How to Search for RISC Contact Records
Once you have a number of records in RISC, you will want to call on them for future reference. There are many ways of finding individual contact records, but all involve the use of the
Search Using Selected Field(s) button. You should clear the form using the
Clear Form button before querying the RISC database.
All fields in the RISC database can be used for setting search parameters
except for the 'Parent/Guardian Contact', 'Phone' and
'Roll Class/Homeroom' (R.C.) fields. Multiple search parameters can be used to narrow down the results of searches.
Below are instructions for Searching for Contact Records in RISC,
highlighting all of the options available.
Finding a Contact by Contact Number:
Use the mouse to point to the Contact No. field then type in the desired contact number. The Contacts database allocates individual contact numbers for each recorded contact. The contact numbers start at 1001 and are incremented by 1 each time a new contact is saved.
When you have entered a number, either click the 'Search Using Selected Field(s)' button or hit the Enter key. If you have entered a valid number, the requested contact is displayed. If an incorrect/invalid number is entered, a message box will state the range of valid contact numbers.
You can type an asterisk (*) in the Contact Number box then click the
Search… button to display all contacts in the database in the Table View
(described further below).
NOTE: Searching by Contact Number has priority over all other searches.
e.g. If you put a Student Name into the 'Student' field as well as a Contact Number in the 'No.' field, the search will only look at the number and display the contact regardless of whether that contact was with the specified student.
The Contact Number search with a specified number as described above will always only find one contact record as all numbers are unique. However, all other searches may find multiple matching records.
For example, when searching for contacts involving one particular student, there may be more than one case in the contacts database. When searching by
Grade, Contact Category, Type, Action Type, Teacher, Status or
Descriptor (smiley), there will almost definitely be more than one matching record. Whenever a search results in more than one matching contact record, the results are displayed in
'Table View' form. Full details about the RISC Table View can be found
here.
Finding Contact(s) by Student Name:
On the RISC form, type in a Student's surname and click the
Find button or hit the Enter key. Use the '<' and
'>' arrow buttons beside the student name field to move alphabetically through the student names if the desired student does not appear first time.
Once the desired student name is on the screen, click the Search Using
Selected Field(s) button. RISC will quickly find all contacts involving that student. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts for that student are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
IMPORTANT:
If you are searching for contacts relating to a student who has left the
school, type in the surname, DO NOT press Enter, and just click the Search Using
Selected Fields button rather than the Find button. If the student is not in the current Student Database, you will be informed that address details are not available for the contact,
but all of that students contact records in the current database will be
shown.
Finding Contact(s) by Grade/Year:
Type a Grade/Year into the Grade box then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed.
If no contacts for that Grade/Year are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by
Gender:
Type M or F into the Gender box then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed.
If no contacts for that Gender are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by Teacher Name:
Select the Teacher’s name from the pick-list then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will use the
Teacher Name Indexes to quickly find all contacts involving that Teacher. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed.
If no contacts for that Teacher are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by Contact Category:
Select the desired Contact Category (maybe 'Subject or Faculty' or something else)
from the pick-list then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire contacts database to find all contacts with that Contact Category. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed.
If no contacts for that Contact Category are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by Contact Type:
Select the desired Contact Type from the pick-list then click the
Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire contacts database to find all contacts with that Contact Type. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts for that Contact Type are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by
Action Type:
Select the desired Action Type from the pick-list then click the
Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire contacts database to find all contacts with that
Action Type. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts for that
Action Type are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by Status:
Select the desired Status from the pick-list then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire database to find all contacts with that Status. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts for that Contact Status are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) by
Contact Descriptor (Smiley):
You can even search contacts by their "smiley" descriptor. For all
negative contact records or incidents, click once to highlight the "sad
smiley" then click the Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire database to find all contacts with that
Descriptor. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts for that
Descriptor are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Finding Contact(s) Using Strings in the Contact Description:
Type in a string (a key word or phrase) into the Contact Description field then click the
Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire contacts database to find all contacts with that string contained somewhere in the Contact Description field. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts containing that string in the Contact Description field are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Rather than typing in the string, you can use the right-mouse button to pop-up the
Shortcut Lookup screen and select a pre-defined phrase, sentence or code upon which to search. Using the shortcuts makes data entry and searching more consistent and predictable.
Finding Contact(s) Using Strings in the Contact Action:
Type in a string (a key word or phrase) into the Contact Action field then click the
Search Using Defined Field(s) button. RISC will search the entire database to find all contacts with that string contained somewhere in the Contact Action field. If only one is found, it will be displayed on the RISC form. If more than one is found, they will be displayed on the Table View form and individual contact records can be selectively displayed. If no contacts containing that string in the Contact Action field are found, a message box will be displayed saying that no contacts match your defined set of conditions.
Rather than typing in the string, you can use the right-mouse button to pop-up the
Shortcut Lookup screen and select a pre-defined phrase, sentence or code upon which to search. Using the shortcuts makes data entry and searching more consistent and predictable.
Using Multiple Search Conditions:
The previous searches describe single condition searches - i.e. only one parameter is being used to search the database.
Any or all of these single conditions (apart from Contact No.) can be combined to produce a more descriptive search.
For example, in the Grade field, you can type '8'. In the
Gender field, you can type in 'M'. In the Contact Type field, you can select 'Vandalism' and in the Contact Action field, you can type the string 'Police'. Clicking the Search button will find all contact records that involve
Male Year 8 students, Vandalism and Police being contacted.
Multiple searches involving Student Name and/or Teacher Name as well as other conditions are indexed whereas searches not involving these name fields are not indexed. Non-indexed searches will cause RISC to scan the whole contacts database sequentially and obviously take a little longer.
Displaying Every Contact in the Database :
As well as all of the usual searches in RISC, you can request to display every contact in the Table View. Just type an asterisk (*) into the Contact Number box and click Search or hit Enter. This will open the
Table View and place all contacts into it (up to
1,999 of them will be displayed). Should there be more than 1,999 contacts selected, Printing, Sorting or Exporting the contacts from the Table View will always work with all of the selected contacts, not just those displayed. If a Date Range is enabled, the 'asterisk' search will place all contacts that were entered within that date range into the Table View.
Selecting a Date Range for Reports and Queries :
RISC allows for date ranges to be specified for all searches and printed reports. Under the Options menu, choose the option 'Set Date Range for Reports/Queries'. A form (shown below) will be displayed which lists some brief instructions for its use.
Read the on-screen instructions then simply
click on a
'From' date and a 'To' date using the displayed calendars, then click the Enable Date Range button. The date range selection screen will disappear and you will be able to perform searches and print reports as normal. The difference is that RISC will ignore all contacts entered outside the specified date range.
NOTE: The date range function will utilise the date you select on
the form. The default is the Actual contact date - when the contact was entered into RISC.
But you can now also choose to use the last Updated Contact Date which
can in turn provide you with a different subset of records.
This is a very handy feature for producing reports for Year Advisers and the School Executive as it is possible to produce a table view report of all contacts entered into RISC during the specified date range
(even sorted by Student Name). Grade or Year, Gender, Contact Type, Category, Status or any of the other search criteria can further break down these lists available to you.
All Excel reports listed in the Reports menu will also only provide details of contacts in the specified date range whenever a range is enabled. When the Date Range function is enabled, a tick appears next to the menu option
'Set Date Range for Reports/Queries'.
To disable the date range and have RISC recognize all contacts in the database, choose the
'Set Date Range for Reports/Queries' option and click the Disable Date Range button. The date range is always disabled when you restart RISC. Until you exit the RISC program, it will remember the last enabled date range in case you wish to re-enable it during the session. If you restart RISC, the date range will default from the 1st of January of the current year to today's date and will be disabled.
NOTES:
- If you are having difficulties finding a contact that you are sure is in the database, it may be that you have enabled a date range and the contact you are searching for is outside that range.
- Date range searches are also available in archived databases.
- Printed reports will state the date range selected.
ADDITIONAL SEARCH NOTES:
- All searches available in the Current database are also available in Archived databases.
- You should rebuild indexes regularly for the fastest possible response time when querying RISC.
- All searches in RISC are non-case-sensitive.
The Register of
Individual Student Contact (RISC) is developed & distributed
by Marillion Designs.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Marillion Designs. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
