Prompted Queries posted on April 25th, 2016
By Drew Bennett
As a programmer, you may take a look at MusicMaster every day, all day. At some point, you get into a groove of scheduling logs, editing hours of music and exporting to the automation system. Our blog series is designed with our users in mind because one of the great things about them is that we introduce you to cool tips you can use in your arsenal of MusicMaster tricks. It’s fun to learn new tips and today, we’re going to cover a search tip in 5.0 and 6.0 that will turn your queries into super-charged search machines!
First, let’s look at a feature in MusicMaster that’s been around for quite some time: The Prompted Query. A Prompted Query is a search that you create and it lets you define your search value later, when you run the prompted query, instead of when you set up the query itself. It might look like this when you run a prompted query:
This search allows me to tell MusicMaster that when I run this search, I’ll look for something in the Artist and/or Title field but I won’t define those values until I run the query at a later time. That’s a great way to search the database but how do you set it up?
Open the query box by choose the black binocular icon in Library Maintenance or anywhere you see in the software. When you choose a field to search through, you’re typing something special in the query setup screen to create a Prompted Query. In the third dropdown menu on the right side of the query , type @PROMPT(Name of Field) where “Name of Field” is the field name or label you want to give to that searched field in the query. Save that query when you are done and now you can access it through your favorite query icon or by loading it in a query box.
In MusicMaster PRO v5.0 and below, a prompted query creates a separate search box for each field you define in the query like this:
Notice that Artist, Title and Album have their own search boxes to use. In MusicMaster PRO v6.0 and above, it’s possible to consolidate these fields to one search field. The way to do that is to give each @PROMPT the same label regardless of what field is searched through.
Now when this query is saved and launched, there is only one field to search through.
You can build upon this prompted query method by adding more fields that share the same label and search through even more fields in a prompted query. The Library Query functionality is very powerful in MusicMaster. Prompted Queries make it even easier to find what you need, when you need it.
It’s great to learn new tips and tricks in MusicMaster and when you use the software as much as you do, time saving tips can be real life savers! If you have any questions about this or any MusicMaster blog entry or how-to, reach out to your assigned Music Scheduling Consultant and happy scheduling!