UW CORAL Web Front End - Documentation

Equipment

The Equipment record is by far the most complex of all the resource types. We'll first cover the buttons and then go into the meaning of the fields.

Buttons

Clone

Create one or more equipment entries that are identical to this one, including Hazards, Locations and Rates. If more than one new equipment item is to be created, the True Name must end with a number, and you must specify an ending number. Entries will be created for every number between the two (inclusive). The Display Name should also end with a number; this number will be removed and replaced with the same number assigned to the True Name.

Delete

If the equipment item is very new and no activity has happened on it yet, it can be deleted. Use this button only if you have created an equipment item in error.

Dependencies

Equipment in UW CORAL can be set to go into "shutdown" state when other related equipment are shut down; or they can be set to go into "problem" state. These relationships are known as requires and uses dependencies, respectively. The Dependencies button allows lab staff to set up and maintain dependencies between equipment.

Hazards

This button allows hazard requirements to be set on an instrument, above and beyond those required by the lab and by any locations the instrument belongs to (see Locations, below). Hazard requirements apply to all users of the instrument, including staff.

Locations

The Locations button allows staff to assign instruments to locations. Locations are meant to be physical spaces in which the instruments reside, though theoretically they could represent a hazard or policy classification rather than a physical location. Unlike Location of Record, equipment can belong to many locations at once.

Log

Displays the change-log for instrument properties.

Supplies

If supplies are defined for an instrument, users will be prompted to record inventory transactions when the instrument is disabled.

Rates

Opens the Rates>Equipment tab for this instrument. Please note that there may also be reservation rates, which are not shown on that tab but on the corresponding Reservations tab.

Fields

The meaning of its fields are as follows:

General

True Name: The identifier name of the instrument. Unlike the other names, the identifier name cannot be changed once established.
Display Name: This name, if defined, will appear in the equipment tree in preference to 'True Name'.
Descriptive Name: Used to identify instruments on a public-facing web site. This name does not need to be unique but likely should not be an acronym.
Image: A picture of the instrument.
Lab: The lab or facility of which this instrument is a part.
Primary: The user with primary responsibility for this instrument. The owners are usually staff but are not required to be. Owners are granted almost all permissions on an instrument.
Secondary: The secondary 'owner'.
Asset Tag #: Used to record an inventory tag number or serial number.
Manufacturer: The tool manufacturer. This and the next few fields appear in the about tab.
Model: The tool's model number.
Serial #: The serial number.
Description: How would you describe this instrument in a single paragraph?
Details: How would you describe this instrument, or the work it performs? Can be as long as you like.
Location of Record: The categorical location of this instrument for statistics purposes. Not to be confused with 'Locations' (see the Locations button).
NNCI Functional Area: The NSF Functional Area that this tool belongs to. Only interesting for instruments funded by NNCI.

Operation

Manual: The the instrument's manual. This widget allows the selsection of a manual from existing manuals with the option to upload a new manual. (XXX why provide a list?)
Ext URL: If this instrument has its own web site or wiki page, what is its URL?
Video URL: The URL for a video instroduction to this instrument, if any, suitable for embedding.
Materials Restrictions: If there are materials use restrictions, those should be entered here.
Opening Time: Hours specified here will override lab- and location-wide values.
Closing Time: Note that these are both 24-hour times.

Tree

Hidden?: If this box is checked, the instrument will not be displayed in the tool tree or on the Lab>Status page, though it may still be selected on this page for further editing. Generally instruments are hidden when they are removed from a facility. (Instrument are never deleted because activity records depend on them.)
Area: the Area that will be the parent of this tool in the tree display. If a parent is listed that does not exist or is not connected to the root, this tool will not appear. If Area is blank, the tool will appear at the top level (do not do this).
Rank: Where it appears relative to its siblings in the tre display. Lower values appear sooner (closer to the top). Two entries with the same rank are sorted alphabetically by Display name.

Notifications

Flags

Copy students list on problem notices: If this box is checked, problem reports sent to this instrument's mailing list will also be sent to the LAB-students mailing list.
Don't advertise this to users: Exclude this instrument from lists shown on public web sites.
Don't include staff on mailing list: When compiling the instrument's mailing list, do not add the staff list. Staff will only appear on the mailing list if they hold roles on this instrument.
Hide problems from users: Do not display problems and shutdowns of this instrument on the Lab > Status page.
Send reminders for reservation begin
Send reminders for reservation end

Billing

Flags

Allow Trial Projects: Instruments without this box checked do not accept projects marked as "Trial Project". (See the Users>Project tab.)
Alternate Billing: A hint to the billing system that this instrument should be treated separately. The actual effect of this flag depends on the lab's billing processor. Please note that because the billing cycle lags data collection by a week or more, billing flags should be changed late in the month in which you intend them to take effect.
Charge under-utilization fees: A hint to the billing system that this instrument should be charged no-show and/or under-utilized reservation fees. The actual effect of this flag depends on the lab's billing processor. Please note that becaused the billing cycle lags data collection by a week or more, billing flags should be changed late in the month in which you intend them to take effect.
STF Funded: Instruments with this box checked are funded by the Student Technology Fee and will allow the use of projects and accounts marked "STF".
User-Owned Equipment: Indicates that this equipment is owned by a user rather than by the facility.

Reservation Policies

Reservable?: If this box is not checked, no calendar will appear on the Equipment>Reservations page.
External calendar URL: If this instrument is reserved through some other means than UW CORAL, this is its URL.
Reserve using Location calendar: If this box is checked, the instrument is to be reserved instead on the calendar for its Location of Record.
Reservation Granularity (minutes): The number of minutes to be shown in a single segment of the reservation calendar. Valid values are integer divisors of 60 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60). The use of other values may result in unpredictable behavior.
Reservation horizon (minutes): How many minutes in the future this instrument may be reserved. Usually this will be set to 0, meaning "use the lab default". A negative values indicates no limit.
Off-hours reservation horizon (minutes): How many minutes in advance reservations may be made outside of lab hours, if different from the above.
Cancellation deadline (minutes): How far before the reservation begins(?XXX) it may be cancelled.
Off-hours cancellation deadline (minutes): How far in advance a reservation may be canceled if it is entirely off-hours.
Daily max (minutes): How many minutes a user can reserve this instrument, per calendar day. A zero value means to use the facility default; a negative value indicates no limit.
Weekly max (minutes): How many minutes a user can reserve this instrument for the calendar week containing the reservation's start time. A zero value means to use the facility default; a negative value indicates no limit.
Off-hours same as on-hours?: If this box is checked, the "off-hours" values are ignored and all hours are considered "on hours".
Reminders sent minutes in advance: Reservation reminders are sent this many minutes in advance.
Cancellation notification minimum (min): If a positive value is entered here and in the next field, notifications are sent to the instrument list when a reservation is cancelled within the window.
Cancellation notification maximum (min): The end of the cancellation notification window.
Other Reservation Policies: A human-readable field whose contents appear on the Equipment>About tab.
Qual at reserve: The qual protocol, if any, to present to the user when a reservation is created.
Linked Equipment: Specifies the linked equipment class for this instrument (see Definitions>Linked Eq). Equipment in the same linked equipment class may not be reserved at the same time and appear on each other's calendars in red.
Related Equipment: If specified, reservations for the indicated instrument will also be shown on this instrument's calendar. Unlike linked equipment, only one instrument may be listed as "related", and there is no prohibition against different users using both instruments simultaneously. Users who wish to use both instruments in conjunction, however, will benefit from seeing both calendars superimposed on one another.

Reservation Flags

Allow Reservations from any Account: Normally UW CORAL checks to make sure that member, project and account would all be acceptable for an equipment enable before making a reservation. Checking this box allows the account to be invalid, e.g., to allow PIs to book time on a conference room.
Calendar is Public
Allow users to make Repeats: Normally users are not allowed to make repeating reservations, while lab staff is. If this box is checked, users can also make repeating reservations.

Enable Policies

Enablable?: If this box is not checked, UW CROAL will not allow the equipment to be enabled.
Use Time Sheet?: Allow the submission of equipment activity records via the Equipment>Time Sheet tab. Warning: if Use Time Sheet and Enablable are both set, user time will not be recorded at disable.
Exempt from hazard requirements?: If this box is checked, all hazard requirements are voided for this instrument.
Allow non-lab-users?: Allows anyone in the UW CORAL system to enable this instrument, not only members with the appropriate lab user role.
Allow non-user PIs to reserve?: Allow members with the lab "pi" role to enable in addition to those with the lab "user" role.
Qual at disable: Specifies the qual protocol, if any, that will be presented to the user when the instrument is disabled.

Enable Flags

Allow re-unlock
Do not allow Take Over
Require reservation to enable: If this box is checked, enables will fail unless the user holds a reservation for this instrument at the time of enable. See also auto-lock below.

Training

Require qualification?: If this box is not checked, specific training on this instrument is not required.
Training Session Length (minutes): Approximately how long training on this instrument is expected to take.
Training Max Idle (days): How long someone can remain a user without using the instrument. -1 indicates that training never expires.
Off-Hours Max Idle (days): How long a user can continue to be an off-hours user without using the instrument during "on" hours.
Training Eq Class: Qualification on one instrument of a given Training Class is valid on all instruments with that Training Class.
Training Role Flags: Lists the equipment training roles required to use this instrument. The default is that only "user" is required; requiring other roles may be useful for finer-grained control over user retraining when procedures change.

Interlocking

Interlocked: Whether this piece of equipment is interlocked (either with a hardware interlock or a software interlock). If a lock is installed and you clear this box, the enable button will no longer actuate the lock. (Do not do this.)
Interlock URL: The interlock URL(s). Multiple interlock URLs should be separated by semicolons.
Auto-lock?: If this box is checked, the instrument will disable at the end of a user's reservation.
Disable at swipe-out?: Instruments with this box checked will be disabled when the user swipes out of any location containing this instrument. Wet benches are good candidates for this designation.
Disable Timeout: How long should the screen lock disable panel wait, in seconds, before logging the user out? A zero value means to use the facility default; a negative value indicates an indefinite wait.
Disable Delay (min): The number of minutes given for a 'delayed disable'. If zero, delayed disable is not shown.
Screen Lock Message: If present, overrides the lab's default screen lock message.

Lock Flags

Don't poll lock for status: UW CORAL generally polls instruments every few minutes to determine the state of the lock. If this box is checked, this instrument will not be polled. The lock will continue to function as usual.

Networking

M drive hostname: The IP address of the instrument for purposes of mounting the M drive. This might or might not be the same as the address specified in Interlock URL. Multiple addresses should be separated by commas.
VNC Port: The address of the VNC service on this instrument. Typically either 5900 or 5959.

Idle

Idle threshold (minutes): The minimum number of enable minutes required to prevent the instrument from generating an idle notification. Use 0 if you do not wish to be notified when this instrument becomes idle.
Idle period (days): The period over which the idle threshold is evaluated. Use 0 if you do not wish to be notified when this instrument becomes idle.
Warned of Idle: The date of the last active warning, if the instrument is still idle.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Flags

Do not count as lab hours: If checked, hours logged on this instrument will not be included in lab hour usage calculations. This is particularly important when reports are sent to funding agencies.
Exempt from Backups: IT will not attempt to back up this instrument.
Has label printer: This instrument has a label printer.
Is a Multi-Login Station: This instrument is a station running UW CORAL in mass-login mode.
Is a Scan-in Kiosk: Indicates that this equipment is a scan-in kiosk.
Is a subsystem
Lab Local Flags 1-2: These flags are interpreted by each facility's policy and billing module.

Operations Flags

Create Staff Remote Tokens
Create User Remote Tokens
Created User Remote Rokens are Read-Only
Training class source only: When synchronizing training between multiple instruments of the same training class, do not mark users of this instrument trained if they become trained on another instrument in the class.
Training class sink only: When synchronizing training between multiple instruments of the same training class, do not mark users of any other instrument in the training class trained if they become trained on this instrument.
Use billing to expire roles

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