EDCS Query Tool Help
The EDCS Query Tool allows you to search and browse the contents of the
Environmental Data Coding Specification (EDCS) dictionaries through an
intuitive graphical user interface. You can use this tool to view the
contents of each EDCS dictionary, search for words or phrases in one or all
of the EDCS dictionaries, and display one or more individual entries from
any EDCS dictionary.
To learn more about using the EDCS Query Tool, click a topic in the table
of contents.
Table of Contents:
Browsing the EDCS Dictionaries
The EDCS contains nine dictionaries. These are the classifications (EC),
the attributes (EA), the attribute value characteristics (EV), the
attribute enumerants (EE), the units (EU), the unit scales (ES), the unit
equivalence classes (EQ), the organizational schemas (EO), and the groups
(EG) dictionaries. For more information on the role and function of each
of these dictionaries, please see the
Final Committee Draft version
of the
Environmental Data Coding Specification (EDCS FCD ISO/IEC 18025). The EDCS
Query Tool allows you to browse the contents of each of these
dictionaries.
The attribute enumerants (EE) dictionary entries are scoped within the
attributes (EAs). And there is only one entry in the organizational
schemas (EO) dictionary, and all entries in the groups (EG) dictionary
belong to that single entry in the EO dictionary. Therefore, the EDCS
Query Tool shows the content of the EE dictionary in concert with the EA
dictionary, and combines the browsing of the EO and the EG dictionaries
into one selection.
The Browse tab contains a drop-down selection box that allows you to select
the EDCS dictionary you wish to browse: EC, EA (with EEs), EO (with
groups), EU, ES, EV, or EQ.
The content of the selected dictionary is displayed in alphabetical order
of labels in the window below the drop-down selection box. When you select
a different EDCS dictionary in the drop-down box, this window will update
automatically. A screen shot of the Browse window is shown in Figure
1.
Each entry's label works as a hyperlink, where the hyperlink opens a Dictionary Entry Display Window showing the EDCS
dictionary entry for that concept.
Figure 1 - The Browse window
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Searching the EDCS
You can use the search mechanism in the EDCS Query Tool to look for words,
phrases, or entries in a specific EDCS dictionary, or in all EDCS
dictionaries at once.
Click the Search tab to enter search mode. From the drop-down selection
box, select any of the nine EDCS dictionaries you wish to search, or choose
All to search all of them. Then type a search query in the text box, and
click the Search button to start the search. The results that match the
query will be displayed in the search window.
Each returned result will include the label of the entry along with the
name of the dictionary in which the entry is found. You can double-click
on a returned result to see that entry. A screen shot of the search window
is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 - The Search window after a search has been
performed
Selecting a different dictionary from the drop-down selection box will not
affect the display of the current set of search results, until the Search
button is pushed again.
You can use the EDCS Query Tool to perform simple or complex searches. The
search mechanism can perform searches based on full or partial words,
Boolean expressions, or POSIX regular expressions. A short overview of the
types of searches you can perform is described in the
Search Parser section below.
The Search Parser
Searching for words or phrases
You can search for words, partial words, or phrases that occur in
dictionary entries. Currently, the search mechanism searches all fields of
each dictionary entry from the dictionaries that you specify in your
search. This includes searching the contents of the Label, the Definition,
the Group Membership, and the Reference-related fields. Therefore, it is
important to understand how the search parser works and how the search
expressions can be used.
For example, if you were to search for "water" (without the quotation
marks), any field of an entry that contained the string "water" (without
the quotation marks) would qualify that entry as a match. This means if
the string "water" (without the quotation marks) appeared in a label
(surrounded by underscores, e.g. _WATER_), or in a word such as watering,
or in a definition as the word water (surrounded by white space, e.g. "
water ", and without the quotation marks) a match will be returned.
You can narrow your search (or be more precise) by using quotation marks.
For example, when you wish to find out if the word water appears as part of
the English text in any definitions, you can submit the string " water "
(with the quotation marks and the surrounding blank spaces) for searching.
This will eliminate all other occurrences that will not exactly match the
string " water ". Note that occurences of water surrounded by spaces will
be found, but cases such as " water," " water;" and " water." will not
be found. Also the case "Water ", when it begins a sentence or defintion,
will not be found.
Similarly, if you wish to search for all occurrences of the classification
label <WATER>, then you should submit the string "<water>" (with the
quotation marks) for searching.
Other useful examples to note include (in all cases with quotation marks):
"<water" finds a structured definition label beginning with WATER
"_water_" finds a structured definition label with internal token _WATER_
"water>" finds a structured definition label ending with WATER
To find the word "water" (but not other words such as watering, waters,
etc.) in any definition you must enter the following expression (with all
the quotation marks):
" water " or " water;" or "<water>" or "water_" or "_water_" or "_water>"
Please note that the search parser is case insensitive.
You can also use quotation marks to search for phrases. For example, to
search for all entries that contain the phrase "any of", type the string
"any of" (with quotation marks) in the text box.
Boolean expressions
The Search Parser can understand and process the following Boolean
operators: and, or, not. You can combine these Boolean operators to create
a Boolean expression that achieves a desired search. For example, to
search for all entries that contain either the strings "temperature" or
"space", and also contain the string "generally" (in all cases without
quotation), you can type the text "generally and temperature or space"
(without quotations) in the text box. The Search Parser evaluates each
Boolean expression from right to left, unless precedence has been specified
using parenthesis. The above example using parenthesis would be: generally
and (temperature or space)
In another example, the search string:
one and water or space and time
will evaluate from right to left, and its equivalent parenthesized
expression would be:
(one and (water or (space and time)))
Both of these expressions will be evaluated to search for any entry that
contains the string "one" (without quotation marks) and at the same time
contains either the string "water", or both the stings "space" and "farm"
(in all cases, without quotation marks).
The user can specify a different evaluation order for the same strings by
using parenthesis in a different way. For example, the expression:
(one and water) or (space and time)
will cause the search mechanism to look for any entry that contains the
strings "one" and "water" or the strings "space" and "farm" (without
quotation marks in all cases).
Please keep in mind that the explanations provided in previous section (Searching for words or phrases) still apply when
using Boolean expressions. Therefore, in the above examples, the search
mechanism will search for precisely the strings that have been specified.
For example, the word "stones" will produce a match when looking for the
string "one" (without the quotation marks).
You are encouraged to experiment with these and other examples, and
examine the results of the searches, in order to become more familiar with
the searching mechanism's capabilities.
POSIX regular expressions
The Search Parser also understands POSIX regular expressions, which can be
used in conjunction with the Boolean expressions.
Below is a short table of how to use regular expressions to perform some
simple wildcard searches:
| Action |
Corresponding POSIX regular
expression |
| Match any set of characters |
.* |
| Match any single character |
. |
For more information regarding regular expressions, the following website
is suggested as a good reference:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/helpsheets/regex.html
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Dictionary Entry Display Window
The dictionary entry display window is used throughout the tool to display
EDCS concepts. When a label hyperlink is selected, the content of the
dictionary entry corresponding to that label will be shown in a separate
window.
To help manage open dictionary display windows, the "Window" menu item of
the main application window keeps track of all open dictionary display
windows. This menu item includes options to close all open windows, hide
all open windows, and show windows that have been hidden. When the Exit
button or the Quit menu item is invoked, all open dictionary entry display
windows will be closed.
The EDCS Query Tool also manages how many copies of the same dictionary
entry are open to avoid the proliferation of duplicate windows. If a
dictionary entry window is open already, subsequent attempts to display the
same entry will not create a new window. Instead the tool will provide a
visual indication that an existing window for the same entry is open and
will then close and reopen the same window to attract the user's attention.
Figure 3 shows a typical dictionary entry display window.
Figure 3 - An example of a dictionary entry display
window
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Where to get more help
If you cannot find the information you are looking for in this document,
require additional support with the EDCS Query Tool, or would like to
report a defect with this tool, please contact us by sending e-mail to:
help@sedris.org
If you are reporting a defect with this tool, please note your machine
configuration and the platform you are using, be specific about the nature
of the problem, and provide a detailed description of the conditions under
which you experience a problem.
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