[HAP+][v9.next] Suggestions

[nickbro]

Hi all, just thought I'd make this post for all of you looking for new features in HAP+.

 

These are my current thoughts for a next version of HAP+:

• Version 2 of the Windows 8 App
  
  • Rename
    
  • Move
    
  • Delete
    

   

  [*]Version 1 of the Windows Phone 8 App (sorry it needs to be WP8)

  [*]Multi-tenancy

  • 1 HAP+ install Multiple configurations
    
  • If you have an AD covering a few schools then this will allow you to separate out as many or few sections are you want
    
  • e.g. School a) has a set of bookingsystem resources, and b) has a different set of resources
    
  • This would be an advanced, edit the raw config.xml files
    

   

  [*]Removal of the .svg line in the web.config

  [*]Tidy up of the web.config file

 

If you guys can think of anything else, let me know

Edited May 30, 2013 by nickbro

[mattianuk]

Some kind of server status / system notice board wold be great - especially as most people is hap to access RDC and they use it in windows where work may be planned...

[ragbuster]

A quick option to add an image banner across the top for school branding. Does booking support allocating a certain number of computers? So for example 2 members of staff could share an IT room.

[nickbro]

@ragbuster that feature is available via the Alpha release here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/home-access-plus/113933-booking-system-split-resources-5.html#post976053

[nickbro]

Some kind of server status / system notice board wold be great - especially as most people is hap to access RDC and they use it in windows where work may be planned...

 

Can you expand a bit more on this? Are you after some more live tiles with server information or something else?

[mattianuk]

Literally a page that pings certain servers/common school services, and allows a blog style update of events/ planned outages. Perhaps even allowing staff to get updates via email?

 

If you can create a live tile that links to it with a snapshot of info on it, all the better.

 

I know it's not what hap is built for, but fits in with the help desk side, and as I say, work here normally happens after school, when they are using HAP to access stuff.

 

Would be good if for internal access no login was required?

 

If you could link in a tile like you did the calendar for desktop as well... Well... Ideal (any network notices/outages) #pushingtheboundaries

Edited May 30, 2013 by mattianuk

[nickbro]

The live tiles support getting a servers uptime, I use it to get uptimes of all my servers.

 

For the coming events and planned outages, maybe use a shared exchange calendar, and use it that way, of sorts.

 

You can always make an aspx page and edit that yourself, reference the masterpage and your away.

 

I will add a page that shows a bit more info from an EWS calendar, that way you could write notes on a outage in a Calendar appointment, and have a live tile link to that page, how does that sound?

[mattianuk]

Yeah, I use it, but its more for staff, I suppose a homepage section with all the servers on it would d a similar job apart from the announcement bit...

[nickbro]

@mattianuk try the attached update

 

The hapConfig.xml you will need to get it to work is:

 

I setup a equipment calendar called Network Maintenance (netmain)

 

In that calendar I then added the planned network maintenance.

 

Using EWS HAP+ queries OWA for planned maintenance.

 

The live tile shows the subjects and clicking on the tile will, instead of going to the url, will load a popup box showing the full messages from the server, with a button to Open the url that was hidden.

 

See what you think

[Paul-K]

Hi Nick,

 

Just a quick thought for future releases, would it be possible to have an option to allow more information to be saved to the SQL database like the web log can, for example, the booking and help desk, possibly even the HAP+ settings could be stored in a table too. Just an idea as I am not sure how easy this is to implement.

[nickbro]

For the hapSettings I cannot see a need for it, as the configuration in xml format is easily editable, and is heavily cached.

 

As for the other sections, once again having the data stored in XML allows me to quickly expand those sections without requiring update scripts to run against a SQL Table (which can cause issues). It also allows for people to edit the files quickly.

 

In all 3 cases, the xml files are heavily cached, and IO read/writes only take place when the application starts up or when a file is changed.

 

As long as the XML files are kept 'CLEAN' there wouldn't be a need to use SQL.

 

I don't know though, rewriting for SQL would be very time consuming, and wouldn't have any observable differences, from my prospective. Security isn't an issue as the only people who can write to the app_data folder is the IIS App Pool and Administrators. Passwords are encrypted in the configuration file, and one config file will not work on another server, as the password encryption uses machine specific data to ensure that it can't be read anywhere but the location that created it.

[Paul-K]

Hi Nick,

 

That makes perfect sense, I didn't consider the idea much I was just thinking that the data would all be central in one DB and possibly quicker to access in the help desk instance if the file grew quite big. No worries and thanks for explaining.

[mattianuk]

@nickbro Get 2 following errors - stops both the whole school calendar and this new one:

 

Method not found: 'Boolean HAP.Web.Configuration.SMTP.get_EWSUseEmailoverAN()'.

 

[nickbro]

Ah, grab the Alpha release from here and then update with what I attached: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/home-access-plus/113933-booking-system-split-resources-5.html#post976053

[mattianuk]

Thats got the whole school calendar working again - struggling still with the mailbox - get told The specified folder could not be found in the store., server logs show:

 

An error occurred in Home Access Plus+

 

Page: Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices

 

Connection did not succeed. Try again later.

 

 

Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ServiceResponseException: Connection did not succeed. Try again later.

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ServiceResponse.InternalThrowIfNecessary()

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MultiResponseServiceRequest`1.Execute()

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService.FindAppointments(FolderId parentFolderId, CalendarView calendarView)

at HAP.Web.LiveTiles.ExchangeConnector.AppointmentsInfoWeek(String mailbox)

at SyncInvokeExchangeCalendarInfo(Object , Object[] , Object[] )

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage31(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

 

 

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ServiceResponse.InternalThrowIfNecessary()

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MultiResponseServiceRequest`1.Execute()

at Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService.FindAppointments(FolderId parentFolderId, CalendarView calendarView)

at HAP.Web.LiveTiles.ExchangeConnector.AppointmentsInfoWeek(String mailbox)

at SyncInvokeExchangeCalendarInfo(Object , Object[] , Object[] )

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage31(MessageRpc& rpc)

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

 

Have I set up the mailbox right? I just did a new equipment mailbox?

Edited May 31, 2013 by mattianuk

[beneal]

There's a couple of booking system features that I've thought would have been useful recently:

 

- Ability to book the same period for several weeks in a row.

 

- Harder maybe - ablity to add static bookings 'from date x' or 'until date x'

 

We haven't actually been brave enough to upgrade to v9 yet so apologies if any of this is already possible

[TheScarfedOne]

Can we set the Column widths...I cant see how in v9 at the moment, I had tweeked it in v8...but because of the CSS changes for split bookings Im loathed to mess with it...

[nickbro]

@TheScarfedOne There should be a min-width defined in the bookingsystem.css file (200px I think)

[TheScarfedOne]

Ta, will do a search later on knew it would be something simples

[TheScarfedOne]

@nickbro found two entries of this,

 

#bookingday .body a, #bookingday .body .share, #bookingday h1 { display: block; position: relative; z-index: 10; margin: 2px 0 
0 2px; float: left; font-size: 12px; min-width: 134px; padding: 10px 10px; min-height: 38px; height: 100%; background-color: 
#eee; text-decoration: none; color: #666; cursor: default; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; }

 

But changing this entry made no difference.

 

The other was

 

#searchresults span { min-width: 60px; display: inline-block; }

 

which im assuming isnt the one I after.

[nickbro]

It will be the first one, odd that it doesn't work. It's based on %. You can have a look at the css at the top of ~/bookingsystem/default.aspx

[calwyn]

Hi.

It would be nice to have resources tied to rooms.

 

eg. School Hall has available: Screen & Projector, Microphones, CD Player, DVD Player & Computer.... so it would be nice to have tick boxes to select any of them items to be made ready when the room is booked.

[TheScarfedOne]

It will be the first one, odd that it doesn't work. It's based on %. You can have a look at the css at the top of ~/bookingsystem/default.aspx

 

Ive checked im editting the right css file (ive got the colour modifications working nicely ) - and put it to be a "crazy" number like 20px - and its not making a difference. Making sure clearing cache out as well just to be sure. Any ideas?

[nickbro]

Min width is just that a minimum width, it will use % above that. If it's not then I don't know why that should be the setting

[TheScarfedOne]

I'll screen grab tomorrow, it stretches off beyond the page creating a horizontal scroll