Using MICHAEL shortcuts

The production module is designed in a very flexible way, in order to let cataloguers create exactly the records they want when they have the information. It is expected that at some time the module will implement more specific ways of managing data, in order to ease the process of creating records or to implement more specific permission management rules.

But the module already has some basic functionalities helping cataloguers do their work. Some are already identified in other parts of this documentation:

• The user's personal homepage gives direct access to common task of creating and finding records.
• Users and groups, along with resource permissions, can be used to restrict the access to some records or folders.
• Links to records can be checked or easily found with direct access to link checking functions.

In this document, we will describe more specific functions that will help manage MICHAEL data.

1) Linking a digital collection record to an institution

The production module proposes an easy to use shortcut in order to link a digital collection record to an institution record in the database. In order to do so, you must first browse to the folder containing the relevant institution record.

Then, on the right of the institution name, you will find a drop-down list with specific shortcuts, such as this one:

If you select the Add a digital collection entry in the list, you will open a form to create a new digital collection (in the default folder for digital collections). This form will be the standard one, but in the relation screen, you will have something such as:

We see that the institution identifier is already in the form, without having to select it.

2) Viewing the record from the publishing module

Sometimes, it can be interesting to view a record as it is displayed in the publication module. The production module provides an easy way to do this, by using the shortcut drop-down list on the right of each MICHAEL record in the database.

Here is an example of this list:

When a user select the View in publishing module entry in the list, a new window opens and the record is displayed from the associated publishing engine, in its standard format. If you have made modification to the record without publishing it, you won't see these modifications though; the record is displayed as it was the last time it has been published. If you want to preview your modifications, you should click on the document's title.

3) Validating a record

Records in a MICHAEL database can have two status: draft and valid. When you create or modify a record, you can set the status of the record in the form's last page (System metadata and local data ), but only if you are a member of the validators group; if not, you will only be able to create and modify draft records.

Before publishing a document, records must be valid. The MICHAEL production module provides an easy way to change the status of a record to Valid : you just click on the corresponding entry in the drop-down list to the right of any draft record, such as in this figure:

Once you do this, the record is modified as if you had modified it by hand with the corresponding form, the only change being its status. The previous figure shows that there is also an entry in the list for validating then publishing the document. This entry will initiate the same validating process as the Validate entry, but it will be followed by a second step consisting of publishing the record. This action explained elsewhere in this documentation .