July and August 2008

Update on May and June Topic

The comments posted on the first Feature Topic were great – although there were several of you who we did not hear from. I am hoping for more participation this time around. Your insights did help us to have a clearer view of the initial setup process. We will be working through the new user setup functions and testing them more thoroughly for future users. We will also give more thought to the terminology and descriptions used to identify collection types, materials, and names in the final version of the program. Finally, we need to reconsider how we explain the importance of the location name in identifying the monitored site.

This month’s focus is on adding photographs and maps or floor plans to a location. We originally intended to include reports as a topic, but have decided to delay that until you have data to work with on the site.

Direct data upload to your WebERA site should be available soon. Both the upload and import functions have been programmed, and we are currently testing and preparing written documentation and instructions. We will let you know when it is ready for use.

Remember to send any technical support questions that need immediate attention directly to Patti at pafpph@rit.edu.

Feature Topic #1: Photographs, Maps, and Map Icons

The uploading of photographs, maps, and maps icons functions were included in the site when we worked with the National Museum of Denmark. The administrator was managing over 150 locations and needed images as a reminder of the actual location as well as the placement of the logger. He felt that the images would also help the staff that collected data for him. We are interested in knowing how valuable you think these features are, and how you would expect to use them.

We experimented to determine the correct size and type of image to be uploaded. The best approach is to select the photographs that you want to include in advance, and ensure that they are properly named, sized, and oriented before uploading. Photos and maps must be JPG images and the size limit is 3 MB.

The assigned image file name will be presented whenever the image is displayed. The file name does not have to be the same as the location name, although, it can be. Each photo is individually uploaded and linked to a specific location. One map can be linked to several locations on the same floor. At this time, the system is limited to one photo upload and one map link per location.

Instructions for adding, updating, removing, and viewing photographs and maps are on pages 30 – 34 of your WebERA instruction manual. Please note that the map upload function has been updated and instructions are listed below. Previously, a map had to be uploaded individually to each location. Users preferred having one map per floor with every location (and associated incident icon) on the same map so this change was made.

Below are links to instructions in PDF format:

• Uploading a Map
• Viewing a Map
• Adding an Icon and a Note on a Map

Over the next month, please experiment with uploading and naming photographs and maps as well as incorporating icons onto the maps. We welcome your feedback about the process.

Feature Topic #2: Adding and Using Notes

Instructions for working with the notes system are on pages 27 and 28 of the WebERA instruction manual. Notes were developed to address the need for some institutions to track activities or incidents associated with storage locations. In the beginning, we simply had a field in the location information for additional comments. Users wanted a way to track and search these entries by various levels of the tree hierarchy–from site to building to location. They also wanted to categorize the entries and search by these categories or types of notes. It is up to the user to define the various note types, which could include water incidents, construction activity, collection moves, and so on.

The General Notes button located at the top of the location tree in the left pane, displays all the notes in the system. From here, you can search by various levels and effectively narrow down the display of notes by building, floor, and so on. Using this “top down” view allows you to see all the notes; however, it does not work the other way around. In other words, if you are looking at the notes for an individual location, it will not show those applied further up the tree to the floor, building, or site that it occupies. When you view notes from the higher levels of the tree, such as site, building, or floor, then you will see all those that apply down to the location level.

Please use the notes system and give us your input–is it useful, how would you apply it, how can it be improved, etc.

 

Please respond with your comments by August 11, 2008.