ECCAIRS 2 Central Hub | Query builder

Query builder

To build your own query, ECCAIRS 2 integrates a visual tool that helps you create the restrictions and combinations you need:

Query Builder

This tool is composed by various buttons and options.

+ GROUP

If you want different sets of rules to be evaulated in groups, you can do it with the 'Add group' button. You can also add groups inside other groups.

All the rules inside a group will be linked with the AND / OR options at the top of each group.

There is a particular limit of the Group creation. Because of the way a query is evaluated, no more groups can be added inside a group selected as 'Entity'. This is further explained in the section below, 'Evaluation of groups'.

Evaluation of groups

One very important thing to understand about ECCAIRS 2 Taxonomies is how Entities and Attributes relate to each other. Each Entity has Attributes that describe it. For example: Occurrence is an Entity and has Attributes like “Headline” and “Local Date”. For some Attributes it is possible to have more than one value, i.e. more than one instance. For example: Occurrence can involve several values (instances) of type “Aviation sector” (Aerodrome, ATM Operational etc.).
An Entity can also have other Entities involved with it. For example: Aircraft is an Entity that is related to certain Occurrence and an Occurrence can involve more than one instances of Aircrafts. In this case, Occurrence is called the “parent” of the Aircraft-entity. These relations naturally exist on several levels so that for example an aircraft can have several instances of Entity type “Engine”. This possibility of multiple instances effects the way queries need to be constructed to provide the desired outcome.

When specifying restrictions in a query, the restrictions can be evaluated across all the entities of a record at once OR can be evaluated to each entity of a record one by one. By default, the restrictions of a query will be evaluated across all the entities of a record at once, with the 'Occurrence' option selected by default.

With the selector 'Occurrence | Entity' you can change that, and the restrictions will be evaluated entity by entity.

There is a limitation in the creation of groups based on the restriction selected here. If a group is restricted to Entity, no more groups can be added inside that "Entity" group.

+ RULE

The most important one is the option that lets you select the attribute, layout, operator and value to be used for each condition. In this case, the condition is called Rule.

Click on the 'Select attribute' button to choose the attribute or metadata you want. A new window will appear. Check the desired option and click on the 'Confirm' button

Then, select the layout, operator and value to do the comparison, if applicable.

The layout you can select will vary based on the attribute data type in the released taxonomy.

The operators that are shown depend on the previously selected layout.

The operators that can be used based on the data type of the attribute and the layout can be found in the table below:

Attribute Datatype	Layout	Operator
Alphanumeric	Value (Word)	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Text	Value	equal
		not equal
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Code	Value	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		is null
		is not null
Code and Additional text	Value	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		is null
		is not null
	Text	equal
		not equal
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Code or Alternative Text	Value	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		is null
		is not null
	Text	equal
		not equal
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Date	Value	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
		is null
		is not null
	Day of the month (1-31)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Day of the week (1-7)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Month (1-12)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Year (YYYY)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
Time	Value	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
		is null
		is not null
DateTime	Value	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
		is null
		is not null
	Day of the month (1-31)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Day of the week (1-7)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Month (1-12)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
	Year (YYYY)	equal
		not equal
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
Decimal	Value	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
		is null
		is not null
Number	Value	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		less
		less or equal
		greater
		greater or equal
		between
		not between
		is null
		is not null
Eccairs Resource Locator	Description	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
	File Name	equal
		not equal
		in
		not in
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Eccairs Embedded Data	Eccairs Number	equal
		not equal
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null
Eccairs Data Link	Eccairs Number	equal
		not equal
		begins with
		not begins with
		contains
		not contains
		ends_with
		not ends with
		is null
		is not null

This is a description of the available operators in the QueryBuilder and upper or lower limits applied to them:

Operator	Restrictions	Explanation
Equal	Only one value can be selected or written	The value being searched has to be exactly the same as the value written or selected when creating the query
Not equal	Only one value can be selected or written	The opposite of Equal. When searching, all the values that are not exactly the same as the one written or selected when creating the query are retrieved
In	One or more values can be written or selected	The value being searched has to be exactly the same as one of the values written or selected when creating the query. When writing the values, they must be separated with a “;”
Not in	One or more values can be written or selected	The opposite of In. When searching, all the values that are not exactly the same as the ones written or selected when creating the query are retrieved When writing the values, they must be separated with a “;”
Less		The value being searched has to be less (and not equal) than the value written or selected when creating the query.
Less or equal		The value being searched has to be less and also can be equal than the value written or selected when creating the query.
Greater		The opposite of Less. The value being searched has to be bigger (and not equal) than the value written or selected when creating the query.
Greater or equal		The opposite of Less or equal. The value being searched has to be bigger and also can be equal than the value written or selected when creating the query.
Between	Two values have to be selected	The value being searched has to be in the range established by the selection of the two values selected when creating the query. The two values that form the ‘between’ will also be included in the search results.
Not between	Two values have to be selected	The opposite of Between. The value being searched can’t be in the range established by the selection of the two values selected when creating the query. The two values that form the ‘between’ will be excluded from the search results.
Begins with	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The text field being searched must begin with the string being written when creating the query. It is case sensitive.
Not begins with	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The opposite of Begins with. The text field being searched must not begin with the string being written when creating the query. It is case sensitive.
Contains	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The text being written when creating the query has to be within the text the search is being conducted on. This text can also be at the beginning or at the end. It is case sensitive.
Not contains	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The opposite of Contains. The text field of the attribute can’t have any text that matches what is written when creating the query It is case sensitive.
Ends with	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The text field being searched must end with the string being written when creating the query. It is case sensitive.
Not ends with	Only for Text, Code and additional text and Code or alternative text. For Code and additional text and Code or alternative text, it will only be available on the Text layout	The opposite of Ends with. The text field being searched must not end with the string being written when creating the query. It is case sensitive.
Is null	Available for all attributes Not necessary to write anything when selecting this operator	The attribute is not present in the occurrence
Is not null	Available for all attributes Not necessary to write anything when selecting this operator	The attribute exists in the occurrence

You can add as many rules as you need. Each rule will be inside the group you selected by clicking on the 'Add rule' button.

Ask later

There is no need to write a value for a given attribute when creating a query. There is an option to leave the value field blank and this value will be asked again when trying to execute the query or when using this query in a Batch operation.

If you write a value when creating a query and at the same time select the 'Ask later' option, the value written will not be saved. When executing the query, this value will also be asked and the value you wrote when creating the query will not be taken into account.

Find more information about how to execute a query with 'Ask later' in Data management > Queries > Query execution and in Data management > Batch operations > Batch creation

Metadata

Apart from attributes fron the taxonomy, there is an option to create queries based on the Reports and Safety Recommendations metadata.

As these fields are not defined in the taxonomy and can be a bit more abstract, here are the data types