User Lists
This section describes how to use User Lists in MISTRO Farm
User lists are found in several parts of MISTRO and they enable you to list information in the exact format that you require. To create a list, you must complete several tasks. These include:
If you wish to restrict the records in the list, you need to create a condition. For example, let us imagine that we are only interested in lactations that have a Peak ICCC more than 500,000. To create such a condition, click the Add button at the bottom of the Wizard. This will display a further screen for creating the condition.
Step 2. Selecting a field for your conditions.
Step 3. Selecting an operator.
Step 4. Selecting a value for comparison.
Step 1. Selecting a condition.
User lists are found in several parts of MISTRO and they enable you to list information in the exact format that you require. To create a list, you must complete several tasks. These include:
· Specifying the columns you want to appear on your report (the fields).
· Specifying how you want the rows (the records) in the report sorted.
· Specifying what records you want to appear in your list.
Once you have completed these three steps, you can view the list on the screen or print it out. MISTRO also provides the convenience of being able to save the specifications for a list so that you use it again later without having to re-enter all the specifications again.
6.1 The User List screen.
User Lists are created and managed through a screen similar to the following figure.
The typical screen used to manage User Lists.
The previous example shows the screen that appears when you click the “Lactations” tab of the “Herd” view. There is a grid located in the centre of the view that lists any previous User Lists that have been saved, and three buttons at the base of the form.
The New button is used to create a new user list.
The Open button is used to open a report that is highlighted in the “Pre-recorded reports” grid.
The Delete button us used to delete a report from the “Pre-recorded reports” grid.
When you first select a User List form, the “Pre-recorded reports” grid will be blank and the only appropriate operation is to click the New button.
6.2 Creating a new User List.
To create a new User List from the User List screen, click the New button at the base of the screen. This will initiate a User List Wizard that leads you through the process of constructing a list.
6.2.1 Specifying the fields to list.
The first task in designing a list is to specify what you want to appear in each column. The figure on the following page is used for that purpose.
The screen contains two list boxes. The one of the left lists all the fields that you can potentially include in your report. The list box on the right fills with the fields you actually wish to include in your report.
To select the fields you wish to use, click on the name of the field in the left hand list box, and then click the Move right button (the one with an arrow head pointing right). Then select your next field and click the button again. Alternatively, you may click on the first field you require, and then click on the second field you need while holding down the Ctrl key. This will then highlight both fields simultaneously. Using this method, you can highlight as many fields as you wish. When you finally click the Move right button, all the highlighted fields will be moved into the Fields to list listbox.
The Move left button is used to move a selected field in the right hand list box back to the left hand list box. In other words, remove the field from the list.
The Move all left and Move all right buttons move all the fields in the direction nominated. This is a quick and easy way of clearing all the selected fields from the Fields to list listbox.
Selecting fields to include in a user list.
To view all the fields from which you can construct your list, you can click on the small arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar in the left hand list box. This will scroll the list forwards and backwards so that you can view the entire choice available. You can rearrange the fields in the right hand list box to reflect the arrangement in your report by dragging the fields up and down with the mouse.
To follow an example, consider that you would like to list all the lactations that recorded a peak ICCC more than 500,000 during the last three years.
First, open the “Lactations” tab on the “Herd” view, and click the New button if you haven’t already done so. Select the following fields by clicking on them in the left had list box and then clicking the Move right button.
Herd rec#
Calving date
Peak ICCC
Peak Date.
Click the Next button when you have these four fields listed in the right hand list box. The next screen that appears is used to specify the order in which you want your records sorted.
6.2.2 Specifying how you want your list sorted.
Specifying the sort order for records in the User List
You can sort your list using up to five fields. In this example you might wish to sort the lactations in descending order of Peak ICCC. To do this:
Click the arrow beside the first combo box below the heading Field. It currently contains the text Herd rec#.
This will display a list of the fields you have selected.
Click on Peak ICCC in this drop down list.
The Combo box now displays Peak ICCC.
This means that the list will display the records sorted in order of Peak ICCC.
To specify that you want the list sorted in descending order of Peak ICCC, click the small arrow beside the first Direction combo. This will let you chose between Ascending and Descending by clicking on the option with the mouse.
Click the Next button when you have made these changes.
In some situations you may require more than one field for sorting. For example, if you sort your records of cows in order of agegroup, you will have many cows in the same agegroup. You will get a better report if you sort the list on both agegroup and herd recording number. By specifying both fields, the records that have the same agegroup will be sorted in order of herd recording number. You can nominate up to five fields for sorting and that should be more than adequate for most reports.
Once you have set the sort order you require, you need to tell MISTRO which records you would like to retrieve. This is done with the next screen.
6.2.3 Specifying which records you wish to include in your list.
Setting the conditions for a record to be included in the list.
Conditions can be placed on a list to determine which records should appear. The Conditions Wizard shows a list of active conditions in the centre of the screen. When you create a new list, there will be no conditions acting.
In some situations, you will want to list all records in the database. In this case, you would just click the Next button without applying any conditions – leave the conditions display blank.
If you wish to restrict the records in the list, you need to create a condition. For example, let us imagine that we are only interested in lactations that have a Peak ICCC more than 500,000. To create such a condition, click the Add button at the bottom of the Wizard. This will display a further screen for creating the condition.
The window used to create/edit a condition.
The four steps to creating a condition are numbered in the above screen. To nominate the condition, field, and operator, you click the small arrow to the right of the combo box and make your choice from the drop down list. Let’s deal with the easy ones first.
Step 2. Selecting a field for your conditions.
The drop down list for the source Field (displayed when you click on the arrow at the right of the field) will contain all the fields that are currently selected for printing in your report. Select the field on which you wish to create the condition from this list. For example, select Peak ICCC if you want to create a condition listing animals with a Peak ICCC greater than 500.
Step 3. Selecting an operator.
The drop down list of Operators provides seven options. The first six are self explanatory. There are occasions when you will only want cows with a particular field equal to a value, greater than a value, and so on. The last operator listed is Contains.
The Contains operator is used when placing a condition on a text field. A text field contains characters rather than numbers. For example, the registered name of a cow. You use this operator when you are looking for a part of a name. For example, you may wish to locate all the bulls that have the text VALIANT as part of their registered name. In this case, the condition would be “if Registered Name contains VALIANT”.
Step 4. Selecting a value for comparison.
The Value is generally a number or a date that is used to compare with the Field in the condition. The Value is 500 for the condition “if Peak ICCC is greater than 500”.
In most cases, you will just want to compare a field with a value that you type in as in the previous example. Other examples where a comparison value is typed in include:
If calving date is greater than 1/8/03
If last heat date is less than 1/11/03
In these cases, click on the Value heading to place a dot beside it (this is the way MISTRO normally sets the screen up). The field below will then allow you to type in the comparison value you require.
In some special rare cases, you might like to compare two fields. In this case, you would click on the Another Field heading. You will then need to select a field for comparison. An example of this might be:
If Current PI is less than the cow’s Average PI.
If Litres produced in the current lactation is greater than Litres produced in the previous lactation.
In these special cases, both sides of the condition are fields within the database.
Step 1. Selecting a condition.
There are four types of conditions. These are:
And
Or
) and (
) or (
The type of condition is important if you are to get the animals you require on your list.
The first condition in a list should always use the And condition. Think of the first condition in the following terms: “I want a cow to appear on my list if she is in my database And she fits this condition”.
Examples of single conditions on a user list include:
And Calving date is less than 1/10/03
And Peak ICCC is greater than 250
The task gets more complicated when you want to apply more than one condition.
Think about mating time and consider the conditions necessary to get the cows required for a vet visit. You might want to get the vet to check the following groups of cows.
Cows that have not been on heat and were calved before the 1/9/03.
Cows that had an RFM at calving.
Cows that had a CIDR inserted on the 1/11/03.
Will the following set of conditions get you the cows you require ?
Include the cow in the list if she is in my database
And her calving date is less than 1/09/03
And her last heat is blank (in other words, she hasn’t had one)
Or her last problem code was an RFM
Or her last problem code was treatment with a CIDR
And her last problem date was 1/11/03.
The answer is No !
You would in fact get the cows that have not been on heat, or have had an RFM, or were treated with a CIDR, but only if the last problem date for the cows was 1/11/03 (the last And condition). The computer works down the list of conditions when deciding whether a cow should be included and does not consider the separate groups you are really looking for.
The list of required cows I specified above is in fact more complex and has three distinct separate groups.
Group 1 Cows that have not been on heat and were calved before the 1/9/03.
Group 2 Cows that had an RFM at calving.
Group 3 Cows that had a CIDR inserted on the 1/11/03.
To obtain these three groups of cows, you must use the following conditions
Include the cow in the list if she is in my database
) And ( her calving date is less than 1/09/03
And her last heat is blank (in other words, she hasn’t had one)
) Or ( her last problem code was an RFM
) Or ( her last problem code was treatment with a CIDR
And her last problem date was 1/11/03.
In this situation, the bracketed operators group your conditions together and MISTRO solves the conditions within the brackets first. You can see for the three groups of cows required, there are three bracketed operators. These conditions will get you the cows you require.
What would the following conditions provide ?
Include the cow in the list if she is in my database
) And ( her calving date is less than 1/09/03
) And ( her last heat is blank (in other words, she hasn’t had one)
Or her last problem code was an RFM
) Or ( her last problem code was treatment with a CIDR
And her last problem date was 1/11/03.
The answer:
Cows with a calving date less than 1/9/03
That have not been on heat or had an RFM
Or that have had a CIDR inserted on the 1/11/03.
A totally different group of cows !
What would the following conditions provide ?
Include the cow in the list if she is in my database
) And ( her calving date is less than 1/09/03
And her last heat is blank (in other words, she hasn’t had one)
Or her last problem code was an RFM
) Or ( her last problem code was treatment with a CIDR
And her last problem date was 1/11/03.
The answer:
Cows with a calving date less than 1/9/03 that have not been on heat or had an RFM
As well as the cows that had a CIDR inserted on the 1/11/03.
Another different set of cows.
When you have finished designing your condition, click the OK button. Your new condition will then appear in the Condition dialog as shown below.
A User List with an active condition.
All active conditions are listed in the Conditions dialog. You can edit a particular condition by clicking on it in the list so that it is highlighted, and then clicking the Edit button. To delete an active condition, highlight the condition by clicking on it, and then click the Remove button.
Click the Next button when you have successfully created a condition on the Peak ICCC.
6.2.4 Saving a report specification.
The final step in creating a list is to give the list a title. This is done using the final dialog box of the User List Wizard which is shown in the next figure.
Setting a title for the report and save the specification.
To give the report a title, type a title in the field headed Report title. In this example, you might enter a title of “High cell count lactations”.
You have the option of saving this specification so that you can use the list again at a later date. To do this, you should enter a Report save name. In this example, you might enter a report save name of “High peak cell counts”. Then click the Save user list specification button to save the specification for later use. A message will then appear to confirm that the User List has been saved. If a report already exists with the same name, you will be asked if you wish to replace the existing report.
View the list by clicking the View list button once you have given the report a title and saved the specification if you desire.
6.2.5 Viewing a User List.
The following screen is used to display a User List.
A User List displayed on the screen.
The User List Viewer displays the list in a grid. The titles for each column are displayed at the top of the grid. You can rearrange the columns in the list by dragging the column titles. This is done by locating the mouse pointer over a column, pressing and holding the left mouse button, moving the mouse to the left or right, and then releasing the mouse button. The column will remain in the position chosen when you release the mouse button.
At the top of the report, a number of buttons are provided. The Print button will print the report on your default printer. The Move button will allow you to reposition the cursor in the list. The Freeze button will lock the left hand column so that it does not scroll off the screen. The Unfreeze button will release this column so that is will scroll off the screen. The Close button will close the report and return you to the User List dialog.
The Reformat button will allow you to return to the design Wizard and modify the fields, sort order, or conditions for the report. You can move back and forward through the Wizard until you obtain the required screen by clicking the Back and Next buttons.
The following screen shows the User List Dialog after you have created and saved this first specification.
6.2.6 Opening an existing User List.
The User List Dialog with a previously saved report listed.
When you have created and saved User Lists, they will be displayed in the User List Dialog when you open the window. You can open one of these pre-recorded lists by clicking on the report you require, and then clicking the Open button. This will immediately display the report on the screen using the User List Viewer. The list can then be modified to meet your requirements using the Reformat button on the viewer.
The Delete button on the dialog will delete a previously saved report.
