SearchLog Usage & Frontend

Purpose

SearchLog was originaly developed as web accessible Amateur Radio QSO log with search through performed radio contacts (QSO's) with given home stations (further expressed as base callsigns) where only unique triple of callsign, band, mode was stored and presented to users. This type of central web log is suitable for award hunters where it is not important how many one callsign is worked on band/mode, sufficient is to have at least one QSO and information about exchange of QSL cards is important.

Later here were comming requests from different contest and expedition stations with different kind of log operation primarly asking for more detailed QSO storage and presentation. New fully reworked ver.3.0 of SearchLog component for Joomla 1.5.x allows to cover most of wishes for ham web log with search functionality. Here are seen different types of logs :

master log where are stored data from different station or contest logs
award hunters overview log
expedition log
contest overview log

New version 3.0 covers most requirements for types 1,2,4 and can be good base for type 3.

Search Log ver.3.0 allows to maintain search for more (up to 5) callsigns of stations (base calls) which owns the mutual log. Such type of arrangement is usefull for expedition activities or club maintained logs.

Version history

version 3.0	Administrator part Upload needs now setting the activity (e.g. contest, expedition, memorial occassion, etc.) before uploading ADI file Full uploaded log is available on Extended Log pages with search and sort functions New activities is possible to add and edit on Activity Management page incl. dedicated subdirectory for audio files In Configuration is new item - Audio Files Root (this is URI -> subpath from Joomla root) as the common root for all audio files. The specific files for each basecall and activity are put in the proper subdirectories In Configuration is also included frontend page template (with three different default template definitions) which allows you easy adjust your wished presentation on frontend page Frontend part No restrictions are now applied to partial callsign selection - you can search e.g. for only one character Pagination (now with fix 20 rows/page) is available Columns (other as Audio File) are sortable with clicking on column title (the same is applicable to some columns on Admin pages)
version 2.0	Major changes in Administration - entire part of Manage Log added Direct view of the complete QSO log with filter and sort capability Upload of ADIF log files directly to the Search Log database Manual maintenance for insert, update and delete of log data possible In the case of ADIF file upload automatic setting of latest date of log validity (manual change possible)
version 1.3	Multi base callsigns search implemented in the front-end, administration and database Internal extensive re-design Functionality of ver.1.2. is included Tested on MySQL database ver.4, ver.5
version 1.2	Sole one base callsign search implemented in the front-end, administration and database Basic public version

Upgrade to version 3.0 from oldier versions

Prior to the installation of Search Log ver.2.0 you have to unistall the old version via Administrator Installers/Components. Unistallation operation remains intact your log table in the database. Then after you can install the component again via Administrator Installers/Components.

Front-end screen example

version 3.0

In version 3.0 you can free construct the frontend presentation layout, used colors, fonts or even implement some images using HTML page template in administrator part of the component. Click on the column title in the table allows sorting per selected column (ascending,descending with multiple clicks). Sort direction is presented per small arrow located after column title. When searching gives more as 20 rows of result then automatically pagination is included as shown on bottom part of the picture. When you have audio files with QSO content and in Configuration are proper set audio files root directory/extension of audio file, in Activity is set audio subdirectory and file name in this directory match the callsign and date/time of QSO in log in N1MM Logger manner (CCCCC mm-dd-yy - hh mm ss, e.g. EA5GX 06-27-09 - 15 54 00.mp3) then the link to the audio file is shown (as marked on the picture).

version 2.0, 1.3

version 1.2

Station Log

QSO log data are stored in database table in MySQL database in the following manner :

version 2.0

Column 'callbase' has now attribute NOT NULL and column 'lastchange' was added for easier maintenance of the log (database) data. 'lastchange' contains timestamp of the last changed QSO data (insert, update) in the row. Please do not be confused to interchange this date meaning with date of QSO read from ADIF file.

version 1.3

Numbers in column 'callbase' are integers (from 1 up to 5) relating to the fields 'Callsign #n' on the Search Log administration page. For simple (one station log) no assigment in the fields 'Callsign #n' is necessary - in this case data select do not cover the column 'callbase' (it can have no/any value). For multi station log you have to set callsign names in appropriate fields on Search Log administration page.

version 1.2

As you see in the tables is callsign stored in two columns - in the 'call' is allocated full callsign as used during QSO and in the 'radio' column here is basic callsign stripped, without /P or /number (as used by portable operation). This arrangement allows easy searching for all QSO records for the basic callsign as shown on the first figure.

During installation of SearchLog component is created the related table with naming 'jos_calls' (when the default table prefix 'jos' is used). Importing data into this table as well as data update and maintainence is necessary to perform by PHPMyAdmin client or other database administration frontend.

SearchLog Administration

When logged to the Administration of Joomla select from the menu Components and choose one of the following possibilities :

select in pop-up menu 'Searchlog' for displaying of Component credits
select in submenu of 'Searchlog' the link 'Configuration' for setting the main config data
select in submenu of 'Searchlog' the link 'Manage Log' for ADIF files uploads and manual maintenance of the Log

SearchLog Configuration

Each of the SearchLog parameters has on administration page pop-up hint when appointed by mouse cursor. For multilanguage pages is here foreseen to use '*' value of the parameter in which case the proper definition from language definition file is used (valid for _SEARCHLOG_TITLE, _SEARCHLOG_DESC, _SEARCHLOG_TEXT definitions). At least one Base callsign shall be defined.

Behavior of Base callsigns settings :

One Base callsign set - Base callsign combo is not shown on log search page, 'callbase' column in the database IS INCLUDED in search select command
More Base callsigns set - Base callsign combo IS SHOWN on log search page, 'callbase' column in the database IS INCLUDED in search select command

After filling all necessary configuration data press 'Save' button. 'Log' button allows direct selecting of main Log Management page.

SearchLog Management

Main page of log management is shown here :

In the upper part of the screen we can select the base callsign for which we like to work with the log. This setting is influencing ADIF file upload as well as displaying of log data.
For ADIF file upload select the appropriate file (allowed file extensions are adi, txt, log) on the local computer by pressing the 'Browse' button and after the file select press 'Upload File' button. The upload result are displayed in short statistic summary as well as in the displayed log (sorting of data is automatically set to 'Last Changed' sort).

Shown log data is possible to filter with writing-down search string and pressing ENTER. For data sorting is used combo-box 'Sort'.

On the lower part of displayed data is page selector with standart Joomla administration capability.

When 'Edit' button is pressed all log data currently displayed on the screen are available for manual editing or deleting choosen row.

For data update is possible to change data values in input boxes but you cannot set the fields callsign, band and mode to nothing (blank) - this case is forbidden. You can change how many data on the page as you like and then after is necessary to press 'Apply' button. Displayed ID column shows unique identification number of data row in the database and this number is important in the error messages pointing to erroneous data rows.

For data deleting is here necessary to mark the rows expected for delete via check-boxes on the left-hand side of the screen and the pressing 'Delete' button.

For inserting new data to the log we shall select on the Log Management main page 'New' button and then to fill the appropriate data to the input table (callsign, band, mode are compulsory data). Pressing 'Save' button on Data Insert page allows to store new data to the log database.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 October 2009 13:09