Electronic Log Book Help

Creating a new log book

1. The Logbook software should be installed in the web you wish to create the log book in. If not please contact the Physics TWiki admins.
2. Choose a unique name for the logbook, for example Mydata. Note: Do not choose a name containing LogBook .
3. Enter it into the form below and click the "Create Logbook" button.
4. Add any other titling etc. information you want the logbook to have in the resultant edit window and click Save when done. Choosing between the default WYSIWYG and RAW editors can also be done here.
5. The logbook should now be ready to use.

Accessing the logbook

• Once created, the logbook can always be accessed directly at eg., https://twiki.ph.rhul.ac.uk/twiki/bin/ShowCase/LogBookMydata or from the list of Logbooks at the web's LogBooks entry point, a link to which should be present in the web's WebHome home topic.

Adding entries to the logbook

1. Click Add Entry to navigate to the form at the bottom of the page.
2. Fill in the Subject field to summarise/identify the new entry.
3. Select a suitable item from the Status pull-down menu to reflect the state of the entry. Most items are self-explanatory. The bar_*pc items produce 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% & 100% filled progress bars to reflect the stages of an on-going project.
   The full list is; blank , choice-no , choice-yes , closed , bar_0pc , bar_20pc , bar_40pc , bar_60pc , bar_80pc , bar_100pc , done , info , led-aqua , led-blue , led-gray , led-green , led-orange , led-purple , led-red , led-yellow , new , processing , question , remove , stargold , starred , stop , thumbs-down , thumbs-up , tip , todo , trash , updated .
4. Click Create New Entry and the New Entry template should appear.
5. It is a TWiki topic and can be edited in the normal way.
   • Click Edit, Raw Edit or Attach.
   • When editing, start by replacing the line " Please edit and put your text etc. here" with your own content.
   • NB: Do not change the

     %INCLUDE{"%SYSTEMWEB%.LogBookHeader" ACTUALINCLUDINGTOPIC="%TOPIC%" }%
     <!-- 
     Please DO NOT alter or remove the line below this line.
        * Set EDITMETHOD = %SEARCH{"* Set EDITMETHOD = " topic="%PARENTTOPIC%" type="regex" casesensitive="on" nosummary="on" nosearch="on" noheader="on" nototal="on" format="$pattern(.*   \* Set EDITMETHOD = ([^\n]*).*)"}%
     Please DO NOT alter or remove the line above this line.
     -->

     or

     __Back to:__ {{%BASEWEB%.%PARENTTOPIC%}{%PARENTTOPIC%}} 

     sections.
   • Update the Subject line or Status using the form at the bottom, as needed.
   • Click Save to save the edits and return the topic display.
   • Click the Logbook name link to the RHS of the Back to: to return to the Logbook's Top Level page.

Sorting entries

• Click on the No., Date, Author, Subject or Status fields in the header bar to select sorting of the table by that entity.
• Click again on the selected field in the header bar to reverse the sort order.

Filtering entries

• Enter strings into the Author, Subject, Status and Entry Text fields in the Filter footer bar and click Filter to restrict the entries listed to those matching the filter expression. The Entry Text field matches any text present in Logbook entry's topic.
• The filter fields are logically ANDed.
• The Author, Subject, Status and Entry Text fields can be simple text strings or for more advanced usage Regular Expressions. Filtering by date+time range is via two pop-up calendars. See below.
• To return to the full, unfiltered table of entries, click Show all Entries Table above the header bar.
• To remove the table of entries, click Remove Table above the header bar.
• Pop-up Calendar Widget tips
  • This feature allows the logbook entries displayed to be filtered by a range of dates+times. The Start date+time is selected in the upper field and the End date+time in the lower field. Click the icons to activate the calendars.
  • After activating the calendars to choose the filter date-time search limits, you may need to click on the desired date/times in both calendars to ensure the range is properly selected before clicking the Filter Button.
  • The Calendar's remember their previously chosen settings (if any) for for up to a month via browser cookies and will return to them when clicked.
  • The Start date+time (upper field) selected must be less than or equal to that in the End date+time (lower field). If not a separation of 1 week will be chosen.
  • The two date+time fields can also be edited by hand and the pop-up calendars when next activated should reflect any edits made.

Displaying Entries

• Click View Entries in Full above the header bar to display the entries in full. Full text, graphics etc. are shown. If a filter setting is in force, only the matching entries are shown.
• Click Show All Entries Table above the header bar to remove any filters, remove the View Entries in Full display (if active) and display the unfiltered entries table.
• Click Remove Table to remove the entries table, leaving the View Entries in Full display (if active).

Overview

• The LogBooksOverview page provides an aggregate view of the logbooks in the web.
• It has the same features as the individual logbooks with the addition of a LogBook Name column in the table, by which it can be sorted and filtered.

Tags

• Tags provide an extra way to help find content and navigate the TWiki, particularly where large amounts of information abound.
• The Logbook provides two entirely separate tagging features for maximum flexibility. These are based on the TagCloudPlugin and TagMePlugin.
  1. The Logbook's TagCloudPlugin feature is very simple. It is encapsulated in a Twisty activated by the Show TagCloudPlugin Tag Cloud for above selected entries link.
     • It simply displays a tag cloud based on words occurring more than twice in the relevant logbook entries, excluding some common English words.
     • It requires no user tagging of content or other user intervention.
     • The tag cloud's results honour any filter settings active in the logbook entries table above.
  2. The Logbook's TagMePlugin feature is much more sophisticated.
     • It provides a Tag Cloud and a tag search feature based on the plugin's TagMeSearch facility.
     • The Tag Cloud is encapsulated in a Twisty activated by the Show TagMePlugin LogBook Tag Cloud for all entries link.
     • Its results are links which can be clicked to get to the plugin's TagMeSearch page but you are advised not to do this. Instead, use the logbook's own Tag Search feature as explained below.
     • The logbook's tag search menu is headed TagMePlugin LogBook Tags (all entries) and appears as shown in the following example,
     • 
     • In the pull-down menu, select a tag used in the logbook, together with one of the user category radio buttons and click GO.
     • Each logbook entry with the chosen tag, tagged by a user in the specified user category, is listed and summarised, together with any other tags present. Again, the tags listed are links which can be clicked to get to the plugin's TagMeSearch page but you are advised not to do this.
     • Tagging logbook entries: Tagging of topics is available in most of the webs in this TWiki. To tag a logbook entry, open it, eg. by clicking on its Subject field in the entries table. Go to the Tags: menu at the top of the page, eg.,
     • 
     • Select the desired tag from the pull-down menu and click the blue icon to add it. New tags can also be created here. See TagMePlugin for more details.

Example Logbooks

• See the Showcase web's set of logbooks. Note: These logbooks are a poor example of logbook content and were created purely for testing purposes while developing the Logbook software. I hope to provide some better example Logbooks in the future.

TWiki Admin notes

• Should it be necessary, to install the Logbook in a new web the following 3 include topics should be copied to that web: LogBooks, LogBookHelp, LogBooksOverview. This is easiest done at the Unix command line, which copies the topic's meta-data. Note: These are not the topics/files in the TWiki web. Finally, add a link to the LogBooks topic in the web's WebHome top level topic.

Bugs

• The header and Filter footer bars can flip location under certain list sort selections.
• The sort by Subject field does not currently work properly.

Credits

• My special thanks to Peter Thoeny for his invaluable advice in implementing this logbook, T.Crane, December 2012.

-- TomCraneAdmin - 29 Dec 2012