> > Short of manually editing the logbook files, is there a way I can change the
> > date of an entry?  I want to transfer my "Linux Journal", which I have been
> > writing as a regular document for several months, into elog so I can take
> > advantage of the threading, sorting, find, etc.
> 
> You cannot change the entry date, since this is kind of system stamp which 
> should not be modified. But you can add an attribute like "Issue" for your 
> Linux Journal, where you can add manually the month and year of release or so. 
> Then you can preset this attribute with the current date, which you can change 
> for older issues, like
> 
> Attributes = ...., Issue
> Preset Issue = $date
> Date format = %B %Y
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> - Stefan


Yes! Thank you.  But now another question.  How can I hide the entry date
attribute on the summary screens and automatically sort by Issue?  No point in
showing both dates.

> > > Short of manually editing the logbook files, is there a way I can change the
> > > date of an entry?  I want to transfer my "Linux Journal", which I have been
> > > writing as a regular document for several months, into elog so I can take
> > > advantage of the threading, sorting, find, etc.
> > 
> > You cannot change the entry date, since this is kind of system stamp which 
> > should not be modified. But you can add an attribute like "Issue" for your 
> > Linux Journal, where you can add manually the month and year of release or so. 
> > Then you can preset this attribute with the current date, which you can change 
> > for older issues, like
> > 
> > Attributes = ...., Issue
> > Preset Issue = $date
> > Date format = %B %Y
> > 
> > Hope this helps.
> > 
> > - Stefan
> 
> 
> Yes! Thank you.  But now another question.  How can I hide the entry date
> attribute on the summary screens and automatically sort by Issue?  No point in
> showing both dates.


I figured out how to hide columns, using the "Display search" parameter.  (BTW,
suggest you modify the Administrator manual to mention that "Display search" applies
  to the initial display as well as any "Find"s.  I had seen this, but assumed it
only applied to actual search results.)  Still have not figured out how to change
the default sort attribute however.

> I figured out how to hide columns, using the "Display search" parameter.  (BTW,
> suggest you modify the Administrator manual to mention that "Display search" applies
>   to the initial display as well as any "Find"s.  I had seen this, but assumed it
> only applied to actual search results.) 

Fully agree. The name comes from historical reasons. I renamed "Display search" 
to "List Display". Will come in the next version.

> Still have not figured out how to change
> the default sort attribute however.

There is a little trick to do that:

Start page = ?rsort=Issue

Since sorting is done only lexically, you need a special date format like

Date format = %Y %m %d

in order to sort correctly.

> > I figured out how to hide columns, using the "Display search" parameter.  (BTW,
> > suggest you modify the Administrator manual to mention that "Display search" applies
> >   to the initial display as well as any "Find"s.  I had seen this, but assumed it
> > only applied to actual search results.) 
> 
> Fully agree. The name comes from historical reasons. I renamed "Display search" 
> to "List Display". Will come in the next version.
> 
> > Still have not figured out how to change
> > the default sort attribute however.
> 
> There is a little trick to do that:
> 
> Start page = ?rsort=Issue
> 
> Since sorting is done only lexically, you need a special date format like
> 
> Date format = %Y %m %d
> 
> in order to sort correctly.

Thanks again!  That did the trick.  One little hassle is that I had to go back and edit
all the Issue fields in my existing records so they would have the correct date format.

Rock on OSS!

I have had this installed for about two weeks now and it seems to be working
fine. I haven't seen any problems at all and none of the other users have
reported any.

Thanks.  This is very helpful.

> > Is there a way to configure elog so users that have their email notification
> > on only get notified for updates to logs they have access to? I've looked
> > all through the documentation and I can't seem to find a way to do this.
> 
> I guess you have a global password file and use "login user" statements for 
> your logbooks. I have added some code which does per default not send any 
> email to people who are not in the "login user" list, in case this list is 
> present. New code under CVS. Please give it a try and let me know if it works 
> for you.
> 
> - STefan

   I would like to implement ELOG as a logbook for our Windows 2000 
servers.  After making the recommendation, my supervisor replied: 

"The problem and perhaps the only problem is what happens when the server 
is down. Electronic log books should be able to replicate from more than 
one source so you can document let’s say from your laptop – and upload to 
the server later."

   Can anyone help me out here with some scenarios to improve fault-
tolerance?  

   Perhaps installing it on multiple servers and synchronizing the data 
and config folders with the NT File Replication Service?  

   Or installing it on one server and each administrator's laptop and 
using Offline Files to synchronize the data?

Any feedback would be appreciated,

Shawn Larson

I was thinking since some time already about mirroring between elog servers, 
and actually started already some implementation.

The problem with mirroring on the file level does not work. Assume two 
servers "serv1" and "serv2". Then assume that one message gets submitted on 
serv1 and at the same day another message gets submitted on serv2. Now you 
have on both servers a file 030726a.log, but you cannot copy this file 
simply from one server to the other, since you would overwrite the message 
submitted on the other server. Furthermore, you need file level access, 
which is maybe easy between your laptop and your desktop computer, but not 
if the two mirror servers are in different countries. Like in our 
collaboration we have three servers located in Switzerland, Italy and Japan 
(meg.psi.ch, meg.pi.infn.it, meg.icepp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp), where we cannot 
have direct disk access.

So what I propose is the following mirror scheme:

o Each elog server may contain a list of mirror servers in the configuration 
file

o Each elog server calculates an MD5 checksum from all local messages

o Synchronization between servers can be triggered manually (by clicking 
on "Synchronize") or automatically at a given time and interval

o On Synchronization, the elogd server fetches the MD5 list from the mirror 
server and compares it with the local list

o If a message has been edited remotely but not locally, it's fetched and 
stored locally, same in the other direction

o If a message got edited on both sides since the last synchronization, the 
user is asked to resolve the conflict (keep local or keep remote message)

o If there is a new message locally, its submitted at the remote server, but 
with the same submission date/time as locally, same in the other direction

o If new messages are present on both sides, their message ID is changed so 
that it is unique, then they are copied over. If there are already replies 
to this message, their link (using the message ID) is changed accordingly

So I plan to implement this scheme in the next time. The MD5 checksum is 
already there. If anybody has comments or additional wishes concerning 
mirroring, telling them right now would be great, since I then can 
accomodate them easier during the implementation.

- Stefan

Is this possible?  If so, could you provide an example:

I'm trying to find a way that when you do a search, that you can filter 
entries using ( = , <>, AND) on one or more attributes.
ex:  Find all workstations for this subnet, but exclude a particular one.
Thats the basic idea.

Can it be done? If so, how?

Thanks,
Eric