MEPO TrainingMEPO Database Access Training Presentation

Copyright 2011 Rodger B. Fluke, MPA

MEPO Database Access Help

The Major Navigation Button Details of the Department List Download Details of the Upload Process Details of the Data Entry Process Details Related to Room Names Identical Process for Vendors Details of the Item (Equipment) List Section Adding Equipment Items to Rooms Details of the Reporting Functions Final and Semi-Final Reports Final MEPO Main Menu Items Live Help

The Major Navigation Button

To access the planning and production modules of MEPO Database Access, click on the navigation button on MEPO web pages as shown above.

After access arrangements are made, enter your user name and password. Another items to have close at hand is your assigned User ID number. This was provided upon registration.

The first step in the planning process is the building of the department list. Click on the "Department Listing" as indicated above.

The "Department Listing" screen has several elements. Items of particular interest are the department codes and department names. These codes, shown above, will be used to set the elations to other elements in the process. Each room name and subsequent room equipment items will have a department code as part of the record.

Each department code has a name attached.

From the Department List" a copy of the entire list can be downloaded. There is a download link with other navigation links at the top of the page. Downloads can be of three forms, a "PDF" file, a "CSV" file, and a "XML". For use with the MEPO planning system, all files for download and upload must be in the "CSV" file format. The arrow above indicates that all of the pages can be downloaded or just the current page. Download all pages to provide a comprehensive list that can be later edited and uploaded to create the department structure of the project.

The common download window appears. For this example, click "open".

Details of the Department List Download

There are two options to the download. The "open" option and the "save" option. The "open" option is used here and the download opens in MS Excel. To prepare the file for upload, the first line of the file MUST be removed. This row contains the field  name and is only needed to inform the user of the data’s position in the record. When uploaded, data must appear on the first line of the upload file.

The first element of the row MUST be your User ID. If any record is uploaded with the incorrect User ID, the record will not appear in any editing or reporting activity. The department code and department name is user supplied. Edit the list to include as many, or as few, as you require.  Pay strict attention the format of the upload file. Commas must be placed in the upload file that match perfectly the commas of the download file. In the case here, have MS Excel  save the edited file as a "CSV" file. Use a plain text editor, not a word processor, to check the format of the output file. The name of the file to be uploaded requires attention.  To upload department data, the file name MUST begin with the word "department_".It will be very useful to create a list of department ordered by code and by name in case additional department need to be added. A department code must only be used once. Further explaination of  organizing codes will be addressed later

The first element of the row MUST be your User ID. If any record is uploaded with the incorrect User ID, the record will not appear in any editing or reporting activity. The department code and department name is user supplied. Edit the list to include as many, or as few, as you require.  Pay strict attention the format of the upload file. Commas must be placed in the upload file that match perfectly the commas of the download file. In the case here, have MS Excel  save the edited file as a "CSV" file. Use a plain text editor, not a word processor, to check the format of the output file. The name of the file to be uploaded requires attention.  To upload department data, the file name MUST begin with the word "department_". It will be very useful to create a list of department ordered by code and by name in case additional department need to be added. A department code must only be used once. Further explanation of  organizing codes will be addressed later

The second element of each row is the department code. Rooms will be assigned to these department using these codes in the room names records. When equipment is added to room records, the department code is part of that record.

The third element of the department list record is the department name. This is used in the reporting portions of the planning system.

There are five upload possibilities and five different tables to be populated with project data. For each upload, the database table MUST be identified. To do this, the file name MUST start with the table name. In example above, the edited department data file name starts with the word "departments_". The “0" indicates the User ID for this upload. The record will be populated with the User ID found within the uploaded records.

Details of the Upload Process

Item number 17 on the MEPO Main Menu is the link to the upload process. Click on the item to proceed to the upload screen.

Upon arriving on the upload page there are instruction about the file naming requirements for each table to be used in the upload. (ie: departments_, equip_, roomnames_, rooms, and vendors_). Any record that contains the default User ID of "0" will not be inserted into the table. This is a common upload process. Click the "Browse" button, identify the target file, and click "Submit".

Details of the Data Entry Process

Following an upload, it is advisable to check the data. In addition to checking existing data, data can be entered using the data entry process. Item 17 of the MEPO Main Menu enables editing of the department data. Click to proceed.

The first two items identified on the data entry screen are the table name and, if enabled, a system message about scheduled down time etc.

The cluster of links to the upper left of the screen are navigational links to the other data entry modules for various tables. For example, a user can jump back and forth between the equipment table and the vendor table without returning to the MEPO Main Menu for each move.

A customized filter can be used to search the table. Enter text into the box and use the down arrow to identify which field of the tablke to filter.

Below the Custom Filter there are navigational links to "View", "Edit", and "Delete" a record in the table. Only records with your User ID will be seen on any of the data entry screens and reports.

Below the Custom Filter, and at the bottom of the screen is the link to "Add Record". If a record was missed in the upload, that record can be added here.

Details Related to Room Names

The second step of the planning process is to identify room names within identified departments. Click on item 4 of the MEPO Main Menu to start the process.

The room name modules functions as the department name module. Download the list of room names. In this case, the "Save" button is used. This will download a text file to your computer.

Open this text file with a plain text editor, not a word processor. Again, the first record of the file must be removed for uploading. The first element in each data record is the User ID. This MUST be replaced by the appropriate User ID. Again, strict placement of the delimiting commas must be observed and maintained.

The second element of the room name record is the department code. Rooms are assigned to departments. When reports are run, rooms will appear in the appropriate department.

The third element of this upload is the room code. This code is a combination of the appropriate department code and a room number with no spaces between them.

The fourth element of the room name upload is the name of the room.

Identical Process for Vendors

The upload and data entry process is the same for adding vendors to the MEPO planning system for your project.

Details of the Item (Equipment) List Section

Before equipment items can be added to room listings, the equipment specifications, either a proper specification or a generic place holder, must be added to the project. There are a number of ways to accomplish this task. One of these ways is to click on item number 2 of the MEPO Main Menu. This will take you to the database of product and generic specifications.

The equipment database table screen is constructed the same as the other screens previously detailed. A Custom Filter can help isolate records in the equipment table.

A download can be accomplished using the same process as detailed previously.

There is a more effective way to accessing the equipment specification database. Click on item 7 of the MEPO Main Menu.

The download function has a customized database table search. You can search and download items based upon item name or item code (but, not both).

As shown above, the download is based upon the a search of the equipment specification database table.

MEPO Main Menu item 12 is the data entry process for equipment specifications.

The equipment specification data entry screen, above, has been cropped to show just the fields that MUST have data in them. The user id, the Mfr Cat#, item name, item code, Mfr Code# and the price are "mandatory" fields. The description field can be left empty if desired. All other fields in the equipment specification table can be left empty.

Adding Equipment Items to Rooms

The MEPO Database Access system of planning contains two separate databases. The "Data Listings" and "Data Lookup" functions access the "Benchmark" database. The uploads, data entry, and reporting access the "production", or projects database. When adding equipment to identified room names (or "rooms"), downloads are great advantage. The benchmark database has the same generic listing, in the rooms table, that the website has in the department listing. These are nearly identical in all rooms for each department. You can download entire room equipment lists using the two MEPO Main Menu items shown above (4, 8).

When you download the department and room name lists, keep the originals intact. Using the website, locate the list of room equipment desired. Identify the department and room names from the web pages. Identify the department and room name codes from the downloaded lists. Enter corresponding codes in the search form Room Lookup screen. The entire complement of room equipment will be downloaded to your desktop.

The room equipment list upload layout is similar to the other upload layouts. Again, the first record of the upload file MUST be removed.

The first element of the upload record is the User ID. A record with a User ID = 0 will not get inserted into the rooms table. An incorrect User ID number will not show up in the data entry and reporting functions. The upload file name has to start with "rooms_".

The second element of the upload record is the department code. Again, comma placement is very important.

The third element is the room name code.

The fourth element is the Mfr Code Catalog # from the equipment specification table. In this case, we have a generic vendor place holder (GENC) and a generic room equipment place holder.

The fifth element is the quantify of this item found in the room.

The sixth element is the item code of the piece of equipment. This number is typically found on plan view of construction drawings. As generic Mfr Cat# replace generic place holders, the item code is retained, in the record, to correspond to drawing symbols on plans. It is also useful to retain this item code to help identify generic equipment types not yet specified.

As with the other tables in the production database, data entry and editing room equipment list is accomplished by clicking on the appropriate link (item 15) on the MEPO Main Menu.

The rooms equipment data entry screen has the same layout as the others. Navigation between tables, custom filter, add record, editing, and deleting. Only records with your User ID show up.

The "Add Record" screen shown above is typical of all data entry functions for all tables.

Details of the Reporting Functions

The arrow and bracket above indicate operational reporting functions. Generally referred to as the "Code Book". Each one of these MEPO Main Menu items (starting at item 18) report codes in use within the project. Typically, these reports are printed and kept close at hand. When a new code is needed for a new department, room, item, or vendor, available code are taken and recorded in the book. The code book is then re-run when it becomes difficult to read.

Above is an example of one of these "Code Book" report. The "Room List by Code" is illustrated here.

Final and Semi-Final Reports

Item 33 of the MEPO Main Menu is the "trial balance" of the planning process. At major milestones, this table is populated with the content of all the other tables. Prices that are included in the equipment table, together with the quantities found in the rooms tables are combined for this consolidated view of the project. Each creation of the view wipes out previous consolidated data before the creation of the new view.

Item 34 of the MEPO Main Menu is part of the "trial balance" of the planning process. At major milestones, this table is populated with the content of all the other tables. Room and department totals can be calculated here. Each creation of the view wipes out previous consolidated data before the creation of the new view.

The Room by Room report, MEPO Main Menu item 32, consolidates all the department names, room names and equipment information into one report.

Final MEPO Main Menu Items

Included within the MEPO Database Access systems is a fully functional Forum for user support and improvement suggestions. Users do not have to log in to access the forum.Final item on the main menu is the log off link. Please use it when you are finish with the tasks at hand. In activity will also cause the session to time out and you will have to log in again.

One each of the pages and screens, the above graphic appears. This is a link to the live help facility of MEPO Database Access. When an operator is online, a chat session can be instigated by the user of the MEPO Database Access system by clicking on the graphic. When an operator is offline, a message can be sent to the message database table for response at a later time.

MEPO Database Access Training PresentationCopyright 2011 Rodger B. Fluke, MPA