Unlocking the Power of Your Agent

The Intelligent Agent is designed to assist you in catching those vital pieces of information that may otherwise slip through your fingers.

Setting up an Agent will allow you to perform repetitive or unanswered queries in the background or while you are working on other things. ISYS Query does need to be running in order to perform the queries, but can remain minimized.

Once given his instructions the Intelligent Agent diligently looks for any new pieces of information. When he finds this information he will immediately advise you of its existence and show you a list of the new documents that contain the required information.

It's a very useful way of keeping up to date with documents as they come in. This is perfect for anyone who wants to keep his or her finger on the pulse.

Here are a couple of examples where an Agent could be used. A personnel recruitment agency has just had a client call requesting the placement of an experienced Web Master with Flash and Dreamweaver skills. A search of their candidate's database yields no real prospects. The Intelligent Agent is then put to work to keep an eye on the candidate database looking out for the skill set required. When a resume meeting these requirements enters the system, the Agent reports them.

Another scenario is where a lawyer wants to keep an eye on the evidence being given by several key witnesses relating to specific event. An Agent can be set up to keep an eye out for statements made in the court transcript.

Setting up the Agent

Click on the Agent icon on the main ISYS toolbar

You will now see the following window: From here you can add, edit and delete the queries you need the Intelligent Agent to keep an eye on

.

Click on the 'Add' button. You will see the following window:

You will have to enter the following information:

Name: here you specify the name that will be displayed in the intelligent Agent window.

Query: the Query can be either Command based or a Plain English Query. Just type the query as you would normally for these options. The intelligent Agent can also be used to let you know whenever any new information has been added to your ISYS index by adding a wildcard symbol '*'. Eg. To search for documents containing the words HTML and dreamweaver select the Command option and simply type in HTML AND DREAMWEAVER

Database(s): this option is filled by either typing the full path to database directly, including the drive letter, or by using the Select… button to bring up the Select an ISYS Index dialog box. If you want to use more the one database for the query then separate the paths with commas, or select multiple entries from the catalog by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and clicking on the desired catalog entries.

Frequency: determines how often the Agent should check to see if the query returns any results. The options range from 15 minutes to once a week, or to start the search only when you manually request it.

Filter: applies the specified filter(s) to the results of the queries performed by the Agent.

When you have finished configuring your Agent click 'OK'.

You will then see the Intelligent Agent dialog box. Check the Agent Active box to start the query process immediately.

Checking the Agent for Results

When the Agent has found documents that match your search criteria the Intelligent Agent icon on the main ISYS Query toolbar will change, letting you know that a document or documents which match your search criteria have been found.

Click on the 'Agent' icon on the main ISYS toolbar and you will be able to see which queries have been successful by the small green dot next to the name on the list.

Double-clicking on an entry in the Agent list will show you all the documents the Agent has found, that you have not seen yet.

When you open an Agent answer a new option will appear on the main ISYS Query menubar, called 'Agent'. From here you can mark individual documents as read without first viewing the contents of the document, or even mark all the documents found as read.

Any document that is marked as unread, that is with a green dot next to it will reappear next time you open the Agent query involved. You may wish to mark a document as Unread after you have read it so that is easy to find again later, or even mark all the results as unread so that you will have access to all the same information again next time.

Once you have viewed a result found by the Agent, the answer is removed from the Agent list until some new documents are found that match the search criteria.

Hint:
Use Intelligent Agent in conjunction with the ISYS Scheduler, that way you have the most recent document in your database

Quick Tip
Right click on an ISYS index file in Windows Explorer and you will be presented with a menu of options, the second of these is Update Index. By selecting this option you can update your ISYS index directly from Explorer.

Quick Tip
If you are not too sure how to word a query, try the Plain English Query tool (Click "Query" on the menu, then select "Plain English"). In Plain English Query you can ask ISYS a question or simply type in the keywords that are relevant to your search, ISYS does all the hard work looking for documents which either contain all the words you are looking for or the "best possible" match.

Q&A

How do I delete an ISYS index?

There are two ways of deleting an ISYS index.

The first is through ISYS Utilities. Open ISYS Utilities, select 'Tools' then 'Delete an Index'. You will then be prompted to select the index you wish to delete, you can select the index either through the Catalog or Disk Directory. Once you have selected the index ISYS will proceed to delete all index and configuration files in that folder. You will no longer be able to search this index.

The alternative is directly deleting the ISYS index files through windows explorer. An ISYS index consists of at least four files stored together in a directory; these files are ISYS.CFG, ISYS.IXA, ISYS.IXB and ISYS.IXC. You may also have an ISYS.IXD. Deleting these files will remove the ISYS index from your system.

If you want to delete the index but retain the database configuration for later use, delete all but the ISYS.CFG file. This file contains the information ISYS uses to build your index; it includes information about the type of files you want to index and their location, along with a number of other options.

How do I remove an ISYS index from the Catalog?

The Catalog provides a convenient way of accessing different databases you may have created.

To delete an entry from the catalog simply click on 'File' then 'Select an ISYS Index,' make sure you have the "Catalog" tab selected instead of "Disk Directory". Highlight the Catalog entry you wish to remove and either press the "Delete" key on your keyboard or right click and select delete.

Don’t forget, if you have any questions regarding Tech Tips you can e-mail support@isys-search.com