tailoring

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       Tailoring the directory user interface DE

                      Paul Barker
            Department of Computer Science

               University College London
                    United Kingdom

                     March 3, 1992



1  Introduction

DE (which stands for Directory Enquiries) is a
directory user interface primarily intended to serve as
a public access user interface.  It is a successor to,
and borrows something of the style of, the dsc
interface released in a previous version.  It is
primarily aimed at the novice user, although more
sophisticated users should find that it is flexible
enough to answer the majority of queries they wish to
pose.
DE has more features than those discussed below.
However, the program has extensive on-line help as it
is envisaged that it will often be used in environments
where neither on-line help nor paper documentation will
be available.


2  Using DE

2.1  Starting up

DE will work quite happily without any knowledge of the
user's terminal type, assuming a screen size of 80 x 24
in the absence of terminal type information.  If,
however, the user's terminal type is not recognised by
the system, the user will be prompted to try and enter
an alternative.  The user can examine a list of valid

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terminal types; typing <CR> accepts a terminal type of
``dumb''.
It is possible to configure DE to force confirmation of
screen lengths of greater than 24 lines -- this helps
with WAN access as some virtual terminal protocols do
not propagate the screen size.

2.2  Searching for a Person

The interface prompts the user for input with the
following four questions:

    Person's name, q to quit, * to list people, ? for help
    :- barker
    Dept name, * to list depts, <CR> to search all depts, ? for help
    :- cs
    Organisation name, <CR> to search `ucl', * to list orgs, ? for help
    :-
    Country name, <CR> to search `gb', * to list countries, ? for help
    :-

Note from the above example that it is possible to
configure the interface so that local values are
defaulted:  RETURN accepts ``ucl'' for organisation,
and ``gb'' for country.  The above query returns a
single result which is displayed thus:

    United Kingdom
      University College London
        Computer Science
          Paul Barker
            telephoneNumber       [phone]
            electronic mail       [e-mail]
            favouriteDrink        guinness
                                  16 year old lagavulin
            roomNumber            G21


If several results are found for a single query, the
user is asked to select one from the entries matched.
For example, searching for ``jones'' in ``physics'' at
``UCL'' in ``GB'' produces the following output:

    United Kingdom

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      University College London

    Got the following approximate matches.  Please select one from the
    list by typing the number corresponding to the entry you want.

        1 Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
        2 Medical Physics and Bio-Engineering
        3 Physics and Astronomy
        4 Psychiatry
        5 Psychology

Selecting ``Physics and Astronomy'' by simply typing
the number 3, the search continues, and the following
is displayed:

    United Kingdom
      University College London
        Physics and Astronomy

    Got the following approximate matches.  Please select one from the
    list by typing the number corresponding to the entry you want.

         1 C L Jones     [phone]
         2 G O Jones     [phone] x3468  [e-mail]
         3 P S Jones     [phone] x3483
         4 T W Jones     [phone]

In this condensed format, telephone and email
information is displayed.

2.3  Searching for other information

Information for organisations can be found by
specifying null entries for the person and department.
Information for departments can be found by specifying
null input for the person field.
Information about rooms and roles can be found as well
as for people by, for example, entering ``secretary''
in the person's name field.






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2.4  Interrupting

If the user wishes to abandon a query or correct the
input of a query (maybe the user has mis-typed a name),
control-C resets the interface so that it is waiting
for a fresh query.  Typing ``q'' at prompts other than
the person prompt results in the user being asked to
confirm if they wish to quit.  If the user replys
``n'', the interface resets as if control-C had been
pressed.

2.5  Quitting

Type ``q'' (or optionally ``quit'' --- see below) at
the prompt for a person's name.  Type ``q'' at other
prompts, and the user is asked to confirm if they wish
to quit.  If the use replys ``n'', the interface resets
to allow a query to be entered afresh.

3  Configuration of DE

As DE is intended as a public access dua, it is only
configurable on a system-wide basis.  DE installs help
files and the detailor file into a directory called de/
under ISODE's ETCDIR.


3.1  Highly recommended options

The detailor file contains a number of tailorable
variables, of which the following are highly
recommended:

dsa_address: This is the address of the access point
    DSA. If two or more dsa_address lines are given, the
    first dsa_address is tried first, the second
    dsa_address is tried if connecting to the first
    address fails.  Third and subsequent dsa_address
    entries are ignored.  If there is no dsa_address
    entry in the detailor file, the first value in the
    dsaptailor file is used.

        dsa_address:Internet=128.16.6.8+17003
        dsa_address:Internet=128.16.6.10+17003

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username: This is the username with which the DUA binds
    to the Directory.  It is not strictly mandatory,
    but you are strongly encouraged to set this up.  It
    will help you to see who is connecting to the DSA.

        username:@c=GB@o=X-Tel Services Ltd@cn=Directory Enquiries

3.2  Variables you will probably want to configure

You will almost certainly want to set at least some of
these to suit your local system:

welcomeMessage: This is the welcoming banner message.
    The default is ``Welcome to the Directory
    Service''.


        welcomeMessage:Welcome to DE

byebyeMessage: This enables/disables the display of a
    message on exiting DE. This variable takes the
    values ``on'' and ``off''.  The message displayed
    is the contents of the file debyebye, which should
    be placed in the same directory as all DE's help
    files.  The default is not to display an exit
    message.

        byebyeMessage:on

default_country: This is the name of the country to
    search by default:  e.g., ``GB''.

        default_country:gb

default_org: This is the name of the organisation to
    search by default:  e.g., ``University College
    London''


        default_org:University College London

default_dept: This is the name of the department
    (organisational unit) to search by default:  e.g.,


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    ``Computing''.  This will usually be null for
    public access duas.

        default_dept:

3.3  Attribute tailoring

The following configuration options all concern the
display of attributes.  The settings in the detailor
file will probably be OK initially.

commonatt: These attributes are displayed whatever type
    of object is being searched for, be it an
    organisation, a department, or a person.


        commonatt:telephoneNumber
        commonatt:facsimileTelephoneNumber

orgatt: These attributes are displayed (as well as the
    common attributes --- see above) if an entry for an
    organisation is displayed.

        orgatt:telexNumber

ouatt: These attributes are displayed (as well as the
    common attributes --- see above) if an entry for an
    organisational unit (department) is displayed.

        ouatt:telexNumber

prratt: These attributes are displayed (as well as the
    common attributes --- see above) if an entry for a
    person, room or role is displayed.


        prratt:rfc822Mailbox
        prratt:roomNumber

mapattname: This attribute allows for meaningful
    attribute names to be displayed to the user.  The
    attribute names in the quipu oidtables may be
    mapped onto more user-friendly names.  This allows
    for language independence.

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        mapattname:facsimileTelephoneNumber fax
        mapattname:rfc822Mailbox electronic mail

mapphone: This allows for the mapping of international
    format phone numbers into a local format.  It is
    thus possible to display local phone numbers as
    extension numbers only and phone numbers in the
    same country correctly prefixed and without the
    country code.

        mapphone:+44 71-380-:
        mapphone:[phone] x:
        mapphone:+44 :0

greybook: In the UK, big-endian domains are used in
    mail names.  By setting this variable on, it is
    possible to display email addresses in this order
    rather than the default little-endian order.

        greyBook:on

country: This allows for the mapping of the 2 letter
    ISO country codes (such as GB and FR) onto locally
    meaningful strings such as, for english speakers,
    Great Britain and France.

        country:AU Australia
        country:AT Austria
        country:BE Belgium

3.4  Miscellaneous tailoring

There are a number of miscellaneous variables which may
be set.


maxPersons: If a lot of matches are found, DE will
    display the matches in a short form, showing email
    address and telephone number only.  Otherwise full
    entry details are displayed.  This variable allows
    the number of entries which will be displayed in
    full to be set --- the default is 3.

        maxPersons:2

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inverseVideo: Prompts are by default shown in inverse
    video.  Unset this variable to turn this off.

        inverseVideo:on

delogfile: Searches are by default are logged to the
    file de.log in ISODEs LOGDIR. They can be directed
    elsewhere by using this variable.

        delogfile:/tmp/delogfile

logLevel: The logging can be turned off.  It can also
    be turned up to give details of which search
    filters are being successful --- this will
    hopefully allow some tuning of the interface.


     o  Level 0 --- turns the logging off.

     o  Level 1 (the default level) --- logs binds,
        searches, unbinds

     o  Level 2 --- gives level 1 logs, and logging
        analysis of which filters have been successful
        and which failed

        logLevel:2

remoteAlarmTime: A remote search is one where the
    country and organisation name searched for not the
    same as the defaults.  If the search has not
    completed within a configurable number of seconds,
    a message is displayed warning the user that all
    may not be well.  The default setting is 30
    seconds.  The search, however, continues until it
    returns or is interrupted by the user.

        remoteAlarmTime:30

localAlarmTime: As for remoteAlarmTime, except for
    local searches.  The default setting is 15 seconds.

        localAlarmTime:15


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quitChars: The number of characters of the word
    ``quit'' which a user must type to exit.  The
    default setting is 1 character.

        quitChars:1

allowControlCtoQuit: This enables or disables the
    feature where a user may exit the program by typing
    control-C at the prompt for a person's name.  The
    default setting is on.

        allowControlCtoQuit:on

wanAccess: This enables the feature where a user is
    asked to confirm that the size of their terminal is
    really greater than 24 lines.  This helps with
    telnet access if the screen size is not propagated.
    The default setting is off.


        wanAccess:on

4  Dynamic tailoring

It is possible for a user to modify some variables used
by DE while running the program.  In particular, this
allows a user to recover from a situation where the
terminal emulation is not working correctly --- an
apparently frequent occurrence!
Dynamic tailoring of variables is offered by use of the
SETTINGS help screen.  Typing ?settings at any prompt
will display the current settings of dynamically
alterable variables.  The user is then offered the
opportunity of modifying the variables.  Variables
which may currently be altered in this way are:

termtype The user's terminal type, as set in the UNIX
    ``TERM'' environment variable.

invvideo Turn inverse video ``on'' (if the terminal
    supports it) or ``off''

cols Set the width of the screen to a number of columns


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lines Set the length of the screen to a number of lines












































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