Water and Air Monitoring and Reporting

Online User Guide: Environmental Monitoring System Web Reporting (EMS WR)

3.2 Searching for Monitoring Locations

This section explains how to search the EMS database for monitoring locations (and their EMS IDs).

3.2.1 Business needs

EMS IDs are essential for finding the information you want efficiently on EMS WR — and many users will search for IDs frequently. Government and health authority staff will find this section particularly useful.

! Caution: water purveyors will not normally be able to search using any fields other than their EMS ID. If they attempt to do so, the system will display error messages.

3.2.2 Basic procedure

To find monitoring locations:

1. From the Main Menu, click the Monitoring Locations button under the Information Retrieval heading.

• The Monitoring Locations - Criteria page will open.

2. Enter information into the fields you want to use as search criteria.

• You must enter information into at least one field.
• If you know them, type in the codes (separated by a comma). Or, use the multi-selection symbol to display multi selection lists to choose the codes.

Business Needs Hint: the fields most commonly used for searching are Establishing Agency (e.g. 10 Vancouver Island, Nanaimo) and Office (e.g. 20 Lower Mainland). If you want to search for a keyword (e.g. Kalamalka) that appears in the monitoring location's name, type the keyword into the Location Name field.

3. Click the retrieve button.

• If no monitoring locations match your search criteria, you receive an error message and are returned to the Monitoring Locations - Criteria page to try another search.
• If one or more monitoring locations match your search criteria, the Monitoring Locations page opens, displaying the number of records retrieved (below the main menu button).
• If the number of records retrieved is too high, click the cancel button on the Monitoring Locations page. This returns you to the Monitoring Locations - Criteria page where you can enter additional criteria to narrow your search and reduce the number of records retrieved.

4. Click the checkboxes of the data items you want to include in the file download.

Business Needs Hint: you should always click the checkboxes for EMS ID and Location Name. Other common choices include Office Name, Establishing Agency, and Location Type.

5. In the field at the bottom of the screen, type a name for the information retrieval (e.g., jsmith locations) and click the OK button.

• The Main Menu page opens. This might take a minute.

6. Click on the download data button.

• The Download Data Files page opens.

7. Select the radio button next to the Retrieval Name created in step 5.

• There must be a "Y" displayed in the Complete column to do this.

8. Click the OK button to download the file to your computer.

• The File Download dialogue box opens.

9. Click Save.

• The Save As dialogue box opens.
  Tip: you can also click Open to open the file directly into Microsoft Excel or another program. You can then save the file to your computer directly from that program.

10. Navigate to the location where you want to save the file, type in a file name, and click Save.

• The file is saved as a comma-separated values (.csv) file.

11. Use Microsoft Excel, Access, or another spreadsheet program to open the document.

• You might need to widen the columns to make all the information visible.
• To view an example of the report, see Monitoring Locations Report Example.
  Business Needs Hint: are consistent with your needs. Make note of the EMS IDs and monitoring location names you will use to find information on EMS WR.

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