Search Engine
Search Engine Overview
The TASS.web search engine provides a powerful search capability with the simplicity of a single search field, which is conveniently positioned at the top of the entity picker screen.
All searching is case-insensitive, which means that you can enter your search criteria in any casing and records will still be found.
The search engine feature can be found in entity search areas such as: Parents, Parent Account Inquiry, Student Records, Boarders, Past Students, Student Activities, Teachers, Employees, Commercial Debtors, Donors, Suppliers, Customers, and Business Directory.
Each entity has specific fields that are mapped to the search engine. Refer to the Knowledge Base articles for each entity area for more information.
Example 1
The searchable fields in the Student Record Search Engine in TASS.web Student Admin > Student Records > Student Information > Students are: Student Code, Surname, Preferred Surname, First Name, Preferred Name, Other Names, Year Group, Form Class, PC/Tutor Group, Alternate ID, E-mail, House Description, and Religion Description.
Example 2
The searchable fields in the Parent Record Search Engine in TASS.web Student Admin > Parent Records > Parent Information > Parents are: Parent Code, Surname, Parent/Caregiver 1's Name, Parent/Caregiver 2's Name, BPAY Reference Number, Parent/Caregiver 1's Occupation Description, Parent/Caregiver 2's Occupation Description, Address Name, Address Name2, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, Address Line 3, Town/Suburb, State, Postcode, Country, Home Phone, Business Phone, Mobile Phone, Facsimile, Salutation, E-mail.
How to Use the Search Engine
The search engine is a web-style plain English search that is very easy and convenient to use. Enter a search directly into the special Search field displayed at the top right of the entity picker screen.
Click into the field, enter your search string, and press the 'Enter' key, or click the 'Binoculars' icon to begin the search. The records matching your search are then displayed immediately below, and a record count is also provided.
Example 1
Searching for all Student Records where the surname is 'Bell' — enter 'bell' into the search field and press the 'Enter' key.
Example 2
Searching for all Parent Records where the town/suburb is 'Paddington' — enter 'Paddington' into the search field, and press the 'Enter' key, or the 'Binoculars' icon.
You can make your search more specific by using wildcard characters and operators when entering your search string. It is also possible to combine operators and wildcard characters into a single search.
The search engine ignores the following words:
a, an, and, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, if, in, into, is, it, no, not, of, on, or, s, such, t, that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, to, was, will, with.
Search Fields
When searching for records with the search engine in TASS.web, there are specific fields within each module to search on.
Search Strings
A search is broken down into search strings and operators.
There are two types of search strings — Singles and Phrases. A Single Search String is a single word such as 'John' or 'Address'. A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by quotes, such as "Brunswick Avenue".
Multiple terms can be combined together with other operators for more complex searches.
Wildcards
Wildcard characters are helpful when searching for records using the TASS.web search engine.
Wildcards may also be used with operators.
There are two main wildcard characters that can be used when searching in fields '*' and '?'.
Using the * Symbol
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the '*' symbol on the keyboard.
Multiple character wildcard searches look for zero or more characters in a search.
The symbol cannot be the first character in the search string, but it can be used at the end of a search string.
Example
To find records where the surname begins with 'Be...' followed by zero or more characters, enter 'be*' and press 'Enter'.
Using the ? Symbol
To perform a single character wildcard search use the '?' symbol on the keyboard.
The single character wildcard search looks for search strings that match that with the single character replaced. The symbol replaces a single character in a search.
The symbol cannot be the first character in the search string but can be used in the middle or at the end of a search string.
Example 1
To find records where the surname begins with 'Be...' and has any two other characters, enter 'be??' and press 'Enter'.
Example 2
To find records where the surname begins with 'Be...', has four more letters and ends in 's', enter 'be???s', and press 'Enter'.
Example 3
To find Parent Records where the phone number starts with ‘04’ and ends in ‘58’, enter ‘0491????58’, and press 'Enter'.
Operators
Operators are helpful when searching for data or records throughout TASS.web.
They are special words that are used to indicate logical relationships between your search words.
Operator | Description |
And | The ' Use ' Example 1 To find Parent Records where the surname is 'Bell' and the town/suburb is 'Paddington', enter 'bell Example 2 To find Student Records where the surname is 'Smith' and the year group is '10', enter 'smith Town/suburb searches cannot be performed on Student Records, as the address is linked to the Parent Record. |
Or, Space or Comma ',' | The ' Use ' Example 1 To find Parent Records where the surname is either 'Bell' or 'Jones', enter 'bell Example 2 To find Student Records where the surname is 'Jones' or the year group is '10' or '11', enter 'jones Example 3 To find Student Records where the surname is 'Jones', the House is 'Acacia' and the year group is '10', enter 'jones |
Operators and Wildcards
Operators and wildcard characters are helpful when searching for data or records throughout TASS.web.
Where you wish to search with several search words, but where only part of these search words are known, you can combine the 'and' operator and the '*' wildcard.
Example 1
To find Parent Records where the surname is 'Bell' and the town/suburb begins with 'Padd...', enter the search as 'bell and padd*' and press 'Enter'.
Example 2
To find Parent Records where the first name is ‘Karl' and the phone number starts with '0' and ends with '58', enter the search as 'karl and 0??????58’ Karl' and press 'Enter'.