Minutes of DMS meeting of 19 Nov 2009, 14h00-16h00  (by V.Dattilo)
Participants:  F.Berni, F.Carbognani, V.Dattilo, G.Hemming

#1 - Shelving and muting of flags and subflags
The shelving functionality available on the current DMS version is 
appliable only to flags.
 Its extension to subflags requires a re-computation of the related flag.
 To efficiently perform such a re-computation, it is needed to have each 
subflag stored  in a My-SQL database (DB)
 (currently, this kind of info, i.e. the status of each subflag, is not 
extracted by the XMLs passed to the DMS by the Moni processes, but ~just 
displayed as it is).
 ACTION--> we agreed to translate the XML info into a database, in a 
manner that the status  of each subflag is available.
 The best way would be that the Moni processes directly write in a DB, 
and this will be asked to Didier, meanwhile, a intermediate PHP script can
 make  this "translation" step from XML to DB (Gary will help Francesco 
in doing this).
 The muting functionality (by definition it is appliable only to alarmed 
flags) doesn't need a re-computation of the
 flag in case of subflag muting.
 The proposed way to allow the user to shelve/mute a flag/subflag are 
based on a GUI interface. From that, the pre-autorized user can act
  (after authentification), without the risk to affect other parts of 
the DMS configuration, and specify also the start/stop time and the 
reason of the action.
  The user can also set to be automatically notified in case of 
muting/shelving action on a given flag.
 
  #2 - In-line help
  Francesco showed the work done so far, based on the requirements to 
have an help associated to each flag, easily reachabe and editable,
  and integrated with the existing ITF procedure system, to profit of 
its  existing functionalities.
  At each DMS section is associated a procedure with the same name, in 
the ITF procedure system;
   at each flag is associated a procedure section, automatically generated.
   Once the user clicks on the 'help' icon present on each subflag, the 
related procedure is opened for reading. In case the user is also 
pre-autorized,
   he can also edit/modify the procedure.
   ACTION--> no further suggestions/comments.
  
   #3 - authentication method
   It is needed for flag  shelving and muting.  It has to be bease on 
the Active Directory password.
   ACTION --> Franco remarked to use the centralized PHP version 
(already made available by Franco), instead of asking the Computing 
Staff to recompile the existing version on   Olserver13.   Gary will 
take care of that.
  
   #4 -use of ALP to implement elaborate monitoring criteria
   It has been described the use of Alp to implement general monitoring 
criteria and then pass the info to the DMS via an XML file.
   This possibility has been recently implemented and deployed by 
Francesco and Fabio.
   PROs: flexible and allow to implement also criteria with conditional 
logic;
   CONs: the ALP scripting is not powerful in this case and consequently 
several lines of script are necessary for each criterium.
   ACTION--> no further suggestions/comments.
  
   #5 -interfacing  the DMS to the DAQ
   The main need is to display the last hours of trend when clicking on 
a flag (typically the last 2 hours,
    a sampling rate of ~ 0.2Hz would be enough).  
   A test in using in the DMS the java app already developed by 
D.Sentenac to display data is not satisfactory.
   Better to have the values in a DB, that could be circularly overwritten.
   ACTION --> This is linked to what decided for item #1: when writing 
the info of each subflag in the DB, make thinks that, other the color of 
the subflag,
   also the channel value is written.  Once available, the way to 
generate the plot and display it has been already implemented
   and tested by Francesco during past tests.
  
   #6 - aob
   - Quick review of the minutes/decisions of the last DMS meeting (held 
on 20 Jan 2009): verified that all the recommendations/pendings
   (as flag shelving, aggregated flags, etc) have been satisfactorily 
fulfilled/implemented.
   - Franco suggests to complete the note in progress on the DMS. Also 
worth to report all this work in a weekly meeting or VW.
    Also worth of  publication.  ACTION --> Vin. and Francesco will 
circulate a draft updated version of the note in a very few weeks. 
Possibly present it to a weekly meeting within this year.