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Introduction Logon Logon Page Obtaining a New Password Changing Passwords Logging Off Layout Gizmos Full Screen Menus Menu Bar Navigation Bar Status Bar Sidebar Dashboards   GUI Policy Notifications List and Maintenance Pages Quick Create SDI Master Data Setup HTML5 and Standards

 

Introduction	Top

This topic provides a high-level overview of the LabVantage User Interface.

 

Logon	Top

The LabVantage Logon page is loaded immediately after accessing the LabVantage application through the appropriate URL:

1.	The "Application header" contains an image and title that identifies the deployed application.
2.	The "Logon title" shows the database you are accessing. The database updates when you change the "Active Database" (see 4 below).
3.	The "Username" and "Password" fields are not case-sensitive. A User is "disabled" after three unsuccessful logon attempts. The User can be "enabled" by the System Administrator in LIMS → SystemAdmin → Users. See Password Validation to determine how passwords are validated.
4.	The "Active Database" dropdown lets you select the logon database from a list of currently Active databases.
5.	"Sign In" logs onto the selected "Active Database".
6.	If you have forgotten your pasword, click "Forgot Password?" to obtain a new one (see Obtaining a New Password).

The text on these pages is configurable in LabVantage Console and through a property file. See the LabVantage Installation Documentation for details.

If you have forgotten your pasword, this feature lets you get a new one. This is supported only for Users with LabVantage internal passwords. It is not supported for Users with External Authentication (LDAP).

In order to use this feature, you must have an "SMTP Host" and "Email From Address" defined in LabVantage Console (this is described in the LabVantage Installation Documentation). The text on these pages is also configurable in LabVantage Console. See the LabVantage Installation Documentation for details.

1.	Click "Forgot your password?".

2.	Enter your Username and Email address, then click "Reset Password".

3.	After verifying your Username and Password, an email is sent to you containing a link to reset your password:

4.	A confirmation of this process is also displayed, stating that LabVantage has sent you an email with a link to confirm the request to reset your password.

5.

Click the Reset Password link in the email. This resets the password with a new internally-generated password and forces a password change on the next logon. A second email is sent with your new password and a link to the logon page: The URL is generated using System Configuration → Miscellaneous Options → Application Settings → Web Application Base URL. If this is null, the Application Server’s hostname is used.

6.	A confirmation of this second process is displayed, stating that LabVantage has sent you an email with a new temporary password.

7.

Click the LabVantage logon page link in the second email. This takes you to the standard LabVantage Logon page. Logon with your Username and new Password. You are immediately forced to change the password. Enter your old password and new password, then confirm your new password. Click "Change Password". After changing your password, the reset process is complete.

System Administrators can change User passwords in the User Maintenance page.

Users can also change their password using the "Change Password" menu item in the upper right of the screen. System Administrators can hide this using the "Hide Change Password" property of the GUIPolicy.

Logoff by clicking "Log Off" in the upper right of the screen. System Administrators can hide this using the "Hide Log Off Profile Item " property of the GUIPolicy. Note that LabVantage uses a Timeout Handling mechanism to determine when a database connection is cleared.

Layout	Top

Most of the LabVantage GUI layout is driven by Gizmos. These let you create dynamic object-orientated blocks of functionality that can be plugged into various areas of the application to show and expose functionality. Many Gizmos are preconfigured OOB to provide functionality that would otherwise (without using Gizmos) require complex server-side and client-side coding. For more information, see Introduction to Gizmos and Dashboards.

LabVantage offers two types of Full Screen Menus: "Sitemap" and "Cards". Sitemap is similar to the pre-LabVantage 8.x Sitemap. Cards displays a responsive set of panels that let you view related features as a group.

The style of the Sitemap can be changed using the "Rendering styles" property of the TramlineSitemap Page Type. The Full Screen Menus are rendered by "Menu Gizmos", which are configured instances of the menugizmo Gizmo Type (see Gizmos). The Full Screen Menus therefore render according to which Menu Gizmo is pointing to the Tramline Sitemap page. Additionally, navigation is handled through a Menu Gizmo.

The colors of the Sitemap nodes/lines and the Card headers are governed by the "Color" property on the Menu definitions in the Menu Gizmo. If no colors are provided, the pages use a random color choice. If you do not want to display the page in color, you can disable the coloring using the Advanced property "Ignore Color" on the menugizmo properties.

The Sitemap page is opened whenever you change Menus, which is controlled by a "Menu Picker Gizmo" (a configured instance of the menupickergizmo Gizmo Type). Configuring Menu selection using a Menu Picker Gizmo lets you change the top Menu without changing the content page.

At the top of the Layout, the Menu Bar contains a fixed logo. Hover over this logo to obtain information concerning the LabVantage build that is currently deployed.

Click a Menu to drop down the Menu Items. Once a dropdown Menu is activated through a click, you can move your mouse to another Menu without further clicking. This operation eventually times out when focus moves away from the Menu.

To the right of the Menu Bar, the fixed top bar Gizmo provides specialized controls and operations. For the purpose of introducing general OOB functinality, the example below shows a menupickergizmo (allows selection of the current Menu), a bulletingizmo (shows Bulletins) and a searchgizmo (uses a Lucene search engine to query the LabVantage database).

Menu Picker Gizmo

Bulletin Gizmo

Search Gizmo

To maximize efficiency, Menus are swapped without reloading the entire Layout. When selected, the Menu Bar is updated and the full screen representation of the Menu is displayed as shown in the example below.

On the far right of the Menu Bar, the Profile Menu shows the current User's initials by default. This is set by the "Initials" field on the User Maintenance page. The Profile menu also allows the current User to change the Profile image, i.e., replace your initials with a picture. Users can also customize their User Preferences (such as change logon process or initials), set the current page into the Sidebar, and set the current page as the Start Page. Setting the current page as the Start Page also sets the current Menu and Sidebar as the "Start Menu" and "Start Sidebar", and is available only if the User has a customizable startup setting. If you are in System Administration mode and have access to the correct Modules, the Profile Menu also lets you quickly edit the current page. This switches to edit current Menu, current Gizmo and current Group, depending on what is rendered in the navigation frame. The Profile Menu also contains the Log Off link described in Logging Off. Some of these menu items can be added or removed by configuring the GUI Policy.

To change your profile picture select the "Change Profile Picture" Menu Item. In the resulting page, select an image (which can be any local image file), use the tool to crop to correct dimensions, and click the icon of a portrait to set the image for the User. This image is attached to the User SDI as the Attachment Class "Profile Picture". System Administrators may choose to assign images to a User SDI themselves by adding an SDI Attachment to the User SDI and setting the Attachment Class to "Profile Picture". See Attachments for more information. In the Change Profile Picture dialog, you can revert back to initials by clicking the red cross ("reset icon").

The Menu Bar accommodates changes in screen resolution, including truncating the Menu into a Sub-Menu such that Menu items are still accessible (also truncates into a single Menu for mobile devices), and hiding areas of the Menu Bar on very small resolutions.

The Navigation Bar is directly beneath the top Menu Bar. This has several modes that are configurable using the "Navigation Bar" collection in the GUI Policy.

Recent History As you navigate through the application, your last 6 recent items are shown. Clicking any of these takes you back to them. The list of recent items is unique for each tab (or window). The title for the current page is shown in black at the end of the Recent Items. Collapsing the window resolution collapses from the left, so the current page is always shown.

Related Items As you navigate using the top Menu and full page Menu, the Related Items shows other items that are in the same sub-menu (and are therefore related). The current page title is shown in black on the left, and the current Menu loaded into the page is highlighted. As the window resolution collapses, the Related Items collapse from the right.

As provided in the OOB configuration, the "Navigation Bar" collection in the GUI Policy is set to allow choosing the mode of operation by clicking the cog in the Navigation Bar and selecting the relevant Menu item.

The Status Bar is at the lower right of the Layout. This shows session information (such as Username, database, time zone, Job Type). The Status Bar is configurable as to what session information to show and the color used to display. It can also be moved to the top of the window or hidden completely. This configuration is done in the GUI Policy. The sapphire.statusMsg(message) call in the JavaScript API allows messages to be shown on the status bar, e.g., sapphire.statusMsg('Hello World').

The Sidebar allows groupgizmos (a collection of Gizmos) to be displayed. The Sidebar lists the Gizmos and allows different operations to be performed when the Gizmo is selected (such as navigation or processing logic). Like the Menu Bar Gizmos, the Sidebar Gizmos can also show counter information.

There are several display versions of the Sidebars (such as large icons, small icons, and text only) that can be configured in the GUI Policy or for the Group Gizmos themselves. You can switch Sidebars by selecting the cog at the top of the Sidebar. The Sidebar can also be resized and collapsed and on mobile touch devices with a swipe. The Sidebar is vertically responsive (if the vertical space reduces, a scrollbar is shown when you hover over the Sidebar).

If you have the correct permissions and the Group Gizmo can be customized, you can dynamically add and remove Gizmos to your Sidebar. Add Gizmos by selecting "Add Gizmo" in the cog menu. You can then select from configured Gizmos to which you have access. Selecting Gizmos pushes them to the end of your Sidebar. To change the order of the Sidebar Gizmos, select "Unlock Sidebar" from the Cog menu. You can then drag-and-drop the Gizmos into position. To remove a Gizmo, drag it off the Sidebar and confirm in the confirmation dialog. When finished rearranging, you can select "Lock Sidebar" to set the positions. You can also use "Reset Sidebar" to reset back to administrator defaults. The Sidebar shows only Gizmo Groups that are public (default), owned by the current User, or when the current User has Role-Level Access as defined by the "Group Creation Role" in the GUIPolicy. When placed in the Sidebar or Top Bar, a Group Gizmo is used to simply show a popup containing the contents of the Gizmo Group. If the Gizmo Group defines a Dashboard, the Gizmo Group will open as a Dashboard. If the Gizmo Group is neither a Sidebar item or a Dashboard, it displays as a collapsible group. Dashboards can be inserted into the Sidebar as Gizmo Groups.

If you are defined by the "Group Creation Role" in the GUIPolicy as previously described, the "Create Sidebar" menu item lets you add new Sidebars as shown below.

"Dashboards" are Gizmo-driven mechanisms that can display discrete collections of information within a single page. See Dashboards for more information.

GUI Policy	Top

The Layout for the LabVantage application is controlled at the system level by the GUI Policy.

Notifications	Top

"Notifications" is a technology that allows Web browser clients to listen for Notifications of Events without using a polling mechanism, thus automatically triggering a server-side Event in response to an HTTP request. This technology is described in Introduction to Gizmos. For the purpose of this discussion, it is sufficient to note that the LabVantage OOB implementation of this technology is used in these areas of the application:

List and Maintenance Pages	Top

SDI List pages and SDI Maintenance pages are the backbone of LabVantage. They are commonly referred to as simply "List" and "Maintenance" pages.

In general, List pages are the point of departure for working with SDIs. The example below shows the Sample List page, which lists Sample SDIs.

1.	Toolbar	Toolbars (configured by the advancedtoolbar Element) consist of major operations triggered through large buttons, with other operations triggered through small buttons that are collapsed down into dropdown buttons in each operational group. The Toolbar is responsive, in that if the number of buttons is excessive and do not fit single-file within the browser window, the excess buttons are collapsed from the right. The collapsing/expanding excess buttons dynamically respond to window width or changes while in List/Maint Mode. The "Drop Down Group" property of the advancedtoolbar Element can also be used to add a button to a dropdown button, with the button labelled as specified in the property. By default, the visual appearance of the buttons is "Text with Icon". However, you can use the GUI Policy or the individual button properties to change this to Text Only. You can also specify a "flat image" for use as a scalable button image rather than using the normal icons. Functionality such as Navigators, Other Tasks, and SDI Details are in the ellipsis (...) button. These appear only if the page contains these items.
2.	Search Bar	The Search Bar lets you find SDIs by querying. "Basic Search" and "Query Search" options are displayed on the list itself. The "Advanced Search" (configured by the advancedsearch Element) can be opened using the hyperlink above the list. This allows most searching to be done with the Advanced Search collapsed. This option is configurable using the "Display Option" property and "Top Search Option" property of the advancedsearch Element. The last search executed is highlighted. This immediately shows the search that was executed to retrieve the current list. The Query Maintenance page lets you specify a label for the Query. The "Use Query Label" property on the advancedsearch Element can then be set to show the "Query Label" instead of the Query Id. The full description of the Query is available in a tooltip over the Query Id.
3.	header	List pages allow the header to be fixed. SDIs can be "Grouped" using the "Group By" dropdown. In "ungrouped" mode (as configured by the list Element), the List header is fixed when the list scrolls. The header columns align with the list columns during window resizing and the horizontal scroll bar appears only when the table can no longer be condensed after wrapping. In "grouped" mode, the header fixed when the list scrolls. The group header spans the entire row and scrolls with list. Column headers are fixed for all groups, and the original collapse all/expand all images and the check box for Select All are moved to the beginning of the list header row.
4.	List	This lists the SDIs. Toolbar operations are performed on the selected SDIs. Click the checkbox to select one or more SDI(s). Clicking outside the checkbox (to the right) will deselect all other selected SDIs. Perhaps the most commonly used operations are "Add". "Edit" and "View". These open the Maintenace Page for the selected SDIs.   The "InLine Operation" feature of the advancedtoolbar and list Elements allows any Toolbar button to be exposed as an inline operation. Operations on selected List page rows are immediately shown on that row, saving you from having to use a Toolbar button.

Maintenance pages let you edit and view SDIs that you have selected in the List page.

Selecting a single SDI opens a single Maintenance page with the SDI Details in tabular form below the Maintenance Form. SDI Detail records can be added/removed before a Maintenance page is saved if the "Show Detail On Add" property of the MaintenanceForm Page Type is configured to do so.

Selecting multiple SDIs opens an "Edit Set" if the Navigator Policy is configured to do so (see Navigator Policy → Using the Edit Set Navigator). An "Edit Set" allows the selected items and their details to be edited individually or by subset from the "Navigator" frame.

A powerful interface feature called the "List/Maint Mode" loads the Maintenance page into the same window as the List page. Selecting an item on the List page opens the corresponding Maintenance page in a "Detail" frame at the right (or bottom if you prefer). The frames can be resized by dragging, and the Detail frame can be closed by clicking ">>" at the top of the splitter bar. To temporarily override this behavior, hold "Alt" while you click the button (such as "Alt + Edit").

If a single SDI is selected as shown below, the Maintenance page for that SDI loads into the right frame. If multiple SDIs are selected, a multi-SDI grid loads into the right frame.

The List page in the left frame is responsive, updating as the Maintenance page changes in the Detail frame. When you add a new SDI in the Detail panel and Save it, the new SDI is added to the List page. Also note that the "Return To List" and "Close" buttons in the Detail frame are replaced by "Prev" and "Next", which display the previous and next SDI in the List, respectively. A warning message is shown if you navigate to another row when the prior row has unsaved changes.

Any List page can be configured to operate in List/Maint Mode by setting these properties:

With regard to Lookup pages and Dialogs:

Quick Create SDI	Top

As an extension of the List and Maintenance page functionality previously described, the "Quick Create SDI" feature offers several shortcuts to creating and maintaining SDIs. Maintenance page fields that lookup certain Master Data SDIs and use Ajax technologies are configured OOB to open a QuickCreateSDI page, which is based on the QuickCreateSDI Page Type. Pages provided OOB that are configured for Quick Create SDI are defined by the nodes of the QuickCreateSDI Page Type shown at the left. Note that these nodes provided OOB are subject to change, so make certain you check the nodes that are actually defined on your system.

As an example, consider editing a Product Maintenance page. As shown in the Page Type node hierarchy above, one of the pages configured for Quick Create SDI is LV_CreateMaterial (R5). In the Product Maintenance page, typing into the "Material" field auto-suggests Materials based on existing Material SDI. At the bottom of the list is a (Create New Material) option. Clicking this opens a QuickCreateSDI page where you can provide an identifier for the new Material and optionally add a Follow-Up Note. "Create and Return" creates the new Material.

The Follow-Up icon is displayed on the List page. List page Queries also provide filtering by SDIs "Having Open Followups" and the User-centric "My Followups" query.

The example above is configured using the maint Element in the LV_CreateMaterial (R5) page. This functionality is also configured OOB for details defined by the sdidetailmaint Element and sdclinkmaint Element. Referring back to the Page Type node hierarchy above, one of the pages configured for Quick Create SDI is LV_CreateWorkitem (R5), which creates a versioned Test Method. The sdidetailmaint Element provides the same functionality here for adding Tests. Note that a blank row is inserted for your convenience in adding new items.

Another page configured for Quick Create SDI is LV_CreateOrganization (R5), which creates a Manufacturer for (in this case) a Product Variant. The sdclinkmaint Element provides the same functionality here for adding Manufacturers. Once again, a blank row is inserted to easily add new items.

Here is a summary of properties used to configure QuickCreateSDI pages with links to the relevant Page Type and Elements:

Master Data Setup	Top

Throughout LabVantage, Master Data is typically created and configured from the bottom upward as shown in the previous examples. For example, creating a Product with associated Tests and Specifications requires creating these associated SDIs prior to creating the Product.

"Master Data Setup" is a feature that offers an alternate "top-down" approach. For example, you can create the Test Methods and Specifications while you are creating the Product. When editing the Product, you can then manage the Master Data hierarchy of SDIs related to the Product.

For details concerning this feature, see Navigator Policy → Master Data Setup.

HTML5 and Standards	Top

LabVantage 8.x fully complies with HTML5 and Standards Mode. See your Release Notes for more information regarding compliance with these standards.