Abstract
This document describes how to install and use the Timetowork web application. It is an application for tracking employee, activity and project hours.
The current status of this web application is a PROOF-OF-CONCEPT. It is not production quality (primarily because no user security has been implemented in this version and there are some major pieces of functionality still no implemented).
This is a very early relese with very little emphasis on quality. Very many disclaimers here.
Table of Contents
This section contains the instructions for installing and starting the application.
The first step is to download the following items:
Download and install Java Development Kit 1.4 or greater from SUN microsystems
Download and unzip the JBoss-3.X application server with integrated JBossWeb HTTP server
Download the timetowork.ear, it contains the Timetowork Enterprise Application
At this point all the software items that are needed have been download. A small amount of setup needs to be done before the application can be run.
Create a JAVA_HOME environment variable.
Set its value to be the directory where you installed the JAVA Development Kit. This environment variable is needed by the JBoss Application server.
Copy the timetowork.ear file to your JBOSS/server/default/deploy directory.
The next time the JBOSS application server is started it will automatically deploy the timetowork application. If JBOSS is already running then it will HOT deploy the application.
The runtime environment has been setup. We now test this setup by starting the application server and pointing our web browser at the url for the timetowork web application.
Start the JBOSS application server by executing the file JBOSS/bin/run.sh (or run.bat)
You should see a lot of texting scrolling by until the server completes it's initialization sequence
Point your web browser to http://localhost:8080/timetowork
You should now see the logon page for the timetowork application.
The application is now installed and running. This sections provides a brief introduction as to how to use it.
While doing the tutorial you will notice that the first time a web page is accessed it will load 'rather' slowly and then on subsequent accesses it should be reasonably quick. The first time a web page is access it is compiled and this compilation operation is what causes the delay.
In this section you will login as an administrator and create a few objects. These objects are necessary for a user to enter their work hour information.
Using the web interface perform the following steps:
Sign on as username = admin password = admin
Create a new person
The most important feature of this user is his/her username. This username will be needed later.
Create a new project
At least one project is needed before a user is able to enter their work hours.
Create a new activity type
At least one activity type is needed before a user is able to enter their work hours.
Sign out
The administration activities have been completed.
As an adminstrator you created: a person, a project, and an activity type. In this section you will sign on to the system as the new user and enter work hour information into the user's timesheet for the current week.
Login as the new user
Go to the user's my timesheet
The first time that a user goes to their timesheet, for a given timeperiod, the application will prompt them to create a new timesheet
Submit the timesheet
Go again to the user's my timesheet
A timesheet has already been entered by the user for this period and so the application will no longer prompt the user to create a new one.
Navigate the previous week's timesheet.
At the top of the timesheet, on either side of the date, are arrows that allow the user to navigate to the previous week's timesheet.
In this section we will very quickly go over how you can create reports directly from the Database using MS Excel. This enables you to create some nice charts analyzing activities and projects.
You must setup a connection between excel and your database. Do the following steps:
Download the easysoft ODBC-JDBC gateway
create an ODBC datasource using the ODBC datasource Administrator in Microsoft Windows under Control Panel->Administration Tools
Configure the datasource with data such as the following:
username = sa, password = , driver class = org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver, class path = C:\ntdev\jboss-3.0.4\server\default\lib\hsqldb.jar, url = jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost:1476
Now that you have setup a datasource you have to use that datasource from Excel. Do the following steps:
Go to menu Data->Get External Data->New Database Query
Probably you will not have MS Query installed and it will prompt you to do this installation. Install it.
When you get a chance Edit the SQL query directly. I have included a couple of sample querries below:
Hours spent on each project:
SELECT PROJECT_0.ID, Sum(WORKUNIT_0.HOURS), PROJECT_0.NAME FROM PROJECT PROJECT_0, WORKUNIT WORKUNIT_0 WHERE PROJECT_0.ID = WORKUNIT_0.THE_PROJECT_FK GROUP BY WORKUNIT_0.THE_PROJECT_FK
Hours spent on each activity type:
SELECT ACTIVITYTYPE_0.ID, Sum(WORKUNIT_0.HOURS), ACTIVITYTYPE_0.NAME FROM ACTIVITYTYPE ACTIVITYTYPE_0, WORKUNIT WORKUNIT_0 WHERE ACTIVITYTYPE_0.ID = WORKUNIT_0.THE_ACTIVITY_TYPE_FK GROUP BY ACTIVITYTYPE_0.ID
Enjoy