GNM_RCS_Picture_Diary_TS

• 1. .Introduction

     1. Purpose

The document GNM_RCS_Picture_Diary_FS.docx is the functional specification that describes what business functions RCS supports in relation to the Picture Diary.

This document is the technical specification that provides details of how those functions are implemented in RCS.

• 1. Scope

This document focusses on the Picture diary screen and Picture desk day schedule report available within RCS.

This document is intended as a high-level technical document outlining how the relevant business functions are implemented in terms of software modules.

Importantly, this document does not aim to provide the level of detail that would be required in a programming specification in areas such as program structure, detailed business rules, data integrity, validation, locking considerations, data security, and calls to/from other software modules, performance considerations, and so forth.

For details of program logic and coding, the reader should refer to the program files themselves.

• 1. .Picture diary screen

The Picture diary screen is accessible to Picture desk users and Rights department users only.

It is accessible from this menu option: Commissions → Picture diary

This opens an Oracle Form named rcs_pass_010_pc.fmb, as show below.

• 1. Screen features

A list of the main visual features of this screen is given below:

• • The font size used in this screen is larger than in most other screens within RCS, as requested by the picture desk editors;

  • The day shown can be scrolled using the arrow keys next to the date;

  • Users can overtype the time to set a new time e.g. 12:15 instead of 12:30 above;

  • Time is shown in 24-hour format to avoid confusion;

  • No times before 8:30 are shown by default, to ensure the main part of the day is on screen when the day loads. However, any displayed time can be changed, e.g. 8:30 was changed to 7:00 above, and this will always be displayed;

  • Where an assignment relates to a commission the commission fee is shown;

  • When first entering an assignment the editor does not need to enter all the fields. For example the assignment may be recorded and a photographer assigned later; and

  • Holidays and weekends are highlighted in a different colour.

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• 1. Technical notes

This section lists the main technical complexities of this screen:

• 1. Dates and times

The diary entry dates and times are automatically populated by the system. A table called CALENDAR_DAYS is populated daily, ensuring it always contains dates 3 months in advance. For every record entered into this table 48 half hour periods are entered into the CALENDAR_DAY_PERIODS table. In turn the PICTURE_ASSIGNMENTS table is also pre-populated with time slots as shown on the screen.

• 1. New commissions

If the editor presses the “New commission” button a new commission can be entered for the specified photographer. The details of the assignment are used as the “contribution” on the commission. A unique reference number (CRN) is allocated to the commission, and returned to this screen.

• 1. “Save” button

This screen has a Save button which, as well as saving the changes made, will re-query the day’s schedule to get it back in order if any times have been changed.

• 1. “Get latest” button

This button refreshes the screen, as this is a multi-user screen with multiple users working on the same data. It is therefore quite likely one editor may have locked a record (or saved changes to a record) that another editor needs to work on. Therefore frequent re-querying is required and so a button has been added.

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• 1. .Picture desk day schedule

     1. Report layout

Pressing the “Print day” button in the screen will generate a PDF report of the day’s scheduled assignments. For example:

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• 1. Report name

The name of the Oracle Report is rcs_pass_010.rdf

• 1. Report data

The report lists only the most significant data displayed on the screen, omitting all the time periods during the day for which there is no assignment.

End of Document