Slides Report Page

Purpose

This page gives you access to all available reports based on your Slide records. Some of these reports will generate a LaTeX source file, others will be rendered on-line as HTML, and others yet will offer you a choice between these two output methods.

The same page handles all report modes and fomats, the selected mode depending on the parameters passed through the calling URL (i.e., from the user's point of view, the exact link used to reach the page: see next section).

Getting There...

To reach any of the available Slide reports:

From the Main Application Menu (or indeed almost any other Project Hirtius page), click on the "Manage Slides" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Slides List.
Scroll to the bottom of the Slides List (no matter which segment of the list is currently displayed -- you can simply press the [End] key).
From the related pages menu at the bottom of the list (between the list proper and the page footer), click the link for the report that interests you:
- Slide index
- Tray index
- Slide book

Each of these reports is described in the next section.

Modes

Each report available from this page is handled in the code by a mode parameter, as specified in the calling URL. Each of these modes will generate a different report, as described below.

Slide index

The Slide Index is available both in HTML and LaTeX format. It will give you a summary listing of all the Slides in the collection, including such fields as:

slide ID
location + country
description #1 and #2
shot date, quality
tray ID

This information will be presented on one or two lines per record, depending on the output format. For the description, format and meaning of each field, please refer to the Slides Edition Page.

Irrespective of which output format you select, you can also choose among several sort orders for the report.

This report makes a great index for your Slides collection when printed ordered by slide ID. It can also be very useful to carry around during your field trips when sorted by location, as you will immediately know, when returning to an already visited place, which shots you might have missed the first time, or which were of unsatisfactory quality and need to be re-shot. For this specific application, you may want to print your PDF file as a booklet. Some information on the topic is provided in Requirements for Reporting Module.

Tray index

The overall layout of the Tray Index is quite similar to that of the previous report, but here the list is organised by Tray, and ordered by Slot within each tray.

Each Tray section header will contain the following fields:

tray ID (just ID of current tray, e.g. 005B)
tray name

For each listed Slide, you get the following fields:

slide ID
location + country
description #1 et #2
shot date
tray ID (full slide address in tray, e.g. 005B32)

For the description, format and meaning of each field, please refer to the Slide Trays Edition Page and Slides Edition Page.

This report is only available in HTML format, and no alternative sort order is offered.

Slide book

The Slide Book report is still work in progress, so not all planned features are available yet. Its aim was to provide a full dump of all the information stored in Project Hirtius about every Slide in the collection. This can rapidly become overwhelming and difficult to navigate, thereby reducing the usefulness of this report.

This report is only available in LaTeX format, and several alternative sort orders are offered.

Controls

Depending on the report you select, you may have to select additional parameters before the resulting output is produced. The available controls and their purpose depend on the chosen report (= mode).

Slide index

Sort criteria:

Selects the sort order for the Slide records in the report. The available choices are:

Slide ID
Tray ID (full slide address, i.e. tray ID + slot number)
Shot date
Location (i.e. location + country + description #1 + description #2)

Output method:

Selects the format for the resulting report. The available choices are:

Screen: the report is generated as a static HTML page, within the framework of the Project Hirtius application. This report can then be printed, exported or further manipulated through your browser.
LaTeX file: the report is generated as a single LaTeX file (a text-based format with a .tex extension), and offered for download from a special folder on the Project Hirtius server. To use this report, you should then download the file locally, build it using the LaTeX "compiler" and then convert it to PDF.

Paper format:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. It sets the paper format for the resulting PS or PDF file. The only available choices at present are "A4" and "Letter". The value of this control is ignored when the HTML output format is used.

Layout:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected AND when the sort order is set to location. In this case, instead of the default layout ("no chapter, single data block"), where the records are just listed one after the other in a single, huge block, you can also select "one chapter per letter, ToC". With the latter, a new chapter (in LaTeX parlance) will be created at the beginning of each initial letter in the data, and an auto-generated table of contents will be included at the beginning of the resulting document (this makes navigation easier for larger documents).

With abstract:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. When this checkbox is marked, an abstract will be added to the beginning of the generated document with such information as the current version of Project Hirtius, the timestamp when the report was created, and the timestamp of the latest database modification.

Font size:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. Font size to be used once the resulting LaTeX output is converted into a PS or PDF document.

Horizontal offset:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. Controls the width of the left margin once the resulting LaTeX output is converted into a PS or PDF document.

Top margin:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. Controls the height of the top margin once the resulting LaTeX output is converted into a PS or PDF document.

Head separator:

This control only makes sense when the LaTeX output format is selected. Controls the height of the white space that separates the page header from the body of the document once the resulting LaTeX output is converted into a PS or PDF document.

List all reports:

Clicking on this link will give you access in file browse mode to the folder on the Project Hirtius server where all existing reports are stored. This gives you the ability to re-download any report generated at an earlier time. Clicking on this link will NOT generate a new report.

Once you've selected the parameters for your report, click on the Submit button to generate the report. On the result page will be a link you can click to download the newly generated report. As you can see, there is no field on the report generation page to select the report file name. This is because all file names are automatically generated. Of course, you're free to change that name once you download the file from the server.

If the LaTeX format was selected for output, the report generation action will be recorded: a new entry will be added to the Event Log.

Tray index

No extra control. This report doesn't require any further parameter.

Slide book

Sort criteria:

Selects the sort order for the Slide records in the report. The available choices are:

Slide ID
Tray ID (full slide address, i.e. tray ID + slot number)
Shot date
Location (i.e. location + country + description #1 + description #2)

Paper format:

This control sets the paper format for the resulting PS or PDF file. The only available choices at present are "A4" and "Letter".

Layout:

This control only makes sense when the sort order is set to location. In this case, instead of the default layout ("no chapter, single data block"), where the records are just listed one after the other in a single, huge block, you can also select "one chapter per letter, ToC". With the latter, a new chapter (in LaTeX parlance) will be created at the beginning of each initial letter in the data, and an auto-generated table of contents will be included at the beginning of the resulting document (this makes navigation easier for larger documents).

List all reports:

The report generation action will be recorded: a new entry will be added to the Event Log.