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Basic Data Entry

Point your web browser to the following URL:

    http://melixa.wsvn.com/greenbook/

Your device must be connected to the WSVN Local Area Network.

The system is read-only until you Login. To login, click the [Login] button located to the right-must up corner of the window and enter your Melixa credentials.

If you don't have credentials in Melixa, visit melixa.wsvn.com and subscribe to Melixa by pressing the [Register] button. Once you have registered to Melixa, you can login in Circuit Tables using the same credentials.

Green Book is hosted in two separated sites: the "Production Site" mentioned in previous section, and a "Test Site" located at:

    http://melixa.wsvn.com/test/

It is recommended that you start practicing data entry in the Test Site until you find your self comfortable with the system.

Software in the Test site is usually more up-to-date since updates are first tested there before deploying to Production. Data is periodically replicated from Production to Test so they are usually very similar but not necessarily the same.

The first step in Green Book is to place a device in a rack. Say for instance you want to place an AJA FS1 frame sync on rack RK-27.

You need to navigate the GUI to RK-27. The easiest way of doing that is via the Find box located in the Tool Bar: type "rack 27" in the box and press Enter (or click the [Go] button). You will be taken directly to the rack view of RK-27.

Now you have a list of all devices present at that rack. To add yours, press the [Add Device] button located at the bottom of the list.

In the next window, press the [Browse] button. This will take you to the Device Library where device definitions reside. Remember that you create devices by placing "instances" (copies) of device definitions on racks or desks.

Now you navigate the Library to find your device definition (AJA FS1 frame sync in this case). Click in the "Dev Type" list box, select "FS" (for "Frame Sync"). You will get a list of existing frame sync definitions. Select "AJA FS1".

You will notice that a new white banner appears on top, just below the Tool Bar, prompting you to "Add this Device to: RK-27". Hit the [Proceed] button to make it so.

Now you are taken back to RK-27. You will see your new AJA FS1 added to the list.

Notice the second column, "Designation", it is empty for your new devices. Thought no mandatory, it is highly recommended to fill this field for easy identification. Hit the "Edit" link in the last column ("Do") and enter something relevant in the "Designation" field (for example, "test").

This completes the placement (and creation) of a new device on a Location.

When you click a device in the Devices Lists, you get into "Device View" screen. In this view you have a complete representation of the device with all input and output ports.

To connect wires, you just click the "+" link in the CABLE column of the desired port and enter the wire number into the box that there appears.

Say for instance you want to connect wire number A-001 to the SDI-1 Output of the FS1 you created in the previous section.

Once in the Device View of your device, locate the desired output and click the "+" link in its CABLE column. In the little box appearing there, enter the wire number: you can enter "a1", "a-1", "a 1", "A-01", etc. The system will automatically convert your entry to standard format: "A-001".

Now the view shows wire A-001 connected to SDI-1 Output port. A question mark (?) in the "Connected To" column indicates that the other end of the wire is not connected yet.

Let's connect the other end to another device, for instance a new VDA.

Proceed as explained in previous section to add a new VDA to rack 7. You can navigate to the rack directly by clicking in the "RK-7" button of the Navigator located at the top of the view.

Once you have your new VDA in place, navigate to its Device View.

Locate one of its inputs and click the "+" link of its CABLE column. Enter the wire number: "a1". Now you have the two devices connected with wire number A-001.

Notice that the "Connected To" column now contains a reference to the port connected at the other end of the wire. Clicking that column will take you to the device view of the AJA FS1 you created previously. Notice that the "Connected To" column not longer contains a question mark but a reference to the VDA, also clickable.

If you click the CABLE column of a connected wire in Device View, you will be taken to a "Wire Info" screen with more information about that wire: Label, Color, Type, Multiconductor, Status, Connection Reference and Hash number.

We will cover the last four in section "Advanced Data Entry".

Clicking the [Edit] button will take you to an "Edit Cable" form where you will be able to add or change optional information. Notice that the actual wire number (fields Prefix and Number) can not be changed.

Label refers to an optional label (apart from the wire number itself) the wire could bear, for example "Roof CAM".

Color is the physical wire color. For instance, most AES wires in our facility are color orange.

The Type is picked from a list box. It could be "Coax", "Ethernet", etc.

Again, this information is optional, but it may prove useful if present.

You may want to disconnect a wire from a port, either to reflect wires that have been disconnected in real life or because you committed a mistake when entering the data.

To disconnect a wire, go to its "Cable Info" view by clicking its CABLE column in Device View and click the [Disconnect] button. Press [Proceed] in the prompt screen to confirm your action.

Now you are taken back to Device View. The wire have been disconnected from that port and marked as "Dangling at (this location)". If you navigate to the Device View of where the other end of the wire is connected, you will see the Dangling message in the corresponding "Connected To" column.

You can also delete the wire all together. To do this, navigate to the "Edit Cable" view and click the [Delete] button.

When you delete a wire, its record is removed from the Database so all associated information is gone.

The system will prevent you from connecting a wire between two inputs or two outputs. If you try to do that, you will get an error.

There is an exception to this constrain: the case of "Bidirectional signals" such as Ethernet and Serial. We will cover that in section "Advanced Data Entry".

In Device View, hit the [Edit] button to enter the "Edit Device Info" screen.

Notice that some fields can be changed, others do not. You can change the Status, Designation and Serial Number, but you cannot change the Type, Manufacturer, Model and Definition.

This reveals the very nature of Devices and Device Definitions. Remember that Devices are created by instantiating Device Definitions.

Those fields that you cannot change in this view belong the the Device Definition from which this device has been created, they are only references to that information. You can still change it, but not in this view but in the Library, and doing so will impact all devices coming from that definition.

Those fields you can change, belong to this device in particular. Specially useful is the "Designation" field which should reflect the actual use of this device in practice, for example "LiveU-5 FS".

When a device is created, ports are copied from the definition to separated records that truly belong to the device, not the definition. Most of the time you will use those port unchanged. Some other times, however, you may need to alter some ports. For example, some Tandberg IRDs have configurable outputs that can be either ASI or SDI, and most Device Managers have configurable serial ports that can be either RS232 or RS422.

To change a port, click the corresponding "Label" column. You will be taken to a "Edit Port" screen where you can make any change you want.

There is a restriction: you cannot alter the port direction (input/output) if it has a wire connected to it. If you are in this situation, simply disconnect it momentarily, change the port direction and then connect the wire again.

You can also Delete a port by clicking the [Delete] button in "Edit Port" view or add other ports is needed.

Changes you make in device ports won't affect those in its definition.

You create FRAMES the same way you create any other device, only that, once created, selecting it from the list will take you to a SLOTS list. Remember that Green Book treats FRAMES as dual objects: Device/Location.

To add a card device to a frame SLOT, navigate to the Slots View and click the "+" link in the "Do" column. Then pick a device definition the same way you do for other devices. Notice that near the "+" sign is a "@" sign. That is for device "Relocation", a concept that we will cover in section "Advanced Data Entry".

If the frame happens to have ports, the Slots View will have a link at the bottom reading: "--This frame has direct connections--". Clicking that link will take you to a Device View in which you will be able to connect wires to the frame's ports.

As the locations they are, frames have a system-defined prefix (FR-) and a location number, for example "FR-1".

When you create a frame, you must manually enter its Number so it can be properly referred in the presentation.

Some frames, however, do not have official numbers in our facility. If you leave the Number empty (zero), Green Book will display its name as "FRAME", not "FR-0", unless you fill in the "Designation" field in which case, the designation will be displayed instead.

It is unlikely that you need to add new Locations to the system because those was imported from Blue Book in Mars 2020 with the help of Mark. Already in the system are all Rooms with corresponding Racks per location as defined in Blue Book since decades ago.

Nevertheless, you can add new locations to Green Book if needed, specially new buildings. To do that, proceed as following:

Hit the [Locations] button in the Tool Bar. If you need to add a new building, hit the [Add] button; if not, select the building you want to work out. Once there, hit the [Add] button to add a new room or select the existing room you want to work out.

Proceed that way digging down the hierarchy. In each stage you can either add new items or edit existing information.

We have assumed that the Device Library is full of definitions ready to use to create devices, but  this is far from truth. On the contrary, there is a need for definitions and here you have a great opportunity to contribute in terms of data entry.

Before creating the new definition, make sure it does not exist already.

Hit the [Library] button in the Toolbar. Select your device type in the "Dev Type" list box (for example, "FS" for Frame Sync). Examine the list to see if your device is already there. If not, proceed as following to create it:

Hit the [Add] button to get to the "Add New device to the Library" form. Fill in the form as appropriate and hit [Save]. This will take you back to the list where the new definition should be now.

Select your just created definition from the list to get into the "Device Definition" View. This is the most important task: adding ports, which we will explain in details next.

Once in the Device Definition View, hit the [Add Ports] button to get to the "Add Port" form.

A ports can be either Input or Output. You establish this by selecting the proper value from the "Port Type" list box. Continue to fill in the up to the "QTY" field; if you are adding just one port, leave it with the default value (1). Press the [Add] button to save. You will be taken back to the "Device Definition" view, now showing the newly added port.

You can add multiple ports at once; this is useful in many cases, for example, DA outputs. To do that, fill in the form as described but now set the "QTY" field to the desired number of ports.

Optionally, multiple ports can be enumerated automatically. For example, to get outputs labeled "OT-1" to "OT-8", fill in the form as following:

    Label       : OT-
    QTY         : 8
    Append Enum : (checked)
    Starting at : 1

If you commit a mistake, or change your mind, you can always Edit a port to make the necessary corrections, even converting an Input to Output or vice versa.

It is not entirely true that a port can only be Input or Output. Some ports are "bidirectional" (duplex) which is the case of Ethernet, RS-232 and others. Green Book concerns about "Bidirectional Signals"; ports are kept into the Inputs/Outputs set.

When you add a port which Signal Type is bidirectional, you are free to define that port type as Input or Output. As a convention, we suggest to define Ethernet Switches ports as Outputs and computers NIC ports as Inputs.

It is very common in real-life devices to use multi-pins connectors such as DB25 to deliver linear signals like Analog Audio, usually via breakout panels or cumbersome hanging cables.

The problem with this is that, in Green Book, you cannot connect multiple wires to a single port, because the same is represented with a single table row.

The solution to this situation is the following:

A single multi-pins connector is represented by multiple rows in the Definition: as many rows as wires can be connected. For example, if you have a DB25 connector exposing 8 input audio channels, you define it with 8 Input Ports which connector type is "DB25".

When you define a device of type FRAME, you get an extra field in the form: "Slots Count". Fill this with the appropriate value.

That will suffice in most cases, but some frames present ports that belong to the frame itself. In those rare cases, you hit the [Add Ports] button and proceed as explained previously.

Remember that a Definition is a template from which devices will be created. This implies that the definition must be complete, it must contain all ports available in the real-life device including those of little or rare use in practice.

This fact encourage us to make our device definitions based on trust able data. Our recommendation is to always make device definitions from the device manual or datasheet.

Until now, we have assumed that those attributes that you need to pick from existing lists are already there for you to pick. Though this could be true in most cases, chances are for some, for example a manufacturer or a connector type, to be missing in the corresponding list. If that is the case, you will need to add it.

Hit the [Entities] button in the Tool Bar. A second toolbar will appear providing access to the different Entity Lists: Manufacturers, Signal Types, Connector Types, Wire Types, Device Types and Status.

Hit the button corresponding to the Entity you want to work out, for example, "Connector Types". This will take you to the associated Entity List.

The "Do" column contains an "Edit" links that will take you to a Edit form in which you will able to change entity Name and Description.

In the case of Signal Types, there are additional fields: Bidirectional and Color. The later refers to the background color used in Circuit View to highlight different signal types; you change that by choosing a color from the colors box. The "Bidirectional" field will be covered in section "Advance Data Entry".

In the case of the Status list, there is a Color field too. This refers to the font color used in the GUI to highlight wires and device status. We will cover this too en section "Advanced Data Entry".

If you need add a new entry to any of the lists, hit the [Add] button in the corresponding Edit form.

You can also delete an entity. When you do so, all objects having that entity value will be updated automatically to "Undefined". Notice that each Entity list has its own "Undefined" entry.

Some entries are "build-in" and can not be deleted. That is the case of "Undefined" and the device type FRAME. If you try to delete a build-in entity you will get an error.

One of the greatest virtues of Green Book is that you don't need to know much about the circuit you are documenting. You can start connecting wires to devices in no particular order and the system will build the circuit for you sooner or later.

For example, you can go to rack RK-T28 (the physical one) and make and inventory of all frames located there as well as all the cards placed into those frames. Then you turn to Green Book and place frame devices in location "RK-T28", and card devices into the corresponding slots.

If a certain device does not exist in the Library, you simply create it (possibly from the manual or datasheet) at that moment.

At a later time you can get back to the physical rack and take note of all wires connected to those cards. Then, start documenting that in Green Book in no particular order.

Green Book will reflect the interconnection between devices that happen to be interconnected by the wires you entered when both ends gets "connected" in Green Book. You don't have to enter both ends in a single session; you can enter one end today and the other, next month.

This method may prove an effective way for entering data into Green Book.