Documentation: Tabs and their behavior
From ReservesDirect: Open Source EReserves System
ReservesDirect uses a tabbed interface to provide access to different features in the system. Different tabs are accessible to a user based on his or her role (student, instructor, staff, etc.). Each tab essentially consists of a series of pages that either display information to the user or walk the user through performing actions on items, courses, and users. Different users will see the same tab in different ways depending, again, on their role. For example, for the "Manage Classes" tab, instructors will see a different home page with a different set of options than staff will see. This portion of the documentation describes the various pages on each tab, and how different users see those pages.
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MyReserves tab
This tab is available to all users and is the default tab that shows when a user logs in. The tab has three main pages.
MyReserves home page
This page displays all classes that a user has "registered" for by adding the class to their profile. When a user first logs in, this page is empty and instructs him or her to add a class. Only classes active for the current semester are displayed.
For instructors and proxies, this page also automatically displays all classes that the user is teaching or proxying that are currently active or will be active in a future semester. These classes are indicated with a pencil icon; clicking on the class takes the user to the "edit" page for that class.
Add a class page
Linked from the MyReserves home page, this page allows users to look up a class by instructor or department. The user is presented with a results page that allows them to select which classes to add to their profile. This page appears the same to users in all roles.
Remove class page
Displays the classes associated with a user's profile (the ones they have previously added) and allows them to remove specific classes. A class that is removed can always be added again. Instructors and proxies cannot remove classes in which they have a role of instructor or proxy.
Manage Classes tab
This tab is available to instructors, staff, and admins.
Manage Classes home page
Instructors are shown a page that has primary links to the three major functions they can perform: reactivate reserve materials, create a class, or edit an exiting class. In addition, a quicklinks box gives instructors access to frequently used functions, such as exporting a class to Blackboard or other courseware.
Staff and Admin users are shown a home page that is the main page they will use when managing most functions in ReservesDirect. From this page, staff may create, edit, and reactivate classes, and export classes to Blackboard. They may also add reserve items to classes with the Add Electronic Item and Add Physical Item links. In addition, this page provides access to the Physical Items Request Queue, where staff go to view and process physical items that instructors have reactivated from previous semesters.
Add Class page
This page is the same for all users. The page asks for basic information to set up a course, such as department, course number, section number, and course name. Users also select a semester the class will be taught, from a list of the current semester and following two. Selecting a semester automatically fills in the date ranges at the bottom of the form. These dates can be altered if the course in question falls outside of the standard beginning and ending dates for the semester, though the semester itself will still display as selected (e.g., FALL 2006).
The only difference in how this page is displayed to instructors and staff is that instructors may only create classes for themselves, while staff may create a class for any instructor. When staff view this page, they will see an additional menu that allows them to select any instructor in the system as the instructor for the class they are creating.
Reactivate class pages
These pages are essentially the same for instructors and staff, except for the inital selection page that allows users to choose what class they want to reactivate.
Selection page. Instructors may only reactivate their own classes, so they are presented with a list of all classes they have ever taught or team-taught. Staff may reactivate any class in the system, and are presented with the standard class lookup page that allows lookups by instructor name or department. Both instructors and staff may preview the reserve list for a given class before moving on to the reactivation page.
Reactivate page. This appears the same to users with instructor privileges and above. It displays information associated with the class the last time it was taught and allows users to select which things to reactivate for the new class. The types of things that may be reactivated are: instructors, crosslistings, and reserve materials. Physical items that are reactivated will be routed to the request queue for the library designated as the processing library for the department the class belongs to. In the class itself, physical items will show with a status of "IN PROCESS" until library staff process the item and remove it from the request queue. Personal copy physical items, by default, may not be reactivated since in most cases personal copy items are returned to instructors once a class is over and are no longer held by the library.
Confirmation page. Displays whether reactivation of the class was successful and presents users with a series of options for other actions to perform, such as editing the class, reactivating another class, etc.
Edit class pages
The Edit Class pages are accessible by users with privileges of proxy or above, but each role has a different level of access. Proxies may only access these pages for classes to which they have been specifically assigned. Instructors have access to these pages for any class in which they are listed as an instructor, whether they created the class or someone added them to it. Staff have access to these pages for any class in the system. Some roles do not have access to certain functions; these limitations are specified below.
Main editing page. The main Edit Class page is split into two sections. The upper section contains the course information, the lower section contains the course materials, or "reserves list".
The course information part of the page displays the basic identifying information for the course (department, course number, title, semester, instructors, proxies). It also provides links for editing any of this information. Proxies do not have access to the "Edit proxies" page, but they do have access to the "Edit instructors" page. The other element of the course information part of the page is a box that states what the Enrollment status of the course is. For version 2.1, this value will always be PUBLIC. Staff see an additional box display next to Enrollment that allows them to change the beginning and ending dates for the class (instructors and proxies do not have access to this box).
The course materials part of the page displays all of the items on reserve for the class. It also provides links to sort materials or to add new materials. For each item on reserve, the user sees:
- an icon indicating what type of document the item is
- all of the metadata identifying the item, including title, author, date, etc., and any notes that have been added to the item
- the current status of the item (ACTIVE, INACTIVE, HIDDEN, IN PROCESS).
- a link to edit the item
- a checkbox to select the item
The checkbox is used to select items that will have one of several different actions performed on them. A drop-down menu at the bottom of the reserve list gives access to these actions: delete items, set items to ACTIVE, and set items to INACTIVE.
Edit title/crosslistings page. This page is accessible to proxy and above, and appears the same to all roles. It allows users to do two things: edit the primary course name and add crosslistings. The primary course name is the one the course was first created with. Crosslistings are aliases for the primary course name. As soon as a crosslisting is added to the class, students can look it up and gain access to the primary course under the alias name.
You may delete crosslistings, but not the primary course name. You may delete a crosslisting *only* if no students have added it to their "MyReserves" list. This prevents students from suddenly being "kicked out" of a class. ReservesDirect will inform you if the crosslisting you are trying to delete has students attached to it.
Edit instructors page. This page is accessible to proxy and above, and appears the same to all roles. Current instructors for the class appear on the right side of the screen. Instructors may be removed by checking the box next to the name and clicking "remove selected instructors". On the left side of the screen users may select an instructor from the list of all available instructors in the system to add to the class. If the person you are looking for does not appear in this list, you will need to look that person up and change their role to "instructor". A class may have as many instructors as desired.
Edit proxies page. This page works similarly to the "Edit instructors" page. Current proxies are listed on the right; the search box on the left searches all users in the system and returns users that match your search. Any user, no matter what their default role, may be added to a class as a proxy.
Sort materials pages. The main sorting page gives the user three options for sorting: by author, by title, and by custom order. Clicking on the "author" or "title" links automatically displays a preview of what the readings will look like in the specified order. Click "Save Order" to make the change permanent.
The "Custom" sort page displays all readings for the class in numerical order, starting with the first. The current position of the readings displays as a numeric value to the right of the reading. Changing the number next to a reading will move it to the specified position in the list, automatically rearranging the other readings in the list. The new order will not be committed until the user clicks "Save Order".
Edit item page. This page is accessible to proxy and above by clicking on the "edit" link next to any item. Proxies and instructors *do not* have access to the "edit" link for IN PROCESS items (physical items that are the the request queue). The edit item page displays all metadata fields for the item as editable text fields, as well as any notes associated with the item. Users may add and delete notes from this page (different user roles may add different types of notes--see the documentation on notes). The page also displays the current status of the item, as well as an activation date. The activation date is usually the start date of the class, or the date the item was added to the class.
Note: when you are editing an item on this page, you are editing only the reserve listing for the class you are in. Editing metadata will *only* change the reserve listing for that class, not the source item. If another user searches the ReservesDirect archive and adds the item to his or her class, they will see the item as it was originally added to reserves direct. Only staff may edit the source item, by using the "Search" tab.
Export class to courseware pages
The "Export Class" link is available to both instructors and staff from their respective "Manage Classes" home pages. This function is not accessible to proxies. As with other functions, instructors may only select their own classes that are active for the current semester to export. Staff may select any class in the system. The export feature works by creating a dynamic RSS feed from ReservesDirect to a courseware package (such as Blackboard) or a personal web page. If you do not have courseware at your institution, your system administrator can hide these links so they are not accessible.
Courseware package selection page. This page allows users to select where they will be exporting their class to. This page will need to be configured for your local situation.
Depending on what choice users select, they will be presented with a set of instructions. The default configuration includes instructions for Blackboard, a personal web page, and a suite of chat/email software from FirstClass (at Emory it is called Learnlink). The heart of all the instructions is copying and pasting a script into the chosen target. This script takes an RSS feed from ReservesDirect and converts it into javascript so that it can be displayed in the web browser.
Manage Users tab
This tab is accessible to custodians, instructors, staff, and admins. Custodians and instructors have a very limited set of functions from this tab.
Manage Users home page. Custodians have access to four links from their home page for this tab: they can edit their own profile, create an override password, reset an override password, or remove an override password.
Instructors have access to three links on their home page for this tab: they can edit their own profile, add a proxy, or delete a proxy. The proxy links lead to exactly the same screens the instructor would reach by going to the Edit Class screen and clicking on "edit proxies".
Staff and Admins have access to the full range of user editing options, including: creating and removing override passwords, editing user profiles, and adding and removing proxies. [The add/remove proxy links are disabled in version 2.1. Staff must do this function by editing the class and then clicking on "edit proxies".]
Create User. Staff or above can create new users in the system. RD is designed to set up users automatically the first time they authenticate into the system. For this reason, it is recommended that you let RD create users and that staff only create users in special circumstances. If you have RD set up to authenticate users before allowing access, remember that if you create a user, their username must match the username they have in your authentication scheme. Usually, this means their RD username must match their campus netid. In addition to username, you can set the other standard fields for users, including first name, last name, email, and, for instructors, ILS user name and ILS user id. You may also set an "override password" (see below) at user creation if the user is not part of your authentication scheme.
Edit Profile. Any user can edit the basics of his or her user profile, including first and last name and email address. No user can edit their own role. Only staff and above can edit a user's profile that is not their own. Staff can edit all aspects of a user's profile except the username. The username is set the first time the user logs in to the system or when the user is created manually by staff and cannot be changed after that point except through the back end of the system. It is strongly recommended that user names not be changed except in cases of accidental duplication or other errors that complicate system performance, since the username is used as an important key by different system functions.
Add/Remove Proxy. These links show on the Manage Classes home page for instructors. They effectively take the user to the same add/remove pages they would get to from the "edit proxies" link on the Edit Class screen.
Set, Reset, and Remove Override Password. The override password is not so much an override as a locally stored password for use when the user cannot authenticate through the normal means. Usually you will only want to set an override password for a user when they forget their password or can't get in for some related reason. The role of custodian exists for just such circumstances--so that public service staff can set a password for a student so that they can access their readings.
Add a Reserve tab
This tab is available to instructors and staff as a "tab." The functionality is available to proxies when they click on the "add materials" link in the Edit Class screen, but proxies are do not see the tab itself. The tab is contextual to user role. Instructors get a different home page and go through different forms to add materials than staff do. Proxies get the same options and forms as instructors. See the article on adding reserves for more on how to use these screens.
Add Reserve home page
Instructors. Before getting to the main menu for the Add Reserve tab, instructors must select the class they wish to add reserves to. This can be accomplished in two ways: by clicking on the "Add a Reserve" tab, which brings up a list of the instructor's current and future classes to choose from, or by clicking on the "Add new materials" link from within the Edit Class screen of a particular class. Once a class is selected, the instructor will have four options: Search for the Item (search all materials that have been placed in the system), Upload a Document, Add a URL, and Fax a Document. These forms are described below.
Staff. Staff can get to the Add Reserve main menu page either by clicking on the Add a Reserve tab and looking up a class to add reserves to, or by clicking on the "Add new materials" link from within any class. The menu for staff is different than that for instructors and leads to different forms. Instead of separate upload and URL forms, there is one form for adding electronic items. In addition, staff can add physical items and view the Process Requests queue for physical items that have been requested for classes.
Instructor Forms and Options
Search for the Item. Allows the instructor to search the entire ReservesDirect archive by either Author/Title or instructor name. All items that have ever been added to the system are eligible to be searched, except for those that were marked as "personal copies" (either electronic or physical) when they were first added to the system. Searches bring up a list of results. Instructors can select as many readings as they wish from the results list and add them to their class.
Upload a Document. Allows instructors to upload documents to the selected class using a file browsing mechanism similar to attaching an email to a document.
Add a URL. Allows instructors in input a URL and gives the same metadata options available when uploading a document.
Fax a Document. Displays instructions for faxing documents in to the ReservesDirect fax number. The Hylafax software receives faxes and converts them to PDF format. Faxed documents are then put into the fax queue with all other faxes that have been received that day. Instructors can preview faxes in the queue and claim their documents, add metadata to them, and add them to their class.
Staff Forms and Options
Process Requests. Shows the Request Queue for physical items requested by instructors to add to classes. Items enter the queue when instructors reactivate a class or when they search for items and select physical items to add to their class.
Add Electronic Item. Allows the user to either upload a document or add a URL. Item metadata on this page is the same as what instructors see when uploading or adding a URL, though Staff have a few options when adding items that instructors do not.
Add Physical Item. Allows staff to add physical items to ReservesDirect and place them on reserve in the ILS as well. Read the basic concepts about adding physical items for more details on what happens on this screen.
Search tab
The search tab was added in version 2.2.0. It is accessible by default to staff only.
Search home page
This page provides a "nuclear" search engine that lets users search by any metadata field and limit the search by instructor, class, or department.
Search results page
Displays the results of the search and allows various functions for each item, including the ability to preview the item or edit it. Users can also add items from the results list to a class by selecting them and using the "add items to class" option in the drop-down menu at the bottom of the results list.
Edit item screen
Note that this screen is different from the edit item screen that is accessible from the Edit Class screen. The Edit Class>>Edit Item (or "Edit Reserve") screen edits the reserve (the item as it is associated with a particular course instance), whereas this Edit Item screen edits the source item itself. Additional features of this screen over the Edit Reserve screen include the ability to upload a new document to replace the original. A planned feature for this screen is a detailed item history of when the document was added, who added it, and a list of all the classes it has been used for, as well as an indicator of whether or not it has been reviewed by staff for copyright clearance.
Statistics tab
The statistics tab provides access to a number of reports that provide a statistical analysis of how the system is used. The included canned reports provide three general classes of information: statistics on items, statistics on classes, and statistics on users. Custom reports can be built fairly simply using the built-in reports structure, which requires simply plugging in a new SQL query to deliver the desired statistics.
The statistics tab is accessible to staff and instructors. By default instructors have access to only one report, one that provides them with document view statistics for their classes.
Statistics home page
Provides links to canned reports. Clicking on a link to a report will provide selection criteria relevant to the report. Some reports require a class to be selected first, and most require the user to select the desired semester(s) that the report should cover.
Report page
Reports display in column and row format that can easily be exported to a spreadsheet (tsv file) by clicking the "export to spreadsheet" button.
