Custom Queries

Stison Title Management provides you with a myriad of options for filtering and searching for your titles within the system. This ranges from a simple search for an ISBN, Title or Author, through to advanced filters. Beyond this, there is an even more powerful way in which you can generate and download filtered lists of titles: the custom query engine. 

This is accessed by browsing to the main book list window: Title Manager / Books and then clicking on the query button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. 

We have pointed to the relevant item with a red arrow within the screenshot below:

Clicking on this button will take you to a new screen as below: 

There are 3 main aspects to the query:

1. The restrictions or constraints
2. The output fields
3. The actual results 

The first two points enable you to define what you want to filter on and what you wish to see displayed. The third will provide you with the results. There are also two other buttons worth noting: 

 

Restrictions / Constraints

The restrictions / constraints section is where you can set the filters that you wish to apply for the search. For example, you could set it so that you are filtering on all paperbacks.

 The fields are as follows: 

And/Or: This allows you to join multiple filters together in different formats so you may wish to choose to filter for Ebook AND Epub, so the results will only show you titles that are in the Epub format. 

Field: This is a list of fields that are available for adding to the constraints; these can be true metadata fields containing specific data or values that have a true or false appearance, for example cover image (is there one or not).

Restrictor: These are logical statements that allow you to set what you need to look for in the field. The following options are available. Please note that if you wish to search using a wild card you need to use the % sign. So searching for Alex% in the title field will bring back all titles that start with Alex. Searching for %alex% will bring back all titles with alex anywhere in the title.

• = This allows a direct search for specific term or value 
  • e.g Pages = 350 will bring a result set of all tiles with less exactly 350 pages
• >=This indicates that the result is greater than or equal to the value
  • e.g Pages >= 350 will bring a result set of all tiles with more than 349 pages
• <=This indicates that the result is less than or equal to the value
  • e.g Pages <= 350 will bring a result set of all tiles with less than 351 pages
• != This indicates that the result is not equal to the value 
  • Pages != 350 will bring a result set of all tiles where the page count is not equal to 350 pages.
• In This allows you to search for all results where the Restrictor field belongs to a group
  • e.g. in Paperback will bring a result set of all tiles that have a paperback product form.
• Not in This allows you to search for all results where the Restrictor field does not belong to a group
  • e.g. Not in Paperback will bring a result set of all tiles that have do not have a product form of paperback.
• Is Null This allows you to search for blank information. 
  • e.g Publishing Status is Null will bring a set of results where there is no Publishing Status for the title. 
• Is Not Null
  • e.g Publishing Status is Not Null will bring a set of results where there is a Publishing Status for the title. 
• Is Like This allows you to compare information. 
  • e.g. ISBN is like 9781% will bring back all titles where the ISBN starts with 9781
• Is Not Like This is again comparative so as above but from a negative perspective.
  • e.g. ISBN is Not Like 9781% will bring back all titles where the ISBN does not start with 9781

Value: This is the value you wish to restrict with. This can be free text for some fields or the system will pre-populate the list for you with the ID fields.

NOTE it is possible to add multiple lines to these queries, and as such there is the ability to add brackets to the search so that you can really define your search clearly. 

The above search will bring back a list of all Ebooks that are Epubs or any titles that have no Product Form set. 

 

Output Fields

This is where you can define the outputs you wish to see when running your query. If you imagine  this as a spreadsheet, these would be the column headings that you would like to see. 

In the example above, the results would have three columns of data: Title, ISBN13, and Product Form, in that order. You can add as many fields as you like here. In addition, you can reorder the fields by dragging the up/down arrow on the left-hand side. 

There are additional options: 

Columns : If your results could come back with multiple entries for example a contributor search you may wish to separate this into multiple columns. To do this just add the number of columns you wish to separate out the data into in here. 

Sort Order : If you wish to sort the data in a specific fashion then you can set the sort order here. This is a numerical sort order so you would add in 1 for the primary sort column and 2 for secondary etc.

Sort Way : You can then choose to sort in ascending or descending fashion.

 

The results

Clicking on the results will bring up the result of your search. You will see all the titles matching your constraints and the columns of data that you are looking for. 

You will then be able to download this to your computer as a spreadsheet, save it to a particular booklist or refresh the query if you have gone back in and made changes to any of the previous screens. 

 

Saved Queries

You may have an occasion to return to previous queries that you've run. In order to save a query, once you've established the constraints and the outputs, click onto the blue button towards the top right-hand of the screen called: Saved Queries. Doing so will take you to the following screen where you can give it a name and decide the level of privacy: shared, group or private.

In order to return to these saved queries, click back onto the blue Saved Queries button again and you will see previous queries reflected as a list under separate headings based on the Privacy level. In our example below, we just have one query saved under: Your group queries.

Click onto the relevant item in order to run the query again.

Deleting a Saved Query

It is possible that you may wish to delete a saved query at a point in time in the future to do this you will need to follow the steps below. 

1. Enter the main query screen. 

2. Navigate to the Saved Queries list. 

3. Select the Query you wish to delete. 

4. Navigate back to the saved queries list and you will see a screen similar to the one below: 

5. Ensure that the Query Name you wish to delete is in the query name box. 

6. Select the radio button labelled delete. 

7. Click on the save button. 

The query will know be deleted. 

Note that this is final there is no backup of saved queries. 

Edit Defaults

Edit Defaults is located within the Constraints tab, as circled below 

This allows you to set areas of the database you wish to search. Clicking on it allows you to set the following:

Hidden: By default the system will only search the titles that are visible in the books list. You can also add titles that you have hidden from the main window.

Archived: By default the system will not search titles that are marked as archived or deleted, however if you wish to do this you can change this option here.

Included in Onix: By default the system will search all active titles, however if you wish to filter by those included or those not included in Onix feeds you can do so here.

Visible on Web: By default the system will search all active titles, however if you wish to filter by those marked as visible or those not marked as visible on the web you can do so here.

Download Options: Here you can choose the file type to download as, it can be xlsx, csv, or HTML

Content: By default the system will strip out all the HTML from text fields however you can include this if you wish, just uncheck the box.

For more information on Edit Defaults: click here.