Search Queries (AiM)

The search screen contains fields for searching data and creating custom search results.

Page Summary

The Page Summary section serves as a quick reference point of the steps, after going through the detailed Step-by-Step Tutorial with screenshots.

Creating a Basic Search Query

From your WorkDesk, under Menu, select the Module you would like to perform a search in.
In the next screen, under Menu on the left, click on the spyglass icon next to the search you would like to perform.

The Phase search has the most options.

In the next screen, click on Search.
The next screen will bring up a bunch of search options.
At the top of that screen, you can toggle between Basic Search and Advanced Search. Basic Search won’t allow you to control the order of the columns you would like displayed in your final search results, and Advanced Search will.

AiM often remembers information from your last search. Whenever creating a new search, click on Reset.

The Display Order column allows you to pick the order that the columns of data are displayed in your final search results. Enter a number into the Display Order field by each data set you would like to show up in your final search results screen.

When you’re done, click Execute at the top-left of this screen.
In the final search results screen, you can export the report in an Excel spreadsheet by clicking Export, under the Action menu on the left.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Creating a Basic Search Query

From your WorkDesk, select the Module under the Menu to perform a search. In this example, Work Management is selected.

In the screen for the Module you selected (in this example, Work Management), under Menu, select Phase by selecting the spyglass icon.

In the next screen, click on Search.

You can toggle between Basic Search and Advanced Search. Basic Search will not allow you to sequence the way the phase search results are displayed (explained in Step 5, Display Order).

The Display Order column allows you to sequence the search results and display the columns of data in a specific order.

In this example, we want the columns of data in our search results to be presented in this order: Work Orders, Phase, Phase Description, Status, and Shop.

[Display Order 5] Displays the Work Order number first/in the 1st column of our search results because 5 is the smallest number we enter in a Display Order field for this search. Typically all that is needed in a search at the work order level is the work order number.

[Display Order 10] Display the Phase number next/in the 2nd column of our search results because 10 is the 2nd smallest number we enter in a Display Order field.

[Display Order 20] Display the phase Description. The phase Description will show up in the 3rd column of our search results because 20 is the 3rd smallest number entered in a Display Order field for this search.

[Display Order 30] Displays the Status in the 4th column. Select the operator to make the search more meaningful. In this example Closed, Closing, Incomplete, Deferred, and Complete - Pending R are excluded by changing the Operator to not in.

[Display Order 40] Displays the Shop in the 5th column. Select the shop desired for the search. In this example, Electrical is the shop search.

When done select Execute.

Notice the display order of the columns is the sequencing that was added to the Display Order fields.

Under the Action menu, the search can be exported to excel by clicking on Export.

Search Qualifiers

Qualifier	Actions	Examples

Qualifier	Actions	Examples
=	Equals To Only open work orders will return in this search
>	Greater Than The dates that will return in this search are later than later Feb, 27, 2024
<	Less Than The dates that will return in this search are before Feb, 27, 2024
<=	Less Than OR Equal To
>=	More Than OR Equal To
<>	Not Equal To
Starts With	The field must start with the data typed This example would return phases that start with Bean Hall
End With	The field must start with the data typed This example would return work orders created by user who ends in “Pitts”
Null	Do not type in the search field, it must be blank This example would return all the work orders where the problem code wasn’t entered Null means “missing or blank”
Not Null	This example would return all the work orders where the problem code was entered
In	Allows the user to select multiple values. For this example multiple shops are selected.
Not In	Allows the user to exclude multiple values. For this example the selected shops will be excluded from the search results
Between	The search results will return work orders within the chosen date range
Within	The field must be within the listed timeframe (date fields only) Options: year, month, week, day, hour
Newer Than	The field must be within the listed timeframe (date fields only) Options: year, month, week, day, hour Record returned must be more recent than 4 days ago
Older Than	The field must be within the listed timeframe (date fields only) Options: year, month, week, day, hour Record returned must be older than 3 weeks ago
Last	The field must be within the listed timeframe (date fields only) Options: year, month, week, day, hour Record returned within last the month
Next	The field must be within the listed timeframe (date fields only) Options: year, month, week, day, hour Returns records with desired completion date in the next 5 days
Column	One of the more powerful operators that compares two different database columns Returns phases where the actual cost has exceeded the estimated cost. Find this in the phases costs: Options: =Column, >Column, >=Column, <Column, <=Column, >=%Column, <=%Column
User	Returns all records created by whoever is logged in at the time