Howard's ideas for having an ELOG entry "supersede" a previous entry.

Problem:

Often an ELOG entry gets written which is incomplete or needs to be clarified or fixed. Presently this is done with posting a "followup" entry, but that technique is confusing in the environment of the ELOG browser.

Proposed approach for Solution:

My proposal would be to have the ability to have a new entry type which "supersedes" a previous entry. The original entry would not be eliminated, but would rather be flagged as being "superseded" by the new entry.

The new entry would then need to have a link available to the original entry. However entries which are flagged as having been "superseded" would not be visible in the normal viewer environment.

Implementation Ideas:

I envision a new button on the ELOG entry viewer page, similar to the "followup" button. The new button would indicate "supersede this entry". As with the followup button, the "supersede" button would launch an ELOG entry window. All of the information in the entry to be superseded should then be filled into the new entry form. User could then modify/add/delete information (including information such as attachments included, event time, etc.) as desired. Once the modifications are made, the "make entry" action would do the following:

• Post a new entry to the ELOG database. This new entry would have a flag indicating that it supersedes a previous entry. A link to the superseded entry would need to be included in the entry similar to the way followup entries link to the original entry (but without necessarily showing the superseded entry...just a link to it would be fine).
• Flag the original entry as having been superseded such that (default) ELOG viewers do not display the superseded entry.