Searching under Product / Supplier tab

When searching under the Product / Supplier tab, you will be searching the Barbour Compendium database, containing information for thousands of suppliers and their products.

You can reach the front search screen at any time by selecting ’Search’ from the central navigation bar at the top of the page.

The search allows you to search across products, supplier names and trade names. There are two main tick boxes below the search box on the homepage that enable you to specify the type of search you wish to make

• one for product
• one for supplier / trade name

Both are automatically ticked which means the search criteria entered in the search box searches across both of these groups. Either group can be de-selected by unticking the box that is not required.

Tip: Select which type of search you would like to do, a product or a supplier / trade name search, to bring back results quicker.

The third tick box, ’ISO 9000 Quality assured firm’ allows you to refine your product or supplier / trade name search to only show companies who have informed us they are Quality Assurance approved.

Product and Supplier / Trade name search (searching with both boxes ticked)

If you wish to search across both product and supplier / trade name information, leave both tick boxes selected. The default is to search across both data sets.

Enter the supplier name, trade name or product category you are looking for and press red ’Go’ button to the right of the search box to start.

Results

Searching in this way will return two sets of results where the search term has been found in both products and also within supplier / trade names.

The default will be to display in the central results area of the screen all matching products that contain the criteria entered within the product name or within alternate terms against a product.

Matches for supplier / trade name that are found by the same search can be accessed by clicking on the Supplier / Trade name link in the left-hand portion of the screen, underneath the ’Refine Your Search’ heading.

Click on this link and the matching results will then display in the central results area of the screen.

Supplier / Trade Name Search (searching with only the Supplier / Trade name box ticked)

Use the supplier / trade name search to locate companies by supplier name or by a supplier’s trade name. The result of the search is a list showing every supplier or suppliers with trade names that contain the search criteria.

Tip: Remember to deselect the product tick box under the search box, to perform a supplier / trade name only search.

Enter the supplier name or trade name you are looking for and press red ’Go’ button to the right of the search box to start.

Results
The results will then be displayed within the central results area of the screen, showing any suppliers or suppliers with trade names that contain the criteria entered.

Product search (searching with only the Product box ticked)

Use the product search to locate companies who provide a particular product. Once the product has been found from the thousands in the system, you can go on to display the suppliers that provide the selected product.

Tip: Remember to deselect the Supplier / trade name tick box under the search box, to perform a product-only search.

Enter the product you are looking for and press red ’Go’ button to the right of the search box to start.

Results

A list showing every product that contains the search criteria entered is displayed in the central results area of the screen. The search will check for the criteria entered within the product name but will also search across the thousands of alternate terms that are included in the Barbour Compendium database to help you find what you are looking for.

Results may come from up to three groups:

• product names containing the search term entered
• products with alternate terms containing the search criteria entered - Searching: sound insulation will return ’sound-insulating coatings’ in this list of results as an alternate term ’sound insulation’ is linked to this term.
• products with performance data containing the search criteria entered. Search precast concrete lintels will return ’lintels’ and ’arch lintels’ as both have the performance characteristic for precast concrete. Count alongside ’lintels’ is for the number of manufacturers of precast concrete lintels.

Tip: Entering multiple product search terms may help to refine your results automatically, eg ’precast concrete lintels’ will return more specific results than just ’lintels’.

A total count for the number of products found is shown at the top of the results list, eg 1-10 of 36. A total count of the number of relevant suppliers is shown next to each product, eg Air bricks (36).

Select the relevant product from the list to view the companies who produce that product. From this page you can then go onto access the supplier’s details by clicking on the supplier name or their entry type icon. Further information on entry types can be found under the ’Results screen – further information’ section of this document.

Refining product search results

If you choose to select the ’Refine results’ button alongside a product on the ’Search results’ page you will stay on the same page but open up the characteristic selection box for the product. This will allow you to refine your product search further.

Across the top of the two boxes are the characteristic group headings eg APPEARANCE, APPROVALS etc. Select one of the headings to show the available characteristics from that group in the left-hand box on the screen.

Simply click on any of the characteristics that appear in the left hand box to select them and press the red ADD button underneath the left-hand box.

The characteristic selected will then move across into the right-hand box. Alongside the characteristic, a count is displayed showing the number of manufacturers that match the selection. This will help to narrow your results down from the main set, to specific suppliers whose product meets your selected requirements.

A maximum of four characteristics can be selected, from any choice of the characteristic group headings. The count is accumulative and will therefore represent the number of manufacturers that have a specific product containing all of the characteristics selected.

To remove characteristic choices from the right-hand box, click on the characteristic to highlight it and press ’Delete’ button.

Once all selections have been made hit the red ’Go’ button. This will take you to the ’Search results’ page showing manufacturers that meet all of the criteria entered and a reminder of what those criteria are.

To return to the original keyword search results, click the link to go back to results page.

Multiple supplier names and order of results

If your results contains multiple suppliers the default order, with both standard and refined product search results, is to display the results with Premier Entry companies first, followed by Enhanced Entry companies and then Brief Entry companies amongst the basic listing companies in alphabetical sequence. Further information on entry types can be found under the ’Results screen – further information’ section of this document.

The sequence can be changed to reflect the information you are looking for.

The results can be sorted using the drop down ’Sort’ box

Sort options are by:

• Entry type (default)
• Supplier name
• Head Office
• Catalogue (those suppliers with PDF catalogues in our service)

Tip: If you know the supplier / trade name you are looking for, you can use the supplier name and/or trade name drop-down lists showing in the top left-hand side of the screen to go directly to that supplier’s details. By scrolling down and choose the relevant supplier or trade name, you will then only be shown that matching supplier(s) in the central part of the screen.

Results screen - further information

Whether doing a product, or a supplier / trade name search, you will eventually be presented with a list of supplier names. This list will have extra information visible in each column

Entry types

These are grouped into three categories, indicated by the following icons:

All entry types will show contact information including: address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, website address, map link, branch locations with telephone numbers.

Premier Entries

Companies with Premier Entries are shown at the top of the results in alpha sequence and are represented with the Premier Entry icon:

Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name opens up a new window and takes you to the supplier’s Premier Entry comprising:

• Company profile
• Contact points information
• Up to 10 recent projects
• Up to 2 illustrated case studies
• Up to 10 PDF catalogues, where provided
• Detailed product entries, with illustrations, as featured in the Barbour Compendium
• Complete list of products and trade names including technical data

Enhanced Entries

Companies with Enhanced Entries are shown in the next group of results in alpha sequence and are represented with the Enhanced Entry icon:

Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Enhanced Entry comprising:

• Company profile
• Contact points information
• Up to 10 recent projects
• Up to 2 illustrated case studies
• Up to 10 pdf catalogues
• A detailed product entry , with illustrations
• Complete list of products and trade names including technical data

Brief Entries

Companies with a Brief Entry are displayed amongst basic company listings in alphabetical order and are represented with the Brief Entry icon:

Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Brief Entry comprising:

• Contact points information
• Up to 5 pdf catalogues
• A product summary with an illustration
• Complete list of products and trade names including some technical data

Basic listings(no icon displayed)

Companies with a Basic listings are displayed with no icon. Clicking the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Basic listing comprising:

• Contact points information
• List of products and trade names including limited technical data

Sequencing any supplier results

The default is to display the results with Premier Entry companies first, followed by Enhanced Entry companies and then Brief Entry companies displayed amongst the Basic listings.

The sequence can be changed to reflect the information you are looking for.

The results can be sorted using the drop down ’Sort’ box

Sort options are by:

• Entry type (default)
• Supplier name
• Head Office
• Catalogue (those suppliers with PDF catalogues in our service)

Catalogues

Companies with downloadable PDF catalogues are shown on the results page with the catalogue icon:

Catalogues can be accessed from the results page or from a link within a supplier’s entry.

Selecting the catalogue icon or the link opens a new window displaying the titles of all of the electronic catalogues held for that company.

To open a catalogue, select the relevant title and the catalogue is displayed in a new window.

If you have problems downloading the PDF files, check you have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader installed.

If Adobe® Acrobat® Reader is not installed, click on the Adobe® Icon below and follow the instructions on the Adobe® website you are taken to.

Alternatively, a link is available within the search results screen underneath the icon keys in the left-hand portion of the screen.

Contact details

Contact details are available against every manufacturer in the results list. Access them by selecting the Contact icon: Contact details include:

• name and address information
• telephone and fax numbers
• live link e-mail and web addresses
• links to maps
• branch details