How to add difficult Web Citation?

Question

I am writing an article and needs to be heavily cited.

My statement is:

Jinisys Software Inc is a partner of Cisco.

Problem:

Cisco website does not have a static list of partners, and instead they have a search box that dynamically enables you to search for a partner which can be found here: https://tools.cisco.com/WWChannels/LOCATR/openBasicSearch.do

All you need to do is input "Jinisys Software Inc" as Company and Philippines as country. After searching, they don't provide a url that can be used as citation that directs to a specific result.

Questions:

How do I cite this kind of source like for example I will be using it for Wikipedia?

Is there a type of citation that tells the readers to do an action like the act of searching the company?

What citation style should I use?

This is not a normal type of referencing to a source. Thanks for your consideration.

Answer 1

You don't say which style guide you want to use, so I'm giving an example for APA.

When you quote dynamic web content, you give the URL to the online form and describe your query.

For example, if you quote the results from a Google search, you simply describe your search terms (and don't even give an URL, because that is common knowledge):

A Google query for "Jinisys Philippines" returned ...

An explanation and published example are given on the APA style blog at: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/how-do-i-cite-a-search-in-apa-style.html

Since the Cisco Partner Locator is not as commonly known as Google, in your case your citation would need an URL:

Jinisys Software Inc is a partner of Cisco. (Cisco, n.d.)

References:
Cisco. (n.d.) Partner Locator. Retrieved May 22, 2014 from https://tools.cisco.com/WWChannels/LOCATR/openBasicSearch.do

Note that I added the date of the database query, because databases change!

You don't need to explain to enter "Jinisys" in the search field, because that will be clear to the reader, but you might need to add some information about the country, if selecting the country is necessary for the search and this information is not given in the preceding text:

Jinisys Software Inc. (Philippines) is a partner of Cisco. (Cisco, n.d.)

If you want to be extra careful and spell out detailed instructions, just add them to the text as explained in the APA Style Blog example:

Entering "Jinisys" into the "Company" field and selecting "Philippines" as "Country", the Cisco Partner Locator (Cisco, n.d.) shows that Jinisys Software Inc. is a partner of Cisco.

---

Note that I used the spelling that Jinisys use themselves, without comma, but with a dot: Jinisys Software Inc.. See the top answer to this question: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/142620/should-you-use-a-comma-before-the-inc-in-a-company-name