1.1 Introduction

The Web Data System is a web program that allows users to report, analyze and graph corporate travel data using only a standard web browser.

The Web Data System offers point-and-click access to desired items from a selected table or allows the user to view and print specific corporate reports. The user may filter, sort, drill up/drill down, and graph; grand totals and subtotals can also be given. In this way specific information can be obtained, and if needed, imported to the desktop or charted online.

1.2 The Web Data System Procedures

1.2.1 Step One: User Login
Type in a valid Login, Security ID# and Password then press the Submit button. Once your Login and Password have been validated you will be preseneted with a Welcome page which will allow you to proceed to the Web Data System.

1.2.2 Step Two: Main Menu
The Main Menu shows three links. Clicking on the Travel Data link will present the user a list of travel data tables. The Saved Queries link allows the user to select queries that the user has previously run and saved. The Travel Reports link presents the user with a list of corporate travel reports which may be displayed or printed.

1.2.3 Step Three: Table, Saved Queries, or Reports Selection
SELECT TABLES
The Table Selection Page displays a list of travel data tables. Select the table you wish to query; then press the Submit button.

SAVED QUERIES
The Saved Query Selection Page will include a list of saved queries. The saved queries are displayed by their name and are only visable to the user who saved them. To select a saved query, click on the query name link. To delete a saved query, select the delete link next to the query name. When you select a saved query to view, you will be taken directly to the query page.

TRAVEL REPORTS
The Travel Reports Selection Page lists several specific reports which may be displayed or printed. To view the reports Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed and Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher) or Netscape 4.0 (or higher) must be the web browser. Once a travel report has been selected the user will be presented with a query screen where specific travel dates, or corporate departments can be entered to further refine the report.

1.2.4 Step Four: Field Selection
The Field Selection Page will return two identical lists: (1) Fields to View and (2) Fields to Query.

The Fields to View list presents all fields in the table selected on the Table Selection Page. Each field you select will appear in the Results Table; select any or all of the fields. Hold down the left mouse button and drag to select multiple fields. For specific fields hold down the CTRL key and click (with the left mouse button) on the fields that you wish to select.

The Fields to Query list also presents all fields from the table selected on the Table Selection Page. Like Fields to View, all entries selected from the Fields to Query list will appear in the Results Table. However, users may place filter conditions on each field selected from the Fields to Query list. Any or all of the fields may be selected; hold down the left mouse button and drag to select multiple fields. For specific fields hold down the CTRL key and click (with the left mouse button) on the fields that you wish to select.

NOTE: All fields selected from the Fields to Query list will be displayed in the Results Table, whether or not a filter condition was placed on the field.

Click Submit after you have selected the fields you wish to view and query.

1.2.5 Step Five: Query Selection
The Query Page allows you to select parameters for filtering, summarizing, sorting and displaying table information. This page is broken into three sections, left to right: (1) Help, (2) Query, and (3) Options.

HELP
The Help section includes a list of operators currently supported by the Web Data System. Each operator links to a help file that opens with a single left mouse click. The help files include a "how to use" section, along with a complete description of the chosen operator and other helpful advice regarding the selected operation.

QUERY
The Query section provides input boxes for all fields selected under Fields to Query on the Field Selection Page. To filter information within a field, simply type your conditions in the text box provided (see Section 1.4 "Filtering Fields" for more information). After clicking the Submit button your query will be sent to the server, processed, and returned as the Results Table. Clicking the Reset Fields button will restore the filter conditions that were present when the page was brought up.

The Chart Type pull-down menu and the Create Chart button will be discussed in Section 1.5 "Graphing Your Results".

The Download Filtered Table button may be used to import a filtered result set as a table to your desktop. The table will be transferred from the web server and written to the requesting client as a dBASE III or Excel file. Upon clicking the Download Filtered Table button you will be prompted to select either of two options, Open File or Save File to Disk. By opening the file you may open your result set directly in the spreadsheet application of your choice. By saving the file to disk you may choose a directory on your system and download the dBASE III table.

NOTE: You must associate the dBASE file type with an application. This task requires a modification to your registry settings.

NOTE 2: If just the current page is to be saved, select Save As File from the File menu of your web browser. Type in a file name, choose a directory and press the OK button. Using another application, such as Microsoft Excel, you can import the HTML table and save it in the file format you desire.

OPTIONS
The Options section includes a number of customizable parameters designed to further tailor your Results. You may choose case sensitive searches, multiple sorting orders, subtotals, grand totals, etc. Each option is described in detail below.

• Show grand total
  This option will calculate a grand total of the records in the Results Table. Fields of the numeric data type will be summed; fields of other data types will be counted.
  
• Show subtotals
  This option will calculate subtotals according to the selected Key Field. All like entries in the Key Field will be grouped and summarized; numeric data types will be summed, and non-numeric data types will be counted. A subtotal record will appear in bold.
  
  NOTE: You must select a Key Field in order to generate subtotals.
  
• Show subtotals header
  This option will insert a record in the Results Table that contains a count of all records grouped according to the Key Field selected. For example, if Key Field = NAME, the subtotals header would include a count of records in which the entry in the NAME field remained constant.
  
  NOTE: You must select the "Show subtotals" option to view the subtotals header.
  
• Put space below subtotals
  This option will insert a blank record below the record containing subtotals. Some users find this helpful in discerning between subtotaled groups.

• Key Field
  A Key Field in the Web Data System functions similar to a key field in Excel and other spreadsheet applications. The key field tells the Web Data System how to group records. Key field records will be grouped together if their entries are identical. For example, the name "Murray" may appear 10 times in a given field. If the table is unsorted, the 10 records containing the entry "Murray" could appear far apart from one another. Selecting NAME as the key field will organize all like entries together, so all entries containing "Murray" will appear with one another. The key field is useful for organizing, subtotaling, and graphing data.
  
• Sort Fields 1-5
  A Sort Field may be selected to organize table data in a specified order. To sort a field, simply select the field from the Sort Field drop down menu. A check box is available for specifying Ascending order (the default order is Descending).
  
  Defaults: Fields of Character data type will be sorted according to alphabetical order (A to Z). Fields of Date data type will be sorted from earliest to latest (i.e. 1/1/1980 to 1/1/1999). Fields of Numeric data type will be sorted from highest to lowest (i.e. 100 to 10). Checking the Ascending checkbox will reverse the default sort orders.
  
  You may further tailor your results by selecting multiple sort fields. When multiple records have the same field entry, other fields decide sorting order. Selecting the the first sort field, second sort field, etc. (up to five sort fields) will produce results in which the third sort field is grouped according to the second, second according to first, and so on.
  
  Example: By selecting fields A, B, and C as sort fields 1-3, respectively, you will receive the following Results Table: All records in Field A will be sorted with like records grouped together. Records within Field B will be sorted as a subset of the like records in Field A. Records in Field C will be sorted as a subset of like records in Field B, and so on.
  
• Floating Point Precision
  Floating point precision indicates the number of digits to the right of the decimal point the software will display. An entry of "3" would display the integer "155" as "155.000" in the Results Table. Some databases store floating point information that does not have a fixed precision. For these fields that do not have a fixed precision the floating-point precision indicates the number of digits to the right of the decimal point that will be displayed, otherwise the fixed number of decimal points stored in the table will be used. Floating point information can be retrieved from integer fields and fixed numeric fields. Some currency fields also have a fixed precision.
  
• Case Sensitive Search
  Case sensitive search will return cell entries only if the upper-case and lower-case letters in your text string match exactly. By default the Web Data System will treat the text strings "Philip" and "philip" equal. Selecting the Case Sensitive Search checkbox will differentiate between the two.
  
• Do NOT Display Total Number of Records
  By default, the Web Data System will display the total number of records that fit the specified query. For example, a table with 10,000 records may be filtered down to 1066 records. the Web Data System will display "Total Records: 1066". To display this number the script must count every record in the result set, or read this information from the table header. This process can slow the AAA Travel Data System on some systems. By selecting "Do not display total number of records" the script will not perform this procedure and therefore will not display the total number of records of a Results Table.
  
• Return Every xxx Results
  This option indicates the number of records that the Web Data System will display in the Results Table. If the number "25" is selected, the first 25 records of the total result set will be returned. (A link at the bottom of the Results Table Page will bring up the next 25 records.) In general, the lower the number selected, the faster the Results Table will be returned.

1.2.6 Step Six: Results Table
The Results Table Page will be returned after you select all of your query parameters and click the Submit button. This page will contain a table with records that fit your query specifications.

In addition to the results set the Results Table Page includes the following options:

• Table Summarization using Drill Up
  The drill up feature of the Web Data System gives you the ability to summarize a large table by eliminating extraneous records and columns, and summing or counting records in the fields that you specify. For more information see Section 1.4 "Table Summarization using Drill Up".
  
• Drill Up help
  Clicking the Drill Up Help link will bring up a help file that gives a full description of the software's table summarization capabilities.
  
• Next xxx Records (link)
  Clicking the Next xxx Records link will bring up a new Results Page containing the next xxx records in the Result Table.
  
• The Save Query button allows you to save your current query. Be sure to give your saved query a name by typing a name in the Query Name edit box.
  

1.3 Filtering table entries

The Query Page will display input boxes for every field selected under "Fields to Query" on the Field Selection Page. These input boxes allow you to filter out certain entries to find the information you desire. The Web Data System supports several standard data types: Character, Numeric, and Date.

Character types may be enclosed in single quotes (').

Example: 'Philip'

Numeric types do not have any constraints. They may include commas and other punctuation. They may contain decimal digits.

Example: 10,343.2341

Date types may be enclosed in single quotes. Most date formats are accepted. Only four digit years are accepted. This will prevent errors in translating the two digit year to a four digit year when filtering tables. Dates that only include the month and year are also excluded since the filter requires the day, month, and year. Furthermore, dates that only contain numbers (19991228, 12281999, and 28121999) cannot be used to filter tables. Ambiguous dates, 1/1/2000 will automatically default to month/day/year. To avoid using ambiguous dates, the dates can be written out like '1 Jan 2000' or 'Jan 1 2000'.

Example: 'January 1, 2000'

All filtering options appear on the left side of the Query Page under the Help column. (Each member of the list includes a link to a help page with an explanation of that particular operator.) Table 1.3 below also gives a description of the supported query operators.

Table 1.3 Filtering Operators

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