[440] in Tooltime
Re: Data Conversion and Scopus Web Interface Questions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Wade Neiterman)
Mon Oct 27 11:40:21 1997
In-Reply-To: <v03020909b07668df727b@[18.81.0.229]>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 11:44:18 -0500
To: Debi Fuchs <debi@MIT.EDU>
From: Steven Wade Neiterman <wade@MIT.EDU>
Cc: tooltime@MIT.EDU
At 10:51 AM -0500 10/27/97, Debi Fuchs wrote:
>Hi Steve,
>
>I've been looking at the data as it was transferred, and it looks like it
>transferred well.
>
>I have some questions about the DATA CONVERSION and the SCOPUS INTERFACE:
>
>
>DATA CONVERSION QUESTIONS:
>==========================
>1.) I should be converting firstname and lastname for both primary and
>secondary clients to upper case, right? What other fields should I be
>converting to upper case?
>
I believe we also need email as we allow searches on firstname, lastname
and email.
>2.) The mit_pri_id and mit_sec_id are always empty in the data which is
>imported. Should we try to do a ware house lookup based on email for logs
>we'll be importing so that clients will be able to see old logs from the
>web?
In general, I would say we should do this, maybe after the conversion. It
may take more work than it looks. Some email address in Filemaker have the
domain mit.edu, while others do not (e.g. log 84795 just has the username).
The warehouse data has the domain listed. If you use the "like" clause in
sql, you risk getting back more than one record. You could also use
lastname if one record is returned.
>
>3.) What should be the value in the mit_frozen_flag field? I currently am
>passing you an null value. There is a field in Scopus which says "Thaw"
>with yes or no as values. Is this that field?
>
>The reason I ask is that somewhere along the line I heard talk of a "Close
>on Thaw" function, where the log would close automatically on it's thaw
>date. I don't really understand the value of a "thaw or not" flag, but I
>do understand the value of a "close or not on thaw" flag. (We NEVER want
>logs to fall through the cracks, but we often want logs to close
>automatically if we haven't heard back by a specific date.)
>
>These two functions are very different. I want to make sure I'm using that
>field correctly.
Here is what the design spec says on the web.
"If this flag is set to 'Yes' and the frozen date has passed, the log is
automatically marked 'Closed' "
>
>
>Some questions about the SCOPUS INTERFACE:
>==========================
>1.) Do you know why can't I use the backspace key to delete text? I'm on a
>Sparcstation 4.
>
Use the Del key.
>2.) We currently have a 'Find Open' button. I think the script associated
>with that button would be much more usefule if we could restrict frozen
>logs to those which should not still be frozen. This could be done by
>extending the where clause for that script as follows:
>
> AND (l.mit_status != 'FROZEN' OR (l.mit_status = 'FROZEN'
> AND upper(l.mit_frozen_flag) != 'no'
> AND l.mit_frozen_ts <= (SELECT sysdate from dual))
>
This might be something you can test on the test database. Another options
is to run a sql query through cron once a night to change the status from
frozen to something else. This was proposed at one time.
>It would also be good to replace the "ORDER BY" clause with the following:
>
> ORDER BY s.mit_weight desc, l.mit_modified_ts desc, l.mit_log_id asc
>
>
>3.) Since diffent groups look at different subsets of logs in the database,
>it would be optimal if we could have the several 'Find Open' scripts which
>are as above, but additionally restrict the category to each of:
> 'Helpdesk'
> 'Mainframe'
> 'DCS', 'NetInstall', or 'NetHelp'
> 'Housecall'
> 'UNIX/VMS'
> 'CWIS'
> 'Projects'
>
>I think this is very important to the working of the help desk and I would
>be willing to try to learn how to make these changes, if necesssary.
>
>4.) The log status is being changed to New whenever one tries to save the
>log without filling in all of the required fields. This has potential to
>create problems. For example, an URGENT or even a CLOSED log might be
>changed to NEW without the consultant realizing it.
>
>
>That's all for now.
>
>Cheers,
>-Debi
>
>
>-------------
>Debi Fuchs, Consultant
>MIT Information Systems
>Computing Help Desk Group
>77 Massachusetts Avenue, 11-319
>Cambridge, MA 02139
>(617) 253-7812
>debi@mit.edu
