Agencies Tab
The Agencies Tab of the application is used to access the agency information. In the application and database, agencies are related to places. Each place can have one or many agencies related to it. There are three types of agencies, Normal Agencies, Other Agencies and Conservancy agencies. The agency data found on the Agency Edit Form also shows up in each survey for the survey taker to self populate. The agency table also contains the information necessary to allow survey takers to take surveys, including the agency id and the agency passcode. Agencies can be set to either Active or In-active by checking the box in the Active column, only active agencies are allowed to take a survey. Inactive agencies remain in the database because they can be linked to historical data.
To view the agencies associated with a place, select a place from the Place select box, the related agencies will populate the table below. Agency information can be added or edited using the Agency Edit Form. To add a new agency click the New button at the bottom of the form. Enter agency data into the form and press save. The Agency Name is all that’s required and new randomized Passcode is automatically generated.
To edit an existing agency record, click the Edit button to the right of the agency in the list and the existing data will populate the Agency Edit Form. Make changes and then click the Save button to save the changes.
There are two more functions present on the Agency tab including the “Set new passcode” button and the “Download survey list” button. The “Set new passcodes” button allows the user to net new Agency passcodes for all of the agencies in the database. If you press this button and then click Ok on the confirmation message, new randomly generated passcodes will be set for all of the agency records. The old passcodes and survey URLs will no longer work for taking surveys. The idea is that you do this once a year prior to sending out the survey so only the latest link will work.
The “Download survey list” button opens a page that generates a pipe (|) delimited text file of the active agency table. This text file can be imported into either Microsoft Excel or Access and used for maintaining the current mail list or for merge mail purposes. The survey links are found in the text file along with most of the agency table fields.