Searching For Data
Overview
Many data maintenance screens will have a way of searching for data and the way that this works is in many cases standardised. When you have learnt to search in one screen there is a good chance that other screens will behave in the same way.
Operation
Many maintenance screens or even some search launch screens will have a way to enter search criteria. Usually these fields will have a coloured title (currently green) which show that the field is searchable. The more searchable fields that are specified, the more narrow the search. In the case of an Id field (which is unique) all other search fields are ignored. Usually there will be a 'search' button which will then retrieve the data. In some cases, if there is only one matching record then this may automatically display in its maintenance screen. If a list of matching records are found then the will be shown in a list. This list may have column headers which can be clicked to re-order the list. Usually there is a link of button which can be clicked to select the record and display it. Paging may be used which will separate the data into bite sized pages which have buttons for navigation from one page to another. In some case the list size may be limited.