Tasker /
Documentation Archive Structure
Updated 9/2010
The tasker.us documentation reflects the personal notes of Tom Truax and is not intended to represent a customer's total involvement in a project. Tom will often do much but not all of the project management. Some of the project work is outside Tasker's scope or focus.
Pages are usually composed "Frames". Each frame contains a file. When printing from an HTML page, select what you want to print and print the selection. You can force a page to open out of it's frame in a new window or a new tab using IE commands. The most valuable real-estate is the upper left corner. Text is generally left unstructured to pour into uncontrolled various sized web browser containers. Viewing is enhanced when using Microsoft IE with text size set to normal. The web authoring tool running on windows XP is Microsoft FrontPage 2002, which was discontinued by Microsoft after the 2003 version. FrontPage utilizes "canned" server software (FrontPage Server Extensions) that permit casual authors to focus on the content and less on the mechanical underlying code. Unfortunately, since FrontPage is no longer supported by Microsoft, it is somewhat old school without support for some of the newer browser features like tabbed browsing. A user can manually force pages to open in a new tab, but the default choices for the links are either a selected frame or a new window.
There are generally 3 frames to a page (sometimes 4 when an additional stable header is required as with contact list). The upper left corner has a few broad navigation links. Below the upper left corner is the left frame that contains links to the equipment or project information. Data is displayed in the main frame to the right of the narrow corner and left frames. Most of the links in the left frame will open in the main frame, but some links require the whole page which will replace all the frames. Links in the upper left corner will open in a whole page. Links to non HTML pages or external pages will usually open in a new window. Most of the pages contain customer wide links in the left frame that point to indexes for projects and service. A photo index is at the location level, but photos for many project are not posted due to the cost of editing photos for posting. Contact Tasker or Tom Truax for photo sets that have not been posted.
Web documentation began early in 2005 while Tasker was working as a subcontractor for Peaker Services, and became more stable in structure by 2007 (it is under continual evolution). There is a large variance amongst customers, but generally the structure is:
Documentation Tree Structure for most work product filling is
Customer > Location > Equipment > Projects or Service
If the customer has only 1 location, then the customer and location branches
are merged. When a customer is a subsidiary, it may reside either as a
subdirectory of the parent, or as a separate folder to keep the URL short.
Sometimes the equipment might
be nested in sub categories with various grouping strategies depending on
commonality. Equipment can have various nesting depending on the application, like
Generators > Generator A or Gen B. Sometimes all the equipment units will
be grouped under one folder when they are simple and almost identical.
Other times they will be in separate folder that may be a subfolder of the main
grouping, or alongside the grouping.
Groupings may use non stationary headers to access group
items.
Other items include Project Partner Information and a Quote & Proposal index.
When Tasker was working through Peaker Services, jobs were typically proposed and quoted prior to Tom Truax being directed to
work on a project, so the quote & proposal index is often empty.
Project Partners are grouped under a subdirectory psi/3
Access Control
Generally, Customers and Project Partners can access a customer's entire archive, but not the archives of other customers. Access is a balance between simplicity (easy use and quick access) vs. security. We are not a bank protecting your life savings, so we tend to lean toward ease of use, but we can restrict access at whatever level and itemization requested. We usually give a single username to customers, but can provide individual logons to various files or directories if needed.
Stability
The current intended is to maintain the web archive indefinitely, but I could die today, and will definitely fade away eventually. It is recommended that the end use customer maintain their own archive of the relevant important items and information posted. Links (URLs) into and out of the web archive may change. Links into the web archive may change because we sometimes need to regroup or re-structure as relationships with customers evolve. External links pointing outside the web archive may change because we have no control over maintenance of outside links.
Date Formats
Date Codes in file names are arranged to sort from left to right with optional inclusion and sorting flexibility utilizing different separators for clarity.
Dates in narrative body text are typically conventional 00/00/00 Month/Day/Year, but this format will not sort sequentially. The format above will sort correctly in various configurations with or without days or day ranges
Most items are dated. Contact list entries have a date under the name indicating the last data update. Some items are dated generally, and some are dated specifically.