The Operation Management window automatically orders/sorts all pending operations (i.e. reports, utilities, imports, or exports) and allows you to view summaries and open, email, or save operations that you (or others) have previously completed. Simply think of the Operation Management window as a nerve center that consolidates all operations that you, the current user, the system, or others (depending on your Security permissions), have been performing; in essence, a specialized transaction log for past and future operations.

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Once a report, utility, import, or export has been initiated, you can open Operation Management to track the progress of the current operation and allowing you to view (or save) previously completed operations. Completed operations shown in the “queue” include the name and status of the operation and are affixed with a time/date stamp. An operation that is currently running provides a Cancel option.

Each time the Operation Management window is opened, the Date Range drop-down filter defaults to Today; in other words, only the current user's newest (i.e. Today) operations are initially visible in the Operation Management window's “queue”. Everything in this list is ordered chronologically (newest-to-oldest in top-down order) which is helpful when trying to discover if there are any operations in the queue ahead of yours. The Operation Type drop-down filer defaults to All Operations; the All Operations selection includes pending (or completed) automatic system operations such as the Daily Chores system utility (which clears expired holds, reservations, and overdue items that were declared “lost”).

For reasons of accountability and transparency, the Operation Management window will retain all information for canceled and completed operations for a week at least; operations older than a week can be removed from the queue by choosing one of the Remove older than XX days selections from the Operation Management window's Actions menu. Your security privileges (i.e. Remove All) determine whether a particular user has the ability to remove canceled or completed operations from the queue. By default, all operations older than ninety days are automatically removed from the Operation Management window.

Operations

The Operation Management window can potentially display the name and status of the operation, the user who initiated the operation, and the time/date that the operation was completed or canceled. By default, the Operation Management window only provides a quick glimpse at the operations performed (or queued) by you, the current operator. If you are logged in and have the proper security permissions, you can expand the scope of the Operation Management window to include operations from other users as well.

The status of an operation can be one of four things:

• Running. This status shows the operation currently being performed; it provides the progress of the operation, the date/time that the operation began, and a Cancel button.

• Queued. This status indicates than an operation is pending, but has not yet been started. The Position: XX text following this status indicates what place your operation has in the queuing system. Users with the proper security privileges are able to Cancel queued operations other than their own.

• Canceled. This status indicates that an operation was canceled during (or before) completion and includes a time/date stamp and the user who canceled it.

• Complete. The operation was completed and results are available; operators can open it, download the results, or send the results via email to whatever address they want—different from those specified in the Notification tab(s) of the Reports window.

One of four different icons can appear to the right of each completed operation in the queue; an open Send Email window icon, an operation information icon, an open report icon, and a download file icon.

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• Operation Information. By themselves, completed operations display very little information in the queue; they have a completion date, operation name, and the operator who created it. Additional information for each operation (such as ‘new’ or ‘modified’ records, associated error messages/notes, or library codes necessary for Centralized Catalog, etc.) can be acquired by clicking this icon. If an error occurs during an operation, an alert icon will appear in the summary, informing you that you should pay special attention to the results; alerts and exceptions contained within your PDF are printed in red.

• Download Text (.txt) File. If the operation is a Item or Patron Export, clicking this icon will download a text file. This file can be viewed in a text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.

• Email Operation. This opens the Send Email window, allowing you to send a link to download and view the operation. The Email Operation icon won't appear to the right of the operation until you've properly set up your Email settings. 

• Download PDF Report. If an operation is a report, clicking this icon will download the saved report as an PDF file. This file can be viewed by opening it in a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Send Email

The Operation Management window has has integrated email capabilities. Clicking the Send Email button opens the Send Email window which allows you to send a downloadable link to the completed operation file. The Send Email icon won't appear to the right of the operation until you've properly set up your Email settings.

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• Email To. Send a downloadable link to the PDF or other completed operation files by providing email addresses (e.g. johndoe@examplelibrary.com) in the Email To field; you can list more than one email address separated by commas (johndoe@examplelibrary.com,janedoe@examplelibrary.com).

• Subject. Use this optional field to provide brief summary of the email attachment (e.g. Requested Barcode Laser Label Reports); if left empty, it will send the email with the default subject line of: “A file is available for your retrieval.”

• Note.This optional field allows you to append text to the bottom of the email message.

Daily Chores

Every day, our software performs certain Daily Chores which clean up the system by removing expired holds, in-stock holds, and reservations, etc. At the end of each Daily Chores cycle, Alexandria or Textbook Tracker will archive the operation(s) to the transaction log and deliver the results to the Operation Management window.

The Daily Chores operations, and other system activities, are available for viewing by all operators, but only some users have the security privileges (i.e. Remove All) to remove them.