Enterprise Interface User Guide

Transcription

1 Enterprise Interface User Guide Ref: 3094 ISO 9001:2000 / TickIT certified Copyright Scientia Ltd 2010 This document is the exclusive property of Scientia Ltd and the contents must not be copied, given or disclosed to any third party without prior consent from Scientia Ltd.

2 Document Summary Written by Date Release Status History Duncan Corbett June Approved Updated for 3.1.0

3 Global Support Locations For details of your local support organisation see SYLLABUS PLUS is a registered trademark of Scientia Ltd. SCIENTIA is a registered trademark of Scientia Ltd. SCIENTIA LTD is an ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT certified company. Ref: 3094 i

4 Table of Contents 1 Introduction Software Overview Enterprise Course Planner (ECP) Enterprise Timetabler (ET) Enterprise Desktop Reference Data Manager (EDRDM) Enterprise DataSync Managing locally saved data Synchronisation between database and scheduling engine Access to log files Menu Bar and Status Bar Elements Drop-down Menus Toolbars Personalising the View of Data Changing the Data Sort Order within Columns Adding & Removing Columns Viewing Data by Groups Filtering Data Objects Using the Filter Editor Additional Speed Menu Elements Using Editors Search by typing Editing properties Adding and deleting objects Apply or discard Using Forms Opening a form view Multiple objects in form view Adding new objects in form view Tooltips Week Patterns Named Availability Week Patterns Writing Back and Refreshing Writing Back Refreshing Refresh reminder Conflicts Ref: 3094 ii

5 Table of figures Figure 1About window showing access to logs... 4 Figure 2 ECP drop-down menu... 5 Figure 3 Cropped ET drop-down menu... 5 Figure 4 EDRDM drop-down menu... 5 Figure 5 Add or remove sub-menus... 5 Figure 6 ECP toolbars... 6 Figure 7 ET Toolbars... 6 Figure 8 EDRDM toolbar... 6 Figure 9 The tabs of the Customisation window... 6 Figure 10 EDRDM with resources toolbar... 6 Figure 11 Creating a new toolbar... 7 Figure 12 Personalisation speed menu... 8 Figure 14 ET activities pane grouped by columns... 9 Figure 13 Drag and drop to add a column... 9 Figure 15 ET activities pane showing "Group by" box Figure 16 Drag and drop column headers to "Group by" box Figure 17 Student sets grouped by Department and Programme in ECP Figure 18 Locations grouped by Department and Capacity in EDRDM Figure 19 Filter builder Figure 20 Add new filtering conditions Figure 21 Two conditions applied Figure 22 Multiple conditions menu Figure 23 Location editor with filtering conditions applied Figure 24 Removing a filtering condition Figure 25 Summary of currently applied filter conditions Figure 26 Editor with filter row Figure 27 Single selection list Figure 28 Multiple selection list Figure 29 Action buttons Figure 30 - Opening form view Figure 31 - Editing in the form view Figure 32 ET toolbar tooltip Figure 33 ET week pattern tooltip Figure 34 Tooltip showing cell contents Figure 35 Named availability for a module in ECP Figure 36 Weeks deselected by click or click and drag Figure 37 Single week selected with right click Figure 38 Selecting a named availability pattern Figure 39 Last SDB refresh time Figure 40 SDB refresh reminder Ref: 3094 iii

6 1 Introduction The Enterprise Interface User Guide is designed to be used in conjunction with all the Enterprise applications listed below, and provides a generic guide to the functionality of common tools which are to be found in all the applications. The document should be used in conjunction with the user guides that are provided for each application. Ref:

7 2 Software Overview The Enterprise Interface user Guide can be used in conjunction with the applications listed below: 2.1 Enterprise Course Planner (ECP) Enterprise Course Planner allows the user to describe the opportunities for study being offered by the institution. The user may create Modules (individual units of study) and these may be combined to form Programmes of Study that can be offered to students. In addition, the software allows the user to describe how each module is delivered in terms of the activities that each student must attend to complete the module. Based on the student demand, ECP will automatically generate the required number of activities to accommodate the number of students on each Module. ECP tracks student demand as more data becomes available and flags to the user any discrepancies between the planned delivery and the demand. 2.2 Enterprise Timetabler (ET) Enterprise Timetabler is a graphical interface for Syllabus Plus that enables the viewing and editing of timetables from a single comprehensive screen. The user is provided with a set of interactive panes which enable simple scheduling changes, information searches, and the provision of timetabling solutions. Users that are authorised to do so may switch to the Syllabus Plus image whenever they wish to use the functionality that is not available in Enterprise Timetabler. Conversely, a user may be restricted to using the Enterprise Timetabler interface only, thus preventing them from making changes to the underlying reference data. Any changes made in Enterprise Timetabler automatically update the underlying Syllabus Plus image. Write back to the Scientia database is under user control. 2.3 Enterprise Desktop Reference Data Manager (EDRDM) Enterprise Desktop Reference Data Manager enables the editing of data upon which timetabling decisions are based. The availability of resources and any time-based constraints that apply to those resources as well as soft constraints are all maintained using this software. 2.4 Enterprise DataSync Rather than making changes directly to the data stored on the server, the Enterprise applications work against a local copy of the data that can be stored on disk at the end of a session and reloaded at the start of the next session. The Enterprise DataSync utility is responsible for maintaining the locally stored copy of the data that is used by ECP, ET and EDRDM. This consists of a local database and a Syllabus Plus image that manages the business logic of the scheduling engine Managing locally saved data At the beginning of each session, DataSync will ensure that the local data is up-to-date with changes made to the centrally held data since the user was last logged on. While this process is under way the user will see a message window indicating that data is loading. The numbers displayed in the window indicate the progress. The first (before the colon) will be a 1 (indicating that tables are being built), a 2 (indicating that the data is being indexed for optimum performance) or a 3 (indicating that the Ref:

8 synchronisation link between the data held in the table and the data held in the scheduling engine is being configured. The numbers following the colon indicate how many tables have been processed and the total number of tables to be processed. The process will take about 10 minutes when the user has no locally saved copy of the data from a previous session Synchronisation between database and scheduling engine In addition, the DataSync utility will keep the local database in sync with the data held by the scheduling engine. This is necessary because some of the changes made by a user will have knockon effects that result from business logic applied in the scheduling engine. For example, when a module is removed from a student set, the student set is automatically unallocated from all the activities of that module. The knock-on effects will only be seen after the local database is updated with changes made by the scheduling engine which happens as part of the synchronisation process. In default operation the DataSync utility will poll the scheduling engine every second to see whether changes have been made that require synchronisation. When a change in the scheduling engine is detected a synchronisation will be launched to update the local database with the necessary changes. The user can tell this is happening when an icon like this bottom of the Enterprise application window. appears at the The user can control the operation of DataSync if desired but it is recommended that this is done with caution. Having the local database synchronised with the scheduling engine in anything other than the default mode of operation may have unintended consequences. The user should be fully aware of the implications before proceeding. The controls for DataSync appear in the task bar of the Enterprise applications and look like this: The button on the left of the control allows the user to pause the synchronisation. Whatever changes occur in the scheduling engine will not be synchronised to the local database while the utility is paused. When the utility is paused the button changes to a play button like this:. Pressing the Play button restarts synchronisation. The number, set by the spin button control next to the clock symbol, controls the way that synchronisation behaves when it is active. The number can be set to anything between 0 (the default value) and 5 and defines the number of cycles that DataSync will wait after detecting a change before triggering the synchronisation process. When the figure is set to 0 the synchronisation process will be triggered as soon as a change is detected in the scheduling engine (remember that DataSync polls every second to see whether there has been a change). If the figure were set to 3, for example, then following a poll that detects a change the data held by the scheduling engine, Data Sync would wait for 3 successive polls that indicate no further change before initiating a synchronisation. If another change was detected during that time then the count of 3 would be restarted. The advantage of working this way is that it avoids the user being interrupted by synchronisation while they are working (synchronisation will tend to happen only during a lull in the user s activity) but the user must be aware of the consequences; they will be seeing data presented in the application that is potentially out of date until a synchronisation occurs. Ref:

9 2.4.3 Access to log files If the user wishes to see what synchronisation has been carried out recently, the latest log file can be accessed from the help menu in any Enterprise application. Choosing the option Synchronisation Log will display the most recent log file on screen. Additionally, the About window gives the user two short cuts to open the folders where the log files for DataSync and the Enterprise applications respectively are stored. Figure 1About window showing access to logs Clicking on either of the buttons (circled in red above) will open a window showing the contents of the appropriate folder. To assist in resolving problems, the user may occasionally be asked to send one or more of the files found in these folders. Ref:

10 3 Menu Bar and Status Bar Elements Various commands can be selected using both the Drop-Down Menus, and the Toolbar buttons which appear in the Header Bar. In addition, information may be contained in the Footer Bar 3.1 Drop-down Menus The Drop-down Menu bars, located at the top of the screen, contain various menus which allow the user to undertake actions within Enterprise applications. Menu items can be accessed by selection with the mouse or other pointing device, or by using keyboard shortcuts. Hotkeys are indicated by underlining. Figure 2 ECP drop-down menu Figure 3 Cropped ET drop-down menu Figure 4 EDRDM drop-down menu Clicking on the down arrow at the right-hand end of each Drop-down Menu opens a series of sub-menus allowing the user to add or remove buttons from the main menu or customise both the main menu and the toolbars. Customising the toolbars will be dealt with in the next section. Figure 5 Add or remove sub-menus Ref:

11 3.2 Toolbars Toolbar facilities are available within Enterprise applications allowing the user to access frequently used functions quickly and easily. A tooltip describing each function is revealed by hovering over the selected button with the mouse. Multiple toolbars may appear alongside each other and the default toolbars will appear on initially opening the applications. The user has the option to customise toolbars if required by adding and removing buttons or creating new toolbars. Figure 6 ECP toolbars Figure 7 ET Toolbars Figure 8 EDRDM toolbar Customisation can be accessed in the same way as illustrated above (Figure 5 Add or remove submenus), selecting Customise from the sub-menu. This opens the Customisation window: Figure 9 The tabs of the Customisation window Using the Toolbars tab new toolbars can be created, and existing toolbars can be toggled on and off using the tickboxes. The Customisation tab can be used to drag & drop buttons onto existing or new toolbars, and the Options tab makes available additional customisation options. Note that in the Toolbars tab, the Status Bar refers to the footer bar illustrated below. Buttons can also be placed in the footer bar if required: Figure 10 EDRDM with resources toolbar In the example illustrated above, a Resources toolbar has been created with the Staff, Locations & Equipment buttons added. In the footer bar, the About EDRDM button has also been added. Ref:

12 To undertake this process, the user must click on the the New Toolbar window insert a Name. button on the Toolbars tab, and in Figure 11 Creating a new toolbar Clicking on the button will create the new toolbar which will appear as an empty toolbar box within the Enterprise application. Buttons can then be dragged & dropped from the Commands tab and deposited into the new toolbar. Ref:

13 4 Personalising the View of Data Within the Enterprise applications, data appears in a variety of windows which are too numerous to mention by name in this document. However, some of the more obvious examples are the curriculum data windows obtained by clicking on the buttons in ECP, the Activities Spreadsheet and Views Pane in ET, and the Resources windows in EDRDM. The user can personalise the view of the data shown in these windows by adding and removing columns, amending the appearance of the data in each column, and also changing the order in which those columns appear. Data can also be sorted, grouped and filtered. A detailed description of how to undertake each of these actions is given below. Right clicking on the column header of the data windows invokes a speed menu from which a variety of actions can be selected. Figure 12 Personalisation speed menu 4.1 Changing the Data Sort Order within Columns The order in which data objects are listed in the various columns can be changed either by selecting the relevant action from the speed menu (Sort Ascending, Sort Descending, Clear Sorting), or by clicking once on the header of the desired column. A second click on the same column header will sort on the same column but in the reverse order. Holding down the Shift key and clicking on the header of a different column will apply a secondary sort based on the data in that column. Each additional column added in this way will apply an additional level of sorting. 4.2 Adding & Removing Columns Columns are added and removed using the Column Chooser which, when selected opens a Customisation window. The Customisation window shows all of the additional information that can be displayed for the data object type currently selected. Ref:

14 Additional columns can then be dragged and dropped into the header row of the data window as required. Columns can be removed by dragging the column header to the Customisation window or by dragging it away from the header position until a cross appears. In the illustration shown below, the Department column is being added to the right of the Name column simply by dragging & dropping from the Customisation window. Figure 13 Drag and drop to add a column 4.3 Viewing Data by Groups Single level and complex grouping can be achieved by right-clicking on the column header of a desired column and selecting Group By This Column. This allows the user to group the data objects by the selected column or by additional columns if the process is extended. The example below shows the ET Activities Spreadsheet grouped by Department and the Allocated Staff Name. Clicking on the & symbols will expand and contract the groups as required. Figure 14 ET activities pane grouped by columns Ref:

15 Right-clicking on a column header and enabling Group By Box from the speed menu allows the user to create complex groupings by dragging & dropping column headers into the area above the column headers. Figure 15 ET activities pane showing "Group by" box Column headers can be dragged and dropped to create multiple levels of grouping. The illustration below shows the Allocated Staff Name column being dragged to become a sub-group of the Department. Figure 16 Drag and drop column headers to "Group by" box Group headers shown in the Group by Box area can be dragged back to the column header row of the Activities Spreadsheet to undo the groupings. The Group by Box area can be toggled off from the speed menu. Examples of grouping in ECP and EDRDM are illustrated below: Ref:

16 Figure 17 Student sets grouped by Department and Programme in ECP Figure 18 Locations grouped by Department and Capacity in EDRDM 4.4 Filtering Data Objects Using the Filter Editor Clicking on Filter Editor in the speed menu opens the Filter Builder window illustrated below. Complex filters can be built using this window. Figure 19 Filter builder Ref:

17 Clicking on [Name] opens up a list showing the properties of the object that could be used as a filter criterion such as Description, Hostkey, Department etc. Clicking on Begins with opens a list of comparison methods such as Equals, Is greater than, Contains etc. Clicking on <enter a value> allows the user to enter a value against which the property will be compared. In some cases a drop down list of values will appear. Clicking on the symbol alongside And allows the user to add further conditions to the filter Figure 20 Add new filtering conditions The outcome will be the addition of a new filtering condition: Figure 21 Two conditions applied Clicking on And will open up an additional menu allowing the user to select the way in which the multiple conditions will be applied. Choosing And, for example means that only rows that match all of the conditions will be returned by the filter. Choosing Or means that rows that match any one or more of the conditions will be returned. Figure 22 Multiple conditions menu Selecting Add Condition from this menu will add a further condition to the selected group (the same function as performed by clicking the symbol). Selecting Add Group will add a further group of conditions. The user then has the additional option of how the results of the two groups are to be combined. The outcome of entering values under both illustrated conditions is shown below: Ref:

18 Figure 23 Location editor with filtering conditions applied The EDRDM Locations window has been filtered by rooms with a Name beginning with C and a Capacity which equals 20. Clicking on the symbol removes the relevant filtering condition. Figure 24 Removing a filtering condition If a filter is already in place, clicking on the conditions to be added or removed. button will re-open the Filter Builder to allow Unchecking the check box in the bottom left-hand corner of the filtered editor will temporarily remove the filtering conditions while remembering what they are. Checking the box will reapply the conditions. Clicking on the in the bottom left-hand corner of the filtered window will remove the applied filter conditions permanently. The currently applied filter conditions are summarised in the bottom left-hand corner of the filtered window. Ref:

19 Figure 25 Summary of currently applied filter conditions 4.5 Additional Speed Menu Elements In addition to the speed menu items outlined above, the user is also able to use:. Best Fit to change the column width to accommodate the data contained in any selected column. Best Fit (all columns) will adjust the width of all data columns. Alignment options allowing the data contained in each column to be set in the Default arrangement, to the Left, Centre or to the Right. Ref:

20 5 Using Editors 5.1 Search by typing In some contexts, an editor will be displayed with a blank row at the top of the editor, as shown below. Figure 26 Editor with filter row By typing characters in this row the list of objects displayed will be filtered to find rows where the content matches the typed characters. Where it is considered likely that such filtering will be used, the additional row is displayed. Where such filtering is considered less likely or screen estate is at a premium, the filter row is not displayed. Similar functionality can be obtained by clicking on the filter icon that appears when you hover above the header of a column. When the icon is clicked a list of unique entries is displayed and you can search the list by typing. 5.2 Editing properties The properties of each object are edited in different ways depending on the content of the field; some can be edited in line by typing into the appropriate field, others must be edited using a selection list or custom controls. Ref:

21 When the value may be a selection of only one from the predetermined list then a single selection list is displayed as shown below. The example shows a list of departments. Figure 27 Single selection list Select an item from the list by clicking on the appropriate row. The selection list can then be closed by clicking the cross symbol. Alternatively, a double click on the appropriate row will both make the selection and close the selection list. When the value may be a multiple selection from a predetermined list then a multiple selection tool is displayed as shown below. The example shows the tool for selecting the optional modules of a Programme of Study. Figure 28 Multiple selection list The same tool will appear in all cases where you are selecting a small number of items from a list that contains many items. The list from which the selection is made will appear on the left. Items that are currently selected are shown in a list on the right. The buttons between the two lists can be used to move selected items from one list to the other. Alternatively, a double click on an item in either list will move it from that list to the other. Ref:

22 5.3 Adding and deleting objects If you are authorised to do so, you may add new objects to the list or delete objects using the buttons. The buttons will be present but greyed when you are not authorised to create new objects or delete objects of the selected type. There are some exceptions to this rule. Notably, the Activity list in ECP does not use the buttons since new activities are generated from the Activity Template Editor. Also, the Activity Template Editor in ECP does not allow the addition of new Templates since these are generated from a selected Module in the Module Editor. 5.4 Apply or discard Changes made to the data are confirmed or cancelled using the buttons at the bottom of the object window: Figure 29 Action buttons Apply confirms the change but keeps the window open. Discard cancels the change and keeps the window open. OK confirms the change and closes the window. Cancel cancels the change and closes the window. Closing the editor (using the cross in the top right hand corner) is equivalent to pressing Cancel. Ref:

23 6 Using Forms While editors, which show the data in a spreadsheet style, are ideal for viewing and comparing many objects and allow the user to sort and filter easily to find the objects they are interested in, the form view may be more useful when the user wishes to see many properties of a single object or to edit the same property for multiple objects. 6.1 Opening a form view When an object is selected in the editor, and the user clicks on the button labelled Form View, that will open a form that shows the properties of the selected object. Figure 30 - Opening form view If the user selects this button while no object is selected then there will be a message prompting the user to select an object. Ref:

24 In the form view, the user can edit any property for which they have the appropriate authorisation as shown below. In the screenshot the user is editing the User Text 2 field. Figure 31 - Editing in the form view Clicking on OK following changes will confirm that the user wishes to confirm those changes. Changes made in the form view are independent of those made in the editor view so that in the case where an editor showing the same object is open it will be updated to show the change just confirmed in the form. The changes are confirmed by the OK button on the form so will not be undone if the user clicks the Cancel button in the editor. 6.2 Multiple objects in form view When more than one object is selected in the editor, and the user clicks on the button labelled Form View, that will open a form that shows a list of those objects on the left hand side of the screen. The user may select one or more of those objects from the list in the form view. When multiple objects are selected in the form view and the selected items have a common value, that value will be displayed in the form. Where the selected items have different values for the same field, the field will be displayed as blank. In the case of fields where it is no logical to have multiple objects with the same value (e.g. name and hostkey) the fields will be disabled when multiple objects are selected. When the user changes any value and clicks OK the appropriate property will be changed to that value for all of the selected items, whether or not they previously shared a common value for that property. Ref:

25 6.3 Adding new objects in form view From the Dashboard in ECP or EDRDM, there are shortcut buttons to allow the user to add new objects of various types. Clicking on the New button will open a blank form so that the user can enter details. Once the properties of the new object have been edited, clicking OK on the form will create the new object and close the form. If the user wishes to create a series of new objects then they can click the Apply and New button. This will create the new object and blank the form ready for the creation of another new object. Ref:

26 7 Tooltips Tooltips are available throughout all the Enterprise applications and are obtained by hovering over toolbar buttons, parts of the screen, and data boxes where the default column width is such that there may be hidden data. Some examples are illustrated below: Hovering over a button on the toolbar shows a tooltip that explains the function of the button. Figure 32 ET toolbar tooltip Hovering over the week selector in ET shows a textual reminder of the weeks that are currently in view and the weeks of the current activity. Whereas the weeks are identified by their week number on the week bar (always starting at week 1) the tooltip uses week labels. By default, these are the same as the week numbers but they may have been changed in the underlying Syllabus Plus image. Figure 33 ET week pattern tooltip Hovering over a cell where the width is such that all the data cannot be seen displays a tooltip showing the entire contents of the cell. Figure 34 Tooltip showing cell contents Ref:

27 8 Week Patterns Week Patterns occur throughout the Enterprise applications in various guises and performing different functions. These functions are described in the individual application user guides. This document describes how weeks patterns are displayed and edited. 8.1 Named Availability Week Patterns In the ECP and EDRDM applications, Week Patterns occur in conjunction with Named Availability requirements against curriculum data (Modules, Student Sets etc.), and against resource data (Staff, Locations etc.). An example is illustrated below. Figure 35 Named availability for a module in ECP A week that is selected will be shaded in light grey. Weeks can be deselected by left-clicking on them with the mouse. When a week is deselected the grey shading disappears. If the mouse pointer is dragged across multiple selected weeks, while clicked, then all those weeks will be deselected. Figure 36 Weeks deselected by click or click and drag To select a single week, right-click with the mouse on the required week. Figure 37 Single week selected with right click A left-clicking on a week that is not currently selected will select that week (in addition to any weeks already selected). Clicking and dragging over multiple unselected weeks will select all of those weeks. Ref:

28 In addition, by unticking the Use Custom Availability box, pre-prepared Named Availability Week Patterns can be applied by selecting from the list. Figure 38 Selecting a named availability pattern Ref:

29 9 Writing Back and Refreshing The first two buttons on the toolbar of all the Enterprise applications control writing back and refreshing. When working in a multi-user environment, all changes made by the user are initially saved locally but will not be seen by other users connected to the same central database. This allows the user to work in an experimental way, if they wish, without affecting the data that other users see. 9.1 Writing Back If the user wishes to abandon changes en masse then closing down without writing back will do that. When the user clicks the writeback button, the changes they have made are written back to the central database. Once this operation has been performed, other users connected to the same database will be able to see the changes by clicking the refresh button. 9.2 Refreshing When the user clicks on the refresh button, their local version of the data is updated with all of the changes that have been written back by other users since the last time he refreshed. Because receiving a refresh interrupts control of the user interface, the process is undertaken when the user requests it. The status bar at the bottom of the window gives an indication of the time when the last refresh was performed so that the user can see how old their copy of the data is Refresh reminder Figure 39 Last SDB refresh time The user can specify a time after which they should be reminded to refresh using the Application tab of the Options window (Tools Options from the menu) in the Enterprise Timetabler application. Figure 40 SDB refresh reminder Ref:

30 After the specified interval, the last refresh indicator will begin to flash with a warning symbol like this: 9.3 Conflicts If multiple users are working with the same data then there is the possibility that one user will have made and written back a change to the data that is in conflict with the change another user is now trying to write back. In such a case the second user will receive a message warning that some of the data they are attempting to change has been changed by another user since their last refresh. The user will be forced to accept a refreshed version of the data before they can write back. This refresh will overwrite some of their changes. End of Document Ref: