The NTSBDC Training Calendar
Instructions for Use

Welcome to the North Texas SBDC Regional Training Calendar. This calendar contains the training events planned for all of the SBDC centers in the North Texas region.

Contents


Features

Using the NTSBDC Calendar - Click Here To Begin
Calendar Administration

The Training Calendar Help System

Features


The NTSBDC Calendar has powerfull features for viewing and entering events:


  • Database-driven layout and design


  • Instant access to information through "Quick-Day" and "Quick-Month" features


  • Results can be filtered by SBDC Office


  • Comprehensive search and reporting tools through "Find-It" and "Print It" functions


  • Full-featured recurring/repeating events support with date and weekday preview


  • Locations easily added or modified while adding events, or via a separate Location Administration screen


  • Secure, password-protected access to calendar administration features (add/edit/delete events, etc.)


  • Integrated help system with context-sensitive help screens


  • Uses Microsoft Access2000® database for events and event locations


  • Events and Locations in separate database tables for easy data entry and maintenance


  • Written in Classic ASP (widely supported on internet servers)
^ Table of Contents ^

Using the NTSBDC Calendar


The NTSBDC Calendar is easy and intuitive to use, but there are a few features that may go unnoticed by the first-time visitor. This section will explain some of the obvious and not-so-obvious workings of the calendar.

Figure 1. The Training Calendar Main Screen
In Figure 1 above you will notice four main sections:
  1. the Small Calendar display and "Today's Date" display
  2. the right-hand pane, or "Results Pane"
  3. the "Find Events" search section
  4. the "SBDC Center" dropdown list

^ Table of Contents ^


Finding Events Quickly - "Quick-Day", "Quick-Month", and "Today's Date"

The small calendar displayed on the left-hand side of the page has two functions - it serves as a visual aid, much like looking at a calendar on your wall. It's secondary function is to provide what I call the "Quick-Day" and "Quick-Month" features (see Fig. 2).

You'll notice that when you click the arrow buttons on the small calendar display, the month displayed changes. Clicking the arrows does not change search results or the behaviour of the results pane (right-hand side of page). At this point, the small calendar is just for visual reference.

If you click on one of the day slots in the calendar, the "Quick-Day" feature is invoked. This will display in the search pane all of the events occuring on that day.

The "Quick-Month" feature works the same way. If you click on the month name at the top of the small calendar, all of the events scheduled for that month are displayed.

Once you have explored the Quick-Day and Quick-Month features, and want to bring the everything back to where is was when you came here, click the white "Today is..." line just above the calendar, and the page will revert to where is was, displaying the events for today. This is the "Today's Date" display. Like the Quick-Day and Quick-Month features, it will work no matter what state the calenday is in - if you are in the middle of searching for an event, or you've used Quick-Day or Quick-Month so many times you're not sure if you're still in this century, one click of the Today's Date display will put you right back to square one.


Figure 2. The Small Calendar and Today's Date


^ Table of Contents ^

The Results Pane

The Results Pane is where events are displayed. You choose the events you want to display using the controls on the left-hand side of the page, and those events are displayed in the results pane.




The Display Events Screen

Whenever there are results displayed in the Results Pane, you may click on the title of any event, and be sent to the Display Event Screen, which will display the full details of the event. (see Fig. 3) From the Display Event screen, you have two options - the "Back to Calendar" button, which takes you back to the main calendar screen (with your previous search results still displayed), and the "Help" button, which displays the help screen you are reading now.


Figure 3. The Display Event Screen

Viewing Recurring/Repeating Events

The NTSBDC Training Calendar features a recurring/repeating events function (this function will be explained in detail in the "Calendar Administration" section).

If one of the events displayed in the results pane is a repeating or recurring event, the message:

*** This event is part of a repeating / recurring event series - click here to display all events in this series ***

will be displayed below the event date. (see Fig. 4a)

If you click on the "click here" link, all of the events in that recurring/repeating events series will be displayed in the results pane (see Fig. 4b).


Figure 4a. A Recurring Event displayed in the Results Pane


Figure 4b. Displaying Recurring/Repeating Events


^ Table of Contents ^

Find Events: Searching the Calendar's Database

The "Find Events" frame just below the small calendar display is where the real power of the NTSBDC Calendar is (see Fig. 1). This is where you perform searches for events and generate reports.

There are six fields to use when searching for events:
  • Month, Day, Year - these are self-explanatory
  • Title - This drop-down is populated with the Short Title field from each existing event in the calendar. This is not the full title, but the "short title" used in the SBA calendar.
  • City - This is a list of all the cities where SBDC centers are located. Choose the desired city, and the calendar will find all events held in that city
  • Keyword or Phrase - Enter a word or phrase to search for, and the calendar will search the title and description of each event for that word or phrase.

When using the drop-down lists, if a field is not being used in the search, it will display "-----any------", indicating that, in the search you are about to conduct, this field will not be used to limit the results of the search. If the "Month" field contains "------any-------" and the "Year" field contains "2005", you are telling the calendar "Find all events that occur in any month of the year 2005".

When you click or tab to a drop-down field, you may change it by clicking on the down-arrow beside the field and choosing a value from the list, or you can enter the first letter of the value, and the first value starting with that letter will be selected. If the first item in the list to start with that letter is not your desired choice, press the same letter again, and the second item starting with that letter will be selected. Continue pressing the same key intil your desired item is selected. For instance, if you want to search for all of the events that occur in July, you will click or tab over to the "Month" field, and press "j" three times (January, June, July). To return a drop-down field to it's default state ("-----any------"), press the "-" key (the first letter in "------any------"). *

note: This technique is common to Windows applications, and should work for most web pages and programs.



Keyword Search

To use the Keyword Search function, type the word or phrase that you wish to search for in the Keyword or Phrase field. This search is not case-sensitive, so it doesn't matter if you use upper or lower case. If you type more than one word in the field, each word will be searched for, regardless of how close it is found to the other words in the field.

For instance, typing tax returns will find an event with the words "How to figure tax returns". However, it will also find an event containing the phrase "The IRS returns overpaid taxes in their own sweet time".

Exact Phrase Search - If you wish to find a phrase exactly the way it is typed (you want to find "tax returns" but not "returns overpaid taxes"), simply surround the phrase with double-quotes ("). Using that method, typing "tax returns" will only return classes that have the word "tax" immediatly followed by "returns". IE: "Trademarks, Patents, and Copyrights" (with quotes) will return events with the words in that specific order, but will NOT include events with the phrase "Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks".


Sort Order

Below the City and Keyword fields is the Sort Order section. This section determines the order in which events are displayed in the results pane. If nothing is changed in the Sort Order section, the results will be sorted by date, and then by title. The Sort Order section allows you to change that behaviour. Choose your primary sort field from the "Sort #1" drop-down and choose "Ascending" or "Descending" order. If you wish to use a secondary sort field, repeat the above procedure for "Sort #2". You may sort by date and/or by title.

When you click "Find It", the search will be conducted and the results displayed in the results pane. If you click "Print It", you will be taken to an advanced search screen, where you will have greater control over the way the search results are displayed/printed. Reports can be generated with as much or little detail as needed, and searches can be appended together to create reports with combined search criteria. See the "Print It" section for details.

The "Reset All Fields" button resets the fields that you have modified.

^ Table of Contents ^



Figure 5. The Small Calendar Display
with Collin SBDC Events Highlighted

The SBDC Office Drop-down

At the top of the left-hand side of the page, you will notice a drop-down list labeled "SBDC Office". This field filters all searches, Quick-Day, and Quick-Month results. If "------------- All Centers -------------" is selected, the filter is not in effect, and searches, Quick-Day, and Quick-Month features will behave as normal, displaying results from all events regardless of location. When you select an SBDC office from the list, the dates when events are scheduled for that office will be highlighted in blue (see Fig. 5), and all subsequent search, Quick-Day, and Quick-Month results will include only those presented by the selected SBDC Office.

This filter will remain in effect until the SBDC dropdown is returned to the "------------- All Centers -------------" selection. When "All Centers" is selected, days of scheduled events are not highlighted.





^ Table of Contents ^

Print It: More Powerful Searches and Reports

The "Print It" function is not a typical "printer-friendly page" feature found on most websites, where the information on the page is simply re-formatted to fit well on a printed page. The "Print It" function is actually a powerful reports tool, giving you increased control over the information in the calendar database.

The "Print It" page is divided into three main sections (see Fig. 6):
  1. the Report Title field
  2. the Field Display section
  3. the Search Criteria section


Figure 6. The "Print It" Page
The Report Title field is a text box where you type the title for your report. This is strictly superficial - enter whatever you want displayed at the top of the report (ie: "Paris SBDC Tax Classes for March & April, 2005").

The field display section allows you to choose which fields are displayed in your report. This section doesn't affect the actual search process. (ie: you may search on the "Title" field, yet not have the titles displayed in your report.)

The search criteria section is where the real work is done. Enter the info you want to search for just as in the main screen "Find Events" section, and click either "Print Report" or "Append to Current Report", and your report will be displayed in your browser for your review. Within a few seconds, the Print Settings window will appear, and you can print the report as you would print anything in Windows (see Fig. 7). If the Print Settings window comes up before you have sufficiently read through the report, or if you want to add more items to the report, you may move the window out of the way, or press "Cancel" in the window to close it. To return to the "Print It" screen, use the back-arrow button on your browser.


Figure 7. The "Print It" Results Page with Printer Settings Dialog
To use the "Append to Current Report" button, you need to first do a normal search, clicking the "Print Report" button to confirm the correct results, close the printer window and return to the "Print It" page. Then do a second search and click "Append to Current Report". You will then be able to check the final results, or go back and append another search if needed.

Use your browser's back button to return from the "Print It" page back to the calendar.
Examples of Search Results






Figure 8. Displaying Title, Date, Time, and Description,
and searching for keyword/phrase = "tax"







Figure 9. Displaying Title and Date and
searching for Month = August and City = Paris







Figure 10. Displaying Title, Short Description, and Time, and
searching for Month = March and Day = 3



^ Table of Contents ^

Calendar Administration


Calendar administration involves adding events, editing or deleting events, and adding and modifying location information. To use the calendar administration functions, you must be logged onto the calendar as an administrator. This is done from the NTSBDC Employee Intranet. Go to the NTSBDC main page (www.ntsbdc.org), click inside the "Password" box under "Intranet Login" in the colored sidebar at the left of the page (see Fig.11). Type the calendar admin password and click "Login", and you will be taken to the training calendar, with one noticeable difference - at the bottom of the left-hand side of the page, there will be two buttons and a paragraph below. The buttons are the "Add Event" button and the "Edit Locations" button, and the text below gives instructions on how to download the calendar database to your PC (see Fig. 12).


Figure 11. The Intranet Login Feature
The "Add Event" and "Edit Locations" buttons are only visible after logging into the intranet using the calendar admin password (NOT the intranet password). To download the calendar database to your PC, right-click on the "Right-Click Here" link, and click "Save Target As". You may then choose the folder where you want the database file saved.

Figure 12. The Calendar Admin Buttons


^ Table of Contents ^

Add Event

The Add Event function allows you to add an event to the calendar. Click the "Add Event" button, and you will be taken to the "Add Calendar Event" screen. From there you can fill in all of the fields for a new training event (see Fig. 13).


Figure 13. The Add Calendar Event Screen
The Month and Day fields are drop-down menus that allow you to enter the date of the event. January 1 is selected by default. The Year field is set to the current year by default - the drop-down contains six years: the current year, the next four years, and the previous year. Therefore, you may enter any date up to four years in the future, or for documentation purposes you may enter an event that occured last year. The beginning and ending time of the event are entered using the Event Start Time and Event End Time drop-downs.

The Title field is for the name of the event. Up to 70 charactors may be entered, including spaces and punctuation. The Short Title field is for a shortened version of the title. This field is limited to 38 charactors, and is used for the Title field in the Find Events section of the main calendar. This is also compliant with the "Short Title" field in the SBA Training Calendar (available on the SBA website).

The Description field is for entering a detailed description of the event. Any text can be typed into this field, there is no charactor limit. The Short Description field is an abreviated description, limited to 250 charactors.

The Registration field is for the contact phone number(s), and can contain up to 70 charactors. Fee is for entering the cost of the event. This is a number, without a dollar sign ("$"). If the event is free of charge, leave the field blank. The Email field is for the contact email address. Only one address is allowed.

The Hypertext and URL fields allow you to provide a website address for information, registration, etc. Hypertext is for the text that you want displayed for the link (ie: "Collin SBDC Website"), and URL is for the actual web address (ie: "http://www.collinsbdc.com"). The "http://" prefix is required.

The Location field is a combination drop-down list and textbox. To enter the location, either click the down-arrow and select the correct location from the list, or click inside the field and type the location you want if it's not in the list. If you selected the location name from the drop-down list, you must click the "Get Address" button to fill in the other location fields ("Building/Campus", "Address", "City", "State", and "Zip"). If you typed a location name that's not in the drop-down list, the "Get Address" button will not work, and will probably be disabled.

If you type a new location in the Location field, you must type in the other location fields, also ("Address", etc.). When you have completed all of the fields and click "Add Event", you will be prompted whether or not to add the new location to the database (see Fig. 14). If you click "Yes", the event will be added to the calendar database, and the new location will be added to the Location database. If you click "Cancel", the event will not be added to the database, and you will be returned to the Add Calendar Event screen. You cannot add an event without a valid location. If the event is not being held at any of the locations in the "Location" drop-down, you must add the new location by typing in the "Location", "Building/Campus", "Address", "City", "State", and "Zip" fields manually, then click "Add Event".


Figure 14. The Add Location Prompt
If you wish to change the address of a location in the drop-down, select the location from the drop-down list, click "Get Address", modify the desired fields, and click "Add Event". You will be prompted that the address you entered is not the same as the address on file, and will ask if you want to modify the location's address (see Fig. 15). Click "Yes" and the event will be saved, and the location will be modified in the Location database.


Figure 15. The Edit Location Prompt

Adding Repeating / Recurring Events

In the upper-right corner of the Add Events screen is an Event Type drop-down. It is set to "Single Event" by default. If you choose "Recurring Event", the Recurring Events fields will be added to the top of the Add Event screen (see Fig. 16).

When "Recurring Events" is first selected, the "Recurring Weekdays" fields are displayed (see Fig. 16). For one thing, the "Month", "Day" and "Year" fields have been replaced by the "Start Date" and "End Date" fields - These fields determine the dates when the recurring series begins and ends. By default, they are both set for January 1 of the current year. Therefore, the "End Date" fields must be changed in order to enter a recurring event. Otherwise, the series would last from Jan. 1, 2005 to Jan. 1, 2005 (same date), and no events will be entered.

To the right of the "Start Date" and "End Date" fields are the "Occurance", "Weekday", and "Frequency" fields (see Fig. 16). The "Occurance" and "Weekday" fields work in conjunction to provide the weekday occurance information. If you wish to schedule an event on the first Monday of each month, choose "First" from the "Occurance" field and "Mon" from the "Weekday" field.

The "Frequency" field determines how often the event is repeated - Every month, every other month, etc.



Figure 16. The Add Recurring Events Fields
Directly beneath the "Frequency" field, there is a "Type Date" link. Clicking this link will change the calendar to Repeating Dates mode. In this mode, the "Occurance" and "Weekday" fields are replaced by a Date field (see Fig. 17). The Date field enables you to enter a day or date that will repeat monthly, bi-monthly, annualy, or bi-anually.

To set a repeating date, such as a holiday or annual event, type the month and day in the Date field in the format: MM-DD (you need not type leading zeros in the date - Apr. 5th can be entered "4-5"). This will schedule the event for that particular date each year (annualy), or every other year (bi-annualy), depending on the "Frequency" field. If you type a number between 1 and 31 without a dash, you can schedule an event for the same day of every month (enter "3" for Jan 3, Feb 3, etc.) You may schedule such an event monthly or bi-monthly, depending on the "Frequency" field.



Figure 17. The Add Repeating Dates Fields
When a recurring or repeating event is added, a preview screen is displayed (see Fig. 18). If the event is a recurring weekday event, the dates for each event that will be added are displayed. At this point, no events have been written to the database. This gives you the opportunity to see that the info you have entered in the recurring events fields was correct. If you intended to enter about 12 events, and the preview screen is filled with dates with no end in sight, you know you probably entered something wrong. If you click "Cancel", you will be returned to the Add Events screen without adding any events. Clicking "OK" will, of course, add the events on the days displayed and return you to the Add Events screen.



Figure 18. The Preview Recurring Events Screen
If the event is a repeating dates event, the preview screen will display the dates of each event including the weekdays each date occurs on, with the ones that fall on weekends highlighted (see Fig. 19). The "OK" and "Cancel" buttons work in the same way as above.



Figure 19. The Preview Repeating Events Screen


^ Table of Contents ^

Edit Event

The "Edit Event" button is only visible if you are logged on as calendar administrator (see above). If you display one or more events in the results pane, you can click on the title of an event and you will be taken to the "Display Event" screen. Below the event info, there is normally two buttons, "Back to Calendar" and "Help". If you are logged on as calendar administrator, there will also be an "Edit/Delete Event" button. Clicking this button will bring up the Edit Calendar Event screen, from which you can edit the fields of the currently displayed event. This screen works the same way the "Add Calendar Event" does, in respect to the location fields. You may add or modify a location in the same manner, and you will not be able to modify an event without providing a valid location.

At the bottom of the screen are the "Update", "Delete", and "Back to Calendar" buttons.

Use "Update" when you have modified the desired fields and are ready save the changes.

Click "Delete" to delete the current event from the database.

"Back to Calendar" still brings you back to the calendar, as usual.

If you are deleting an event that is part of a repeating/recurring series, a prompt will be displayed asking if you want to delete only the event displayed, or of you want to delete all of the events in that series (see Fig. 20). Click the appropriate button.


Figure 20. The "Delete Recurring Event" dialog


^ Table of Contents ^

Edit Locations

Clicking the "Edit Locations" button from the Training Calendar main screen brings you to the NTSBDC Locations Database Administration feature (see Fig. 21). From this screen you can add, delete, or edit the location information contained in the Training Calendar database. While it is possible to edit or add locations "on-the-fly" while in the "Add Event" or Edit Event" screens (see Add Event and Edit Event sections), locations cannot be deleted from these screens, and the Database Administration screen offers a more intuitive way to view and edit locations.


Figure 21. The Locations Database Administration Feature
When you first enter the Database Admin screen, it is in "add mode". From here, you can type the location's information in the form and click the "Add Record" button. The form will go blank, and the new location will have been added to the database. As in the "Add Event" and Edit Event" screens, you cannot add a location with the same location name as an existing location. If you try to do so, you will see an alert asking you to change the location name or click "Edit Records" to edit the existing location.

Clicking "Edit Records" will display the contents of the Locations table in the Training Calendar database (see Fig. 22). From there, you can page through each location and edit, delete, or add locations.

To edit a location, simply display it in the "Edit Records" mode and change the information on the screen, then click "Edit" and the changes will be made to the database.

To delete a location, display it in the "Edit Records" mode as before, and click "Delete". The location will be deleted from the database, and the next location will be displayed.

Adding locations can be done from this screen also. Though, when starting from scratch, the "add mode" is the best place to go (see above), if you are going to add a location who's name and info are similar to an existing location, "edit mode" is a good place to do it. Display the location that is similar to the one you want to add, edit the information (be sure to change the location name), and click "Add". A new location will be added to the database, and the old location (the one you edited to create the new location) will remain unchanged.

Clicking "Reset Form" from either screen will bring the Database Admin screen back to "add mode" and clear all information in the form - just as it was when you first opened the screen.


Figure 22. The Database Admin. Screen in "Edit Mode"


^ Table of Contents ^

The Training Calendar Help System


The NTSBDC Calendar Help System consists of the "help.html" file (the file you are reading now), the context-sensitive "Help" buttons displayed in various locations in the calendar, and the "Hint Popup" system.

The "help.html" File

This file contains all of the help information for the calendar functions, features, and use. You access this file by clicking the help file link at the top-left corner of the calendar's main screen (see Fig. 23), by clicking on the Hint Popup Window when it's displayed, or through the help buttons scattered throughout the calendar system.



Figure 23. The Help File Link

The "Help" Buttons

Placed throughout the calendar system are Help buttons which open the help.html file, displaying the appropriate section. ie: If you click the Help button at the bottom of the "Find Events" section of the main screen, the "Find Events" instructions will be displayed - this is known as being "context-sensitive", because the information displayed depends on the context from which the file was called. From there you can read the information presented, or you can scroll to any other place in the file, or read the whole file if you wish. The file is not displayed in a normal browser window, as when the help file link is clicked. Instead, it is displayed in a special type of window that can't be resized, and doesn't have the controls normally available on a browser screen. For this reason, some popup blockers may block this window, so you may need to disable popup blocking to see it.


The "Hint Popup" Window



Figure 24. The Hint Popup Window

When you first access the calendar, a small yellow popup window appears on top of the results pane (see Fig. 24). This is the Hint Popup window, and contains a randomly-selected tip about the calendar's use or features. This is only a brief overview of a specific function - to read more about the displayed topic, click inside the popup window, and the appropriate section of the help.html file will be displayed within the special browser window described above. If you don't wish to view the help file, you can click anywhere outside the hint popup window, and the window will dissappear. If nothing is clicked within about ten seconds, the hint window will dissappear on it's own.


^ Table of Contents ^

North Texas SBDC Training Calendar Instructions for Use (help.html)