How does the scheduler work?
Read on, to learn about the basic concept of the scheduler.
This chapter covers the principal use, not the detailed handling
of the forms.
Why a scheduler?
In the "dESPair survey 2000", we discussed the use of a scheduler
system for our activities. The old system was not very attractive,
so I decided to rebuild it from scratch. But I'm diverting... the
use of the scheduler is to coordinate and facilitate our group
activities. While the logbook itself is a fine instrument for
each of our crew members, it doesn't provide much help in coordinating
activities that include many flights.
That's where the scheduler has it's place. It is a tool that should
help the Mission/Campaign responsible to:
a) manage multiple missions per campaign and multiple flights per
mission
b) file "jobs" for any number of pilots
c) keep track of which jobs are already assigned to a pilot and
which are not
Especially point c) should help us keep the confusion about who's
flying what mission/job as low as possible.
So far so good. But the scheduler is not only a dynamic listing
system, but rather a tightly integrated module of the logbook.
This is how the scheduler help the pilots:
Whenever you find time to perform a flight or two, you visit the
scheduler main page, and browse through the listed campaigns and missions. Assigning yourself to a flight through the scheduler interface will
automatically create a new flight in the logbook. These flights
are listed as "Scheduled" (-> blue dots), until you close them manually.
(See Editing flight data)
There are a few things that the Campaign master must keep in mind
while feeding the scheduler system:
a) Always create a campaign with a distinct name
b) Keep the mission count low. I suggest you split up campaigns
once the mission count reaches 10 or so. You can reflect that
in the campaign name (like Campaign XY, p1 - for part 1)...
c) Don't file missions too early. if the filed missions need to
be done before the next missions can take place, you might
want to wait with filing them, until the previous missions
are done. This does not count for sequential flights within
one mission -> there, the pilots need to use the open/close
state feature of the logbook.
d) Use meanigfull names for missions. The title should describe
the task as good as possible with only a few words.
Things that are missing in the scheduler right now:
The mission frame does currently not show if the mission
a) has open jobs and b) is all done or not. I will add
these features in the next time, making it easier to get
an overview of the mission status and required jobs.
Edit procedures. These things are time consuming to implement
in PHP (at least with my level of experience) - so be patient...
they will be available at some point. The idea is to always be
able to edit every data point you can file through the system.
But due to the rather big amount of variables/database fields the system
currently manages, it takes time to get the edit forms done.
Also, the sort order is foul and certain minor flaws have been
detected. I'll take care of that stuff in my next free time slot.
Clear sky!
Hak
