FAQ

Axiell Collections is an HTML5 web-based Collections Management System (CMS) that runs in any modern browser, notably Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Apple Safari. No browser plug-ins are required.

It is highly recommended that you use the latest version of your preferred browser and keep it up to date.

Check whether a filter is active; a filter is essentially a persistent search statement that is automatically added to every search query until you disable it. When a filter is active when you restore a group, any records in the group that meet the filter's search criteria will be filtered out and will not be restored.

If there is a filter icon beside the name of the current data source in the Title bar, a filter is active:

Full details about filters and how to deactivate them can be found here.

Full Text indexing was made available to Application Administrators with the release of Axiell Designer A tool for designing, creating, customizing and managing Axiell Collections applications and databases, broadly speaking, the Axiell Collections Model Application. As well as managing databases, including user access and permissions, Designer is used for such tasks as translating field labels, tooltips, values in drop lists, etc. version 7.8 and Collections 1.14. If implemented (and it is optional), a single Full Text index table per .inf file replaces all Free Text index tables, all non-unique Text (term) index tables and the wordlist table, with the result that SQL queries are simpler and more efficient.

When Full Text indexing has been implemented in a data source The management of a collection can involve a vast amount of information about objects / items / books, people and organizations, events, administration and more. This information is stored as records in data sources. Each data source stores a specific type of information: details about collection items, people, events, loans, and so on.:

• Search performance in long text fields, fields with unique terms, fields with non-unique terms and Linked fields A type of field used to link one record to another. A Linked field is a drop list of values (records that the field can link to). When a link is made, the field stores a reference to the linked record (a linkref). can be improved.
•  In such fields:
  • Phrase searching is available. The contains phrase and does not contain phrase search operators are available in a Standard search; contains phrase is available in an Advanced search1 Collections version 1.16 onwards..
  • The starts with operator is available in a Standard and Advanced2 Collections version 1.16 onwards. search. starts with is useful when searching long text fields as it allows you to search for the first word in the field, in contrast to equals, which searches for your search term anywhere in the field.
  • The containsany and containsall search operators are available in an Advanced search3 Collections version 1.16 onwards..

• Can improve searches where values include special characters (commas, hyphens, brackets, etc.) as these characters or combinations of characters can be omitted4 Collections version 1.15 onwards..

Details about implementing Full Text indexing can be found in the Axiell Designer Online Help.

If your organization's Axiell Collections licence has expired, you will receive a message similar to the following when trying to log in (after which login fails):

Contact Support for assistance.

If all licences available to your organization are currently being used, you will receive a message similar to the following when attempting to log in (after which login fails):

A licence will become available immediately when at least one user logs out of Collections by selecting Account>Log out from the Main menu; if a user does not log out correctly and simply closes the browser or tab in which they were working, their licence will be released after 5 minutes (from version 1.9.6 onwards) or when an Administrator manually releases it.

Note: In a Hosted environment it is important to log out of Collections (select Account>Log out from the Main menu) rather than simply close the browser tab or browser in which you are working so that your licence is immediately freed-up for another user.

Note that Collections counts licences in use per browser, so if a user has a session open in two browsers, this will use two licences.

The background image of the Collections Login screen changes every 30 seconds:

A default set of images is used, and these are stored in the \Content\Backgrounds\Login sub folder of the Collections core software installation, e.g.:

Users with Administrative access are able to delete these images and copy other images to this folder.

Images are automatically resized to fit a screen, so a large resolution for the image files is recommended (at least 1920 x 1080). When the image files are replaced it is only necessary to refresh your browser (F5) to view the new images (they will display automatically next time a user accesses your Collections site).

Important

Every time the Collections core software is updated to a new version, the default images will be copied to this folder again, alongside your own images and you will need to delete them.

When you are logged in to a Collections application it is possible5 Collections 1.9.3 onwards to open it in multiple tabs in a browser; this allows you to work on different things in Collections at the same time (e.g. searching on one tab, adding a new record in another, viewing different records on different tabs, and so on). Logging out logs you out of all instances of Collections in tabs in the current browser, and in any other instances of the browser if it was opened as another window.

Note however: if your institution has more than one Collections application installed on the same server (e.g. Production and Training) and you are logged in to one and then log in to another on a different tab in the same browser, you will be logged out of the first.

This occurs when more than one Collections application is installed on the same server and in the same domain (the domain is bold in these examples), e.g.:

https://supp-srv-01.adlibsoft.com/production

and

https://supp-srv-01.adlibsoft.com/training

The explanation for this behaviour is that ASP.Net sessions are shared among browser tabs on a domain basis; as a result, a new application session is created when you log in to a different instance of the Collections application and any open session in another tab is automatically lost.

The solution is either to have a separate domain for each instance of the Collections application or, more simply, to use a separate browser for each Collections application.

Possibly!

Axiell Collections features a unique MS Office plug-in called Axiell OfficeConnect, which enables users of Word, Excel and PowerPoint to search their Collections data directly from the Office application.

Note: This plug-in was designed for desktop users of office rather than Office365 cloud users.

Data from the database will show in Office (if access is allowed) and the user can insert images and (html) formatted data into an Office document or automatically create a table by selecting multiple records. With OfficeConnect it is possible to build documents / reports using information managed in Axiell Collections without having to use an Axiell user interface at all. This type of reporting is available to users who do not need to work in Axiell Collections.

Any part of the Collections database can be configured to be available in MS Office while respecting access rights.

Details about OfficeConnect can be found in a PDF here.

Note: Although this PDF was produced for Adlib (the desktop predecessor of Axiell Collections), the broad techniques described apply to Collections.

The easiest way to identify which version and configuration of the Model Application is running in your Axiell Collections system is to check the browser tab in which Axiell Collections is running. In this example, the XPlus configuration of Model Application version 5.0 is used by Axiell Collections:

To present record data in a single table, using a Word template as the Output format An Output format is an XSLT style sheet or Microsoft Word or Excel template that specifies what fields are included in a report or printed output, and how the data is laid out and styled., all field references are specified in a single row and the <<[StartRecordList]>> / <<[EndRecordList]>> parameters are included in the rows above and below the field references row. In this example, we add column headers in the top row (this is optional); the title(s), author(s) and document type from records in the Library catalogue will be listed in a table:

It is possible to present the data for each record in its own table however, and this will accommodate a more complex presentation of the data across multiple rows and columns. To achieve this, do not include the <<[StartRecordList]>> / <<[EndRecordList]>> parameters.

In this case, it is important that Text wrapping is set to None in the Table properties dialogue: select Properties on the Layout tab of the Ribbon and confirm that Text wrapping is set to None (it should be by default). If Text wrapping is not set to None and a fixed position has been specified for your table, you will find that tables will display on top of each other when your record data is printed.

More details about using tables in Word templates can be found here.

A record's unique identifier is its priref, a number allocated when a record is created. Currently, the simplest way to view a record's unique identifier is to add the priref column to Result set View.

Although no third-party report generator is required to build reports in Collections, if your reporting needs are not met by Collections' in-built reporting facility, integration with powerful reporting tools like MS Power BI is supported by the Collections WebAPI. Application Administrators can find details about the Collections WebAPI here (or contact Support for details).

Details about reporting in Collections can be found here.

To present record data in a single table, using a Word template as the Output format An Output format is an XSLT style sheet or Microsoft Word or Excel template that specifies what fields are included in a report or printed output, and how the data is laid out and styled., all field references are specified in a single row and the <<[StartRecordList]>> / <<[EndRecordList]>> parameters are included in the rows above and below the field references row. In this example, we add column headers in the top row (this is optional); the title(s), author(s) and document type from records in the Library catalogue will be listed in a table:

It is possible to present the data for each record in its own table however, and this will accommodate a more complex presentation of the data across multiple rows and columns. To achieve this, do not include the <<[StartRecordList]>> / <<[EndRecordList]>> parameters.

In this case, it is important that Text wrapping is set to None in the Table properties dialogue: select Properties on the Layout tab of the Ribbon and confirm that Text wrapping is set to None (it should be by default). If Text wrapping is not set to None and a fixed position has been specified for your table, you will find that tables will display on top of each other when your record data is printed.

More details about using tables in Word templates can be found here.

Here we see the Publish on web (publish_on_web (wp)) field on the Management details panel:

When a checkbox is not selected (it does not contain a tick), it is obviously empty and its value is NULL.

To search for records in which the Publish on web checkbox is unticked, we could perform the following Advanced search:

publish_on_web = ""

When a checkbox is ticked, the value it holds is an x.

To return records where the Publish on web checkbox is ticked, we could perform either of the following searches:

publish_on_web = x

-OR-

publish_on_web = *

(return all records in which the Publish on web field contains a value).

Knowing that the value in a ticked checkbox is an x is important when performing a search and replace on a checkbox or when adding a tick to a checkbox when importing data.

There are several reasons why a search might not return all the records you might expect to see. It is possible that your search terms are excluding records (adjust your search terms); or that you are not authorized to see all records (speak to your Application Administrator); or perhaps there is an active filter that is filtering out records. A filter is essentially a persistent search statement that is automatically added to every search query until you disable it.

If there is a filter icon beside the name of the current data source in the Title bar, a filter is active:

Full details about filters and how to deactivate them can be found here.

The following only affects data sources without Full text indexing.

Some background (this is explained in more detail here): not all fields in Collections are indexed. When you search a data source The management of a collection can involve a vast amount of information about objects / items / books, people and organizations, events, administration and more. This information is stored as records in data sources. Each data source stores a specific type of information: details about collection items, people, events, loans, and so on. using the Standard tab of the Search box, only indexed fields are made available for searching. For our purposes, a field can be indexed in one of two ways: the entire contents of the field is indexed as a single value, a Text (term) index, or each word in a field is indexed separately, a Free text index.

The issue: from Collections 1.16 onwards, the search operator drop list in a Standard search includes the contains all, contains any and contains phrase search operators; at the moment however, when searching fields with a Free text index, contains any and contains phrase behave as contains all, locating the search value anywhere in the search field (it is worth mentioning that contains phrase has in fact always performed a contains all search in Free text indexed fields).

This will be changed in a future release.

Here we see the Publish on web (publish_on_web (wp)) field on the Management details panel:

When a checkbox is not selected (it does not contain a tick), it is obviously empty and its value is NULL.

To search for records in which the Publish on web checkbox is unticked, we could perform the following Advanced search:

publish_on_web = ""

If all we need to do is return records where the Publish on web checkbox is ticked, we could perform the following search (return all records in which the Publish on web field contains a value):

publish_on_web = *

But how do we perform a search and replace on a checkbox or add a tick to a checkbox when importing data? The answer is x: when a checkbox is selected, the value stored in the field is an x.

Note: Thus, a search for publish_on_web = x will also return all records where the Publish on web checkbox is ticked.

To search for records where the Publish on web checkbox is ticked and remove the tick, we search for x and replace it with nothing:

If we want to import records in which the Publish on web checkbox is ticked, the value we import into the field is an x.

We demonstrate how to filter items (rows) in a table using Result set View; the method is similar in other tables.

It is possible to filter records on the values in one or more columns so that only records that match the filtering condition are listed.

To filter records based on the values in a column:

1. Click the three vertically aligned dots in a column header (title in this example) and select Filter from the menu:

   

   1. Depending on the field type you will be able to:
      1. Select a value from a drop list:

         

         -OR-

      1. Select an operator from the drop list:

         

         Operator	Details
         is equal to	All records that do not match the filter value are filtered out.
         contains	All records that do not match contain the filter value are filtered out.
         starts with	All records that do not start with the specified character(s) are filtered out.
         ends with	All records that do not end with the specified character(s) are filtered out.

         Note: The filter ignores case and diacritics (accents etc.)

      2. And then enter a value in the text box:

         

2. Select Filter.

   All records that do not meet the condition set by the operator and value are filtered out. In this example, only records where the value contains the anywhere in the title field are listed:

   

   Note the filter icon in the column header indicating that a filter has been specified on this column.

3. To further filter the records listed, we could modify the filter on the title column or add another filter on one of the other columns.

   Note: If you need to filter records by values in a field that is not included in the Result set View, it is possible to add (and remove) columns in the Result set settings box, which is accessed by selecting Settings in the Result set View toolbar.

4. To remove the filter, select Clear.

A simple way to change the order of columns temporarily in any table in Collections is to:

1. Click anywhere in a column header and hold down the mouse button.
2. Drag left or right and release the mouse button.

This is not a permanent change to the order of columns.

For a permanent change to the order of columns in Result set View, select Settings in the Result set View toolbar:

Details here.

Field groups can be configured to display as table grids. In versions of Collections prior to version 1.11, grids have a fixed height with a vertical scrollbar to scroll through all the rows. With Collections 1.11 onwards it is possible to change the height of table grids, to show more or fewer rows by default for instance.

In Display mode, hover the cursor over the corner icon (six small dots in a triangle) in the bottom right corner of the grid until it changes to a double arrow:

Hold the left mouse button down and drag the icon up or down to change the height of the grid; let go of the mouse button to fix the height. The new height of this box is remembered for you by Collections:

The background image of the Collections Login screen changes every 30 seconds:

A default set of images is used, and these are stored in the \Content\Backgrounds\Login sub folder of the Collections core software installation, e.g.:

Users with Administrative access are able to delete these images and copy other images to this folder.

Images are automatically resized to fit a screen, so a large resolution for the image files is recommended (at least 1920 x 1080). When the image files are replaced it is only necessary to refresh your browser (F5) to view the new images (they will display automatically next time a user accesses your Collections site).

Important

Every time the Collections core software is updated to a new version, the default images will be copied to this folder again, alongside your own images and you will need to delete them.

A number of Views include a Reset option that will restore the default settings of the View without affecting every other settings across Collections:

• Result set View
• Record details View
• Gallery View
• Related records View
• Hierarchy Browser

Many dialogue boxes also include a Reset option that will restore the dialogue to its default settings.

To reset all settings across Collections, use the Account>Settings option in the Main menu.

Depending on your version of Collections, you will find options in some dialogue boxes controlled by a checkbox (older versions of Collections) or a slider (Collections version 1.17 onwards). For example, here we see the older style Import dialogue:

and here the new:

The functionality is identical. Enable a checkbox by clicking it so that it has a tick; enable a slider by sliding it so that it has a blue background.

Note: You may also find that some screen captures in the Help still show a checkbox when Collections now has a slider. Over time, all affected screens will be updated to show a slider.