting information to the mapping package Selecting 0 in this instance produces a map of the whole of your country

User Defined Query Report

The User Defined Query Form is used to make up complex searches Once you have made one search you can save the search, and then run it again or modify it as required

Explanation of items in the form

Query Name Type a name for the new query, or select from the drop-down list to

choose an existing search

Query Source Choose the database table or database view you want the query to

apply to (A database view is simply several tables joined together

by one or more key fields.) Refer Appendix 1 & 2 for details of the tables and views

Save Data to Table Check this option if you want to save the data that has been

retrieved to a table By saving it to a table you have a subset of the database and further searches on this subset will be available It will

be much faster than searching the entire database

Form tabs

Form tabs provide a way of displaying different panes within a window You click on the tab

at the top and the pane is brought to the front This has the effect of making it look like there are a number of sub forms within the form

In the User Defined Query there are three panes defined within the window - Select, Sort and display as shown below

Select tab This is where to specify the fields to search by

Sort tab This is where you define how the output from the search is to be

sorted

Display tab This is where you define what fields are to be included in the search

output

Additional Controls on the form

The Backup Queries button back up your queries to a temporary database so that they can be restored at a later date You should backup your queries if you don't want to loose them when a new version of the client application is installed

The Restore Queries Button restores queries that have previously been backed up

The Build Query button constructs an SQL statement The SQL

statement is displayed so you can check for errors You must save the query from this screen before you can run it

As expected, the Delete Button deletes the entire query If you only want to delete a row from either the Select, Sort or Display panes then click the record selector to the left of the row and then press the delete key on your keyboard

Below is an example of a search saved as South America that searches the database view, DocumentExView The search was to find out what seed has been ordered by three South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay) since 1990 The various screens showing the options are below:

In the Select pane character field values must be enclosed in a single quotation mark while numeric values should be entered without quotes eg Character values should look like this

'Character' and number values should look like this 99

Note also the manner in which date values are specified All dates in the Seeds Database are stored as a character field in YYYYMMDD format so the date 1 July 2001 would appear

as 20010701 Because the date values are character values they must have single quotes

around them in the User Defined Query e.g '20010701'

Apart from number, character and date values there are also a number of special values you

can enter for searching character values The above example uses the value IS NOT NULL This means literally "is not nothing" i.e It has an Order Id The reverse of this is, IS NULL,

which means, "is nothing" or it doesn't have an Order Id

The other special values are LIKE and NOT LIKE You use the LIKE operator with the special character * which means any character or group of characters, or no characters at all

If you wish to construct a search phase that is the equivalent of "starts with" then you would

use LIKE 'sometext*' (where sometext is the value you are searching for) If you would like

to construct a phrase that is the equivalent of "ends with" then you would use LIKE

'*sometext' Alternatively if the text can occur anywhere you would use LIKE '*sometext*'

The search phrase CustomerName LIKE 'Sm*' would retrieve names like the following:

NOT LIKE is just the opposite of LIKE and can be used to filter out values you don't want

included in your search results

You might notice that the operators are usually defined in a dropdown list, which occurs after

the field name in the Select pane But in the example above the operator IS NOT NULL is

entered as a value This demonstrates that if you know something about the SQL query language you can bypass the operators field and enter the operator in the value field - bearing

in mind the field has a maximum size of 30 characters

The example above also illustrates another important feature of the Select pane i.e the use of the Boolean operators AND and OR along with the use of brackets

This example above returns orders for customers in Argentina, Brazil or Paraguay that have placed the order since the beginning of 1990

If the brackets where left out then the statement would become:

CustomerName = 'Argentina' OR

CustomerName = 'Brazil' OR

CustomerName = 'Paraguay' AND

OrderDate > '19000000' AND

OrderId IS NOT NULL

This would retrieve both quotes and orders for all customers from Argentina and Brazil

regardless of the date of the transaction along with orders from customers in Paraguay that have placed an order since the beginning of 1990

The brackets in the original statement have the effect of grouping the first three parameters together and then applying the conditions specified by the AND operators

You should be careful how you construct your query in the Select pane As you can see from the discussion above, simply leaving off the brackets can result in a large amount of data being returned