[275] in Tooltime
Scopus 1.0b6 testing comments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Lee)
Fri Oct 4 04:29:02 1996
Reply-To: plee@MIT.EDU
From: Peter Lee <plee@MIT.EDU>
To: tooltime-bugs@MIT.EDU
Cc: tooltime@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 96 04:29:09 -0400
1) Good things
a) Record locking seems to be working much better. (Need
to test locking with other methods of creating and
browsing with result sets, e.g. Dataprobe.)
b) Loading under 2 minutes on Windows machines. Just
above a minute on 166MHz Pentiums.
c) 800x600 screen is far less unwieldy. Getting rid of
Secondary contact fields helps a lot.
d) Single word history and summary searches work.
e) Most searches seem to be case insensitive.
f) A lot of superfluous alert messages have gone away.
But, there are some still left, and some necessary alert
messages have gone away. See sections 2 and 3 below.
2) Data loss without alert (Critical)
a) Create a new log or look up an existing log. Enter data.
Notice non-zero hits count, click View Hits, and select
a record from View Hits result set. The data I had
entered go away with no warning.
b) Create a new log or look up an existing log. Enter data.
Click on View->My Pending Items, and select a record
from its result set. The data I had entered go away
with no warning.
c) Create a new log or look up an existing log. Enter data.
Click on Scripts->My Log Records, and select a record
from its result set. The data I had entered go away
with no warning.
3) Superfluous alert messages (Productivity loss)
a) After SAVE or CLEAR, NEW displays "No changes made." dialog box
with ok button to press to continue. You have to handle
this dialog box before clicking on any field to enter data.
This seems unnecessary.
b) SAVEing record gives "Modified Log ID ###" message and ok button
to press. Can this dialog box go away? SAVE button can be
grayed out to indicate no need to save until the next field
modification.
c) While looking at a record, click on NEW, it says I have to
save, click on ok button to continue. Then I click SAVE,
it says "Modified Log ID ###", click on ok to continue.
Can the behavior be: When I click on NEW, it shows a dialog
box that says "Data not saved.", with three buttons --
"Save data", "Do not save data", "Cancel new record"?
d) SAVEing an unmodified record says: "No changes made.", click
on ok to continue, then next dialog box says "Update
failed. Changes not saved.", ok to continue. Both are
unnecessary.
e) CLOSE gives "Closed Log ID ###", and ok button to press, then
clears all fields.
If it did neither, Log Status field can show its value
(CLOSED) to indicate that requested action took place, and we
can update the log further without doing a search to refind
the log that we just closed. (Frequently a consultant may
remember some detail he/she want to note after doing a close.)
f) Other weird messages when selecting items from Scopus menu:
Tools -> Reports gives op_findform_index: win is NULL or invalid: 0
Continue goes through several error message, and eventually returns
control to user. Exit quits application.
Tools -> Office Integration: ditto.
View -> Dataprobe: ditto.
g) Got an error doing a DUPLICATE log, but could not repeat.
Clicking on DUPLICATE gave "ORA-01830: date format picture ends before
converting entire input string.", ok button.
OK gives "op_insert_rel: dbsqlexec failed", Continue or Exit.
INSERT gives "Insert failed. Record not saved", ok button.
OK gives "op_get_field_update_info: key field mit_log_id may not
be updated.", ok button.
OK returns control back to user.
CLEAR gives "Discard your changes since last Save?", Yes, or No.
SAVE gives "opget_field_update_info: key field mit_log_id may not
be updated.", ok button.
OK gives "Update failed. Changes not saved."
4) Problems with searching (Productivity loss)
a) The automatic insertion of % in fields when Profile Find fails
makes it hard to correct the search text(s). Using Clear
makes us re-type the search text(s).
b) History and Summary Find clears search string regardless of
results. Retaining search string is useful when you make a
mistake and you want to edit it.
c) With History and Summary Find, putting an carriage return at
the end of the search string and clicking on Find results in
search failure. This is easy to do, and mysterious to
figure out why search failed.
d) Question: Is there any special syntax for History and
Summary field search string? E.g. wild cards, regular
expressions, etc.
e) After a find, it would be desirable that the result set
update automatically when the records get updated. For
example, when a log's status changes, it would be good if
the the row of result set updated to reflect the record's
new status.
If automatic update is not possible, would it be possible
to have an "update" button on the result set window that will
do this manually?
f) We need to be able to search on log creation and resolution
fields: by consultant name(s) and by date (ranges).
g) The result set from the Scripts->"My Log Records" goes
away once you open a log from it. It shouldn't; the other
result sets don't do this.
h) In result set windows, can the default widths for category,
last name, and phone fields be reduced in size?
i) Can History and Summary Find search string windows be
horizontal instead of vertical as they are now? (Especially
since we can't put a carriage return in the search string
any way?
j) Question: How does View->My Pending Items work? It gives
me a list of 175 logs, and I don't see a pattern as to how
they are selected.
5) Problems with Child Window
a) Need visual indication in main log window that there are
children data.
b) Open Mainframe window, modify data. SAVE. It says, "No changes
made.", ok to continue. Data is saved, but the message is
disconcerting.
c) Open a child window, then with no modification, CLOSE gives
"Discard changes since last Save?" dialog box, Yes or No to
continue. This should not be necessary. This happens
with Network and Housecall but not with Mainframe.
d) PRINT and CLIPBOARD functions in main window do not capture
data from child windows, if any.
6) Problems with Housecall child window
a) Can't save data in Housecall. (Critical)
SAVE in Housecall gives "op_get_field_update_info: key field
mit_log_id may not be updated.", ok to continue.
Clicking on OK gives "op_get_field_update_info: key field
mit_log_id may not be updated.", ok to continue.
After second OK, control returns to user.
CLOSE clears all fields and then gives "Discard your changes
since last Save?" Yes, No.
b) New housecall child status should be OPEN by default.
c) Housecall Equipment list could be longer or take up multiple
lines.
d) Housecall History field should be displayed with more vertical
orientation.
e) Housecall child has more empty gray space than used space.
Can we make it more compact, so that it can fit in an 800x600
screen or smaller?
7) Printing, Clipboard
a) CLIPBOARD puts in user numbers instead of user names in Creator,
Modifier, Closer fields. Printing does not do this.
b) CLIPBOARD puts a leading space on every labelled line. Two
leading spaces on the Log Number line.
c) PRINT and CLIPBOARD functions in main window do not capture
data from child windows, if any. (same as item 5d above)
d) PRINT prints both MIT_HISTORY and MIT_HISTORY_SEARCH fields,
in effect printing the History field twice.
e) When CLIPBOARD has been used on a record, PRINT prints
II_DUMMY field which contains the CLIPBOARD text data.
f) Blank lines are suppressed in printed MIT_HISTORY field.
8) Desirable searching features not yet implemented
a) Multiple word (AND) searches. (Critical.)
b) Multiple word (OR) searches. (Less critical.)
c) Searches on fields in child windows. (Critical.)
d) Searches with criteria that combine history field and
other fields. (Very desirable.)
e) Searches with criteria that span fields on multiple windows.
For example, searching on field(s) in main window and field(s)
in housecall child window.
f) Question: Is there a way to search for blank values in a field?
9) Other desirable features not in 1.0b6.
a) Callback history field.
b) Next action field.
c) Ability to display full (main) windows from multiple records
simultaneously. (Similar to the way we can see multiple
found sets all at once.)
d) Ability to use variable fonts, bold, and colors in text.
