Scheduling

[osborne]

A few points about the schedule:

• It seems odd to me not to list the authors on the schedule. (I've added them to my system and have changed the format a bit: see https://ww2.economics.utoronto.ca/ocs/index.php/cetc/2009/schedConf/schedule).
• If (like most of the conferences I attend) there is only one session, in one room, the format, with itemized lists consisting of a single item, seems a bit odd.
• Special events are listed at the bottom of the schedule, separately from the other events. There must be some logic behind that format, but it doesn't work for me. I have changed the code to list events and presentations in order (by adding
  ksort($itemsByTime);
  after
  unset($specialEvents);
  in the schedule function of the SchedConfHandler).
• Having integrated special events into the schedule, I can use them to indicate coffee/tea, lunch, and dinner breaks. (I couldn't see any other way to indicate such breaks.) I've done a bit more in my system: I've added a "type" field to the special_events table, where type is an ID for "Coffee/tea break", "Lunch", ..., so that I can format these events differently in the template.
• One of my Special Event types is "Session chair". I can then use that to indicate chairs of sessions, altering the format in the template to omit the time. (This is slightly important for my conference, because some people can get travel money to the conference if they are session chairs ...)

[osborne]

A couple more suggestions:

• It would save a lot of clicks if one could specify a default session length and the form updated the end time appropriately whenever the start time of a session was changed. E.g. I specify a default session length of 30 minutes; when I change the start time of a session to 10:30, the end time is automatically updated to 11:00.
• Clicks could also be saved if the system remembered the last date entered (assuming the user schedules sessions in temporal order). Even better, it could remember the ending time of the last session and make that the default start time of the session being edited.

[mcrider]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the great tips--I've filed this as a feature request: http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4260, feel free to CC yourself to the bug entry to be informed of updates on it's implementation.

Cheers,
Matt

[MarkV]

Have the changes indicated above been implemented in 2.1.1.2? From the link it indicated a patch against pre-2.3. If not, any thoughts on how to implement having author names appear in the schedule, hide locations at the top of the schedule, and other changes that are part of this patch. Showing authors with the title is my major concern.

Using Martin's suggestion I was able to change the SchedConfHandler to sort special events with other events. I am not very clear on how to use the templates used in OCS, but I can make simple changes to code.

Thanks for any help.

Mark

[osborne]

I don't know the answer to your opening question, but changing templates is easy. (Note however that if you make changes and then subsequently upgrade your version, you'll lose the changes.)

Look at
templates/schedConf/schedule.tpl
Find the last cell in the table, near the bottom of the file. I've copied below the cell from my version of the file (I don't remember what the original looks like). This version puts a link to the website of any presenter who has a URL on file.
<td width="88%">
<div class="hang">
{foreach from=$item->getPresenters() item=presenter name=presenterList key=key}
{if $presenter->getUrl()}<a href="{$presenter->getUrl()}" target="_blank">{/if}{$presenter->getFullName()|escape}{if $presenter->getUrl()}</a>{/if}{if $presenter->getPrimaryContact()}*{/if}{if $key < count($item->getPresenters())-2},{elseif !$smarty.foreach.presenterList.last}{if count($item->getPresenters()) >2},{/if} and{else},{/if}
{/foreach}
<a class="action" href="{url page="paper" op="view" path=$item->getBestPaperId()}">{$item->getPaperTitle()|escape}</a>
{assign var=roomId value=$item->getRoomId()}
{if $roomId && $allRooms[$roomId]}
{assign var=room value=$allRooms[$roomId]}
{assign var=buildingId value=$room->getBuildingId()}
{assign var=building value=$buildingsAndRooms.$buildingId.building}
{if $building}<br/>{translate key="manager.scheduler.building"}:&nbsp;{$building->getBuildingName()|escape}{/if}
<br/>{translate key="manager.scheduler.room"}:&nbsp;{$room->getRoomName()}
{/if}
</div>
</td>

[jmacgreg]

Hi Mark,

No, these changes weren't implemented in the OCS 2.1.x (stable) line, although they will appear in the upcoming major release (2.3). Along with Martin's suggestion, you may also want to take a look at the patch to see if you can implement it against your current version of OCS.

Cheers,
James

[MarkV]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I was able to use the code to make the necessary changes to my page for now. It also helped me understand the template system more. As I have time I will dig in deeper.

Mark

[jamief]

HI. This thread intersests me as well. I think the scheduling part of OCS needs an alternative VIEW for the kinds of conferences that have simultaneous sessions in various locations.

Conference attendees are accustomed to seeing ONE VIEW table of all the conference (usually an excel type view).

This would mean something like:

DATE
Building 1

9:00-10:00 REGISTRATION
10:00 - 11:00 INAUGURAL ADDRESS (Plenary)
11:00 -11:30 COFFEE

BUILDING 2
ROOM 1 ROOM 2 ROOM 3
12:00-14:00 PAPER 1 PAPER 2 PAPER 3

ETC. with paper_detail links on each presentation.

This probably means a complete overhaul of the scheduling system.
I see the need to create "time blocks" for a conference (based on the number and lengths of paper presentations, coffee, lunch, round tables etc.)
I'll be having a look at how to either modify or create a new view for this type of display. If that is impossible, then I will have to make a separate schedule handler that I could link to the ocs database, but which would have its own admin panel.

Can I get a copy of some of the hacked templates to see what has been accomplished so far?

[jamief]

For my purposes, the vast majority of conferences pretty much require a view of the conference sessions in this fashion:

http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2006/timetable/timetable.php

Perhaps there needs to be a second template available on the OCS to produce that kind of page (allowing the admins to choose between a FLAT view and a TABLED view of the conference programme.

Otherwise the organisers of a conference have to duplicate the work to achieve that document in PDF format.

In another opensource system I am looking at, this possibility exists, albeit with some technical issues, by creating a script which pulls database information, using an accompanied template, to produce LaTEX files. These latex files can then be converted through a PDFLATEX converter to produce html pages and PDF documents (Programme, Abstracts book, List of Speakers, etc.) This seems to me to be an excellent addon. At any point in time the admin runs a TEX script to generate the .TEX files, overwriting any existing .tex file in its folder. The templates are all editable, allowing considerable decision on colours etc.

That said. Any thoughts on how, for now, I might produce a PROGRAMME TABLE like the one in the URL above? I really cannot impress enough on the need for conference attendees to see, in a glance, the whole conference (if its modest enough in its design) and to print that from a web or pdf to keep with them.

[jmacgreg]

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for your expanded thoughts on this. We've just entered testing mode for OCS 2.3, which includes a number of scheduler improvements, but as of yet no table-based schedule display option. I've added your request as a feature request here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4723. Please feel free to CC yourself to the report for further updates, and to add any other comments you may think are helpful there. Of course, third-party developments towards this kind of functionality are also more than welcome!

Cheers,
James

[jamief]

We are currently hacking the schedule.tpl file to produce a table effect.

For development purpose, I am seeing that the shedule of each item (paper and special event) contains the times. This is probably a stumbling block for future development.

Probably, like in a lot of booking software solutions, an independent table of time blocks needs to be made avaialable.
This would make timetabling a 2 step operation, for sure (construction of the dates and times for the conference on the one hand, and then assigning a paper to a slot on the other, but in the end, would be more adaptable for different kinds of scheduling issues, for example assigning rooms and/or buildings availability blocks if required. All bookings (papers, rooms, and buildings) would work from the same pre-set finite list of time blocks, enabling limitations to be more precise. For example, at this point, it is possible to double book a room without knowing it initially. i.e. put two papers in.

But more importantly the table to be displayed, using times as the main order of display, has no table. In a detail view, a 10:00 paper given by John Doe has no time link to a 10:00 paper given to Jane Doe. So you cannot easily display an array for 10:00, because it is not in a table but rather in a field within the paper table.

Ill see how my programmer handles this issue in the next few days.

Probably we will have to move towards creating a time periods table, and rewrite code to address those fields rather than the ones in the paper.dbf

Colour styling the table is a whole other issue I haven't even looked at. This will depend if people generally use their colours for Distinguishing between the rows (i.e. for cosmetic purpose, or for categories of presentations (round table, social activities, plenary, papers, symposium etc.) Again, I think this requires a more complex database than the two categories that are presently used.

[asmecher]

Hi jamief,

You might want to take a look at the CVS version of OCS -- it allows you to create and assign time blocks *or* schedule directly by date and time. There's information on setting up the CVS version at http://pkp.sfu.ca/wiki/index.php/Information_for_Developers.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jamief]

You might want to take a look at the CVS version of OCS -- it allows you to create and assign time blocks *or* schedule directly by date and time. There's information on setting up the CVS version at http://pkp.sfu.ca/wiki/index.php/Information_for_Developers.

Hi. Well I have been battling for over 2 hours to make a connection to the CVS using a windows client, and I think the CVS thing is going to be too much for me to get my head around. It's not possible to get a hold of the files to download and install on my computer and work local host?

[asmecher]

Hi Jamief,

Sorry, CVS is the only way to get a copy of the development code. I'm not particularly familiar with Windows-based CVS clients, but I know TortoiseCVS has a good reputation.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[jamief]

Sorry, CVS is the only way to get a copy of the development code. I'm not particularly familiar with Windows-based CVS clients, but I know TortoiseCVS has a good reputation.

You were right. TortoiseCVS is a dream: TortoiseCVS for dummies. I managed to get it up and running and downloaded the CVS in less than 10 minutes.

Thanks again

Okay, now I have the CVS. What do I have? a version that needs to be installed locally? Or do I physically move stuff (files) into a clean installation?
How does TEST the CVS version? The wiki is not very helpful in this regard!