SLAC ELOG User's Guide
ESD Software Engineering, SLAC
Table of Contents
Overview
Home Page Description
About Home Page Symbols
Make an Entry
Pending Entries
Entry Display
Print Queue Attachments
Overview
This web page provides information regarding the use of the SLAC
Electronic Logbook system ported from Jefferson Labs. Users may
make entries into logbooks and view logbook entries through a web-based
interface. The web interface is accessable only from SLAC due to security
concerns. Anyone at SLAC who has access to the E-log web interface may
view logbook entries. However, to make a log entry one must have a
SLAC AFS (UNIX) account and have one's name and UNIX account username entered into
a database list of E-log users (contact Bob Hall
to be entered into this list).
Graphics attachments may be generated from SLAC VAX/VMS MCC systems, UNIX
systems, and Windows systems. This is accomplished through the "print queue"
mechanism where graphics images are "printed" to special E-log print queues
and appear in a "thumbnail" list of graphics files that may be attached to
a log entry. Also Windows graphics files may be attached directly to
a log entry. Log entries and associated attached graphics files are
stored into an Oracle database.
The E-log system is DOE compliant, which implies that log entries may not
be altered once they have been made. Corrections to information in a log
entry may be made by entering a new log entry which refers to the entry
in error.
It is also possible for software programs to make log entries. Such
entries may contain signal values, such as luminousity and beam current.
Please contact Bob Hall to make requests for program modifications for
log entry.
Home Page Description
The E-log home page
is the starting point for the E-log system:
.
The name of the current logbook being viewed appears on the title on the top of
the page. When the home page is first entered the name of the default logbook,
MCC, appears. The logbook entry summaries displayed at the bottom of the page
are associated with the current logbook, whose name appears on the title.
The first section of the page below the title consists of three items:
logbooks, actions, and other links. The logbooks line lists the names of
all of the logbooks currently supported. Clicking on the name of a logbook
makes this logbook the current logbook being viewed. The last logbook
listed, TLOG, is a test logbook. Log entry tests may be made by associating
test log entries with this logbook.
The actions supported are:
-
Make an Entry - Clicking on this action brings up a form allowing one to
make a new log entry. The details of making a new log entry is discussed
in another section of this User's Guide.
-
Logbook prefs - Clicking on this action brings up a form allowing changing
the items displayed for a log entry. Users should not select this action
and change the items displayed for a log entry because this affects all
users of the E-log system. Therefore, this action will not be discussed in
this User's Guide. Although the effects of a user changing the logbook
preferences should be relatively minor this action may be removed from the
main E-log page to prevent users from experimenting with it.
-
Scrollable/printable logbook - Clicking on this action allows one to scroll
through all of the log entries currently displayed in the summary at the
bottom of the main page. These scrollable log entries may also be easily
printed.
-
Pending entries - Clicking on this action allows the user to view a summary
of newly made log entries that have not yet been processed and are not yet
available for display. A short discussion of this appears in another section
of this User's Guide.
-
Login/Logout - The action "Login" appears if one has not yet entered an AFS
(UNIX) username and password that has been successfully validated. If this
has been done, the "Logout" action appears. The "Login" action is not
strictly necessary since the same username/password validation is done before
one first makes a log entry. Once username/password validation is done
one is "logged in" and will not be required to reenter the username/password
when making new entries. The "Logout" action "logs out" the user from the
E-log system and is useful when one has finished making log entries on
a display terminal used by several people.
The Other Links allows one to select other web pages. Each logbook may have
different web pages in the list of available links. The list of web pages
for each logbook will always include at least two links:
-
ELOG News - Provides update information regarding the E-log system. It includes
information regarding changes and new features.
-
ELOG Users Guide - A link to this web page containing User's Guide information.
The second section of the E-log home page contains pull-down menus and a search
text box that allows one to filter logbook entry summaries at the bottom of the
page:
-
Start Date - Allows the selection of the starting date/time. Only log entries
created at or after the specified start date/time will be displayed.
-
End Date - Allows the selection of the ending date/time. Only log entries
created at or before the specified end date/time will be displayed.
-
Logbook - Allows the selection of one or more currently supported
logbooks. Only log entries associated with the selected logbooks
will be displayed.
-
Area - Allows the selection of any Area (e.g. injector, damping rings, linac,
etc.) or "ALL". Only log entries that were created with this area specified
will be displayed (if "ALL" is selected, no area filtering is performed).
-
Sort Order - Allows sorting of entries to be in ascending or descending
order by the last sort filter selected/altered (e.g. date, name, etc.).
-
Source - Allows the selection of "USER LOGS", "AUTOLOGS", or "ALL LOGS". If
"USER LOGS" is selected only log entries created by users through the
"Make an Entry" action will be displayed. If "AUTOLOGS" is selected only
log entries created by software programs will be displayed. If "ALL LOG"
is selected no Source filtering is done-- all log entries satisfying the
other filter criteria will be displayed.
-
Search - A text box is provided to enter a search string. This string
of characters will be searched for in either "Titles and Text" (all log
entry titles and text) or "User names" (all log entry creator user names),
depending on what is selected on the pull-down menu to the right of the
text box.
Once one or more of the above filter criteria is selected, the "Apply Filters"
button may be clicked to apply the filters to the log entries to determine the
log entry summary information which is displayed at the bottom of the page.
The "Default Settings" button may be clicked to set all filters back to their
default values.
The summary information at the bottom of the page includes all of the log
entries satisfying the filter criteria. The header links at the top of each
column (number, date, name, area(s), title) may be selected to sort log
entries by that column.
At the very end of the page is a message of the form "Database query + PHP page
generation time = x seconds, result set has y records" indicating how long it
took to retrieve and display the displayed log entry summary information and
how may entries are displayed.
Home Page Symbols
.
.
Make an Entry
This section describes how to make a new log entry. The following is the
top section of the form that appears when one selects the "Make an Entry"
action from the E-log home page:
.
There are three parts in this top section of the "Make an electronic logbook
entry" form:
-
Log entry title - A text box allowing one to enter text up to 255 characters
in length. It is strongly recommended that each new log entry contain a
title since this field is shown on the E-log home page entry summary information
to identify an entry.
-
Log entry text - A text box allowing a virtually unlimited number of characters
describing the log entry.
-
Logbook check boxes - At least one check box must be selected to associate the
new log entry with at least one logbook. Multiple check boxes may be selected
to associate the log entry with multiple logbooks.
The following is the middle section of the "Make an electronic logbook entry"
form:
.
There are five parts in this middle section of the "Make an electronic logbook
entry" form:
-
Machine Areas check boxes - One or more check boxes may be selected to
associate the log entry with a machine area or areas. This is optional--
there is no requirement to select any Machine Areas check boxes.
-
Priority Level - This is a pull-down menu that allows the log entry to have
one of two priorities: NORMAL or README. The title of README log entries
appears in red to attract attention to them.
-
Email addresses - A newly created log entry may be emailed to one or
more people. In the email addresses text box one may enter one or more
email addresses, separated by a space. For non-qualified addresses
(without the "@" character), the suffix "@slac.stanford.edu" is assumed.
-
Reference to other log entries - A new log entry may reference one or more
existing log entries. In the references text box one may enter the number
of one or more log entries, separated by a space.
-
Attachments - An log entry may have one or more graphics attachments. There
are two methods of making attachments. One is to enter the file name of each
attachment in the Attachments "File" text box (the "Browse..." button may
be used to find a file to attach). Each such attachment is available from
the user's Windows PC. The second method of making attachments is via the
"print queue" mechanism, which is discussed in another section of this User's
Guide. Each attachment may have a title, which is entered in the "Title"
text box associated with the attachment. By default there are two "Title"
and "File" text boxes available for entering information. With Netscape
browsers and Internet Explorer browsers 5.0 and 5.5 the "Click to add more
files" button may be clicked to add addition text box rows. At present this
does not work using Internet Explorer browser version 6.0.
The following is the bottom section of the "Make an electronic logbook entry"
form:
.
There are three parts in this bottom section of the "Make an electronic logbook
entry" form:
-
Usernames associated with log entry - By default only the user whose username and
password has been validated is associated with the new log entry. To associate
additional users with the new log entry enter each such user's AFS (UNIX) username,
separated by a space.
-
Printed attachments - This section contains boxes, with each box containing a check
box, a file name, and a graphics "thumbnail" of each previously "printed" graphics
file available for attachment to a log entry. The file name in a box may be selected
to bring up a window containing the graphics image for this file. One or more check
boxes may be selected to associate graphic image attachments with the new log entry.
The "Title" text boxes in the middle section of this form may be used to associate
a title with each selected graphics image. The graphics attachment files are listed
in order of creation date (in boxes from left-to-right and top-to-bottom) with the
oldest first and the newest last. Attachment files "printed" more than two days ago
may not be available. Contact Bob Hall if there is a need to restore an older attachment
(less than 10 days old). The "print queue" mechanism which is used to generate the
graphics files in this section of the form is discussed in another section of this
User's Guide.
-
Make entry/Reset buttons - After completing the "Make an electronic logbook entry"
form one may submit a new log entry by selecting the "Make entry" button. If one
has made several mistakes on the "Make an electronic logbook entry" and wants to
clear the form one may select the "Reset" button.
After an entry has been submitted, a page containing information similar to
the following will appear:
.
This page summarizes the pending log entry. It may take up to 5 minutes for the
pending log entry to be processed and stored in the Oracle database. After
viewing the above page one may select the "Back to Elog" link to return to the
E-log home page.
Pending Entries
After returning to the E-log home page one may verify that the new elog entry
has been submitted by selecting the "Pending entries" action. A page such
as the following will appear:
.
An entry in the NEW or UNPROCESSED pending entries section indicates that
a new logbook entry has not been yet processed. Again, it may take up to
5 minutes for a pending entry to be processed. To see the new entry appear
on the E-log home page one must wait for the pending entry to be processed
and then refresh the home page with the browser or wait for the next
automatic refresh of the home page (every 5 minutes).
Entry Display
To display an entry one may select a entry from the bottom section of the
E-log home page. The following is an example:
.
This display contains two arrows at the top: the down arrow allows one to see
previous entry for the current logbook and the right arrow (labeled INDEX)
allows one to return to the E-log home page.
The box below the arrows contains summary information about the log entry:
-
Entry number - Each new log entry is assigned a number. This number is one
number bigger than the number assigned to the last new log entry.
-
Title - The log entry title is displayed.
-
Date/Time - For user entries, the date/time when the log entry was submitted
is displayed. For software program entries, the date/time when the program
created the entry file is displayed.
-
Area(s) - If any machine area was associated with the log entry, the name of
this area (e.g. LINAC) is displayed.
-
User name(s) - For user entries, the name of the log entry creator is displayed
along with any names corresponding to usernames entered in the "Make an entry"
form.
-
Logbook name(s) - The name(s) of the logbook(s) associated with the log entry
is displayed.
Below the summary information box is the content of the log entry. Any text
information will be displayed first. For each graphics attachment, the title
of the attachment and the graphics attachment will be displayed.
If the log entry references other log entries these log entries will also be
displayed.
Print Queue Attachments
Graphics attachments may be "printed" to special E-log print queues and
made available for attaching to log entries as described in the "Make an
Entry" section of this User's Guide. Only graphics files may be attached:
postscript, GIF, or JPEG files are converted to PNG graphics files. Text
files are not allowed as print queue attachments.
The following special E-log print queues are available from the MCC VMS
machine (e.g., from SCP panels) or UNIX machines (e.g., from EPICS displays):
-
elog_accl
-
elog_pep
-
elog_mcc
-
elog_nlcta
-
elog_pack
-
elog_rf
-
elog_bic
-
elog_spps
-
elog_lband
-
elog_amrf
-
elog_pcdpse
-
elog_swlog
-
elog_tlog
-
elog_rotate
Any E-log print queue may be used for creating a graphics attachment (creating
one E-log print queue for each logbook provides flexibility for future
enhancements). However, the elog_rotate is a special E-log print queue that
allows for rotating an image 90 degrees when this is desired. The queue name
minus the "elog_" prefix appears in the name of the graphics attachment file
for easy identification when making a log entry.
From the SCP one may go to the first "Print Control Panel" and select a
"ELOG Attach" button before "printing" a graphics display. There is one
"ELOG Attach" button on this panel for each logbook name.
Windows graphics files may also be "printed" to create E-log attachments.
To add an E-log print queue to your available Windows printers:
-
Click on the cd-server1 link to open cd-server1
on your Windows PC.
-
Double click on the "Printers and Faxes" icon.
-
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, tlog_mccelog, and rotate_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, elog_tlog, and elog_rotate).
-
A window will appear with a title such as "tlog_mccelog on CD-SERVER1".
Select "Printer/Connect".
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Owner: Bob Hall
Last modified: Thursday, November 6, 2003