This document is a step-by-step summary of the most likely tasks that you as a user and a system administrator would undertake once you have purchased and installed the jLogBook Application.
Before you start this tutorial, we recommend you get an overview of what the jLogBook does and what the various components of the jLogBook are. We recommend you first browse through the on-line help through the following sections "Overview of the St James jLogBook" and "Understanding the Grid" and "Understanding the Form".
In contrast to the jLogBook User Manual, this tutorial is not a reference document but rather a learning tool to get you up to speed with some of the facilities you are most likely to use. Once you have worked through these steps, you will probably find the reference section of the On-Line Help more useful in getting quickly to the information you need.
Before you configure or use
the system, you need to install it and make the connection to the
database.
Installing your jLogBook .
(Note that you do not need to download the jLogBook to run the first few exercises in this tutorial. You can do this using the online version at http://demo.sjsoft.com/demo/index.htm?username=admin&islogin=1 However, you cannot add, modify, delete or configure jLogBook on the on-line version.)
If you would like to add, modify and delete on the on-line demo, please use the form below.
To download and install the jLogBook, go to the St James Software web site at http://www.sjsoft.com and click on the Register option in the left hand contents menu. You will be taken to the register page where you can enter your name and e-mail details. You will be e-mailed a log in name and password.
Now go back to the web home page and click on the Download option (also in the left hand menu.) After you have logged in with your new log in name and password, you will be taken to the Download area where you can download the jLogBook installer. Go to the jLogBook 4 section (the web server version of jLogBook) and click on the latest complete installation link. Note that the installer comes with a single free license.
Once you have downloaded the application, follow the instructions here to install the application.
Once you have downloaded and
installed the jLogBook application, you should have Apache
running and you should have tested the log-in to the demo system.
We will use the demo system for the exercises in this tutorial.
(There are two databases provided with the system, a Demo
database (called jLogBookDemo) and a Start Up database. The
StartUp database jLogBookStartUp contains an almost empty set of
tables.)
Start up your Browser
application (Either Internet Explorer or Netscape or another
browser).
Type in the URL http://localhost (this will connect you to the apache server in your machine.)
We will log in as a limited choice user initially. The user name is nobody and the password is also nobody.
Congratulations you have successfully logged in to the database and started up the system.
After starting up the demo system, the screen
will look similar to the image below. Let's find out what Nobody
can and can't do.
Note the following:
- That there is a filter applied to the grid; Nobody starts up
only being able to look at the Central Site,
- There are no links in the top toolbar that would enable the
user to add, modify or delete a record.
- The user Nobody is has been pre-configured to see the last 200
days of information when he or she first logs
in.
Click on the Filter button; the form at
the top of the screen will clear and you will be able to enter
the criteria for the filter. Let's filter the records so that we
only see records in which the message field contains the word
"valve".
Type in the word "valve" in the message screen as shown in the
image below and click on the Confirm filter
button.
The grid will look similar to the diagram shown below. I.e. there is only one record with the word valve in it in the last 200 days. (This has been set for the user nobody at start up.)
Note that only records with the word "valve" are being displayed, that the grid banner now shows that the filter has now been extended to only look at records with the word "valve" in them and that Nobody is still only allowed to look at the records in the site called 'Pnj'.
Now let's look at the Help system. Click on the Help link in the top right hand corner of the screen. The help window will appear looking similar to the image below.
The help system is simply a set of web based html pages. Feel free to explore the system and find out what may be useful to you in the future.
Iconize the Help Screen by clicking on the Iconize button in the
top right hand corner of the Help window. You will be able to
call it up whenever you need more information.
Well Done. You have now discovered exactly what the user Nobody can (and can't do.) Later on, you will find out how you can remove the restrictions from Nobody or, if required, add even more restrictions. Let's find out what the other users can do…
Discovering what we can do as DigOp (A control Room
Operator)If you haven't already done
so, log out of the application by clicking on the Logout
link.
Now log in as digop (password digop) as shown in the window on
the right. (Digop is short for Digestion
Operator.)
You can see that the initial view of the system is somewhat different from that view as seen by Nobody and that the window banner at the top of the screen is showing that DigOp is logged in. In particular, DigOp sees only the logs from the area called 'dig' and also digop has the ability to add logs.
Now let's add a new log:
- Click on the Add Link in the top left hand corner of the form.
The form part of the screen will show something similar to the
diagram below:
- Now enter the data as shown in the image
below.
Notice that the system will not allow you as the DigOp User to select any other area than dig,
That you cannot change your user name to anything other than DigOp and
That only one site (Central) is offered in the Site combo box.
That the Equipment options showing in the equipment combo box are only the equipment in the digestion area.
That a pre-configured message "Digestion says" comes up in the message area when the form is first displayed.
All of these features have been configured as we will see later.
Once you have entered the data as above, click on the Confirm Add Button and you will see the Log entered into the system as shown below. (Of course, the time will be different to the time in the image below. The color of the time will be dependant on the shift number...Yellow, is the first shift, brown the second and gray the third. (All these colors can be changed as we will see later.))
Notice that there is now a new link in the toolbar called Modify.
Click on the record you have just added in the grid and then click on the Modify button. Change the priority to Low and add a sentence to the Message. "I have called the Supervisor."
- Click on the Confirm button and the modified entry should look like this.
If you had not completed the
modification process within 5 minutes from the time you entered
the new log, the system would not have allowed you to change the
log.
For DigOp, the setting for modifications is set at 5 minutes.
Your system administrator may set this to a different amount for
each user.
You will note that you are not allowed to delete records. This too is a configurable function.
Let's say that we are interested in the logs that were recorded on some specific days. For example, let's have a look at the logs on the 28th and 29th of October 2001. Here is what we do:
First select 2 days in the filter menu.
Now select the end date as 30th October 2001 in the end date area.
OK so we are happy with what we have looked at, how do we go back to where we were before?
Reset the end date to the current date and
Reset the period to what it was before we started.
Note that if you only want to change the number of days of logs that you are looking at and not the end date, then you can simply type in the number of days in the days field.
Automatically Logging
Off
Note that if you passed one of the shift end boundaries while you
were doing this tutorial section, you would have seen a message
that says that you have been logged off. Just type in your
password if you want to continue and then click on the log in
button.
In this section, you have explored what you can do if you were a typical operator. In the next section, we examine what a system administrator can do.
In this section we look at various configuration tasks that you are likely to want to do. These include tasks such as making modifications to the underlying tables, adding new users and changing the jLogBook system parameters.
To configure the system, you must log in as a user that has the ability to configure the system. In the demo database, there is a user called Admin (with no password) who has configure capability. Let's log in as Admin and call up the main configuration screen:
Start up the application and enter the user name Admin with no password.
Click on the Configure link. You will see the configuration screen below.
When you add a new category, you make changes at various levels. I.e. you add a new column to the "LogTable" table, you will probably add a new field to the grid and also to the form and you will also want to change the options that the operator has to choose for this new category. Let's do it….
In the configuration screen (See above), click on the Categories link and then click on the Add link. Let's create a category called Machine. I.e. enter the word Machine as the new name.
We will create a combo field in the form and we will make it live in column 4, row 5. It will be the 22nd field in the logtable. I.e.
- Click on the Add Category button and you will notice that a new category has been added to the Category Table.
Now go back to the application, click on the refresh key and see the new category in the application. I.e.
Congratulations, you have now added a new category into the LogTable, into the Grid and into the Form. In the next tutorial, we will set up some options for the operator to choose from in the Combo Box.
Now that we have added a new category, we need to set up the
options that an operator can choose from when adding a new log.
These options will appear in the drop down list when the operator
clicks the arrow in the combo box. Here goes:
- First get back into the categories configuration window as
before.
- Now click on the new Machine category in the grid at the bottom
of the screen.
- Now click on the Machine options link at the top of the form.
You will be taken to the options for this
category.
- Use the Add Option to add two new options for
the combo list as shown below.
Now lets check to see if this
works in the form.
Go back to the screen where you are running the jLogBook application and click on the add button.
Click on the Machine combo box and you should see the following image.
Click on Machine 23 and then on the confirm Add (You may wish to add some comments in the message area.
Notice that the machine option has come up in the color that we configured. I.e.
Great. We have added some options for the new machine category and we have checked that we could use the new category to add machine information.
In the next tutorial, we will
look at changing some of the system parameters and see what their
effect is on the operation of jLogBook.
In this section, we make some changes to the System Parameters
and observe how these changes affect the layout of the Log
Book.
First log in as Admin (no
Password), then click on the Config button. From the main
configuration screen, click on the System Configuration Button in
the top left hand corner of the screen. The System Configuration
Screen will appear.
Now change the title of the logbook application to General
Machines Inc. I.e.
Now go back to the jLogBook screen and confirm that you have changed the title.
In this tutorial, we have made changes to the system configuration and have verified that the system was obedient to these changes. In the next section, we will add a new user to the system.
In this section, we will add a new user to the system (FredB) and
we will check that the facilities we have given to him are in
fact operational.
To add a new user,
- If you are not already in the configurator section, first log
in as Admin, click on the Configure button and then click on the
Users Link. You will see the User Configuration Screen.
- Now click on the Add User button and enter the new user FredB
as shown in the diagram. (Set the password as Fredr)
- Click on the Add User Button and you will see a new user appear
in the grid.
Now go back to the logbook screen, logout and log back in as fredr, password fredr.
Now that you have added a new
user, restart the system and log in as logout and log back in as
fredr, password fredr. Confirm that all the properties you
assigned to FredR are operative. I.e. Confirm that….
- The initial view of the logs is only in the 'dig' Area,
- He can only write information to the 'dig' area,
- He can only modify records that are less than 5 minutes old and
that are his own,
- He is automatically logged off at the end of the
shift.
Well done. You have added a new user and have tuned the properties so that he can only work in the area you have assigned to him.
Congratulations, you have now completed all the tutorial sections and you should now be ready to use and modify your own application. You may use the demo database (jLogBookDemo) as a starting point or you can use the start up database (jLogBookStartUp) as a starting point.
Remember to use the on-line help for assistance in your configuration. If you require any additional assistance, please feel free to contact us at support@sjsoft.com.