Configuring the User Interface
From CollectiveAccess
Configuring the Online User Interface allows you to tailor your workflow to your institution's needs. Not only does the UI editor determine what Metadata Elements appear for each Type of record in your collection, but it allows you to organize and group them in a manner that makes sense to you.
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Creating a New Editor
Navigate to Manage > System Configuration in the Global Navigation bar and Select "User Interfaces" from the sidebar menu. This loads the list of all of the Editors already in your system. Click the "New" icon in the upper right hand corner to create a new Editor.
- Enter a Display Name for your Editor.
- If your system supports multiple languages, select the applicable language from the Locale drop-down menu.
- To create display information in an additional language, click "+Add Title" and repeat the above steps for the alternate display information.
- Is system UI? - Specify whether this is a System User Interface. If you a creating a custom editor, the answer will usually be "no."
- Editor Type - Select the Primary Type that you will use this Editor for
- Color/Icon - If you would like to personalize your new Editor with a color and icon, you can choose them here.
Click Save to create the Editor. This will send you back to the main Editor list. To add Screens to your Editor, find your new Editor in the list and click the "Edit" icon.
Adding Screens to an Editor
Screens are the "pages" that contain your Metadata Elements and bundles. These are useful for grouping similar types of information into one view. If your Editor will only contain a few Metadata Elements, you may choose to display them all on one Screen.
Once you have selected your new Editor from the main Editor list, click the "+Add Screen" button. This opens the Screen Editor.
- Enter a Display Name for your Screen.
- If your system supports multiple languages, select the applicable language from the Locale drop-down menu.
- To create display information in an additional language, click "+Add Title" and repeat the above steps for the alternate display information.
- Id number - Enter a unique ID number for your screen
- Is default screen? - Select if this screen will be the initial view when you open the Editor
- Color/Icon - If you would like to personalize your Screen with a color and icon, you can choose them here.
Click Save to create your new Screen. You will see the Screen name appear at the bottom of the page. To create another Screen, click the "+Add Screen" button and repeat the above steps.
Each Screen name is displayed with four icons preceding it. The first two are +plus and -minus icons. These will move your Screens up or down the list, allowing you change the order in which they appear in the Editor. The next icon is the "Edit" icon, which will open your Screen for editing and allow you to add and order Metadata Elements within them (see below). The last icon will delete your Screen from the list.
Adding Metadata Elements to Screens
Click the Edit icon to open the Screen Editor. A list titled "Bundle Placements" will appear at the bottom of the page. Click "Add Bundle" to begin adding Metadata Elements to your screen.
A drop-down menu will appear with the names of all of the Metadata Elements in your system. Select the Metadata Element you wish to add, and click the green arrow to add it to the Screen. Please note that any Metadata Elements you created (either through your Installation Profile or the Online Interface) will be labeled by ca_attribute followed by the element code.
Repeat the above steps until you have added all of the required Metadata Elements to your Screen. You can use the +plus and -minus icons to move your Elements up and down the Screen, or change their order. To remove a Metadata Element from the Screen, click the red X icon.
Some Notes on Configuring Editors
It is clear that any collection contains a diverse range of objects, all of which probably require different types of Metadata. The standard Providence installation contains an Editor for each Primary Type. You may find that you need more differentiation than this in your collection. However, before going on to create a different Editor for every Object Type in your collection, consider reviewing the Type Restrictions feature of your Metadata Elements. At first it may seem that a sculpture and a painting require very different cataloging, but when you consider all of the fields they have in common (creation date, artist, dimensions, provenance, etc) it may make more sense to make a common editor and weed out the differences on a Metadata Element level. When configuring Metadata profiles for institutions, we find that the latter is often the case!
