The 'define activity search criteria' input field supports many advanced search features. To see some examples, simply mouse over the label.

The dashed area, just below the input field, serves as a dashboard, providing an up-to-date view of selections made among the vertical and horizontal vocabulary lists and within the activity index report. Selecting this icon resets selections displayed in that group. This action immediately refreshes the view of the current result set.

The default page size is 10 and controls the number of activities displayed on each page of results. It can be set at anytime, immediately updating an existing result set. Once set, it will be applied to any future changes (query and/or filter).

A set of services are available in the upper right of the page that allow you to generate and print a custom activity report, as well as subscribe to a custom RDF Site Summary (RSS syndication feed). Both reflect the current state of the search form. This includes search criteria defined as well as any keywords and/or report filters selected. Anytime there is a change in any of these criteria, the activity report and RSS subscription services are updated.

The activity report can be viewed from any browser. When selected, the resulting URL can be saved as a normal bookmark. This provides a quick way to monitor activity submissions in a printable format. Just below the branding is a toolbar that lets you sort activity submissions by selected activity details. The small up/down arrow icon, next to each detail, may be selected at any time to sort (ascending/descending) activities in the report. Note that you may also bookmark the result of a sort, preserving and applying the sort criteria the next time you view the report. To print the details of the HTML page, select the printer icon located in the right-most column of the toolbar.

The subscription service is best viewed in IE 7 or newer. The resulting URL, when selected, has a parameter called filterby which is set to topic by default. This parameter (and its effect on the resulting feed) is ignored by all clients except Internet Explorer (IE). When displayed in IE 7 or 8, a filter by category feature is activated. Selecting a term in this list filters the displayed items in the feed. The list (below) shows other values that the filterby parameter can be set to in the URL and refreshed, providing different categories of terms to filter displayed results (in the feed) by.

topic [default]
region
funding
species

The Keyword Query Control is within a box on the left of the screen above the “How-to” tab. It displays a default set of topic categories. Term selections within this control add to existing term selections, updating the keywords selected element within the dashboard view. The condition setting is also displayed between term selections. Mouse-over the 'condition' label to find out more about this feature.

Keyword selections - All lists allow one or more selections to be made. To select non-successive terms in a list, press and hold the Ctrl key while selecting terms of interest with the left mouse button. To quickly select multiple terms in succession, within a list, press and hold the Shift key while selecting the first term and last term in the sequence with the left mouse button. Some browsers support a drag-n-drop style for selecting multiple terms in succession. For those that do (you will have to try it out), 'click-n-hold' the left mouse button while you drag the cursor down over the list of terms.

Keyword de-selections - Hold down the Ctrl key while you left click on a selected item in the list. Note that if multiple phrases are selected and you don't hold down the Ctrl key, the selection will clear all those that were selected except the one you clicked on.

Keyword de-selections en-mass - The dashboard provides a way to clear all selections in a group without the need to navigate to that tab. Click on this icon to clear that group. Also, each keyword list (not the index report lists) provides a category title above it that can be used to clear that lists selections.

Keyword browsing - Make a term selection within a list category then use the up/down arrow keys (on the keyboard) to navigate up and down the list. As each term is highlighted, results will be updated with activities that have a match against the selected term. This same technique can be used within the activity index report, providing a very accurate context-based view of activities.

The criteria defined by the expression and any keyword selections are evaluated by the search engine, returning results that meet the full-text rules of engagement. Selecting Alabama state waters will return a result set that includes any activity that has alabama and state and waters terms anywhere within the survey submission - potentially in unrelated contexts.

The list of terms generated for each query provide a way to set context boundaries, if desired, eliminating potential ambiguities. They can be used to emulate a compound search statement, providing more flexibility in how you tune the view of a result set. And, they can be used to package results - or, more specifically, they can adjust the view of results to display only those that meet filter (selecting one or more filters) criteria.

Terms that are selected are updated on the dashboard next to report filter element. They persist between query updates, immediately controlling displayed results. They are also set and updated within the activity report and subscription service, maintaining an accurate representation of results when selected and viewed in their respective clients.

Note - the lists will be empty until a query has been submitted. Likewise, their contents will be updated each time a query is modified.

Report filters can be used to establish context boundaries on query criteria that, currently, returns zero results. This can be useful in setting up custom report or subscription views that you would like to track - over time. Once setup, select the report or subscription service and save (according to the client used). If you choose to use the subscription service, setting it up as a feed subscription on a scheduled update will provide the desired effect - namely, when new activities are added that meet the criteria (query and filters selected), they will show up in the subscription feed - when updated.