Extracting data from the Synergetic database

O M P U T I N G 

D I R E C T I O N S 

A U S T R A L I A 

Synergetic User Manual 

Extracting data from the 

Synergetic database 

Version 60 

Copyright © 2009 Computing Directions Australia Pty Ltd 

This work is copyright and may not be reproduced except 

in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 

Published: 24 March 2009

This page intentionally left blank

Contents 

Contents 

Extracting data from the Synergetic database ..................................................................................... 6-1 

What's new to Extracting data .......................................................................................................... 6-2 

Synergetic views ............................................................................................................................... 6-5 

Main Synergetic views................................................................................................................... 6-7 

Main Finance views..................................................................................................................... 6-19 

Extracting data using the Microsoft Query wizard .......................................................................... 6-25 

Editing a Microsoft Query using the wizard .................................................................................... 6-35 

Common duplication problems ....................................................................................................... 6-38 

Inserting an existing SQL statement............................................................................................... 6-40 

Extracting data using Microsoft Query directly ............................................................................... 6-46 

Extracting student name and contact details example................................................................ 6-51 

Advanced Microsoft Query and SQL examples.............................................................................. 6-63 

Using stored procedures to retrieve Synergetic data ......................................................................... 6-71 

Stored procedures....................................................................................................................... 6-72 

Creating mail merge letters using stored procedures ................................................................. 6-73 

Printing mail merge letters using an existing document.............................................................. 6-82 

Reprinting mail merge letters ...................................................................................................... 6-86 

Index................................................................................................................................................... 6-89 

Version 60 Page 6-i


What's new to Extracting data 

Extracting data from the Synergetic database 


You can extract data from the Synergetic database for your own purposes, using tools such as: 

• Microsoft Excel 

• Microsoft Word. 

Views have been developed to make it easier to extract data. See Synergetic views (on page 5). 

Stored procedures have also been developed, particularly for extracting data for mail merge letters. 

See Using stored procedures to retrieve Synergetic data (on page 71). 

How to 

• Extract data using the Microsoft Query wizard. See Extracting data using the Microsoft Query 

wizard (on page 25). 

Note: We do not recommend using the wizard as subsequent changes are more complex to 

implement. The wizard is used mainly for creating quick queries but does not introduce you to the 

full functionality of Microsoft Query. 

• Edit a query using the Microsoft Query wizard. See Editing a Microsoft Query using the wizard 

(on page 35). 

• Open a query that has already been perfected. Inserting an existing SQL statement (on 

page 40). 

• Edit a query using Microsoft Query directly. See Extracting data using Microsoft Query directly 

(on page 46). 

• Create a query using Microsoft Query directly. See Extracting student name and contact 

details example (on page 51). 

• Create advanced queries using Microsoft Query directly. See Advanced Microsoft Query and 

SQL examples (on page 63). 

Version 60 Page 6-1




Version 60 

This section outlines the changes to the Extracting data manual arising from changes made to 

Synergetic (version 59.15-v60.37). 

Change More information See 

Views 

available for 

use. 

The introduction has been updated and two new topics 

have been added, listing the main views available: 

• Main Synergetic views 

• Main Finance views. 

Extracting data from the 

Synergetic database (on 

page 1) 

Synergetic views (on 

page 5) 

Main Synergetic views (on 

page 7) 

Main Finance views (on 

page 19) 

Page 6-2 Version 60




New views 

added. 

Descriptions have been included for the following views, 

which were added recently: 

• vxeOliverBorrowingExport 

• vStudentRelationsAll 

• vNZMOE_StudentDataChanges 

• vStudentContactsLivesWith 

• vNZMOE_eAR_SchoolDetails 

• vStudentParentsMCEETYA 

• vStudentAbsenceEvents 

• vStudentAbsenceEventsAttendances 

• vStudentMedicalDetails 

Fields in the following views have been changed or 

added but no specific information has been included in 

the documentation: 

• vCommunityAddresses 

• vCommunityAddressesConstit 

• vDebtorFees 

• vStudentMedDetailsPrimContact 

• vStudentsCurrentPastFutureCombined 

• vStudentContactAddress 

• Absences 

• vStudentReportsSemesterResults 

• vStaffTimetableFull 

• vStudentClassesAll 

• pvStudentAssessmentMarkbookAreas 

• vTimetableRooms 

• vCreditorTransactions 

• pvPayrollEmployeeLeaveEntitleAll 

• vPayrollEmployeeLeaveSummary 

Main Synergetic views (on 

page 7) 

Version 60 Page 6-3




Updated 

topics. 

Additional screen captures have been included to: 

• improve the readability of the examples 

• provide updated information for a later release 

of Microsoft Excel (2003). 

Extracting data using the 

Microsoft Query wizard (on 

page 25) 

Extracting student name 

and contact details example 

(on page 51) 

Editing a Microsoft Query 

using the wizard (on 

page 35) 

Extracting student name 

and contact details example 

(on page 51) 

New topics. 

New topics have been included to provide information 

on using stored procedures to retrieve Synergetic data. 

Examples are provided for developing mail merge 

letters. 

Using stored procedures to 

retrieve Synergetic data (on 

page 71) 

Creating mail merge letters 

using stored procedures 

(on page 73) 

Printing mail merge letters 

using an existing document 

(on page 82) 

Reprinting mail merge 

letters (on page 86) 

Page 6-4 Version 60

Synergetic views 



The Computing Directions Australia (CDA) development team have developed views from the 

Synergetic database tables to make querying the Synergetic database an easier process. 

The views contain links between several base tables, that include related information that can be used 

in similar queries. The information can be from single fields or generated fields. 

Links (or joins) can be made between several views and base tables but sometimes the linking 

process can be difficult. Contact CDA if you want to include a field in an existing view or you require 

assistance with joining tables. 

Details on the views are provided in two sections, based on where the primary data is sourced: 

• Main Synergetic database. See Main Synergetic views (on page 7). 

• Finance database. See Main Finance views (on page 19). 

Note: New views are created and released during each Synergetic update. See What's new to 

Extracting data (on page 2). 

Tip: Views are listed in alphabetic order in each topic. If you are using Synergetic Online Help 

you can also find a view by typing its name on the Search tab. In the example below, 

vCommunityAddresses is found in two topics. 

Fields 

Fields contain all of the information that is maintained in Synergetic. You can use any field you want in 

your query but it is recommended that you select the fields from a view. 

The following table lists fields useful for filtering data: 

Field 

Value 

DeceasedFlag 0 

ValidAddressFlag 1 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag 1 

Version 60 Page 6-5



Field 

Value 

FileYear 2009 

FileSemester 

StudentStatus 

1, 2, ...n 

LFT 

Note: 4 is left, 1 is normal. 

StudentContactType 

SC1, SC2 or SCT 

StudentContactNormalMailFlag 1 

Generated fields 

Generated fields can be one or more fields that have been combined and manipulated together to 

create another new field. 

The following table provides details about useful generated fields: 

Generated 

field 

MailSalutation 

Description 

Combines the title of a person 

with their surname. 

If this person has a spouse and 

the Address to primary only 

field on the Contact tab of 

Student Maintenance is not 

selected, their title will be 

joined with the partner’s. 

Example 

Mr Johnson 

Mr and Mrs Johnson 

MailName 

Combines the title, first name 

and surname. 

AddressComma A comma-delimited address 

useful for: 

Mr P Johnson 

4/303 Burwood Hwy, Burwood East, Vic, 3151 

AddressFull 

• printouts 

• using in Microsoft 

Excel. 

A carriage return/line feeddelimited 

address useful for: 

• mail merges 

• labels. 

4/303 Burwood Hwy 

Burwood East Vic 3151 

Page 6-6 Version 60



Main Synergetic views 

Views have been created by the CDA development team to make querying the database an easier 

process. These views are either from the: 

• Main Synergetic database, as outlined below. 

• Finance database. See Main Finance views (on page 19). 

View name Description Base tables used 

vCommunity- 

Addresses 

vCommunity- 

AddressesConstit 

vCommunications- 

Current 

vCommunications- 

Past 

vDonorPledges 

Use this view to query on community 

members. 

This view includes all fields from the 

Community and Addresses tables. It has 

spouse and occupation details as well. 

Use this view to query on community 

members and their constituencies. 

This view includes all fields from the 

Community, Addresses and Constituency 

tables. Spouse and occupation details can 

be extracted as well. A community record will 

be duplicated for every constituency that they 

have. You would normally do a record 

selection on ConstitCode to only get one 

record per person. 

Use this view to list current communications, 

with the name and address details of the 

recipients. 

Automatically excludes deceased people. 

Use this view to list past communications, 

with the name and address details of the 

recipients. 


Use this view to list donor pledges and the 

amount received against each pledge, with: 

• name and address details of the 

donor 

• appeal and fund details. 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luOccupation 

• Community 

• Constituencies 

• Addresses 

• luConstituency 


• CommunityCommuni 

cationsCurrent 

• Communications 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• CommunityCommuni 

cations 

• Communications 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• DonorPledges 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luAppeal 

• luFund 

Version 60 Page 6-7




vDonorPledges- 

Receipts 

vDonorProspect- 

Address 

vDonorProspect- 

HistoryAddress 

vDonorReceipts 

vEnquiryContact- 

Address 

Use this view to list donor pledges and 

detailed receipt information for each pledge 

with: 


donor 

• appeal and fund details. 

Use this view for donor prospect name and 

address details, as well as: 

• fund and appeal information that 

they are prospected for 

• staff and volunteer name 

information, which comes from extra 

joins to the Community table. 

Automatically excludes deceased prospects. 

Use this view for donor prospect history 

(activities) with: 

• prospect name and address details 

• appeal information that they are 

prospected for. 

Automatically excludes deceased prospects. 

Use this view for detailed receipt information 

with: 


donor 

• appeal and fund information. 

Use this view to list: 

• enquiry contacts 

• their name and address details 

• the students that they are associated 

with. 

If the person is a member of the community, 

the information comes from the actual 

Community table, otherwise it comes off the 

enquiry tables. 


• DonorPledges 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• DonorReceipts 

• luAppeal 

• luFund 

• DonorProspects 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luAppeal 

• DonorProspects 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luAppeal 

• DonorProspectHistor 

y 

• DonorReceipts 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luAppeal 

• luFund 

• EnquiryStudentConta 

cts 

• EnquiryStudents 

• Community 

• Addresses 

Page 6-8 Version 60




vEvents 

vEventsCurrent 

vEventsPast 

vFutureContact- 

Address 

vFutureStudents 

vNZMoE_eAR_- 

SchoolDetails 

Use this view for information on events and 

their locations, without any attendee details. 

Use this view for information on current 

events and their locations, with attendee 

name and address details. 

Automatically excludes deceased attendees. 

Use this view for information on past events 

and their locations, with attendee name and 

address details. 

Use this view for future student names and 

entry information, along with: 

• contact name and address details for 

each of the student's contacts 

• spouse information for each contact. 

Automatically excludes deceased future 

students and contacts. 

Use this view for future student names and 

entry information, if you do not want any 

contact or relationship information. 

Automatically excludes cancelled or 

deceased future students. 

Use this view for the school number and 

name based on campus, using the 

configuration for the New Zealand Ministry of 

Education (NZMoE) electronic attendance 

register (eAR). 

If the configuration details are not available, 

the following details are retrieved: 

• The school name from the 

configuration file maintenance using 

the System | Install | Name key. 

• The school number from the School 

table. 

• Events 

• luLocation 

• CommunityEventsCu 

rrent 

• Community 

• Events 


• Addresses 

• CommunityEvents 

• Community 

• Events 


• Addresses 

• FutureStudents 

• Community 

• FutureStudentContac 

ts 

• Addresses 

• luContact 

• luFutureStatus 


• Community 

• luFutureStatus 

• luHouse 

• luCampus 

• School 

Version 60 Page 6-9




vNZMoE_Student- 

DataChanges 

vPastStudent- 

Address 

vStaff 

vStaffTimetableFull 

vStudentAbsences 

Use this view for data changes by student 

and year level. 

This is required for New Zealand Ministry of 

Education (NZMoE) electronic attendance 

register (eAR) audit requirements. 

Use this view for past student names and 

their: 

• address 

• schooling information 

• occupation information. 

Use this view for personal staff details. This 

view contains detailed name and address 

information. 

Automatically excludes deceased staff 

members. 

Use this view for staff timetable details. This 

view does not contain detailed name and 

address information. 

Automatically excludes deceased staff 

members. 

Use this view for absentee information with 

student name details. 

Note: This view has been superseded by 

vStudentAbsenceEvents. 

• SystemDataChanges 

• Community 

• FileSemesters 

• StudentYears 

• PastStudents 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luCampus 

• luBranch 


• luBoarder 

• luHouse 

• Staff 

• Community 

• luCampus 

• Addresses 

• Staff 

• Community 

• luCampus 

• luYearLevel 

• luTimetableGroup 

• TimetableDefinition 

• Timetable 

• SubjectClasses 

• Absences 

• StudentSemester 

• Community 

• luAbsenceType 

Page 6-10 Version 60




vStudentAbsence- 

Events 

vStudentAbsence- 

EventsAttendances 

vStudentAssessment 

AreaSendMat 

vStudentAssessment 

AreasResults 

Use this view for all absence events that 

have not been superseded. 

Includes student details. 

Use this view for attendance information. 

Includes attendances and nonattendances. 

This view is based on 

vStudentAbsenceEvents. 

Use this view for lesson and materials to be 

sent to correspondence students, along with 

their name and address details. 

Only includes lessons that have been 

flagged as picked. 

Automatically excludes deceased students. 

Use this view for result information from 

lessons processed for correspondence 

students. Also includes: 

• name and address details 

• schooling information. 

Used by the Correspondence system only. 

• AbsenceEvents 

• Community 


• Students 

• vStudentAbsenceEve 

nts 

• tAttendances 

• AttendanceMaster 


• SubjectClassStaff 

• pvTimetableDefinitio 

n 

• StudentAssessmentA 

reas 

• Community 


• Addresses 

• SubjectAssessmentA 

reas 

• SubjectAssessment 

Materials 

• Materials 

• Students 

• Community 


• Addresses 

• StudentClasses 



reas 

• StudentAssessment 

Results 

Version 60 Page 6-11




vStudentClasses 

vStudentContact- 

Address 

vStudentContact- 

AllAddress 

Use this view to list students and the classes 

they are taking. Also includes: 

• relevant information about the staff 

member who teaches the classes 

• information about house captains 

and Head of Campus. 

Automatically excludes students who: 

• have left 

• are on leave of absence 

• are deceased. 

Use this view for student names and 

schooling information, along with: 

• contact name and address details for 

primary and alternate contacts 

• spouse information for each contact. 

Automatically excludes: 

• term contacts 

• deceased students 

• deceased contacts. 

Use this view for student names and 

schooling information, along with contact 

name and address details for all contacts, 

including term contacts. 

Automatically excludes deceased: 

• students 

• contacts. 

• Students 




• Community 


• Staff 

• luHouse 

• luCampus 

• luStudentStatus 


• Students 

• Community 


• StudentContacts 

• Addresses 

• luContact 


• luCampus 

• luForm 

• Students 

• Community 



• Addresses 

• luContact 


• luCampus 

• luForm 





vStudentContacts- 

ParentsDebtor 

vStudentContacts- 

RelationOnly 

vStudentCourses 

vStudentForms- 

Absences 

Use this view to obtain student names and 

schooling details, along with name and 

address details for the student's: 

• debtor 

• mother 

• father. 

Excludes students who: 

• have left your organisation 


Use this view to obtain: 

• student names 

• address and occupation information 

for each relation 

• their relationship with the student. 

Automatically excludes term contacts. 

Use this view to obtain information on 

courses that a student is doing. Includes 

basic name information. 

Use this view to obtain a list of absent 

students by form. 

• Students 

• Community 



• Addresses 

• Relationships 

• luContact 


• luCampus 

• luForm 

• Students 


• Community 

• Addresses 



• luContact 

• luRelationship 

• Students 

• StudentCourses 

• Courses 

• Community 

• luForm 


• Absences 

• Community 






vStudentMedDetails- 

PrimContact 

vStudentMedical- 

Details 

Use this view to obtain student medical 

information as well as: 

• primary contact information for 

emergency contacts 

• their relationship to the student. 

Retrieves information as detailed in the 

vStudentContactAddress view, covered 

earlier. 


• all student medical information 

• information from current students 

and community functions. 

One record is output per student. 

Does not include medical incidents. 

• vStudentContactAddr 

ess 

• Students 

• StudentMedicalDetail 

s 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• luRelationship 

• luMedicalPrivateInsur 

anceFund 

• luAsthmaCategory 


• Students 

• StudentStatic 

• StudentMedicalDetail 

s 

• Community 

vStudentParents- 

MCEETYA 

vStudentRelations 

Use this view to extract MCEETYA 

(Australian Ministerial Council of Education, 

Training and Youth Affairs) parent details, 

including: 

• Occupation Group 

• Home Language 

• Highest Qualification Level 

• Highest Secondary Level. 

Use this view to show students and all of 

their relations. 

Excludes students who are deceased. 

Also, see vStudentRelationsAll. 

vStudentRelationsAll Use this view to show students and all of 

their relations. 

Includes all records, including deceased 

students. 

Also see vStudentRelations. 

• pvStudentParents 

• vCommunityAddress 

es 

• Students 



• pvCommunity 

• Addresses 

• Students 



• pvCommunity 

• Addresses 





vStudentReports- 

NoResults 


Semester 


SemesterYear 

Use this view to show which: 

• students have not had results 

entered for them 

• which staff members are responsible 

for entering the results. 

Use this view to obtain the overall results of 

students, comments and staff information. 

This view does not contain detailed results. 

To get detailed results, refer to 

vStudentReportsSemesterResults, 

covered below. 

This view contains identical information to 

that of vStudentReportsSemester but is 

required to get the 

StudentClassOverallMarkForYear results 

for the year. 

The field is included in this view to avoid any 

discrepancies arising from semester 

selections. 



• Community 



• Staff 

• SubjectAssessments 


Comments 


reas 


Results 


• Students 

• Community 

• luHouse 




• Staff 

• SubjectAssessments 


Comments 

• vStudentReportsSem 

ester 






SemesterResults 

vStudents 

vStudentsAll 

Use this view to obtain detailed student 

results. 

It does not include overall results or 

comments. To get overall results and 

comments, refer to the 

vStudentReportsSemester view, covered 

earlier. 

Use this view for student schooling and 

name details. The view does not include: 

• contact details 

• relationship information. 

Automatically excludes students who: 

• have left your organisation 

• are on leave of absence 


The view was designed for fast, simple 

queries. Also, see: 

• vStudentsAll 

• vStudentAndLOA, covered below. 


name details. This view: 

• does not include contact or 

relationship information 

• includes a lot more information than 

the vStudents view, covered earlier 

• includes all students, regardless of 

their status. 

This view was created for more detailed 

queries but runs slower than the vStudents 

view. 




reas 


Results 

• Students 


• Community 


• luCampus 

• luHouse 


• luForm 

• luTutor 

• Students 


• Community 


• luCampus 

• luHouse 


• luForm 

• luTutor 

• luParish 

• luReligion 

• luPreviousSchool 





vStudentsAndLOA 

vStudentsContacts- 

LivesWith 

vStudentSubject- 

Class 


name details. This view: 

• does not include contact or 

relationship information 

• includes a lot more information than 

the vStudents view, covered earlier 

• includes all current students and 

those on leave of absence but 

excludes students who have left 

your organisation. 

This view was created for more detailed 

queries but runs slower than the vStudents 

view. 

Also, see the vStudentAll view, covered 

earlier. 

Use this view to get the Synergetic IDs of 

contact 1 and contact 2 for each student, 

based on the highest ranked contact with the 

Lives With flag selected. 

If only one contact has the Lives With flag 

selected then the view will use this person as 

contact 1 and their spouse as contact 2. 

If two contacts have the Lives With flag 

selected then the view will use the primary 

person in the relationship as contact 1 and 

the other person in the relationship as 

contact 2. 

Includes: 

• students 

• future students 

• past students. 

Use this view to obtain a list of classes that a 

student is doing, along with the staff member 

who is teaching that class. 

Automatically excludes deceased students. 

• Students 


• Community 


• luCampus 

• luHouse 


• luForm 

• luTutor 

• Community 

• Students 



• FutureStudentsConta 

cts 


• PastStudentsContact 

s 

• Students 



• Community 







vStudentTimetable- 

Full 

vStudentTutors- 

Absences 

vxeOliverBorrowing- 

Export 

Use this view to obtain timetable details for 

students, including: 

• rooms 

• days 

• periods 

• the staff members teaching the 

classes. 

Use this view to obtain a list of student 

absences by tutor. 

Use this view to obtain a list of current 

students and active staff, along with their 

contact details. 


• Students 

• Community 


• luTimetableGroup 

• luHouse 

• luCampus 

• luForm 


• Timetable 

• Staff 

• TimetableDefinition 

• luTutor 


• Absences 

• Community 


• Community 


• Students 



• Community 

• Addresses 




Main Finance views 

Views have been created by the CDA development team to make querying the database an easier 

process. These views are either from the: 

• Finance database, as outlined below. 

• Main Synergetic database. See Main Synergetic views (on page 7). 

Additional data is sometimes also retrieved from the main Synergetic database to complement the 

Finance data. 

Users will need to have security permission to the: 

• SynergyOneFinance database 

• finance tables and views. 


vAssets 

vAssetDepreciation 

Use this view to obtain listings of assets that exist 

within Asset Register Maintenance. 

For example, you could get a listing of all assets 

of a certain asset type: 

SELECT * FROM vAssets 

WHERE AssetTypeCode = 'Car' 


• a list of assets for a depreciation posting 

• the amount that they depreciated by. 

• Assets 

• AssetDefinitions 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• FinanceConfig 

• vAssets 

• AssetDepreciation 

• GeneralLedger- 

PostingControl 

vBankReconciliation Use this view to list all unreconciled cheques that 

have not been cancelled. 

The Bank Reconciliation Crystal Report for 

example, uses this view by: 

• getting the 

GeneralLedgerReportingMonthEnd- 

Date, defined in Finance Configuration 

Maintenance 

• BankingConfig 

• GeneralLedgerBank- 

Transactions 

• GeneralLedger 


• including any cheques or payments that 

have not yet been reconciled or 

cancelled before that date. 

vCashReceiptsEntry Use this view to list all receipts that have been 

processed. The view includes: 

• payment type 

• origin 

• amount. 


Journals 


• luGeneralLedger- 

RcptAllocations 

• Receipts 





vCreditorInvoice- 

Entry 

Use this view to list all invoices that have been 

entered through Creditor Invoice Entry. 

• CreditorTransactions 


• Creditors 

• Community 


Journals 


vCreditorInvoices Use this view to list all creditor invoices. • CreditorTransactions 

• Creditors 

• Community 

• Addresses 



vCreditors 

vCreditor- 

Transactions 

vDebtorActive- 

Arrangements 

Use this view to list all current creditors and 

relevant information about them. 

This information comes straight from the base 

table so whatever is in Creditor Maintenance 

will appear in a listing with this view. 

Use this view to list all creditor invoices and 

payments. That is, transactions. 

Use this view to view active debtor arrangements. 

Includes: 

• arrangements that are not yet complete 

• the oldest outstanding transaction date 

• all of the information from vDebtors, 

covered below. 

• Creditors 

• CreditorTransactions 


• Community 

• Creditors 

• Addresses 



Journals 



• vDebtors 

• Community 

• Addresses 





vDebtorInstalments 

Students 

vDebtors 

vDebtorSibling- 

Discounts 

vDebtorStudentCon 

cessions 

vDebtorTransaction 

Address 

Use this view to summarise debtor instalments. 

Includes: 

• debtor information 

• fee code 

• total amount due or paid 

• instalment setup details. 

Use this view to list debtor contact information, 

including: 

• spouse contact details 

• previous payment summary 

• current balances. 

Use this view to include all tuition-related sibling 

discounts that have not yet appeared on a 

statement. 

Also only gives a listing of sibling discounts 

where there is more than one student in any one 

family at the school. 

Use this view to list all student concessions that 

are currently listed for the student and their 

related debtor. 

All data from the Concessions tab of Current 

Student Maintenance is included in the view. 

See Current Student Maintenance - Concessions 

tab in the Current Students manual. 

Use this view to list all debtor charges and 

receipts. 

• DebtorInstalments 

• DebtorFees 

• Community 

• Debtors 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• DebtorTransactions 

• Debtors 


• luAutoTuition 

• Students 

• Community 


• DebtorStudent- 

Concessions 

• vStudents 

• Debtors 

• DebtorTransactions 

• Community 

• Addresses 






vEnrolmentDeposits Use this view to list all current enrolment 

deposits, along with: 

• student information 

• contact or payee information. 

• EnrolmentDeposits 

• EnrolmentDeposit- 

Definitions 


vFinanceReport 

vGeneralLedgerJnl- 

BudgetTotal 

vGeneralLedger- 

Journals 

vGLMonthly- 

MovementIn- 

Columns 

Use this view to get a hard-copy of any of your 

finance reports. 

For example, the G/L Finance Report Structure 

report primarily uses this view. 

Use this view to list all account budgets against 

actual expenses. 

Use this view to list all journals that have been 

posted to the general ledger from any of the 

finance modules within Synergetic. 

Use this view to get total expenses for general 

ledger accounts in each period for the specified 

general ledger reporting year. 

The GLReportingGLYear value can be set on 

the General tab of Finance Configuration 

Maintenance. If required, change the G/L 

Reporting End Date field on the tab. 

See Finance Configuration Maintenance - 

General tab in the System maintenance manual. 

• Students 



• Community 

• Addresses 


FinanceReports 


FinanceReportLinks 

• luGeneralLedger- 

FinanceReport 




MonthlyBudgets 


Journals 



Journals 



• General Ledger 






vGLReportingMonth 

Summary 

vItemSales 

vItemStock 

vPayrollEmployee- 

PayDetails 

vPayrollEmployee- 

PayDetailTots 

Use this view to show the following details for 

your general ledger accounts: 

• opening balance 

• year-to-date 

• current and full year expense figures 

• current and full year budget figures. 

Use this view to list every sale made and the 

person or general ledger code that the item went 

to. 

Use this view to list all items and the amount of 

stock on hand at each business unit. 

Use this view to get pay details by line, for each 

employee’s pay for a given pay posting. 

Use this view to get totals for each PayCode by 

posting number. 

This view is: 

• useful for analysing an overall pay run 

• not useful for individual employee totals 

• used for the totals in the Payroll Journal 

Listing report. 




AllocationCodes 

• ItemSales 

• Students 

• ItemSaleDetails 

• Community 

• Items 

• vDebtors 



• Items 

• ItemStock 

• PayrollEmployee- 

PayDetails 

• PayrollEmployees 

• PayrollPayGroups 

• PayrollCode- 

Definitions 



• Community 

• luPayroll- 

SuperannuationList 

• PayrollEmployee- 

PayDetails 

• PayrollCode- 

Definitions 





vPayrollEmployees 

vPurchaseOrders 

Use this view to extract all payroll employee 

information. It: 

• includes the year-to-date pay figure 

• includes the total pay figure 

• does not provide information about each 

line of pay. 

For information about each line of pay, see the 

vPayrollEmployeePayDetails view, covered 

earlier. 

Use this view to extract all of the details in 

Purchase Order Maintenance. 

Every purchase detail will return a record in a 

query from this view. 

• PayrollEmployees 

• Community 

• Addresses 

• PayrollPayGroups 

• luPayrollTaxationRate 

• luPayrollPay- 

Frequency 

• PurchaseOrders 


AllocationCodes 

• BusinessUnits 

• PurchaseOrderDetails 

• Community 

• Items 

• Addresses 


• luDeliveryPoint 


Extracting data using the Microsoft Query wizard 



The following example shows how to extract student names and contact details from the Synergetic 

database using the Microsoft Query wizard. 

1. Start Microsoft Excel. 

2. Select: 

• Data > Import External Data > New Database Query (Microsoft Excel 2007) 


• Data > Get External Data > Create New Query (Microsoft Excel 97). 

The Choose Data Source window is displayed. 

3. Select the Synergetic database you plan to use. That is: 

• SynergyOne for mostly non-financial data 

• SynergyOneFinance for finance data. 

4. Select the Use the Query Wizard to create/edit queries field. 




5. Click . 

The SQL Server Login window is displayed. 

6. Type in your username and password. 

Note: This is your usual Synergetic username and password. 

7. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Choose Columns window is displayed. 

8. Scroll down the list of tables until you get to the views. These all start with a small v. 

Tip: If you are using SQL 2005 you can limit the number of Available tables and columns 

displayed by clicking 

then selecting dbo from the Owner drop down list. 




9. Click the to the left of the selected view to list all fields that this view is contains. For example, 

vStudentContactAddress. 

10. To select fields, highlight them then click . 

Note: If you click this button while the view name is selected then all fields in this view will be 

added to the columns in your query. However, you rarely need to use all of the fields in a view or 

base table. 

11. To follow this example, select the fields as shown in the screen capture below. 

Note: Scroll down in the Available tables and columns area to find each of the fields. 

Note: See the Useful fields section below. 

12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 until no more fields (columns) are required. 




13. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Filter Data window is displayed. 

Tip: You can also come back to this screen at any time by clicking 

using the wizard. 

while you are still 

14. Select the field (column) to filter on and the selection criteria. For example, you can enter the 

following selection criteria, CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag equals 1 to retrieve records for the current 

year and semester. In the following example, the first selection criteria set is FileYear equals 

2006. 

Tip: If the view contains the CurrentSemesterOnly flag, you can use this instead of FileYear and 

FileSemester fields. 

Note: When you choose your filter the Column Name becomes bold, this will let you know what 

fields you have already applied filters to. 




15. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Sort Order window is displayed. 

16. Select the field to base the sorting data on. You can choose multiple fields to sort by but Surname 

is usually a good option. 

For example, click the drop down menu and select Surname. Leave the sort type as Ascending. 

Note: Ascending order is A-Z, descending order is Z-A. 




17. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Finish window is displayed. 

18. Click , if you plan to reuse this query at a later date. 

The Save As window is displayed. 

19. Name the query using a suitable name, such as vStudentContactAddress. 

20. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Finish window is redisplayed. 

21. Select Return Data to Microsoft Office Excel. 

22. Click . 




23. Switch back to Microsoft Excel. 

The Import Data window is displayed. 

24. Select the starting position on the spreadsheet. 

25. Click . 

The data is retrieved and placed in the spreadsheet. 

26. Save the spreadsheet. 




27. You can edit the query in one of two ways: 

• Editing the query using the wizard. See Editing a Microsoft Query using the wizard (on 

page 35). 

• Editing the query directly using the Query window. See Extracting student name and contact 

details example (on page 51). 

Tip: Select Data >Import External Data > Data Range (Microsoft Excel 2003) to edit additional 

query settings. 




Useful fields 

The following fields are useful when querying Current Student views using the Microsoft Query 

wizard: 

For information on other useful fields and generated fields, see Synergetic views (on page 5). 

Field 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag 

FileYear 

File Semester 

ContactAddressFull 

StudentContactAddressComma 

StudentContactMailName 

StudentContactMailSalutation 

Surname 

Description 

Only view data from the current year and semester. The 

default value in this field changes depending on the user’s 

Synergetic preferences. 

It is preferable to use the CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag rather 

than FileYear and FileSemester fields. 

Use to set the current year, to avoid using information from 

previous or future years. 

Use to set the current semester, to avoid using information 

from previous or future semesters. 

For example, when using FileYear and FileSemester: 

If using the same query three years from the date of 

creation, you will need to reset these filters to match the 

current year and semester. These selections would only be 

useful if you want to access prior years on the database. 

Gets the contact’s address and organises it in a mailing 

format such as: 

Computing Directions Australia 

Building 4, 303-313 Burwood Hwy 

Burwood East VIC 3151 

Places commas in the address, used for listing names and 

addresses. For example: 

Computing Directions Australia, Building 4, 303-313 

Burwood Hwy, Burwood East VIC 3151 

These fields are constructed from the Address1-3, Suburb, 

State, PostCode and Country. They also take into account 

whether the current person is deceased or the address is no 

longer valid on the system. 

Defined by the MailFormat in Community Maintenance, 

this field is normally in the format of Contact Title and 

Contact Spouse Title Contact First Initial Surname. 

For example, Mr and Mrs P Bailey. 

Organises the ContactMailName in the format you have 

specified within Synergetic’s Community Maintenance, 

MailSalutation. 

For example, you can remove the contact’s initial. 

Used for sorting purposes. 

You can later delete the field but keep the sorting. If you are 

using the wizard then you need to add it now. 




Field 

StudentName 

EntryDate / LeavingDate 

Description 

Student’s Name and Surname joined together. It will be 

used later when doing a Mail Merge within Word. 

If you want only the student’s preferred name then you may 

need to join to another table or select a different field in the 

view. For example, Brian Smith. 

The EntryDate and LeavingDate are used together to filter 

out students who are not at your organisation at a certain 

date. 

All students should have an entry date, after which date they 

are present at your organisation, unless they have left. 


Editing a Microsoft Query using the wizard 



The following example shows how to edit an existing query using the Query wizard, accessed from the 

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet created earlier. 

Also, see: 

• Extracting data using the Microsoft Query wizard (on page 25) 

• Common duplication problems (on page 38). 

To edit an existing query using the Query wizard: 

1. Open the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. 

2. Open the Query wizard. You can: 

• select Data > Import External Data > Edit Query (Microsoft Excel 2003) 

• click on the External Data toolbar 




• right click on one of the populated cells and select Edit Query from the menu. 

Note: You can also refresh your dataset by selecting Refresh Data. 







4. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Choose Columns window is displayed. 

5. Update the query using the Query Wizard windows. See Extracting data using the Microsoft 

Query wizard (on page 25). 

6. Click . 

The Query Wizard - Finish window is displayed. 

7. Select Return Data to Microsoft Office Excel. 

8. Click . 


The dataset is refreshed with the latest parameters. 



Common duplication problems 


Example 1 

Duplicate names can be caused by forgetting to select StudentContactType as SC1 so that you are 

only picking up the primary contacts and not Term and Alternate as well. Otherwise, you would be 

returning one line for every contact that a student has. 

Query with duplicate records 

SELECT ID, StudentContactMailName, StudentContactAddressComma, StudentContactType 

FROM vStudentContactAddress 

WHERE CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag = 1 

Returns 

ID ContactMailName ContactAddress ContactType 

364 Mr Joe Black 15 Green St, MT WAVERLEY VIC 3149 SC1 

364 Mrs Jane Black 341 Flowerdale Ave, St Kilda VIC 3182 SC2 

Query with correction 

SELECT ID, StudentContactMailName, StudentContactAddressComma, StudentContactType 

FROM vStudentContactAddress, StudentContact 

WHERE CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag = 1 AND NormalMailFlag = 1 

Returns 

ID ContactMailName ContactAddress ContactType 

364 Mr Joe Black 15 Green St, MT WAVERLEY VIC 3149 SC1 




Example 2 

Another cause of duplication in a student contact query comes from the selection of any student fields. 

For example, you want to mail out one letter to the parents of students, regardless of whether they 

have multiple siblings at the school. You also decide that you want to sort by YearLevel so you use 

this field as well. 

To adjust the query to avoid duplications because siblings may be in different year levels, you need to 

add the: 

• YearLevel field to the query 

• key word DISTINCT. 

Query with correction 

SELECT DISTINCT StudentContactMailName, StudentContactAddressComma, YearLevel 


WHERE StudentContactNormalMailFlag = 1 AND 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag = 1 

Returns 

ContactMailName ContactAddress YearLevel 

Mr Joe Black 15 Green St, MT WAVERLEY VIC 3149 5 

Mr Joe Black 15 Green St, MT WAVERLEY VIC 3149 10 



Inserting an existing SQL statement 


Sometimes you may have a query that has already been perfected on another system. You can either: 

• Open the query file that has been provided or saved with an .dqy extension. 

• Paste a SQL statement into the SQL window on the Microsoft Query window. 

In this example, we will follow the process when someone from the Computing Directions Australia 

(CDA) team e-mails you a SQL statement. This Structured Query Language (SQL) statement is written 

in a language that database management systems can interpret. Synergetic uses the Microsoft SQL 

Server database management system. 

In this example, we will use a simple SQL statement that will report and total all religion codes at your 

organisation: 

Query 

SELECT vStudents.StudentCampus, vStudents.StudentReligionCode, Count(*) 

FROM SynergyOne.dbo.vStudents vStudents 

WHERE (vStudents.CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag=1) 

GROUP BY vStudents.StudentCampus, vStudents.StudentReligionCode 

ORDER BY vStudents.StudentCampus, vStudents.StudentReligionCode 

This statement selects campus, religion code and places a count field on your spreadsheet. The fields: 

• to be returned or calculated are placed directly after the SELECT clause 

• used to filter the records are placed directly after the WHERE clause 

• used to group the output are placed after the GROUP BY clause 

• used to sort the information are placed after the ORDER BY clause. 




To paste in a SQL statement that has been sent to you by e-mail: 


2. Select: 


• Data > Import > Import External Data > New Database Query (Microsoft Excel 2003) 






4. Clear the Use the Query Wizard to create/edit queries field. 




5. Click . 




7. Click . 

The Add Tables window is displayed. 

8. Click . 




9. Click . 

The SQL window is displayed. 

10. Switch to the application with the SQL statement, such as an e-mail message. 

11. Select the SQL statement text and press Ctrl + C. 

The SQL statement is copied to the clipboard. 

12. Switch back to the SQL window. 

13. Press Ctrl + V. 

The SQL statement is pasted into the SQL window. 




14. Click . 

The Microsoft Query window is updated with the new criteria and the records are displayed. 




15. You can: 

• select File > Save to save the query for later use 

• select File > Return Data to Microsoft Office Excel to return the data to a spreadsheet. 



Extracting data using Microsoft Query directly 


Most of the time the Query wizard can mislead you and make it harder to manipulate your data. It is 

used mainly for creating quick queries but does not introduce you to the full functionality of Microsoft 

Query. 

Everything that you can do in the wizard (and more) can be done in Microsoft Query itself. Check the 

Help available for Microsoft Query. Also, see: 

• Extracting student name and contact details example (on page 51) 





Useful fields 

The following fields are useful when querying Current Student views using Microsoft Query directly: 

For information on other useful fields and generated fields, see Synergetic views (on page 5). 

Field 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag 

FileYear 

File Semester 

ContactAddressFull 

StudentContactAddressComma 

StudentContactMailName 

StudentContactMailSalutation 

Surname 

Description 

Only view data from the current year and semester. The 

default value in this field changes depending on the user’s 

Synergetic preferences. 

It is preferable to use the CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag rather 

than FileYear and FileSemester fields. 

Use to set the current year, to avoid using information from 

previous or future years. 

Use to set the current semester, to avoid using information 

from previous or future semesters. 

For example, when using FileYear and FileSemester: 

If using the same query three years from the date of 

creation, you will need to reset these filters to match the 

current year and semester. These selections would only be 

useful if you want to access prior years on the database. 

Gets the contact’s address and organises it in a mailing 

format such as: 

Computing Directions Australia 

Building 4, 303-313 Burwood Hwy 

Burwood East VIC 3151 

Places commas in the address, used for listing names and 

addresses. For example: 

Computing Directions Australia, Building 4, 303-313 

Burwood Hwy, Burwood East VIC 3151 

These fields are constructed from the Address1-3, Suburb, 

State, PostCode and Country. They also take into account 

whether the current person is deceased or the address is no 

longer valid on the system. 

Defined by the MailFormat in Community Maintenance, 

this field is normally in the format of Contact Title and 

Contact Spouse Title Contact First Initial Surname. 

For example, Mr and Mrs P Bailey. 

Organises the ContactMailName in the format you have 

specified within Synergetic’s Community Maintenance, 

MailSalutation. 

For example, you can remove the contact’s initial. 

Used for sorting purposes. 

You can later delete the field but keep the sorting. If you are 

using the wizard then you need to add it now. 




Field 

StudentName 

EntryDate / LeavingDate 

Description 

Student’s Name and Surname joined together. It will be 

used later when doing a Mail Merge within Word. 

If you want only the student’s preferred name then you may 

need to join to another table or select a different field in the 

view. For example, Brian Smith. 

The EntryDate and LeavingDate are used together to filter 

out students who are not at your organisation at a certain 

date. 

All students should have an entry date, after which date they 

are present at your organisation, unless they have left. 




E-mailing your query to CDA 

If you are having problems with your query then: 

• copy the query into an e-mail 

• provide details on the objective of the query 

• provide information about the problem that you are encountering 

• send the email to support@cda.com.au. 

To prepare the information for Computing Directions Australia (CDA): 

1. Open the query using Microsoft Query. 

The Microsoft Query window is displayed. 




2. Click . 


3. Highlight the SQL statement. 

4. Press Ctrl + C to copy the SQL statement to the clipboard. 

5. Switch to e-mail. 

6. Press Ctrl + V to paste the SQL statement into the e-mail message. 

7. Complete the e-mail and send it. Provide: 

• details on the objective of the query 

• information about the problem that you are encountering. 




Extracting student name and contact details example 

The following example shows how to extract student names and contact details from the Synergetic 

database directly using Microsoft Query. 

Also, see: 

• Extracting data using Microsoft Query directly (on page 46) 


To create a new query using Microsoft Query directly: 


2. Select: 












5. Click . 




7. Click . 





8. Scroll down the list of tables until you get to the Views. These all start with a small v. 

Tip: Press v on the keyboard to position at the first view. 

Note: If you only need the views to be displayed, click 

and clear all but the Views field. 

Also, if you are using SQL 2005 you can limit the number of entries displayed by selecting dbo 

from the Owner drop down list. 

9. Locate and select the required view. 




10. Click . 

The table is added to the Microsoft Query window. 

11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 until you have finished adding tables. 

Tip: To add another table later, select Table > Add Tables. You may need to select a different 

Database, if data from the Finance database is required. 

Note: In this example, we are only using views that have already been created by CDA. If you are 

using multiple tables then joins need to be made between them. Contact CDA for more 

information. 

If you want to remove a table, click on it then press Delete on your keyboard. 

12. Click . 




13. Select Criteria > Add Criteria…. 

The Add Criteria window is displayed. 

14. Update the criteria fields. 

Note: We recommend using CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag = 1 rather than FileYear and 

FileSemester selections. 

Note: If you select a value from the Field drop-down list, you can choose from any field in the 

table you have added. In the wizard you can only choose from the fields that you add from the 

table. 

Tip: Click 

to display all values available for this field. 




15. Click . 

The criteria is added to the query window. 




16. Select either the: 

• And option, if the required data set is the filtered result of an intersection between the current 

and previous field selections 

• Or option, if the required data set is the combined result based on the current and previous 

field selections. 

17. Repeat steps 14 through 16 until there are no more criteria to add. 

18. Click . 




19. Add fields to the data set. You can: 

• Double click the field from the table window. 

• Click and drag the field from the above window down to the grid to the column position where 

you want to place it. 

• Click the drop down list on a blank column heading to display a list of all fields, then select the 

field you want. 

• Click Records > Add Column, then select the field you want and give it a heading name. 

Heading names of other fields can be changed by double clicking on the heading (grey area). 

The field (column) is added to your data set. 

Note: To remove a field, select the column heading as shown in the example above then press 

the Delete key on your keyboard. 




20. Select Records > Sort. 

The Sort window is displayed. 

21. Select a field to sort on by selecting: 

• the Column drop down list 

• either Ascending or Descending. 

22. Click . 

The sort criteria is added to the Sort window. 

23. Repeat steps 21 and 22 until there are no more sort selections. 

Note: The sort selections must already have been added to your query already. 




24. Review the data in the grid area. 

Note: You can adjust the height of the rows and the width of the columns so that you can view the 

information more fully. This is done in the same manner as in Microsoft Excel by dragging the 

column and row dividers . 

25. Select File > Return data to Microsoft Excel. 





The Import Data window is displayed. 

27. Select the starting position on the spreadsheet. 

28. Click . 

The data is retrieved and placed in the spreadsheet. 




29. Save the spreadsheet. 

Tip: Select Data > Import External Data > Data Range (Microsoft Excel 2003) to edit additional 

query settings. 


Advanced Microsoft Query and SQL examples 



Microsoft Query is a tool that is used to create SQL (Structured Query Language) statements that will 

extract and graphically display virtually any data that you want from the Synergetic database. Crystal 

Reports allows you to produce similar results but allows a lot more manipulation of the data from a 

graphical perspective. 

Outlined below are some intermediate to advanced SQL statements that you can use with Microsoft 

Query. For more detailed information information, refer to: 

• the many good SQL websites available to assist learning this database language 

• SQL Server Management Studio. 

If you have access to SQL Server Management Studio (your network administrator most likely 

would), you can load either: 

• SQL Books On-line 

• Transact-SQL Help using SQL Query Analyser. 

Standard Synergetic fields used for filtering data 

The following table lists fields useful for filtering data: 

Field 

Value 

DeceasedFlag 0 

ValidAddressFlag 1 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag 1 

FileYear 2009 

FileSemester 

StudentStatus 

1, 2, ...n 

LFT 

Note: 4 is left, 1 is normal. 

StudentContactType 

SC1, SC2 or SCT 

StudentContactNormalMailFlag 1 




Example 1 - Use SUBSTRING with a character string 

This example shows how to return only a portion of a character string. 

From the vStudentClasses view, this query returns records filtered based on a portion of the class 

code. 

Query 

SELECT 

vSC.StudentID, vSC.StudentSurname, vSC.StudentPreferred, 

vSC.StudentCampus, vSC.StudentHouse, vSC.ClassCampus, vSC.ClassCode, 

vSC.ClassDescription 

FROM vStudentClasses vSC 

WHERE (substring(vSC.ClassCode,1,2)='MA') 

ORDER BY 

vSC.StudentSurname, 

vSC.StudentPreferred 

The WHERE substring statement selects MA because there is a character match starting from 

position one which includes two characters of the class code. 




The following example shows you how to display the third and fourth characters of the string constant 

abcdef. The result set is cd. 

SELECT x = SUBSTRING('abcdef', 3, 2) 

Substring function 

Returns part of a character, binary, text or image expression. 

Syntax 

SUBSTRING(expression, start, length) 

Arguments 

• expression is a character string, binary string, text, image, a column, or an expression that 

includes a column. Do not use expressions that include aggregate functions. 

• start is an integer that specifies where the substring begins. 

• length is an integer that specifies the length of the substring (the number of characters to 

return). 

Return types 

Returns character data if expression is one of the supported character data types. Returns binary data 

if expression is one of the supported binary data types. 

The returned string is the same type as the given expression with the exceptions shown in the table. 

Given expression 

text 

image 

ntext 

Return type 

varchar 

varbinary 

nvarchar 

Remarks 

Offsets (start and length) using the ntext, char, or varchar data types must be specified in number of 

characters. Offsets using the text, image, binary, or varbinary data types must be specified in number 

of bytes. 

Note: Compatibility levels can affect return values. 




Example 2 - Mail names and addresses for current parents and staff 

Query 

SELECT 

MailNameJoint, AddressFull 

FROM Community 

LEFT JOIN Addresses ON ( 

WHERE 

Community.AddressID = Addresses.AddressID) 

EXISTS (SELECT * from Constituencies 

WHERE Community.ID = Constituencies.ID 

AND ConstitCode = '@PC') 

AND EXISTS (SELECT * from Constituencies 

AND DeceasedFlag = 0 

WHERE Community.ID = Constituencies.ID AND ConstitCode = '@STF') 

AND ValidAddressFlag = 1 

AND SpouseFlag = 0 

Points to note: 

• [NOT] EXISTS specifies the search for an expression, based on the expression’s inclusion or 

exclusion from a list. The search expression can be a constant or a column name, and the list 

can be a set of constants or, more commonly, a sub query. Enclose the list of values in 

parentheses. 




Example 3 - All parents who are also staff members (primary or spouse) 

Query 

SELECT DISTINCT 

StudentContactMailName, StudentContactAddressFull 


LEFT JOIN Community ON ( 

StudentContactID = Community.ID) 

WHERE EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Constituencies 

WHERE vStudentContactAddress.StudentContactID = Constituencies.ID 

AND ConstitCode = '@STF') 

OR EXISTS (SELECT * from Constituencies 


WHERE SpouseID = Constituencies.ID 

AND ConstitCode = '@STF') 

• DISTINCT specifies that only unique rows can appear in the returned data set. Null values are 

considered equal for the purposes of this keyword. 

• LEFT JOIN specifies that all rows from the left table that are not meeting the join condition are 

included in the results set, and output columns from the other table are set to NULL in addition 

to all rows returned by the inner join. 

• INNER JOIN specifies that all records that meet the join condition on both sides are included 

in the results set. 




Example 4 - Selecting records in Microsoft Query on the basis of date fields 

Select enquiries in the last 7 days: 

Query 

SELECT 

vEnquiryContactAddress.EnquiryID, vEnquiryContactAddress.EnquiryDate 

FROM vEnquiryContactAddress 

WHERE 

{fn TIMESTAMPDIFF(SQL_TSI_DAY, {fn CURDATE()}, 

vEnquiryContactAddress.EnquiryDate)} > -6 


• The –6 means 'select all enquiries for today plus the last 7 days'. Change the –6 to 0 for 

TODAY only. You can change to any other value to select enquiries from that many days 

ago. You MUST enter the number of days with the minus sign (means PRIOR to today). 




Example 5 - Selecting students who have siblings at the school 

What factor determines siblings? Answer: Primary Contact 

The primary contact is the person or primary person of a couple who is the main responsible person 

for the child, as far as your organisation is concerned. 

The child does not necessarily need to live at the address. That is the meaning of the term contact 

and it is normally the case. 

The accounts do not need to be sent to the primary contact. That is the meaning of the debtor on the 

Debtor tab and again, it is normally the case. 

One meaning which is attached to the primary contact is that it is the means by which Synergetic tries 

to work out who are siblings. That is, two students who share the same primary contact are assumed 

to be siblings. It does not differentiate between normal and step-siblings - that is the purpose of 

relationships. It is used for the following purposes: 

• Determining family position. StudentFamilyPosition of 1 is always the eldest by birth date. 

• Determining sibling discounts for billing debtor accounts. 

• The Sibling tab in Current and Future Student Maintenance. 

The following query can be used in Microsoft Query to find all future students who have a sibling who 

is currently enrolled, using the definition above. 

Sample query 

Query 

SELECT * FROM vFutureContactAddress 

WHERE FutureContactID IN 

(SELECT StudentContactID from vStudentContactAddress 

WHERE StudentContactType = 'SC1' 

AND CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag = 1 

AND vStudentContactAddress.ID vFutureContactAddress.ID) 

AND FutureContactType = 'SC1' 




Example 6 - Select enrolment changes in the last seven days 

You can also use the following statement to select records changed during the previous day(s). This 

statement will only work in the current year – that is, you cannot select records changed before the 

current year. The query uses the SQL DATEPART function to calculate the date range required. 

Query 

SELECT vFCA.FutureSurname, vFCA.FuturePreferred, vFCA.FutureGender, 

vFCA.FutureContactType, vFCA.FutureContactDescription, vFCA.FutureContactMailName, 

vFCA.FutureContactMailSalutation, vFCA.FutureContactAddressFull, 

vFCA.FutureApplicationDate, vFCA.FutureEnrolYear, vFCA.FutureStatus, 

vFCA.FutureCampus, vFCA.FutureYearLevel 

FROM SynergyOne.dbo.vFutureContactAddress vFCA 

WHERE 

(DATEPART(Year,FutureStatusChangeDate) >= DATEPART(Year,GETDATE())) AND 

(DATEPART(DayofYear,FutureStatusChangeDate) >= 

(DATEPART(DayofYear,GETDATE() -6)) 



Using stored procedures to retrieve Synergetic data 


Stored procedures can be used to return Synergetic data to Microsoft Word to create mail merge 

letters. The procedures also update Synergetic fields so that history is kept about what has been 

mailed when. 

For details of stored procedures, see Stored procedures (on page 72). 

How to 

• Add an activity for a future student, to include in a mail merge letter. See Future Student 

Maintenance - Activity tab in the Future students manual. 

• Change the status of a future student's application, to include in a mail merge letter. See 

Future Student Maintenance - Applications tab in the Future students manual. 

• Select several future students and add activities for them. See Adding future student activity in 

bulk in the Future students manual. 

• Create new mail merge letters. See Creating mail merge letters using stored procedures (on 

page 73). 

• Print using existing mail merge letters. See Printing mail merge letters using an existing 

document (on page 82). 

• If you have access, reset values in bulk for the selected records in the Synergetic 

maintenance function. See Setting field values in bulk in the Introduction manual. Alternatively, 

create new activities or applications. 

• Reprint individual letters. See Reprinting mail merge letters (on page 86). 




Stored procedures 

Stored procedures have been written by Synergetic development staff to return data based on one or 

more defined input parameters to restrict the data returned. The following stored procedures are 

defined: 

Stored procedure Description Input parameters Fields updated 

crspFutureActivity- 

Print 

Return data based on 

certain future student 

activities. 

Optional: 

• Activity 

• Campus 

• MailedDate 

• IgnoreMailFlag* 

• Mailed Date 

• Mailed By. 

See Modifying Activities in 

the Future students 

manual. 

• ActivityCreated 

By. 

crspFutureStatus- 

ChangedPrint 

Return data based on 

future student enquiry 

or application status 

change. 

Mandatory: 

• MergeCode 

Optional: 

• Campus 

• MergePrinted- 

Date 

• Printed Date 

• Printed By. 

See Future Student 

Maintenance - History tab 

in the Future students 

manual. 

• IgnoreMailFlag* 

• StatusChanged- 

By. 

crspEnquiry- 

ProspectusPrint 

Return data for all 

enquiries that have not 

had a letter created to 

accompany your 

organisation's 

prospectus. 

Optional: 

• Campus 

• Prospectus- 

PrintedDate 

• Prospectus Date. 

See Enquiry Student 

Maintenance - Enquiry tab 

in the Future students 

manual. 

Note*: The default value for the IgnoreMailFlag parameter is 0 (zero). 




Creating mail merge letters using stored procedures 

In the following example, letters are being prepared to mail to the parents of each future student who 

has an interview booked with the Head of Campus, using the crspFutureActivityPrint stored 

procedure. An activity has been created on the Activity tab of Future Student Maintenance. See 

Future Student Maintenance - Activity tab in the Future students manual. 

In the example, the interview is booked with Sarah Adamski's and her parents, as displayed on the: 

• Activity tab (selected above) 

• Modify Activity window (seen below). 

Activities are selected for the mail merge based on their Activity and the Mail Request field. 

However, if the Mailed Date and Mailed By fields are populated with values, this means that this 

activity has already has been printed. 




The Activity field codes are maintained in the luFutureActivity lookup table. In this example, 

INTBOOK has been created for interviews that have been booked. See Maintaining lookup tables in 

the System maintenance manual. 

To create mail merge letters using a stored procedure, such as the crspFutureActivityPrint 

procedure: 

1. Open Microsoft Word. 

2. Select Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge (Microsoft Excel 2003). 

Step 1 of the Mail Merge tab is displayed on the document window. 

3. Select the type of document you are working on. 




4. Click Next: Starting document. 


5. Select the starting document. 

6. Click Next: Select recipients. 





7. Click Browse. 

The Select Data Source window is displayed. 

8. Select Tools > MS Query. 









11. Click . 




13. Click . 


14. Click . 




15. Click . 


16. Type the stored procedure and its parameters. See Stored procedures (on page 72) for details of 

each procedure. In this example, type: 

• exec 

• the procedure name, crspFutureActivityPrint 

• the first parameter, @Activity='', where code is the activity code required 

• the second parameter, @Campus='



19. Select File > Return Data to Microsoft Word. 

The Mail Merge Recipients window is displayed. 

Note: Ensure that you return this data as soon as possible, as the data from Microsoft Query is 

not available for longer than 15 minutes. 

20. Click . 





21. Click More Items. 

The Insert Merge Field window is displayed. 

22. Locate and select the field to insert into the document. 

23. Click . 

The field is inserted in the document. 

24. Repeat steps 22 and 23 until all of the required fields are added to the document. 

25. Close the Insert Merge Field window. 

26. Add other text and format the letter. 




27. Click to view the merged data. 

28. Format any database fields, such as date fields with the time included. 

Tip: Right mouse and select Toggle Field Codes, to format the date, such as \@ "d/mm/yyyy". 

29. Preview the output and merge the letters. 

30. Save the document. 

This document can form the basis of other similar letters based on future student activities. 




Printing mail merge letters using an existing document 

In the following example, letters are being prepared to mail to the parents of each future student who 

has an application with a certain status. A mail merge letter has already been created, using the 

crspFutureStatusChangePrint stored procedure. 

An application has been entered for a future student on the Applications tab of the Future Student 

Maintenance window. See Future Student Maintenance - Applications tab in the Future students 

manual. 

In this example, the application's status can be: 

• viewed on the Applications tab (selected above) 

• viewed and updated on the Modify Future Student Application window (seen below). 

Applications are selected for the mail merge based on their Status. 




The values in the Status field on the Modify Future Student Application window are defined in the 

luFutureStatus lookup table. See Maintaining lookup tables in the System maintenance manual. 

The selected value (Testing, in this example) is linked to the luFutureStatusMerge lookup table 

using its MergeCode of T. When a status is changed to Testing, its MergeCode is also changed as 

well. Any applications with this MergeCode are selected by the crspFutureStatusChangePrint 

stored procedure. 

To print mail merge letters using an existing document set up to use a stored procedure, such as the 

crspFutureStatusChangePrint procedure: 

1. Start Microsoft Word. 

The Microsoft Office Word window is displayed. 

Note: See Stored procedures (on page 72) for details of each procedure. 




2. Click . 

The Microsoft Word document is opened with the latest data using the stored procedure and its 

current parameters. 

3. Print the merged letters. 

4. Switch back to Synergetic to review the data changes that the procedure has made, if required. 

In this example, switch back to the History tab of the Future Student Maintenance window. See 

Future Student Maintenance - History tab in the Future students manual. 




5. Click . 

The data that was updated using Microsoft Word is refreshed on the History tab, as highlighted 

below. 




Reprinting mail merge letters 

If you need to reprint mail merge letters to certain community members, you first need to understand 

which: 

• stored procedure is being used 

• the relevant fields that are updated by the stored procedure. 

Details for each stored procedure are listed in the table covered earlier. See Stored procedures (on 

page 72). 

Tip: If the mail merge letter has not been updated since it was last used, you can just reprint the 

single page from Microsoft Word. 

To reprint a letter created using a stored procedure, such as the crspEnquiryProspectusPrint 

procedure: 

1. Open the Enquiry tab of Enquiry Student Maintenance. See Enquiry Student Maintenance - 

Enquiry tab in the Future students manual. 

2. Locate the enquiring student. 

3. Clear the Prospectus Date. 

4. Click . 

Tip: If you have access to set fields in bulk, you can clear the fields for all of the selected records. 

See Setting field values in bulk in the Introduction manual. 




5. Open the letter in Microsoft Word, originally created using the crspEnquiryProspectusPrint 

procedure. 

The Microsoft Office Word window is displayed. 

Note: The campus parameter is not used in the example above. 

6. Click . 

The Microsoft Word document is opened with the latest data using the stored procedure. 

7. Print the merged letters. 



Index 

Index 

. 

.dqy • 40 

A 

AddressComma • 5 

AddressFull • 5 

Advanced Microsoft Query and SQL examples • 63 

C 

Common duplication problems • 38 

Creating mail merge letters using stored procedures • 73 

crspFutureActivityPrint • 73 

crspFutureStatusChangePrint • 82 

CurrentSemesterOnlyFlag • 5, 63 

D 

Data 

Extracting from Synergetic • 1 

Database 

Extracting data from • 1 

Extracting data without query wizard • 46 

Fields • 1 

Views • 1 

DeceasedFlag • 5, 63 

Duplication problems • 38 

E 

Editing 

Microsoft Query • 35 

Editing a Microsoft Query using the wizard • 35 

Excel 

Using to extract data from Synergetic • 1 

Extracting data 

Advanced SQL examples • 63 


Example • 51 

From Synergetic • 1 

Inserting existing SQL statement • 40 

Using stored procedures • 71, 72 

With query wizard • 25 

Without query wizard • 46 

Extracting data from the Synergetic database • 1 

Extracting data using Microsoft Query directly • 46 

Extracting data using the Microsoft Query wizard • 25 

Extracting student name and contact details example • 51 

F 

Fields 

Database • 1 

FileSemester • 5, 63 

FileYear • 5, 63 

Finance views • 19 

I 

Inserting an existing SQL statement • 40 

M 

Mail merge 

Printing letters • 82 

Reprinting letters • 86 

Using stored procedures • 73 

MailName • 5 

MailSalutation • 5 

Main Finance views • 19 

Main Synergetic views • 7 

Microsoft Query • 63 

Advanced SQL examples • 63 


Editing • 35 

Emailing to CDA • 46 

Extracting data without the wizard • 46 

Extracting with query wizard • 25 

Inserting existing SQL statement • 40 

Problem with • 46 

Using to extract data • 46 

Wizard • 25 

P 

Printing mail merge letters using an existing document • 

82 

Problem 

Duplication • 38 

R 

Reprinting mail merge letters • 86 

S 

SQL 

Advanced examples • 63 

Using to extract data • 40 

SQL statement • 40 

Stored procedures • 71, 72 

StudentContactNormalMailFlag • 5, 63 

StudentContactType • 5, 63 

StudentStatus • 5, 63 

Synergetic views • 1, 5, 7 

T 

Tables 

Database • 1 

Joining • 5 

Linking • 5 

U 

Using stored procedures to retrieve Synergetic data • 71 

V 

ValidAddressFlag • 5, 63 

vAssetDepreciation • 19 

vAssets • 19 

vBankReconciliation • 19 

vCashReceiptsEntry • 19 

vCommunicationsCurrent • 7 

vCommunicationsPast • 7 

vCommunityAddresses • 7 

vCommunityAddressesConstit • 7 


Index 

vCreditorInvoiceEntry • 19 

vCreditorInvoices • 19 

vCreditors • 19 

vCreditorTransactions • 19 

vDebtorActiveArrangements • 19 

vDebtorInstalmentsStudents • 19 

vDebtors • 19 

vDebtorSiblingDiscounts • 19 

vDebtorStudentConcessions • 19 

vDebtorTransactionAddress • 19 

vDonorPledges • 7 

vDonorPledgesReceipts • 7 

vDonorProspectAddress • 7 

vDonorProspectHistoryAddress • 7 

vDonorReceipts • 7 

vEnquiryContactAddress • 7 

vEnrolmentDeposits • 19 

vEvents • 7 

vEventsCurrent • 7 

vEventsPast • 7 

vFinanceReport • 19 

vFutureContactAddress • 7 

vFutureStudents • 7 

vGeneralLedgerJnlBudgetTotal • 19 

vGLMonthlyMovementInColumns • 19 

vGLReportingMonthSummary • 19 

Views 

Database • 1, 5, 7 

Finance database • 19 

Linking • 5 

vItemSales • 19 

vItemStock • 19 

vNZMoE_eAR_SchoolDetails • 7 

vNZMoE_StudentDataChanges • 7 

vPastStudentAddress • 7 

vPayrollEmployeePayDetails • 19 

vPayrollEmployeePayDetailTots • 19 

vPayrollEmployees • 19 

vPurchaseOrders • 19 

vStaff • 7 

vStaffTimetableFull • 7 

vStudentAbsenceEvents • 7 

vStudentAbsenceEventsAttendances • 7 

vStudentAbsences • 7 

vStudentAssessmentAreaSendMat • 7 

vStudentAssessmentAreasResults • 7 

vStudentClasses • 7 

vStudentContactAddress • 7 

vStudentContactAllAddress • 7 

vStudentContactsParentsDebtor • 7 

vStudentContactsRelationOnly • 7 

vStudentCourses • 7 

vStudentFormsAbsences • 7 

vStudentMedDetailsPrimContact • 7 

vStudentMedicalDetails • 7 

vStudentParentsMCEETYA • 7 

vStudentRelations • 7 

vStudentRelationsAll • 7 

vStudentReportsNoResults • 7 

vStudentReportsSemester • 7 

vStudentReportsSemesterResults • 7 

vStudentReportsSemesterYear • 7 

vStudents • 7 

vStudentsAll • 7 

vStudentsAndLOA • 7 

vStudentsContactsLivesWith • 7 

vStudentSubjectClass • 7 

vStudentTimetableFull • 7 

vStudentTutorsAbsences • 7 

vxeOliverBorrowingExport • 7 

W 

What's new to Extracting data • 2 

Word 

Using to extract data from Synergetic • 1

Extracting data from the Synergetic database

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