> For a large class it might be a bit cumbersome to set it up this way.

What you can do is put most of the configuration options into the [global] section,
such as

[global]
Attributes = ...
Password file = ...
...
Admin user = teacher

[John]
Login user = john
[Joe]
Login user = joe
[Fred]
Login user = fred

In this case, each logbook only requires two lines, while all the other options are
inherited from the [global] section. The "login user" restricts logins only to a
single student, which the teachis has admin rights for all logbooks. The teacher can
reply to individual students by writing into their "personal" logbook, or he can set
up a dedicated teacher logbook which everybody can read (Just omit the 'login user').

> Is there a way to disable editing of the textarea, but still allow editing 
> of other fields in the entry? (e.g. Fixed Attributes Edit = Text)

I could add that option, but I don't know if it helps you (see below).

> Also, is the data entered in that field accessible through a variable like 
> $author? I tried $text, but that doesn't seem to work.

No, that won't work. Attributes are limite to some 500 characters, while the
text body is limited to 250000 characters. If you add $text to an attribute, it
would overflow or you would have to truncate the text, which I guess is not
good in both cases.

If you still want "Fixed attributes edit = text", please explain me you exact
case and I will consider implementing it.

> The problem I have is I want to have a main selection type page so when a
> user enters ELOG they see this page with links on it to main logbook groups.

I added a new flag

Show top groups = 1

which shows the list of to groups. Hope this is what you want. The new version
is available from CVS (see download page).

Great! That takes care of the problem for sure.

Cheers once again for such a quick response.

GL.


//we use ELog very extensively internally, it's great, especially now with
replication//


> > The problem I have is I want to have a main selection type page so when a
> > user enters ELOG they see this page with links on it to main logbook groups.
> 
> I added a new flag
> 
> Show top groups = 1
> 
> which shows the list of to groups. Hope this is what you want. The new version
> is available from CVS (see download page).

> I have setup top group in my elog . I will want to restrict the different 
> admin user on the global and the global on top groups .
> But however i am not able to use the configuration on "admin user" on the 
> global portion to strict admin of top group to access the main global 
> config .
> Did i configure it wrongly or is there a way?

There was indeed a bug which I fixed. Please obtain the newest snapshot (see
download page). If an admin user is defined in a top group, it does not gain
access to the global if the admin of the global is different, like

[gloabl]
password file = passwd
admin user = joe

Top group g1 = demo1, demo2
Top group g2 = demo3, demo4

[global g1]
admin user = joe

[gloabl g2]
admin user = jack

[demo1]
....

So if user "jack" is logged in to demo3 and therefore g2, he can change the
[global g2] section, but not the [global] section, since only user "joe" is
allowed to so do.

> And for email notification , is there a way which i can select who to email 
> it to ? like check box etc.

This is not directly implemented, but one can configure this kind of "manually",
like

Attributes = ..., Send Email, ...
ROptions Send Email = joe, jack, ...

Email "Send email" joe = joe@some.domain
Email "Send email" jack = jack@other.domain

The option "Email <attribute> <value> = <email address>" gets executed when the
attribute "Send email" has the value "joe" in the first line, so email is sent
to joe@some.domain. It's a bit cumbersome since one cannot use the email
addresses from the password file, but better than nothing. 

> And is there a way which i can setup the summary page to refresh every 
> 15mins , so that new entry can be shown ?

No, this is not foreseen. One should use email notification for that, which
tells you immediately (not after 15 mins) when a new entry has been submitted.

> And can i make the message id unique , when i move the messages from one 
> log book to another log book , the messages id change accorddingly based on 
> the number or messages . Anyway for me to make it fixed even i moved to 
> another log book , i need the running number still .

The message id must be unique in a logbook (like in a relational database). If I
would keep the id when moving entries to another logbook, this could cause a
conflict. Assume you have two logbooks both with three entries having ID's
1,2,3. Now you move ID 3 from the first logbook to the second, but ID 3 exists
already in the second logbook, so you would have that ID twice, which breaks the
database structure. What you can do however is user an "numbered" attribute like

Attributes = ..., tag, ...
Preset tag = ID%d

For each new submission, the attribute "tag" gets a new number, like ID1, ID2
etc. These attributes are not modified when moving an entry to another logbook,
but if the target logbook has already an entry with the same tag, you get this
tag twice. I don't know if that is what you want...

> > Is there a way to disable editing of the textarea, but still allow editing 
> > of other fields in the entry? (e.g. Fixed Attributes Edit = Text)

I added a flag

Fix text = 0|1

A division in "fix text edit/fix text reply" does not make sense here, since I only
can lock the whole textfield, therefor just the switch.

New version under CVS (see download page).

Is it possible to add one more "text entry" field ?

> Is it possible to add one more "text entry" field ?

I guess you mean the main body text, which is multi-line. No, this is not
possible right, now, but I added your vote to the wishlist istem "Multi-line
attributes".