Video Example On Starting An Edit Session:
There is a short video snippet on starting a meeting edit session. You can view it by following this link.
Published and Unpublished Meetings
"Unpublished" meetings will not appear in standard user searches, but will be visible to you, as an administrator. At the top of every meeting edit window, is a checkbox that indicates whether or not a meeting is published.
Unpublishing a meeting is a good way to temporarily remove it from the list without going to the trouble of deleting it, then undeleting it. If the meeting is unpublished, it will still show up in a regular search, if you are an administrator. There is a popup in the Advanced Search tab that shows up if you are logged in. It allows you to choose whether or not to filter for unpublished or published meetings.
If you are a Meeting List Editor (not a Service Body Administrator), then you can ONLY edit unpublished meetings, and you cannot publish them. A Service Body Administrator with edit rights to those meetings must first unpublish them for you, then re-publish them when you have finished editing them. You can create new meetings, but new meetings are always created as unpublished.
Figure 1: The Publish Checkbox
Figure 2: An Unpublished Meeting In A Search Results List (The Orange One)
Duplicated Meetings
It is also possible to make copies of existing meetings. These copies will be "unpublished" until you remove a data item, called "Duplicate." This item is there to prevent accidental repeats of a meeting. Usually, you copy a meeting in order to create another one in the same venue, but at a different time or weekday.
"Published" meetings are displayed as green or white lines, "unpublished" meetings are displayed as orange lines, and duplicates are displayed as purple lines.
Figure 3: The Three Types of Meetings, As Seen in an Administrator’s Listing. Purple is a Duplicate, Orange is Unpublished, and Green/White is Published
Figure 4: Note the Extra Text Item, Indicating This is an Unpublished Meeting
Figure 5: Duplicate Meetings Have Another Text Item As Well as the First
Figure 7: Unpublished Meetings Have an Orange Edit Background
Figure 8: Duplicate Meetings Have a Disabled Publish Checkbox, a Purple Background, and an Extra Data Item That Must Be Deleted Before the Meeting Can Be Published
Figure 6: Published Meetings Have a Gray Edit Background
Video Examples:
There are two short video snippets on finding meetings. You can view them by following this link.
There is also a short video snippet on finding a single meeting by name. You can view it by following this link.
Finding the Meetings
Since we are doing in-place meeting editing, you will first find the meetings using the standard search, just like we outlined in the User Guide. When you get the search results, they will look almost the same as usual. In the list view, you will notice a new column along the far right. If you are allowed to edit meetings in the search result set, there will be an "Edit" link in this column for that meeting. You can see this in Figure 9. The "Advanced Search" tab will probably be quite useful to you, as a Meeting List Editor.
Figure 9: Notice the New Column, Just to the Right of the GPS Column.
Figure 10: Note the Edit Link, at the Bottom of the Meeting Details Window
Notice that not all the meetings in the results have "Edit" links after them. This is because some of the meetings are in another ASC, and the SASNA Service Body Administrator is only authorized to edit meetings in the SASNA ASC.
The "Edit" link is the only behavioral difference. Clicking on the meeting name will still bring up the regular meeting details page, but, if you look way at the bottom of the meetings details page, you’ll see a new link, called "Edit," just above the "Close Window" link (Figure 10). Again, this will only appear for meetings that you are authorized to manage.
A map search does not have any particular indicator that you can edit a meeting. You need to display the results as a list, or go into the details for each meeting. As an administrator, you’ll probably end up using the list view the most.
Editing the Meetings
Now that we know how to start editing a meeting, let’s see what we can do, once we click on the "Edit" link.
The first thing that you’ll notice is that the Details page will be replaced, or the list will be sent behind a long edit window (Figure 6, 7 or 8; depending on the status of the meeting).
The window is basically composed of three sections: The top section (Figure 11 and 12), is the "Required" attributes section, the middle section (Figure 17) is the "Optional" attributes section, and the lower section (Not shown in detail –It is simply a list of checkboxes for format codes), is the Format Code section. Below these, are two buttons. One is labeled "Delete This Meeting" (Figure 26), while the other is labeled "Submit Changes" (Figure 25), and is disabled (can’t be clicked).
The "Required" Attributes Section
Figure 11: The "Required" Attributes Section
Figure 12: The Longitude/Latitude Link and Text Items
The items at the top of the window are not ALL required, to be honest. You don’t have to have a World ID or specify a duration (it’s actually a very good idea to specify the duration, though, because people are often given rides, and need to be able to inform their rides on when they will be picked up).
Weekday
Weekdays are Sunday – Saturday, in the English localization. This can be changed in the localizations, but it has not been tested yet. If there are problems in the future, they will be addressed.
Start Time
The start time is in military time. That means that the hours are 0000 – 2359, not 12:00AM -11:59PM. You need to keep this in mind, because it’s quite easy to set the start time of a meeting that gathers at 8:30PM (2030) to 8:30AM (0830). The minutes are given in increments of 5 minutes, but the last item is 59. This is a special time for midnight meetings. We think of "midnight" as "midnight, tonight," but computers think of "midnight" as "midnight, this morning." In order to get around this, you need to set the time for midnight meetings to "23:59." The BMLT will interpret this as "midnight."
Duration
The Duration is in hours/minutes, with the left popup menu indicating hours, and the right one indicating minutes. Hours are 00 – 23, and minutes are 0 – 45, in increments of 15 minutes.
Meeting ID
The Meeting ID is the internal database ID of the meeting, and you can’t change it.
World ID
The World ID is the designated NAWS ID for the meeting/Group.
Email Contact
This is an email address that will receive emails if the setting is established in the configuration (The "$allow_contact_form" field should be true), then the "Contact Us About This Meeting" form that is displayed in the Details window for each meeting will send to this email address.
The email contact is ONLY FOR THIS MEETING, and it overrides any contact set at the Service Body. The email field is an excellent way to preserve anonymity, as it allows people to contact the given contact person without giving away things like names, phone numbers and addresses. It can also be easily changed.
Service Body
The Service Body is very important. This indicates which Service Entity is responsible for maintaining this meeting. If you are an editor for multiple Service Bodies, there will be multiple choices here. Usually, there will only be one choice.
Language
The language is the native language for the meeting. This needs more testing, but should work.
Setting the Location
In Figure 12, we see the longitude and latitude of the meeting location. It is positioned beneath the Language popup menu. This has nothing to do with the street address of the meeting. It is a value in its own right. You can directly enter the longitude and latitude values, but it is often easier to use the map. Note that below the text entry boxes, is a clickable link. If you click on it, the main edit window will disappear, and be replaced by a small Google Maps window (Figure 13).
Figure 13: The Window to Set the Meeting Location
Figure 14: You Can Easily Zoom In
Figure 15: Use Satellite View to Place the Marker Precisely
Figure 16: You Use the GoogleBar to Find An Address
The window has a single marker. This is the location of the meeting. You can "grab" and move the marker, or click elsewhere in the map, and the marker will move there. This is how you change the location. No need to type in longitude and latitude coordinates (although we have a request to be able to do just that).
The initial zoom is fairly broad. This is so that you can get a good idea of where the marker is, in relation to the surrounding area. The marker is exactly centered, so you can use the zoom slider in the upper left of the map to zoom in closer (Figure 14).
Figure 15 shows how you can use the Satellite View to place the marker very precisely. You can position it exactly in front of the doorway to the facility.
Figure 16 shows how you can use the GoogleBar to enter an address to get you started. We can’t show the GoogleBar in the regular search, because it may show advertisements, but it is very useful in the editor. The GoogleBar is the little box in the lower left of the window. You can type an address in there (the example shown is the result of typing in "Jericho Turnpike at Commack Road, Commack, NY"). This will set the map center to the address (marked by a little red marker). You then click the map in that area to move the blue marker there.
NOTE: The red marker created by the Googlebar is not the meeting marker! It merely points to where the address is. You need to place the blue marker at that spot to make the meeting location coincide. You can get rid of the red marker by clicking "Clear Results" in the Googlebar.
When a map search is done, the meeting’s icon in the large map is placed at exactly the spot you specify in this operation.
When you are satisfied with the location that you’ve selected, click on "Close Window," and the map window will be replaced by the edit window. The Longitude/Latitude values will be updated to reflect the ones you chose.
Video Examples:
There are short video snippets on editing these settings:
A Note About Default Values
The original value of each item can be seen or restored by looking for buttons or values marked with an asterisk (*). Original format codes are also indicated with bold text. Clicking on a button marked with an asterisk will reset the corresponding text item to the original value.
"Optional" Items (Meeting Data Values)
Figure 17: The "Optional" Items
One of the keys to the flexibility of the BMLT is the fact that most meeting information is kept in "optional" items. The choices for these are established when the root server is installed and set up. These show up in a fieldset called "Meeting Data Values" (Figure 17). The ones that currently come with the initial BMLT are:
- Meeting Name
- This is the name of the meeting (ex: "Guiding Light").
- Location
- This is text, describing the location. Usually a building name, such as "St. Mark’s Church Rectory."
- Location Information
- This is some extra information that might help people find the location, such as "at the corner of Fifth and Main."
- Street Address
- This is the street address, such as "1234 Main Street."
- Borough
- This is the "Sub City" of a large urban area, such as "Queens." This term is mostly used in New York, but other cities also use this term.
- Neighborhood
- This is a more casual definition of the general neighborhood of the location, such as "Upper East Side."
- Town
- The actual town name, such as "Elmont." It should NOT include the state.
- County
- The county in which the location resides, such as "Nassau."
- State
- In the US, this is, customarily, the two-letter abbreviation for a state, such as "NY." However, it can also be the fully spelled-out name of the province.
- Zip Code
- In the US, this is the five-digit mailing zip code of the location.
- Nation
- The nation in which the location can be found. This is usually the three-letter abbreviation, such as "USA."
- Comments
- These are any comments that may be made about the meeting, such as "child care is available."
In reality, your Service Body may not consider many of these "optional" at all. They may have a policy that a meeting MUST have its street address, town and state entered.
The BMLT does treat the meeting name, Street Address, Town and Location fields specially, using them to display values in the list view. It’s a very good idea to make sure these are all filled out. If there is no meeting name, a placeholder (like "NA Meeting") will be displayed.
It should be noted here that the Root Server Webservant can change the choices. They can also provide versions for different localizations. In the future, we’ll provide a "wizard" for this, but, for now, the operation has to happen in the database, using a program like phpMyAdmin.
Adding, Changing and Deleting Meeting Data Values
Figure 18: The New Data Item Link
Figure 19: The New Data Item
Figure 20: The New Data Item Popup Menu Choices
Figure 21: The New Data Item In Place After Submit
Figure 22: You Can Delete An Existing Data Item
You edit these values "in place." You can add new values by going to the bottom of the Meeting Data Values fieldset, where you will see a link named "Follow This Link To Add A New Data Item" (Figure 18). If all of the available "Optional" items have been used up, this will not be displayed.
When you click on it, it will be replaced by an empty text box, with a popup menu above it (Figure 19 and Figure 20). The popup menu will give you a choice of the available unused optional data fields. Select the one that you want, and type in the data. Under the text box is a button labeled "Do Not Add This Data Item". It’s a bit awkward, but clicking on this reverses the procedure, and hides the new item. Don’t accidentally click on it, thinking that it will submit the data item.
Once a data item is in place (Figure 21), it can be deleted by clicking on the button underneath it, labeled "Delete This Data Item". Doing so, replaces the data item with a note, saying it is marked for deletion (Figure 22), and a link that allows you to undo the delete. The delete will not become final until after you submit the changes.
The "Field Visibility" indicator is something that some data items can have. It is possible for the Server Administrator to set a "visibility" flag for certain types of data items, so that they can only be seen by administrators, or only when viewed on a Web page, or only when printed.
Video Example:
There is a short video snippet on editing data items. You can view it by following this link.
Formats
Setting meeting formats is a pretty straightforward operation. There are checkboxes that correspond to the available format codes. The choices of the codes are made by the Server Administrator. The original codes for the meeting are in red text.
It is possible to change the way the formats are sorted. You can categorize format types into "groups," like meeting format (Discussion, Speaker, etc.), attendance restrictions (Open, Closed, etc.) and location codes (wheelchair access, closed on holidays, etc.).
Figure 23: The Formats, Sorted By Format Type
Figure 24: The Formats, Sorted By Format Key
Submitting Changes
Figure 25: The "Submit Changes" Button
Once a value has been changed, the "Submit Changes" button becomes enabled (Figure 27). This button is located at the very bottom of the window, on the right. When you click on it, the change is submitted to the database, and becomes effective immediately. Until this button is clicked, none of the changes that you’ve made will become effective. If you try to close the window before clicking this, you will get a warning, asking if you want to discard your unsaved changes.
NOTE: There is an additional "Submit Changes" button, located in new Data Items. This does exactly the same thing as the one on the bottom.
Deleting the Meeting
Figure 26: The Delete This Meeting Button
Figure 27: The Delete Warning Dialog
Figure 28: The Delete Confirmation Dialog
On the bottom left of the window is a button labeled "Delete This Meeting" (Figure 26). If you click on this, you will be presented with a warning (Figure 27). If you choose to go ahead, the meeting will be deleted from the database, and a confirmation will be displayed (Figure 28).
Change Tracking And Reverting Changes
Figure 29: The Meeting Change Record
Figure 30: The Revert Warning
A very powerful feature of the BMLT is the ability to look at when changes were made, and to revert to the condition of the meeting before the change. Once a change has been made, a new section will appear below the Delete and Submit buttons (Figure 29). This will have the last 5 (This number can be changed by the Root Server Webservant) changes to the meeting.
If you click on the "Change Record" link, the section will open up, and show the changes. If you click on the link labeled "Revert to the state before this change", you will first be presented with a confirm warning (Figure 30). If you choose to go ahead with the change, the meeting editor will be refreshed, and the revert will be recorded as another change.
There are a couple of reasons for limiting the number of changes: the database can’t handle the enormous number of records that would be generated, and they become a LOT less useful as they get older. In fact, it can be extremely dangerous to revert to a very old record, as it can wipe away months’ worth of changes (of course, you can restore them after the fact).
This feature is a "safety switch." You can get back after a mistake, and that is important.
Video Example:
There is a short video snippet on reverting meetings. You can view it by following this link.
Undeleting Meetings
Figure 31: The Undelete Meeting Item in the Editor Control Panel
It is possible to restore deleted meetings. This is done by going into the "Edit Functions" control panel. If there are any meetings that have been deleted for which you have edit rights, a new item will be displayed under the "History" section: "Deleted Meetings" (Figure 31). Opening this (Figure 32) will display a list of deleted meetings. You can click on "Restore This Deleted Meeting". This will immediately return the meeting to the list, and will open the meeting’s Details Page. Restored meetings are always restored unpublished.
This is a very powerful capability that allows you to do things like delete seasonal meetings, and restore them when they return (although unpublishing them may be a more effective way of doing this).
If you are a Server Administrator, there will be an additional link, entitled "Delete this meeting permanently". This allows you to delete the meeting, along with all of its changes, permanently. After that, it can no longer be restored.
Figure 32: The Undelete Meetings List
Video Example:
There is a short video snippet on creating and deleting meetings. You can view it by following this link.
Bulk Operations
We have the ability to perform "bulk" operations on meetings. In the list, you will now see a column of checkboxes to the immediate left of the meetings (Figure 33). When a meeting is checked, you can use the popup menu (Figure 34) below the list to perform certain "bulk" operations on the meetings, such as publish/unpublish, duplicate or delete.
Meeting List Editors cannot use the bulk operations, so the checkboxes and popup menu will not appear if you are logged in as a Meeting List Administrator.
Figure 33: The Bulk Operations Checkboxes and Popup Menu
Figure 34: The Bulk Operations Popup Menu
Figure 34 shows the possible bulk operations:
- Publish any Unpublished Meetings
- If any of the checked meetings are unpublished (Orange), then they will be published. Already published meetings are ignored, as are duplicate meetings.
- Unpublish any Published Meetings
- If any of the checked meetings are published, then they will be unpublished. Already unpublished meetings are ignored.
- Make Copies of these Meetings
- Any meetings that are not already duplicates will be copied, and a new, duplicate meeting will be created for each.
- Delete these Meetings
- The checked meetings will be deleted (A confirm dialog is shown first).
- Delete these Meetings Permanently (Server Admin Only)
- The checked meetings will be deleted without a record being kept (A confirm dialog is shown first).
