ELOG News

Controls Software

---

Flag Fields Quick Reference

The six flag field letters and their meanings are:

1. T - Indicates that this entry has additional text.
2. A - Indicates that this entry has one or more attachments.
3. S - Indicates that this entry has been superceded by another entry.
4. s - Indicates that this entry supercedes another entry.
5. F - Indicates that this entry has been follow-uped by another entry.
6. f - Indicates that this entry is a follow-up to another entry.

Table of Contents

Overview

New Advanced Editor Feature

The E-log system now has the FCKeditor integrated into the E-log entry and supercede forms. This "Advanced Editor" allows one to use a WSIWYG editor to create a rich entry with functionality just like MS Word. More detail about this new feature may be found using the E-log Advanced Editor link.

New Collapsed/Un-Collapsed View Feature

A new "View" pull-down menu has been added to the main E-log web page. The "View" pull-down menu selections are "Collapsed" and "Un-Collapsed". As with other configuration items at the top of the main E-log web page, one needs to select the "Apply Filters" button after changing a "View" menu selection before the change takes effect.

The "Collapsed" setting produces the same presentation of the E-log entries on the main E-log web page as was always the case previously: one line link per E-log entry containing the time, title, author name, and machine area. The "Un-Collapsed" setting allows the display of the contents of each entry within the selected time range, including graphics attachments. The display of the contents of each entry provided by the "Un-Collapsed" view setting is very similar to that displayed when the "Scrollable View" link is selected on the main E-log web page.

The browser on your computer will "remember" the last "Collapsed/ Un-Collapsed" setting selected (after selecting the "Apply Filters" button) by means of a cookie when the E-log main web page is brought up at a later time.

New Direct Entry Print Queues

The following new E-log print queues have been added:

1. elog_lcls_ent
2. elog_mcc_ent
3. elog_tlog_ent
4. elog_lcls_entrot
5. elog_mcc_entrot
6. elog_tlog_entrot

The first three allow the printing of a graphics file to directly create an E-log entry with an attachment in either the LCLS, MCC, or TLOG logbooks. Each such entry has a fixed title ("Attachment Entry"), a fixed author name ("AttachEntry"), and no text. These entries may be "superceded" using the existing E-log supercede feature to override the default title, add text, change the attachment title from the default ("Figure 1"), and even add attachments from the E-log attachment pool. The last three new E-log print queues are similar to the first three but rotate the image 90 degrees.

These new print queues may be used wherever the old E-log print queues are used (the old print E-log print queues generate an attachment file in the E-log make new entry attachment pool and do not directly create an E-log entry). The first three new E-log print queues are utilized in association with new SCP Control Panel "JLAB E-log" "Entry Attach" buttons to directly create an E-log entry from subsequent SCP print graph display requests.

New Copy E-Log Id File Attachments Perl Script

A Perl script is now available to copy the attachment files associated with a specified E-log entry to a specified directory. This Perl script is available from SCCS general purpose UNIX machines, such as the flora machines.

This script is useful to retrieve the original graphics image E-log attachment file (e.g., Postscript) that is used during the creation of a PNG file by the E-log print queue mechanism. The created PNG file is necessary for use by the E-log display mechanism so that the attachment can be displayed as a graphics image (the use of the original Postscript file would just result in the display of a link). The original graphics image file may have a better image resolution than the created PNG file and may therefore be preferable for use in publications.

E-log attachments generated by the E-log print queue mechanism will have two associated attachment files: the original file and the generated PNG file. E-log attachments not generated by E-log print queue mechanism will have only one associated attachment file.

First, the following command should be issued from a UNIX machine such as one of the flora machines to set the PATH environment variable so that the Perl script may be easily found:

source /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/dev/script/ENVS.csh

Then a command of the following form may be entered:

copy_elog_id_file_attachments.pl <elog_id> <target_dir>

For example:

copy_elog_id_file_attachments.pl 186969 .

If there are any attachment files associated with E-log entry specified by the E-log id, there will be an summary attachment information file generated in the specified target directory along with the copied attachment files. The summary attachment information file will have a name of the following form:

elog_entry_<elog_id>_attachments.txt

Figure 1 20071127_105446_7979.attach_1.png
Figure 1 20071127_105446_7979.attach_1.ps
Figure 2 20071127_105446_7979.attach_2.png
Figure 2 20071127_105446_7979.attach_2.ps

For this example four attachment files were copied to the target directory. The first and second lines in this summary attachment information file indicate that the first attachment associated with this entry (with attachment title "Figure 1") has two two associated attachment files: the generated ".png" file and the original Postscript ".ps" file. Similarily, the third and fourth lines in this summary attachment information file indicate that the second attachment associated with this entry (with attachment title "Figure 2") also has two associated attachment files.

New Flag Field Feature

A new feature has been added to display flags on the main E-log web interface page. The area for the six flag field letters is to the left of each web entry link on the main page (between the +/- expand/collapse icon and the supercede and follow-up icons). The six flag field letters and their meanings are on the top of this ELOG News web page for quick reference.

Automatic entries (entries generated by programs and scripts as utilized by MCC Operations, for example) will not have flags.

Some entries will have more than one flags. Some examples:

1. TASsFf  - This entry has all flags set.
2. TA  s     - This entry has text, one or more attachments, and it supercedes another entry.
3. T      F   - This entry has text and it has been follow-uped by another entry.

If this new flag feature is not useful to you, you may disable it by:

1. Selecting the "Preferences" link on the main E-log web interface page.
2. Setting the "Display flags:" pull-down menu to "NO" on the Preferences page.
3. Selecting the "Apply Settings" button on the Preferences page.

Changed Order of Print Queue Files

The order of print queue attachment files on the "New Entry" and "Supercede Entry" E-log web pages has been changed from chronological order to reverse chronological order. When making an E-log entry with one or more associated attachments from the print queue files, the usual case is to select attachments that have been very recently created. This change allows the selection of more recently created attachments nearer to the main body of the form and should reduce the amount of scrolling required in most cases.

Windows Print Queues

A new feature has been added to allow you to create E-Log attachments from Windows graphics files. It works similar to the existing capabilities of creating graphics E-Log attachments from the SCP or an EPICS display: by "printing" graphics to special E-log print queues. Graphics printed to a special E-log print queue create a file in a directory that can be seen in the list of attachments on the bottom of the web page used for adding a new E-log entry. The supported graphics file types are Postscript, JPG, and GIF.

To add an E-Log print queue to your available Windows printers:

1. Click on the cd-server1 link to open webmcc on your Windows PC.
2. Double click on the "Printers and Faxes" icon.
3. Double click on one of the special E-Log print queue icons. At present it does not matter which one you select. Each Windows E-log print queue has the suffix "_mccelog". At present the following print queues are available: accl_mccelog, pep_mccelog, mcc_mccelog, nlcta_mccelog, pack_mccelog, rf_mccelog, bic_mccelog, spps_mccelog, and tlog_mccelog (these correspond to the SCP and EPICS display print queues elog_accl, elog_pep, elog_mcc, elog_nlcta, elog_pack, elog_rf, elog_bic, elog_spps, and elog_tlog).
4. A window will appear with a title such as "tlog_mccelog". Select "Printer/Connect".