CHASERS Documentation Overview
From Chasers_wiki
Contents |
Screenshot
Quick Links
- CHASERS Home Page
- DESC Home Page
- Known Problems & Fixes
- Installation Quick Guide
- SourceForge Site
- Mailing Lists
- CHASERS Features
- CHASERS Documentation Overview
- Public demonstration version
Basic User Information
Orientation/Navigation
Each page has a "command bar" right near the top. The contents of this bar can vary, but will always include the "main menu" on the left and the "Search Box" on the right. Most major modules are available from the "main menu." The Search Box can be used for various "Quick Searches" or to bring you to the "Advanced Search" page. Some miscellaneous or less-commonly used functions are accessible only from the home page, in the center section of the command bar.
Client and Staff Links and Pages
CHASERS makes heavy use of links. Anywhere you see a Client Name in blue, that is a link that will bring you to that client's page. Similarly, a staff name in red (hint: see login information about command bar) will bring you to a staff member's page.
Client and staff pages display basic and summary information about the client or staff person, along with the child records associated with them.
Quick Search
The Quick Search is composed of the following search boxes
Log System
The log system allows users to write text messages. These messages can also be connected with one or more clients ("client references"), and one or more staff members can be alerted to a log ("staff alerts"). If a client is referenced in a log, the staff assigned to that client will automatically be alerted, although they can be manually removed from the alert list before posting.
Add clients, staff and child records
Clients can be added with the "Add Client" link from the home page. Staff can be added from the CHASERS Administration page. Child records can be added to any existing clients or staff. (HINT: Use the "Show Empty Records" link on a client or staff page to see the full range of child records available.)
Alerts
Your own alerts are displayed on the home page. We are planning to create a more generic interface to control who gets alerts on particular events. In the meantime, you can enter a test log and alert your own account. You will see the alert on your home page. Once it is acknowledged, it no longer appears on your home page, but can be accessed on your staff page.
Bednight Registration
Allows assignment of (shelter) beds to clients. One or more bed groups can be defined. These are currently defined in chasers_config, but we would like to move that configuration to the database, a la Calendar.
Currently defined bed groups at DESC are:
- mens
- womens
- crpmen
- crpwomen
- muni (i.e., Queen Anne)
- kerner (KSH women's shelter)
Popup Help
Canned Reports
Calendar
The Calendar is accessible from the Main Menu. Calendars can be added and configured within the software.
Additional User Information
General Features while Viewing and Editing Records
The CHASERS "engine" provides a great deal of functionality that is ready-to-go once a table exists in the database. You can browse any table via the "CHASERS Administration" page, or a subset of records via the "advanced search" page.
The basic "list" view allows specification of # of records per page, # of columns per page, sort order (by clicking on column header), column order (across then down, or down then across). Result sets greather than the # per page will be automatically paginated with appropriate links.
In list view, each record displays a "view" link that will bring you to a detailed view of the record, along with links for editing and deleting. Using the "show Advanced" link you can choose which fields to display in the list view. For Clients and Staff, there is a "view/edit data record" link in the command bar that will bring you to view mode.
Revision History
Permissions and Access Control
Advanced Search Page
The advanced search page automatically works with any type of "object" (i.e., record) that is defined within CHASERS. The link for "Advanced Search" is in the upper right, right under the Quick Search boxes. Remember, most tables don't have data, so "Agency" might be a good way to test this page.
OpenOffice Output
A primary way of getting pretty output is through creating OpenOffice files. Templates can be predefined, and the data is merged in at run time. CHASERS includes a generic spreadsheet template that can create a spreadsheet from any query. Advanced Search results can be exported to a spreadsheet. Predefined Reports can also export to a spreadsheet, and may also produce output from one or more custom writer or spreadsheet templates.
See Creating OpenOffice Templates for more details.
Open Query Page
The "Open Query" page can be accessed from the reports section. It allows you to enter a direct SQL query (subject to modest security checking), and will output an OpenOffice spreadsheet with the query results.
Auto Hot Links in Text
Bugzilla Integration
References to bugs made in text that is hot linked will generate a link to the corresponding bug number. In the same style used by Bugzilla, if the bug is open, it will appear as a normal link. If the bug has been resolved, the link will appear with strikethrough text. This feature can be enabled or disabled in chasers_config. See Bugzilla Integration for more details.
Feedback
User Option(s)
Technical/Internal/Development Info:
CHASERS Objects and Engine
Report Config files
These hacky files are used to generate canned reports. We want to move these into the database at some point.
Filter Arrays (query)
Filters are used heavily for doing queries in CHASERS. Filters currently build a WHERE clause for an SQL statement.
chasers_config
This is the main file used to configure CHASERS
DB heuristics and naming conventions
What appear to be "tables" in most cases are actually a pair consisting of a table and a view. In the simplest, typical case, the actual table is called "tbl_foo", and there is a corresponding view called "foo". With the exception of inserting or updating data, all access is done to the view foo. This is especially used to retain deleted records, which are generally not deleted but marked as deleted (by setting the "is_deleted" field to true). In this case, the view definition of foo would be "CREATE VIEW foo AS SELECT * FROM tbl_foo WHERE NOT is_deleted." This behavior is optional. It is assumed if the fields is_deleted, deleted_by, deleted_at and deleted_comment are present in the table, but can be overriden in the config file.
The name of the table and view can be specified in the object's config file, but if it follows the conventions described above, no configuration is necessary.
Lookup Tables
Using the following conventions, lookup tables will be automatically detected and referenced without manual configuration:
Consider a field called "resolution_type". The field should actually be called "resolution_type_code" (the _code is a hint that it's a lookup). This will cause CHASERS to look for a corresponding table called "l_resolution_type", and then a matching field called "resolution_type_code", and a field called "description."
Functions
In addition to the normal PostgeSQL functions, CHASERS has 127 custom functions.
