Creating A Search Result View (Custom Excel Report)

A Search Result View is the mechanism to analyze and/or export data from SchoolFi.  Genesis provides all Districts with a number of Search Result Views that can be imported from the Search Review Library.  In addition, the District can create custom Search Result Views that can be integrated into  users daily work flow.  

The tab to create, edit and manage your Search Result Views can be found under the Personnel  >>  Staff tab:

The District can create Groups to manage it's Search Result Views.  To create / customize the groups, navigate to the Setup  >>  Codes tab, search for "search" and you will find the Staff Search View Groups.  Click on the Edit tab to add a new group or to edit an existing group:

You can add a new group, color the background or text for a group or retire a group on this tab. 

Importing from the Library

When you are on the Search Results View tab, click on the following button to import a Search Result View from the Library.  We recommend District periodically check the library for new additions or updates to existing Search Result Views.  

Creating your own Search Result View (Custom Excel Report)

When you are on the Search Results View tab, click on the following button to create your custom Search Result View:

In the popup box, enter the name of your Search Result View that you are creating an click on the Create button.  For this example, we will build a simple Search Result View that will display staff members attendance balances.  

After the Search Result View is created, you are taken to the dimensions (or the set up screen) for the Search Result View.  There are three main sections described below:  

In the Yellow section you can:

• Modify the name of the Search Result View
• Select the Group for the Search Result View
• Connect a staff list to the Search Result View so that every time the Search Result View is utilized, it will ONLY be utilized for staff that are included in the Staff List.  Please note the staff list can be static or dynamitic.  
• You can record a Version identifier (to help track future modifications)
• You can change the sort order for the Search Result View.  The system defaults the sort order to last name, First name.  You can select any of the columns and the sort order for the default display of your Search Result View.

In the purple section (Screen Access) 

• You can select the tab or tabs in SchoolFi that the Search Result can be "added in".  This feature is extremely useful when you are creating a search Result View that contains payroll information (casual pay, deductions, or gross to net) or one that contains telephone number or contact (address) information.  

In the aqua section (Role Access)

• You MUST set the SchoolFi role or Roles that can utilize the Search Result View.  There is an option to make the Search Result View available to all users.  Search Result View that contain sensitive or confidential information should be restricted to the staff members who should have access to the data. 

Lasty, the lower section of the screen will display the column information.  Each row will be a column that will be displayed when the Search Result View is accessed in SchoolFi.

• Seq:  This is the sequence that the column will be displayed.  Lower numbers will be to the left and as the sequence number increases, the column will be displayed to the right of the previous column.
• Name:  This is the name or the header of the column
• Expression:  This is the data field that will be extracted from the SchoolFi database 
• Align:  Alignment of the data when displayed on the screen
• Width:  This value is in pts for the width of the column. There are 72 points per inch. A good starting value to test with is 15.
• Check Box:  Check this box to not escape HTML values.  The Search Result View will honor carriage returns within the cell of the box is checked.
• Format:  This is how the data will be displayed (formatted) on the screen
• Color Scale:  This option will set the background and/or text color on the screen when the Search Result View is Displayed
• Generic Codes:  This feature is used to assign colors to this cell utilizing the Code set.
• Link To:  This feature will create a hyperlink for the data contained in the cell and when clicked on, will take the SchoolFi user to the respective tab for the selected staff member in SchoolFi
• Screen (check box): data for the row will be displayed on the screen  
• Excel (check box):data for the row will be displayed in the custom excel report.   

Columns that are included in this simple Search Result View sample:

For this example, we will build a simple Search Result View that will display staff members attendance balances.  We wanted to include the Staff ID number, the staff name and the various attendance balances for the staff.  We also wanted to color code the balances and display "N/A" is the staff member dis not qualify for a balance code.  

We utilized the following column dimensions:

And the following Color Scale:

The output is a s follows: