Major Features
The offered trial version provides a simple and directly accessible user interface, allowing for a very rapid learning curve on behalf of the user. This version accommodates two categories of users:- Administrators
- Simple users
The first category will allow full editing of the EUEDOS DataBase Manager (DBM) engine and capacity to emulate either any desired schema from an already existing database, or create a totally new one according to specs defined by the administrator. This database records schema may be extended or improved at any time in the future, as a progressive activity of building a desired record structure. This process is unique and quite simple to achieve in the EUEDOS DataBase Manager (DBM) system. The administrator is able to define the number and type of searchable fields and the format of the records grid that will appear as a result of such queries, as well as define the type of services that will become available to simple users. The administrator is also able to alter the field contents of any record. Basic statistical charts are currently available to both user categories. They will become subjected to administrator customization in later versions. Any changes in record contents, will -apparently- result in corresponding changes depicted in the statistical charts.
The latter category will not allow editing of schema or record structure, creation or deletion of new records, or editing of field data in existing records. It is simply intended to provide a browsing of major
The Administration Interface
Logging in as an administrator, the following screen is returned:
Fig. 1
This screen (Fig.1) is divided in three areas (panels): Head panel, Menu panel and Main panel.
HEAD AREA
Head panel contains logos and basic options for navigation in the EUEDOS DataBase Manager (DBM) environment. Basic options are:
Messages: Currently inactive.
User menu: Leads to options (services) available to simple users.
Administration: Leads to options available to administrators.
Logout: Terminates the current user session with the system.
Help: Currently inactive.
On the head panel there are also two informational labels:
User label: Indicates the current username logged into the system.
Institute: Indicates the institution that owns the database system.
MENU AREA
The Menu panel presents the services that are available to the user. By default it presents the entities that have already been defined and handled by the system. In this case (Fig.1) the menu panel displays the two entities that has been defined for trials. The Students archives and the Enterprises archives entities.
MAIN AREA
Main panel is the area where various services are presented to the user.
The Simple User Interface
Logging in as a simple user the following screen appears
Fig. 2
As can be observed, this screen is pretty similar to the administrators' screen. The only difference is the absence of the options 'User menu' and 'Administration'. 'Administration' option is absent because it should not be available to simple users, 'User menu' is absent because it is useless since simple users (for the time being) cannot use any other menu so as to need to shift to a user menu.
BROWSING INTO AN ENTITY
As already described, the user menu lists the entities that have been defined in the EDOS system. We can expand an entity by clicking on it. For example if we click on the "Students archives" entity, it will expand to the form we can see on the left panel of Fig.3. Four options are available for each entity. Two options for browsing:
- Search for edit (to search find and edit records of the entity).
- Search for presentation (to search find and inspect records of the entity without editing capability).
Two more options are available:
New record (to add a new record in the entity)
Get charts (to get statistical charts about data related to the entity).
Fig. 3
Both the two browsing options (for edit or presentation) lead to the same screen through which the user can define the parameters of criteria for search (keeping in mind that the search criteria have been designated by the administrator). The search form is demonstrated on the main panel of Fig.3.
Search results are presented using a sortable table (grid), which is depicted on Fig.4.
By clicking on a selected row of the table, the respective detailed field contents and layout of the record is displayed (Fig.5).
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
THE ADMINISTRATION AREA
The administration panel is depicted on Fig.6. The menu panel (left) is expanded and on the main panel the Entities management - Show entities screen is presented. This selection displays a list of entities, each with two options: Edit the entity or delete it. If we select to edit the entity, then follows the screen depicted on Fig.7, wherefrom full editing of the selected entity is possible. On each entity (currently only one is available for tests) we can distinguish three parts:
Entity's basic definition (labeled as 'Entity')
Entity's sections which divide the related form into sections that group the form fields.
Entity's properties definition.
In the properties section, the system lists all the properties (fields) used in the entity. The user (administrator) can edit or delete each of these properties. Obviously we can edit a property by clicking on 'edit' link on the corresponding property.
The property entity screen is depicted on Fig.8.
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
THE STATISTICAL CHARTS AREA
The purpose of this selector is to provide a direct graphical representation for individual field contents in the database, in the form of bar charts that may become directly integrated or used in other statistical applications. The highly important functionality will be fully customizable in future EUEDOS DataBase Manager (DBM) versions, according to administrator requirements, as well as per the evaluation period results and the specific requirements of the EUI-Net project. Apparently, many possible rendering options may be available for the same data set. Currently, 5 charts are available, indicating:
- Surname
- Name
- Gender
- Marital Status
- Military Service
These charts are dynamic, hence, changing the respective field data in the EUEDOS DataBase Manager (DBM) records, will consequently result in observing these alterations to the respective bar chart type, next time it will be recalled of Menu panel presents the services that are available to the user. By default it presents the entities that have been defined and handled by the system. Fig. 9, presents the Charts Screen Menu.
Fig. 9
The following Figs 10-12, provide a display example of the respective 3 bar chart types. The upper area of the graph displays the bar chart representation of the data and the lower area provides a numeric account of the respective bar chart legends, as to have an accurate estimation.
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12