Introduction

Green Book is a web-based tool intended to full-document circuits layouts in a Broadcast installation. It takes a tabular approach (as opposite to drawings) to represent circuits, allowing for agile data entry and easy updates.

Ancillary information such as Engineering Notes, History Logs and binary documents (such as PDF) is also supported.

Green Book is about DEVICES placed in LOCATIONS and connected by WIRES.

Locations conforms a hierarchy: BUILDINGS, ROOMS, RACKS or DESKS, FRAMES, SLOTS. Devices reside in racks, desks or frame slots.

You don't create devices directly. First, you create a "device definition" (for example, a UTAH DA) in the Device Library; then you place an "instance" of that definition on the intended location. Definitions are sort of templates from which you create devices. They are reusable; as you create more and more definitions, you will find your self reusing more and expending less time in creating new ones.

Once you have devices in place, you can interconnect them with wires. To do that, you just enter the wire number in the device's port you want to "connect". If the wire does not exist in the database, it is automatically created; if it exists already, it is found and "connected" for you.

The point of having devices interconnected this way is that now you can navigate the GUI from device to device just by clicking at the wires. In each stage of your navigation you will have a complete view of the device (device type, manufacturer, model, etc, all its inputs and outputs), all wires connected to it and an indication of its location. You will also have access to ancillary data associated to that device such as manuals, engineering notes and a history log.

FRAME is a special case. Because it contains SLOTS, it is treated as a Location. However, frames have certain attributes that make them look like devices. For example, they have Manufacturer, Model Number, Serial Number, and, more importantly, some frames have ports on their own (such as Ethernet and Black Burst) to which wires can be connected.

That is why Green Book treats FRAMES with duality: they are Locations and Devices at the same time. As a location, it fits into the Locations Hierarchy and contain SLOTS. As devices, they are created in the Device Library and instances are placed on Racks or Desks, same as with other devices.

Devices and Wires have a number of user definable attributes. Some of those attributes reside in the object record and are unique to that object, for example, a wire number. But others comes from a list previously populated; that is the case of Manufacturers, Signal Types, Connector Types, Wire Types, Device Types and Status.

We collectively call these lists: Entities, and you, the user, are responsible for filling them out. To do that, you click the Entities button in the Toolbar and edit the desired list.

Until now, we have seen devices in isolation. We are missing the "big picture" and that is exactly what Circuits View provides.

In its Circuit View, the circuit layout is presented as a list of devices one on top of another, with all connected ports properly labeled and wire numbers also indicated. This Circuit View contains only the devices composing a certain circuit, such as "LiveU", or "Light TV", that you have defined.

You define a Circuit by indicating both the "departure" and the "arrival" devices. Green Book builds the circuit automatically by departing from your Departure devices, following all the connections and listing all devices as they are encountered. This process repeats recursively until no more connections are found or Arrival devices are reached.

The final result is presented to the user and, at the same time, data is statically stored into a CACHE structure in the database. Once cached, you have the opportunity to make changes such as altering the order in which device appear in the list or even removing devices that you consider irrelevant to that circuit.

The Find Box, located in the Tool Bar, is intended for quick navigation and wire lookup.

You can enter things like:

    wire c123
    rack 27
    rack liveu
    frame 31
    room 237
    room color video
    device skype
    device 7700da7

The first word is called "qualifier" and indicates the kind of object you are looking for. The default qualifier is "wire", meaning that you can omit it so that "wire c123" is equivalent to just "c123".

The following qualifiers are recognized:

   bulding
   bld
   room
   rm
   rack
   rk
   desk
   frame
   fr
   device
   dev
   equipment
   eq
   wire

Notice that 'rk' is an abreviation for 'rack', and so on. Qualifiers 'device', 'dev', 'equipment' and 'eq' referres to the same type of object.

For wires, you can enter a simplified, non standard, version of the wire number; for example,"c2" instead of "C-002". You can also enter keywords that seem related to the wires you are seeking; for example, "roof cam" will find all wires related to the roof cam.

The result (for wires) is a table having one row per wire, which columns describe wire attributes such as last updated date, signal type, color, etc, and also links to the devices they connect to. The table first appears sort by wire number, but you can re-order by any column by just clicking at that column.

In the case of locations (rooms, racks, desks or frames), you will be taken directly to that location. In the case of multiple matching, a list with links is presented from which you pick the desired one.

You can enter the location number or some keyword (sub string) you know is in the description field of that location. For example, to go to the "Color Video" room, which is RM-237, you can enter either "room 237" or "room color video".

In the case of devices, the keyword you enter must match a device type, manufacturer, model, description, designation, etc expected in the device(s) you are seeking. For example, you can enter "evertz" or "7700da7".

Your entry is memorized in a session variable. You can continue to navigate the system, then return to the same result by just pressing the [Go] button again.

Now you are ready to start experimenting with the system. To do that, point you web browser to the following URL:

    http://melixa.wsvn.com/greenbook/

This will only work if you have access to our internal 191 network. Don't try this at home.

No login is required unless you intent to make changes to the data, in which case you'll need to login using Melixa credentials that you probably already have.

This Quick Guide have explained the very basics but Green Book is much more than that. The rest of the Online Manual will explain the system in full details. This Online Manuals are in the following URL:

    http://melixa.wsvn.com/man/