| Getting Around the Interface
The CCP is fairly intutive, and uses standard interfaces across all pages. This chapter seeks to explain the structure of various pages of the CCP. Most of the content of this section will not be apparent to you immediately. However it will be useful to just brush through this section quickly.
Almost all the pages of the CCP consist of THREE Sections: - The Information Bar: This is a black bar, just below the Header. This bar contains basic information, such as your Name, and also a Logout button. It mainly serves as a separator bar more than anything else
- The Menu Bar: Except when you are not logged in, you will see a JavaScript based Menu Bar across all pages. This Menubar allows you to navigate through and access the various functions of the CCP. This Menu bar is essentially similar in functionality to a Menu Bar in most Windows applications
- The Screen Area: This is where the current page functionality is accessed, such as Forms, Lists, Detailed views etc. Most of the pages displayed in the Screen Area have a Toolbar on the top of the Screen Area. This toolbar allows you to access various functionality of that page. For instance if you are seeing a List of Orders, the Toolbar just above the Order list will have buttons to Execute a selected Order, Cancel a Selected Order, Search through the list, Add an Order etc.
There are chiefly three kinds of pages throughout the CCP, displayed in the Screen Area -
I] Forms
Forms are typically pages which gather information. This could be for placing an Order, or Managing an Order, or otherwise. Forms typically consist of Form Fields. Standard Form Fields such as Tel No, Address etc are obvious. Any non-Standard Form Field is always explained with either instructions above it, or a tooltip next to it. The tooltip is in the form of a question mark next to the Form Field. It will display instruction when you move your mouse over the tooltip.
All Forms have inbuilt validation code, so if you make any mistake in entering data (such as wrong email address format) or miss out anything, the same Form page will load up with the appropriate error highlighted.
II] List View
List Views are typically lists of a particular entity such as Orders, Transactions, Customers etc. All Lists always appear in multiple pages with the facility to browse from page to page, as well as directly jump to any page. All List views consist of the following components
Toolbar: The Toolbar in a List view contains buttons relevant to that List. There is invariably a Search option for each List. Infact most List Views have a Simple Search and an Advanced Search. The Simple Search is a part of the toolbar, which allows you to make a Search on a common parameter of the List. The Advanced Search is not displayed by default. There is an Advanced Search button in the Toolbar which takes you to the Advanced Search option. Once you press the button the Advanced Search form continues to be displayed at the bottom of the list for any further Searches.
List Columns: Each List has various Column Headings which represent the Columns of that list. These Column Headings are clickable to Sort that list in Ascending or Descending Order by that Column. For instance in the "Order List", if I click on the "Order Description" column heading it will sort the Order List by the Order Description, Ascending. Then if I click on the "Order Description" column heading again, it will sort the Order List by the Order Desctiption, Descending.
List Rows: After the columns are displayed rows of information. There are some rows which may have checkboxes depending on the context. For instance List Orders has some orders with checkboxes, which can be selected to Execute or Cancel those orders. Additionally some fields of information in a Row maybe linked to detailed views. For instance in a Order List, the "Order Description" is linked to the Detailed view of the Order, while the "Customer ID" Field is linked to the Detailed view of the Customer Profile.
Page Numbers: Following the actual List are the page numbers. If the List extends over 1 page then you will see a number of pages there with links to directly go to a particular page, as well as a box to directly jump to a page. The current page link will be inactive to let you know which page you are on. There are also 4 other arrow buttons. The double arrow buttons on both sides of the page numbers take you to the First and Last Page of the list correspondingly. At any time a block of 10 page numbers is displayed. The single arrow buttons on both sides of this block will take you to the next or previous block of 10 pages correspondingly.
Advanced Search: Depending on whether the Advanced Search button was clicked by you or not, an Advanced Search form maybe displayed at the bottom of the List
III] Detailed View
Each item in the CCP has a list view and a detailed view. For instance you can see a list of Orders, as well as a detailed view of a single Order. Each Detailed View typically consists of the following components
Toolbar: The Toolbar in a Detailed view contains buttons relevant to that entity. For instance in the Order Detailed view there would be buttons to "Manage the Order", or "Extend the Order".
Details: The Detailed View has the details of that particular Entity. For instance incase of the detailed view of an Order you would have complete Order Information.
Special Instructions: Several Detailed views might have some special instructions based on the current state of that entity. For instance if an Order is Pending, then its detailed view would tell you the action that is Pending against that Order with relevant buttons to Execute or Cancel the same. |
