While we are still working on the Query Results screen of LIDA, and deciding what fields to include there, sometime in the next week we also need to decide what information to include on the PRINTABLE version of the Query Results.
BACKGROUND: One of the most powerful features of LIDA is the capability to ask a multi-faceted question of the data. This means you can click on the “Search All Listings” button, and have LIDA “Show me the listings where:” and then add conditions, such as
- The style/genre is “Patriotic” AND
- The composer is Robert W. Smith OR Rossano Galante AND
- The piece is less than 6 minutes long AND
- We haven’t played it in the last 3 years
This is common for the kinds of questions music directors love to ask of their librarians – or their library data.
If you keep your library data in a spreadsheet, you’ll have a major time-consuming wrestling match to get the answer.
But LIDA can answer questions like that in the blink of an eye. In our alpha testing of more than 23,000 records of sample data, we see the results of a multi-condition query like that in less than half a second.
Once that question is answered, our next question – and this is one for the Beta Test Team right now – is “What information do we show in the results?”
This is a question we need to have answered for both the on-screen results display and the printable results page. (They are different layouts.)
Currently, the screen results displays EVERYTHING. Trevor has brought to my attention that we don’t need all that on the results of a query – we only need the essential info. (If someone wants all the other details, they can get them on the All Listings page.)
So we need to figure out what to show on the query results displays. We definitely need Title, Composer, Author, Call/File Number, Duration, and Grade. Right? Do we also need publisher? Publish date? Date last played?
This is something we have to decide now, and something we will refine during beta testing.
If you have some ideas about this, let us know. You can either comment on this post, or use our CONTACT PAGE to get in touch.
I’m scheduling this News Article to be published early on Christmas Day, so MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.
And stay tuned for more.