Components view
Mimosa views: | |||
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| Components view | Courses view | Weeks view | Timetables view |
In this view you can do the following:
- Create, edit and remove components (or resources)
- View the list of components and course links
- Copy components to and from Mimosa via the Clipboard
- Connect components to courses
Components are the resources you are creating timetables for. In schools and universities components are, in most cases, teachers, rooms and students or sets of students (groups or classes) but may also include equipment such as projectors and other teaching aids. You can define whatever components you like and, with the help of categories, you can give names and shortcuts for each type of component you create.
Components are the basic building blocks of the database. Edit the list of components (such as classes, teachers, rooms and subjects) with the help of the keys [Insert], [Enter] and [Delete] or the corresponding menu selections or buttons.
For each component, you have to enter a
- unique component Code,
- descriptive Name and
- Category, defining the type of the current component.
Go to page Create and edit components to start creating your components.
You can create your own categories in Options|Categories and replace the categories suggested here. The maximum number of different categories is 7 and you can create up to 8191 components.
You may already have a convention how to add shortcuts for the resources, such as the initials for the names of persons or room number. The only rule set by Mimosa is that a code must be unique (any other component or course cannot have the same code). These codes are meant for internal use, and you can select to display or hide them when publishing the timetables. The maximum code and name lengths are 15 and 63 characters, respectively.
Mimosa has been used in various different environments, not only in schools and universities. Components and component categories can be built freely for your specific need. Here are few typical examples of the ways how Mimosa has been used:
- Schools, group tuition: Components are classes (=groups of students), teachers, rooms. Courses consist in most cases of one class, teacher and room, but also in some cases of several of them in case of mixed courses.
- Schools, personalised tuition: Teachers, rooms, students, rooms are here the components. A course in this kind of school constitutes typically of a teacher, room and a set of students.
- Universities: Because of the large number of students, the components are often only teachers and rooms. Users may also apply "streams" instead of groups to preventing overlaps of some courses. A course contains typically of one teacher and room.
- Scientific conferences: Components are participants, streams and rooms. A course is in this case often a session where a publication is presented. A course consists of person(s) presenting the publication, referee for the publication, chairman of the meeting, room where presentation takes place and possible a stream which is used to prevent overlaps of similar kinds of sessions. Same participants can be in several roles in different sessions.
- Trade fair meetings: Components are suppliers, clients and rooms. The purpose is to schedule several meetings between suppliers and clients. Since the meetings may need different kind of combinations of them, a course in this case consists of one or more suppliers, one or more clients plus one room.
- Rehearsals: When organising rehearsals for a play, opera or similar event, courses are sessions which consist of a set of persons, rooms and equipment/instruments needed for each session.
If you start with a new empty file, click first the [Insert] key or the appropriate add button to create your first component. You will then see the view below where you input the Code and Name for the component and select the appropriate category for it from the list of available component categories. When you later on create courses, they will be displayed below these fields.
If you like to enter the teacher name "John Smith" here,
- replace "Component1" with "John",
- replace "Enter the name for Component1" with "John Smith"
- change the "Component category" to "T:Teachers"
Replace the suggested code and name ("ComponentX") with something more meaningful and accept your code by clicking [OK]. It is a good idea to create a couple of components for each category just to test how the system works. At the start, the list of components may look something like that below:
The columns MAX, SUM, DONE and LINKS have at the start the value 0, but their values are determined by the values of the courses that use these components and they are automatically kept intact by Mimosa. You cannot edit them in this view.
After you have created your components (and also courses) you can view them in a list like the one below, which represent a complete Mimosa file where lectures have been scheduled. You can sort components by any criteria and you can change the current component by clicking [Enter] or F2.
When some of the components is double-clicked, the list of courses using this component is displayed on top of the components (if they exist). Double-clicking some of the components again hides this list again. This functionality is useful when you like to keep the list of dependent courses visible.
The order of the components in the list can be changed by clicking the title row, or with the help of the Move up and Move down buttons or by sorting them according to some appropriate criteria (Tools|Sort). Note that it is very easy to import the list of components via Clipboard, provided you have entered it in a spreadsheet application with a format below (Code, Name, Category number):
Menu selections:
Edit
With Edit menu selections you can modify the list of components. See also Create and edit components
New component
Creates a new component. Each component represents a resource (such as a group, teacher or room in school environment). Each course contains one or more components, selected from the list of all components you have created.
Edit component
Edits the information of the current component: its code, name or category. The category describes the type of the component or resource.
Delete component
Deletes the current component.
See more details at Create and edit components.
Duplicate component
This option duplicates the activated component by creating a new component with the same name and category. The code for the new component is generated automatically by using the last clicked component code as the basis (by appending letters a, b, c, …). You can modify all fields of this component later on.
Copy to the Clipboard
Selected components are copied onto the Clipboard. Each submenu provides a different format for the table it creates. In each selection, you always create in the resulting table the component code as the first column, but the content in other cells in each row depend on the particular menu selection. Many selections have analogous formats with similar selections in Courses view.
Note that the title row captions (containing texts like "CODE", "NAME", "MAX",...) are always omitted.
The description of the available Clipboard formats in this selection can be found in Import and Export with Clipboard|Courses view.
Paste from the Clipboard [Ctrl+V]
Component codes, names and category numbers (1-7) can be pasted from the Clipboard and added to the component list, if their codes are not found from the list. If a matching component code is found, its name and category is replaced with the Clipboard content. The lines have the same format as in its mirror selection Edit|Copy to the Clipboard|2 Codes, names and categories [Ctrl+C].
Set colour
Changes the colour of the current component.
Move up
Moves the current component up.
Move down
Moves the current component down.
Replace courses
This (advanced) selection enables you to move a component from its course to another course by scanning all permissible courses combinations and displaying their properties (lectures, gaps, matches and names). This tool is especially useful in schools with individual timetables.
When you activate this selection, all components of the current category are scanned, and for each component and course combination all other courses are studied in order to find and list all feasible course replacements.
If you select from the list the first option [no change => go to next course] and click [OK], no replacement is made and the next replacement options are listed. Click [Cancel] to quit searching, or if the list is not shown (because feasible replacements cannot be found), click the component grid.
If you select a course from the list, the active component is moved from its previous course to the selected course and searching continues.
This selection enables you to move a component from its course to another course by scanning all permissible courses combinations and displaying their properties (lectures, gaps, matches and names). This tool is especially useful in schools with individual timetables.
When you activate this selection, all components of the current category are scanned, and for each component and course combination all other courses are studied in order to find and list all feasible course replacements.
If you select from the list the first option [no change => go to next course] and click [OK], no replacement is made and the next replacement options are listed. Click [Cancel] to quit searching, or if the list is not shown (because feasible replacements cannot be found), click the component grid.
If you select a course from the list, the active component is moved from its previous course to the selected course and searching continues.
To ease filtering of the appropriate candidate courses from all courses, some key parameters of the original and the candidate course are calculated:
- lectures in both courses (3->4h)
- gaps in the timetables of the component (3->2g)
- number of components of both courses (4->5x)
- matches (number of same components, excluding the current category)
- names (this text appears, if both courses have identical names)
For example, the notation 3->2g means that the number of gaps of the current component is decreased by one (from 3 to 2), if the replacement is performed. The number of components (4->5x) in the leaving and receiving courses is calculated before the replacement is made - after the replacement the numbers are 3 and 6, respectively.
Before you invoke this selection, Mimosa prompts you to specify, if you want to limit your search only to specific courses that satisfy your requirements. If you want to see a list of all feasible course candidates for replacement, answer Yes to question
Search for all feasible course candidates?
If you answer No, you can limit your search in four ways. For instance, if you only want to search for courses that have an equal number of lectures as the original course, answer Yes to question
Lectures of courses (MAX) must be equal (h)?
If you do not want to compromise with the quality of the timetables (in the sense of not allowing the replacements to increase their gaps), answer Yes to question
Number of gaps in timetables cannot be increased (g)?
In some schools two courses can be assumed to be equivalent, if they share same name (although their codes are always different). If this is your criteria to select courses for replacement, answer Yes to this question
Names of courses must be identical (names)?
Alternatively, if you assume that courses can be replaced, if they share same components, you can answer Yes to question
Courses must have at least one same component (matches)?
The number of matches indicate the number of same components in both courses, but excluding the components of the category that is currently being scanned. If you are searching for replacements for students, the same components from both courses of this category are not counted as matches. Subjects can also be used to identify that the two courses can be replaced.
Copy copies the list of replaceable courses onto the Clipboard.
View
Select font
Selects the font used in this window.
Component info [Ctrl+H]
Shows detailed information of the selected component in tree structure. For more information about this tool, select Course Info.
Show course links
This selection shows or hides a window on top of the Components view, showing all courses using the current component in their collections. Double-clicking the list of components has the same effect. In Courses view you have a similar functionality to view the components of the active course.
Show snapshot timetable
This selection will show/hide the following snapshot timetable of the current component and the current week. User the arrow keys on bottom of the table to change the week.
Weekly lectures [Ctrl+W]
This selection shows or hides the weekly timetables and/or lectures of components.
Find component ... [Ctrl+F3]
By entering the code or name (or a substring) locates the first component that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one. The search method is not case-sensitive. Press [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.
Find by courses ...
This extended search mode allows the user to locate only those components that have links to selected courses or those that do NOT have links to selected courses. Click [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.
Linked with components
Finds those components that have links to one or more of the selected courses.
NOT Linked with components
Finds those components that do NOT have links to one or more of the selected courses.
Search again [F3]
Locates the next component that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one.
Best matches [Ctrl+B]
Finds other components with the most similar course links compared with the current (last activated) component. Components are listed in the order of best match, each component code followed by the percentage number indicating the similarity of their course links (100%=exact match). This option can be used for grouping purposes to find students who have made the same selections.