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Removing the 1,000 Record Limit onSearch Requests
Case Background
The AMS / Remedy database has over 16,000 records. Searching and reporting require the ability to access a subset or sometimes all records contained therein.
Symptoms
When running a search a message appears advising that only the first 1,000 records were retrieved. But for reporting purposes, you require all 16,000 records. Is Remedy incapable of extracting more than 1,000 records? No.
The Cure
Here’s what to do.
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Action |
Description |
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From the Remedy Search or New Request screen menu:
Select Tools -> Options…
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The OPTIONS dialogue box appears.
In the ON SEARCH section, the fields are to be filled as follows:
The ON SEARCH field value is set to "CLEAR ALL FIELDS." This ensures that no default values are input prior to the search which may cause your search to be unwittingly limited.
The "LIMIT NUMBER OF ITEMS RETURNED" box must be checked. The value in the adjacent field must be set to 0. This nomenclature allows an unlimited number of records to be returned in a search. For our purposes, this is appropriate.
Press OK to save settings.
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By applying these settings you will be able to select all records in the data file—very useful for reporting from the Remedy database. |
Downloading Data and Reporting
Background
Remedy is filled with problems and solutions. From this database you might want to generate the contents of an FAQ list for a Web page, scan responses to problems to find an answer to a new problem, run statistical reports on request frequency, problem types, or response times. You’re limited only by the data stored.
Symptoms
Try as you might, you cannot get the data out. Techno-medically, we refer to this problem as
Data Irregularity.
Treatment
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Action |
Description |
This process has a number of components:
Run a query or search to identify the records upon which to report — using the SEARCH or ADVANCED SEARCH functions of Remedy.
Select or highlight the records.
Start the Remedy Reporting function and create a new report specification — or use an existing report.
Run the FILE EXPORT function to save to a delimited text file.
Load the file into Excel or Access for reporting.
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| Example:
Start by creating a simple Search such as looking for all Reset Forgotten Password requests.
Note: The search criteria may be expanded by placing values in any of the open fields or by using the Advanced Search option. |
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| Press the SEARCH button.
The results screen appears as shown in the adjacent cell. Names have been banked out to protect the innocent.
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Top part of screen above list all the request headers meeting the criterion/criteria.
Screen footer below displays the number of records meeting the criterion/criteria.
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Place cursor at the top and click to select the first record.
Scroll to the end of the list.
Hold down the SHIFT key.
Click on the last record.
All records appear in inverse colour and are selected. |
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| From the Remedy menu select TOOLS -> REPORTING.
Here you set up the report contents. |
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| The REPORT STYLES window appears. It lists all previously created reports. The top item in the list is NEW STYLE. Select it to create a new report from scratch.
Note that the PROPERTIES dialogue box appears so that you may begin the report specification process. |
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| There are 5 tabs in the PROPERTIES box. Since this simple example expects that most of the formatting and analytical work will occur in Excel or Access, only the FIELDS and GENERAL tab will be used. |
| Select fields for the report. All the fields come from the Remedy database. Some are input fields and some, such as date, time and status are maintained by the Remedy application.
Select fields by clicking on those you want. Selected fields appear in the lower part of the screen.
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| Click on the GENERAL tab to name your report. I’m calling this simple report "Walk-in Demo." Any notes on the report may be placed in the COMMENT section.
Press the OK button to save the report. Once saved, the template may be reused. |
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| To this point we have selected records with a Search and created a field extraction template in the Reporting utility. Next, we run the extract and create a file. |
| From the menu, follow the path:
REPORT -> EXPORT TO -> FILE… |
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Provide a file name and select the .CSV (comma separated values) file type.
This is the easiest way to get the data into Excel or Access.
Press SAVE to run the data extract.
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| While extracting the records, progress is displayed as shown in the adjacent cell.
Records are exported to the file in blocks of 100 and you’ll see the counter pause as it progresses with the extract. |
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| The extraction process is complete. Use your favourite reporting tool to open the file and manipulate the data as required. |
Setting the Default Logon Information
Regular Remedy users may wish to automate their logon. Otherwise, you are required to enter your user name and password before every session. This is not necessary. Rather than display the process I’ll ask you to contact me if you have not set up your logon defaults.
Marden |
