SHEZHU RESOURCE SHARING SYSTEM
VERSION 1.20/31-01-2008

GENERIC (BUILD 2008.01.31.17.17)
SUPPORTS DATES FROM 31/01/2008 TO 30/01/2009 AND EXPIRES ON 31/01/2009

USER MANUAL

CONTENTS

CONCEPT
A SIMPLE BOOKING
REPEAT BOOKINGS
CHECKING BOOKINGS
CANCELLING BOOKINGS
CREDITS

CONCEPT

Hello and welcome to the user manual for the SHEZHU RESOURCE SHARING SYSTEM at the GENERIC site. First off we are going to run through some basic conceptual information about this application because it differs somewhat from more traditional room booking systems. It is strongly reccommended that you have the application up and running while reading this user manual so you can see what the text refers to and try out any examples. So, to start the application go HERE and click on the launch link - after carefully checking you meet the platform and browser requirments as directed of course!

Well, in all the other room booking systems that we have seen you choose a date, time and room either from a grid of dates and times, or by entering the date, time and room through some kind of form. If you want the event to repeat you choose a repeat interval (effectively blind) and resolve any booking clashes that arise retrospectively. In this system the three dimensonal space of date, time and resource is presented on a two dimensional grid and you click to book a slot similarly. However, repeated bookings are done in the same way and you change the view of date, time and resource to show the dates for repeated events. These changes in view are done by filters and allow you to see at a glance the complete availability for a repeated event and allow you to easily adjust the time or resource to maximize the consistency of the booking.

An example might make this clearer. In a traditional system to book Tuesday at 0900-1000 each week you would select the first Tuesday and set a weekly repeat and then resolve any booking clashes. In this system you click on the filters to display only dates which are Tuesday and then select the time for each day as availability indicates. For example, you might decide to choose 1000-1100 instead because then it can always be those times as it so happened that 0900-1000 was already booked on a couple of the Tuesdays, or you could stick to the 0900-1000 time but choose a different room, or stick with the room and time but specifically set a few days at a different time. In this system there is generally no need to resolve any booking clashes because you simply cannot make a booking that clashes.

The main display grid (bottom two thirds of the application window) shows a two dimensional representation of dates, times and resources. Individual slots (a point in space representing the intersection of a date and a time or a date and a resource) are shaded to indicate their level of usage. A white slot is unused, light gray is up to one third used, dark gray is up to two thirds used and finally black is up to fully used. So if on any particular date the 1400-1500 slot is light gray it means that about one third of the available (displayed) rooms are in use at that time and if a particular room slot is dark gray it means that about two thirds of the available (displayed) time slots are using that room.

Note the distinction made between available and displayed in how the slots are shaded. For example, there are twenty four bookable hours in the day but only nine working hours are displayed on the grid by default. The shading of a resource for example represents the usage of that resource only within the hours shown on the display. In addition selected slots (slots that you have clicked on to make a booking) also affect what shading is applied (and availability). For example, if you wanted to book the 1000-1100 slot using the first room but the first room is currently gray you will not be able to select it. But if you click on the 1000-1100 slot the first room might go white (because it becomes available at that time). Conversely if you click on a room that is white (available) the shading of the time slots will change to reflect their usage for that particular room selection only (rather than for all the displayed rooms).

Now lets look at the application windows display restrictions as they set the maximum range of a booking. So, down the left side of the grid there can be a total of twelve dates displayed. This means a booking can cover a maximum of twelve individual dates. This could of course be twelve consecutive days or one day every month for twelve months or some other repeated combination of dates. When a repeat booking needs to be longer than this it is simply entered multiple times as separate bookings, the display being reconfigured each time to show a different set of twelve dates.

Similarly the time slots a booking can accommodate during a day are limited to a maximum of nine (as reflected in the nine time slot columns across the top of the grid). This could be a maximum of nine hours (consecutive or spread out across the day) or two and a quarter hours when the time slot resolution is reduced to fifteen minute periods. A booking can consist of a maximum of three resources (as reflected in the three resource slot columns across the top of the grid). Again if a booking really needs to use more time slots and/or resources it is simply entered as multiple separate bookings with the display being approriately reconfigured for each booking.

You might think that you can get around the maximum displayed slots by selecting slots and scrolling to make more selections. This will not work though as the scrollbars clear selections associated with their pane specifically to prevent the maximums being exceeded. So if you have selected the 1100-1200 time slot and the first resource and you scroll the time slot pane your 1100-1200 slot selection will be cleared and if you scroll the resource pane your first resource slot selection will be cleared and if you scroll the date pane both your time and resource slot selections will be cleared.

While the above rules may seem restrictive they are deliberate, carefully chosen and are an intrinsic part of the design of the application which is intended to maximise resource sharing - booking a repeated event for a long time is considered to be resource hogging, it is still possible with this application but it is by design more hassle. You might also have noticed that the application is built for a specific range of dates (in this case from 31/01/2008 to 30/01/2009) and booking outside of the available range is not possible.

So, when you need a booking to cover more than what is shown in the displayed window and the booking will fit within the maximum limits described above then you need to use the filters to set the view so that the display shows all of the slots associated with the booking (or if you prefer use the scrollbars and make multiple separate bookings).

Above the main display grid (top third of the application window) are a lot of small individual buttons. These are used to set the filters which determine what slots are shown in the main display grid. They also show the current filter settings (grey) and the current date and time (green). By default all the filters are open (not placing any restrictions on the main display grid) except for the DAY filter which restricts the dates shown to be Monday to Friday only and the HOUR filter which restricts the time slots shown to be standard working hours only (0900-1800). The filter buttons are grouped into related banks and within each bank are organized hierarchically - open and unrestrictive at the top, very specific and restrictive at the bottom.

So, for example, to change the display to only show dates which are the first Tuesday of every month click on the 1ST button and then on the first T button. See how the displayed dates change to reflect the new filter settings. This is a powerful feature, you can now at a glance see all the first Tuesdays in every month grouped together making it very easy to assess the availability of time and resource slots for all those dates at the same time. You could spot for example that a time slot of 1100-1200 and a particular room are free for each of these days allowing you to make a consistent repeated booking.

Another powerful feature of the filters is the ability to use Terms and Semesters. These are mapped to dates based on local policy and have been configured as part of the local build. So to change the display to only show every Wednesday in Spring Term simply click on the SPR button and then the W button.

Note though the cumulative effect of filters. If you did the above after initially having chosen filters to show the first Tuesday of every month you will not get what you expect. You have to turn off the previous filter settings first. You normally do this by clicking on the ANY button for the particular filter group to remove the restriction. It is quite possible to set filters so that no dates are shown in the main display window. This could happen for example by choosing a single day of the month when the default DAY filter is still set to only show dates which are Monday to Friday and the day of the month you chose happened to be a Saturday or a Sunday!

Filters do not just affect dates but can also be used to change the displayed time and resource slots. In particular the QTR filter allows you to change the time slot resolution. By default only time slots starting on the hour are shown (which means any booking for that slot lasts for an hour). By clicking on the 30 button the display will show time slots on the hour and on the half hour and each slot will only last for half an hour. Using this feature you can create bookings lasting a minimum of fifteen minutes starting on the hour, quarter past, half past or quarter to the hour. Note that if a booking exists for the time slot 1130-1145 and you are using the default resolution of hour slots on the hour then the 1100-1200 slot will not be available (shown grey) because part of it has been booked.

A SIMPLE BOOKING

Right, enough of that. Lets book a room. This is actually very simple and the following may make it seem more complex than it really is. Say we want to book 1400-1600 on a particular day in the meeting room (given the resource short code of MEET). First step is to make sure the day is visible in the main display grid if it is not already, by default the display shows just over two weeks ahead of todays date. This can be done in a couple of ways. For a single day its often easiest to just scroll down until it is displayed using the date pane scroll bar (far right hand side of the application window). Alternatively use filters and click on the month and day of the month in the MONTH filter panel to restrict the display to that single date (this can be a lot quicker than scrolling if the date is a long way ahead).

Now the day we want to book on is visible simply click on that days corresponding time slots, 1400 and 1500 so they turn orange in color. Note that the time slots are marked with the starting time and by default last one hour, so the 1400 slot reflects a booking from 1400 to 1500. Next click on the corresponding resource slot, MEET, so it turns orange in color. Once you have done this the big friendly BOOK button will turn green in color. The BOOK button will only become available (colored green) when at least one time slot and one resource slot are selected for each day of the booking.

Next, click on the BOOK button to move to the submission confirmation form. Here you should enter your personal username and password in the AUTHENTICATION panel (this will not be necessary if your authentication has already been established if your local build supports the suitable negotiation). Then enter a description of the booking in the BOOKING DETAILS panel. This is important to do for later identification purposes. Finally if the booking is not for yourself then you can enter one third party recipient for the booking confirmation message. Here you should enter a valid deliverable email address, normally this would just be a local username (the domain is unnecessary).

Finally click on the SUBMIT button to confirm the booking and be returned to the normal display. The selected slots (colored orange) should turn gray to reflect the fact that the booking has been submitted. Anyone else running the application will see these slots turn gray as well (after a short refresh interval). A successful booking also results in an email confirmation message being sent to yourself and the third party recipient (if any) containing all the details of the booking - you can forward this message on as normal to anyone else that needs to know about the booking for example. A copy of the email confirmation message will also be sent to the authority address for each resource booked (if any). The authority is the person responsible for managing and monitoring the booking and usage of a particular resource.

If nothing happened after you clicked on the SUBMIT button (your selected slots stay orange and you are not returned to the normal display) then something has gone wrong. The most likely explanation is that either your authentication details were mistyped or that you do not have sufficient access rights to make a booking.

You can also click on the CANCEL button to abort the submission of the booking and return to the normal display mode. Your selected slots will remain selected (orange) and the content of the fields on the submission form are still preserved. You could adjust your booking and press the BOOK button again to submit it for example.

REPEAT BOOKINGS

Well, repeat bookings are really just an extension of a simple booking. Instead of selecting time and resource slots on a single day you select them on multiple days, they do not even have to be the same time and resource slots on each day although they often are in a repeat booking (they might differ when trying to work around other bookings for example). The art with repeat bookings is to use the filters to display just the days you want to book.

So to make a repeat booking for the second Monday of every month click on the 2ND month filter button and on the M day filter button. The display grid will now only show up to twelve Mondays which are the second Monday of each month. Now click on the appropriate time slots and resources on each displayed day so that the BOOK button becomes available and then proceed as for a simple booking.

To make a repeat booking for every Thursday in the second Semester click on the second T day filter button and on the 2ND semester filter button. Then click on the appropriate time slots and resources on each displayed day as above and proceed as for a simple booking.

Other repeat bookings can be similarly made using the filter to constrain the display to include all the days you need for the booking. More complex bookings are possible, for example to book the 1st and 3rd Mondays and Tuesdays of April, May and June click on the 1ST and 3RD month filter buttons, the M and T day filter buttons and the APR, MAY and JUN month filter buttons.

Note that as already mentioned in CONCEPT a repeat booking covering more than twelve separate dates must be done as multiple separate bookings. So if you want something to happen every day for significantly more than a few weeks it might take a while to do! There is also currently no drag-select mouse support so you have to click on each days booking slots separately - this is on the list of things to improve.

CHECKING BOOKINGS

Sometimes it is useful to find out more details about what bookings are consuming a particular time or resource slot (rather than just a shade of gray indicating usage). You can of course just look at the generated web page of bookings for the GENERIC site. But you can also get these details via the application.

To see what bookings a used slot (not colored white) has, simply hover the mouse over that slot for about a second and the filter part of the application window will be replaced by a list of bookings that include the selected slot. This list includes the time slots and resource slots taken by each booking, who made the booking and a description of the booking, just like the generated web page. As soon as you move the mouse off the slot the display will return to normal.

CANCELLING BOOKINGS

It is very easy to cancel existing bookings (although your access control is likely to allow you to only cancel your own bookings by default unless you are an administrator or the local build was for an open configuration). The first step is to scroll or use filters to make one date of the booking visible in the main display grid.

Next hover over one of the time or resource slots of the booking and when the details of the booking are listed in the top third of the application window click on the booking to lock the details in place and enable the DELETE button beside the booking. Alternatively just click straight on the booking rather than hovering to bring up the details in locked mode with the DELETE button already enabled. Note that while the details are locked you can click on other used slots to switch the list of details to that slot. You can also exit the locked details mode by clicking on any unused (white) slot.

Click on the DELETE button against the booking you want to delete. This will take you to the normal booking submission form but the description of the booking will have been prepended with REMOVE: to indicate that this is a cancellation of a booking. If you have not already done so you will need to enter your authentication and maybe a third party recipient.

Click on the SUBMIT button to remove the booking. This should return you to the normal display mode and the gray slots you have selected will disappear (actually they will only turn white if there are no other bookings on those slots, they might change to a different shade of gray instead). You (and the third party recipient) will receive a mail message confirming the cancellation. Anyone else running the application will see these slots change to reflect the removal of the booking as well (after a short refresh interval).

As for when you are making a normal booking if nothing happened after you clicked on the SUBMIT button your authentication details were mistyped or you do not have sufficient access rights to cancel that particular booking (or any booking).

Finally, note that removing a booking only removes the part of the booking on the selected date. If it was part of a repeated booking all the other dates will remain booked. As for a repeated booking to remove all the dates you should use filters so that the display shows all of the dates in the booking and then click and delete the booking from each date in turn.

CREDITS

This user manual was pulled kicking and screaming from the gates of hell by Tim Colles and is Copyright © 2001-2006, 2008 University of Edinburgh created by Tim Colles. All rights reserved.