Req Program
User Interface
Specification

22 May 2000

This specification comes from three primary sources. One is the exisiting Ingres-based program's interface and work flow. Another is from discussions with Jan about what she'd like to see. The last is from improvements to the work-flow I've been considering.

1. Current Ingres-based User Interface and Work Flow.
2. Things Jan would like to see.
3. Improvements to Ingres-based application.
4. 
   
5. GTK User Interface for Oracle/C program.

The current req program's opening screen displays a list of "open" reqs and POs. The menu items at the bottom of the screen allow the user to:

1. Enter a New requisition (or PO).
2. Examine highlighted requisition (or PO).
3. Change highlighted requisition (or PO).
4. Search for an exisiting requisition (or PO).
5. Add Supplier to the list of suppliers.
6. Print Open requistions (or POs).
7. Change the program's Password.
8. Request on-line Help.
9. Quit the program.

New

Selecting New brings up a screen where the user needs to select what type of Requisition or PO is going to be entered. The choices are:

1. PRE92
2. LPO
3. REQ
4. EXIT

Except for Exit each choice brings up a scren that mimicks, as best as the UI will permit, the form used for that type of Requisition or PO.

Once a selection is made and the input form disaplayed the various fields of the forms can be filled.

Actions available to the user at this point are:

1. Append the information to the database tables.
2. Delete various things related to the current form.
3. Enter Items table field of the form.
4. LeaveTableField (to move the cursor out of any of the several tablefields displayed on a form.
5. New Form to change the displayed form.
6. Blank all fields on the diaplayed form and reinsert any default values.
7. Help
8. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen.

Examine

The req highlighted by the cursor on the main (opening) screen can be examined and the following actions taken:

1. Show the Next one.
2. Show the Previous one.
3. Option to Delete various information.
4. Enter Items table field of the form.
5. LeaveTableField (to move the cursor out of any of the several tablefields displayed on a form.
6. Query the DB again.
7. Examine info on Received items.
8. Print to displayed form.
9. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen. If there were any changes ask the user if he wants to save them.

Change

The req highlighted by the cursor on the main (opening) screen can be edited and the following actions taken:

1. Show the Next one.
2. Show the Previous one.
3. Option to Delete various information.
4. Enter Items table field of the form.
5. LeaveTableField (to move the cursor out of any of the several tablefields displayed on a form.
6. Query the DB again.
7. Fill in info for Received items.
8. Save any changes.
9. Help.
10. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen. If there were any changes ask the user if he wants to save them.

Search

Brings up a form used to query the database for requisitions (or POs) to examine based on any of the fields used on the reqs (or POs). Actions available to the user are:

1. Query the DB using the values from the query form.
2. Blank the form.
3. Use the LastQuery to query the DB.
4. Help.
5. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen.

1. Show the Next one.
2. Show the Previous one.
3. Option to Delete various information.
4. Enter Items table field of the form.
5. LeaveTableField (to move the cursor out of any of the several tablefields displayed on a form.
6. Query the DB again.
7. Fill in info for Received items.
8. Save any changes.
9. Help.
10. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen. If there were any changes ask the user if he wants to save them.

Add Supplier

Brings up a form used to add supplier information to the DB. Actions available to the user are:

1. Append info to the DB.
2. Help.
3. Quit the current screen and return to the parent screen.

Jan says the work flow is fine except that an easier way for managing supplier information needs to be made.

The list of forms should be expanded so that the complete list becomes.

1. PRE92
2. LPO
3. REQ
4. DIRECT

The arbitrary limit on the number of reqs returned on queries should be removed.

Instead of having to cycle through reqs one at a time some form of tbale field should be used to group similar reqs together for easier review and manipulation.

I think the opening screen for the program should list all the open reqs and allow for operations on them.   The layout would be like the following table.

Example 1:   Open Reqs
Req	Made	PO	Due	Requestor	Vendor	Cost
175765	09-mar-2000	175765	14 days	Steve	Crutchfield	$ 319.80
175782	13-apr-2000	175782	14 days	Steve	Micro Warehouse	$ 479.00
175785	26-apr-2000	175785	14 days	Steve	Components Direct LLC	$ 239.99
175787	16-may-2000	175787	14 days	Steve	Integrity Networking Systems Inc.	$ 370.00
175792	10-apr-2000	175792	14 days	Mike	Math Works, Inc. (The)	$ 1044.48
176801	28-apr-2000	176801	14 days	Bob	B and H Photo Video Inc.	$ 419.95
176804	26-apr-2000	176804	14 days	Ray	Corporate Express Document Print Management	$ 704.40
176836	19-may-2000	176836	14 days	Steve	Professional Business Systems	$ 265.00
176837	22-may-2000	176837	14 days	Bob	Milestek	$ 126.00
402571	11-feb-2000	506254	14 days	Mike	Sun Microsystems, Inc.	$ 2400.00
402575	14-mar-2000	506307	14 days	Bob	R J Communications Inc.	$ 9950.20
402578	10-apr-2000	506333	14 days	K. Scott	Math Works, Inc. (The)	$ 3499.92

The options the user should see at the bottom of the window would be:

1. New   for creating a new Req in the DB.

2. List   should offer a list of commonly used ways of hunting reqs (to reduce the need for formulating queries). Examples of the listed way would be:
   • Open Reqs   list the Reqs that are still open (the list the program opens with).
   • By Account   to retrieve a list of reqs based on the account number used to pay for the items.
   • By Vendor   to retrieve based on the name of the Vendor.
   • By P/N   to retrieve based on part-number.
   • Item Description   to search for items matching an SQL reg-ex string.
   • By Date   should allow for a single date (specific match), or beginning and ending date (a range match).

   Except for "Open Reqs", each of the above cases would need to ask the user to supply the required information (e.g. which Vendor name to look for).

3. Query   open new window to formulate query.

   The results of this query should open a new window with a list of the reqs (or POs) matching the query. That window should have the following options available to it.

   • Help   some screen sensitive help.
   • Quit   Close this window and return to main program window.

   The items listed should respond to double-clicking as described in the paragraph below.

4. Supplier   for working on supplier information (creating new entry, or querying existing entries for list of ones to update).

5. Help   some screen sensitive help.

6. Exit   To exit the program.

Double-clicking on a line in the list of open reqs should bring up a new window with the appropriate form displayed in it (Direct Pay, Requisition, Limited PO, ...).   Specific actions available for that window would include:

1. Save   any changed values in the form.
2. Rcvd   to update info on received items.
3. Help   screen sensitive help.
4. Quit   close the window and return to main window.