unoffical FET feature preview released

[Volker Dirr]

Hallo,

i started coding a simple activity planning form the last days. it doesn't include automatic activity planning (and will not).
it is "only" an overview about all activities in a students-subjects matrix and a teacher total working hours table.
if you press a cell, you will get access to the activity or subactivity form.

some guys might help this overview. espicialy "normal/simple" schools.
to some of them the new form look "untidy", because they don't use shortcuts to (teacher) names.

please don't use this version for work. you don't need to hunt bugs, because it is only a preview version.
the reason why i release this version is, because we are not sure if we should add this feature, because it look like it is maybe not usefull to some complex datasets (like from universities).

i was lazy to code a new menue entrie and so i added this feature currently in the old advanced statistics export.
so please go to "fet ->statistics->export advanced statistics to disk" to check the new feature.

the current version is not 100% ready yet (need especialy a lot of source cleanup and testing after that), but it is already good enough understand the idea of the new feature.

i am currently thinking about adding a few more options:
1. "add": so you skipp the activty overview form and add directly an activity.
2. "clear": so all activites in that cell will be directly cleared.
3. "modify": so overview will be skipped and the clicked activity will directly modified.
4. maybe also a pushbutton with something like "clear whole sheet"
5. maybe code a "teacher target number of weekly hours". so in the teachers table the number of hours is calculated as countdown (current number of weekly hours)-(target number of weekly hours) and if this value is 0 the teacher might be hidden. that is also much work to code, because new forms is needed for that.

espicialy 2 and 3 are a bit tricky to code, because a cell might contain several and/or modified subactivities.
direct modifing (3.) will be of course max possible if there is just one activity in the cell.

don't ask me if it is possible to enter the number of hours directly into the cells. that is nearly impossible. it is possible (but tricky to code) for simple datasets, but impossible for complex ones. the problem are cells with several included activities (because several are added or modified subactivities)

so if there are enought guys that need/want this feature i will maybe finish coding during x-mas holiday. let me know your opinion.

get the preview version here:
DELETED, because it is old. Compare later entries to get newer version.

(don't forget: "fet ->statistics->export advanced statistics to disk")

[Chafik Graiguer]

Hi Volker
Due to hard work at school in the last days, I just downloaded it now for testing

Hapy Christmas and happy new year

[Volker Dirr]

Even there was only one positive feedback so far, i coded some more the last days.

In the current version i added the following features:

1. "add": so you skipp the activty overview form and add directly an activity.
2. "clear": so all activites in that cell will be directly cleared.
3. "modify": so overview will be skipped and the clicked activity will directly modified.
4. maybe also a pushbutton with something like "clear whole sheet"

So only the 5th feature is missing now. But that is again much work to do. i am also not 100% sure where to add it. is a new form needed for this; and where to put it? Or enter that number while entering the name?

please have a look at the new verision and tell me if you like it.
same as before:
-new feature is "hidden" at "fet ->statistics->export advanced statistics to disk"

please get it from here:
DELETED, because it is old. Compare later entries to get newer version.


There was also an other feature request:

> I would also like to have a checkbox to show in the group column, for
> each cell, all the subgroup activities. So if A is a group with A1,A2
> subgroups I want the box of A to show "A1: blah, A2: blahblah".

i already answered this:

so i should code something like the "related" button in the activities
overview.
let me think about it. i must change serval things to add that feature.

but i am currenlty not sure if that is realy usefull.
maybe to small dataset if you display only the groups.

i see currently several problems (apart from coding it):
1. in my dataset it will take at least 10 times longer to calculate (ok,
maybe not so critical.)
2. in my dataset it will need at least 10 times more memory (more
critical, espiecialy if i thing about more complex datasets. they need
moch more then 10 times more memory.)
3. most critical: i fear it is very unclear.

reason: if i add your request it mean:
a) in the cells is more information, because i also need to print the
year, group or subgroup name (in many cases)
b) data will be displayed many times. (imagine you add an activity to a
group, that mean it will also displayed in all subgroups and in the years
cell. so one activity is displayed in MANY cells (in my simple dataset it
mean each activity is displayed in around 10 different cells.))
especialy the years cell will be pretty full.
c) it will be more dificult to use the planed shortcuts to add, modifiy or
delete activities, because that is only possible if there is only one
activity in a cell.

i checked the current version with some datafiles and there is a file that already use over 300 mb memory.
adding that feature will increase memory usage around 30 times to that file. that is to much.
also speed is slow with that sample (even i have a fast cpu).
so i will not add the request now. maybe later.

[Chafik Graiguer]

I took a llok at the fet-5.11.1.vd1.featurePreview
This is indeed a ver yusefull feature ! I hope to see it included in te official branche
It will speed up inputting precess tremendousely !! Now I have only to click on desired cell to have FET always adding subject and group !!!

I will do further testing, but I have a question: why it consumes more memory and slow down solving ? this feature is only related to inputtibg sata stage !!

Here is a screenchoot for other poeples to have an overview:

[Volker Dirr]

I have a question: why it consumes more memory and slow down solving ? this feature is only related to inputtibg sata stage !!

it use more memory, because i need to store data in each cell.
that is normaly not critical, but it will be critical if i also add the suggested "display related activities" feature. that is why i didn't implement that yet.

it will not slow down generating, it slow down only this new form. (it is slow while updating that form, because an activity is changed or if i change optional view settings) with that large sample even current version already need a bit over 1 second on my fast computer to change/update this form.

It will speed up inputting precess tremendousely !! Now I have only to click on desired cell to have FET always adding subject and group !!!

Have a look at the new version, because it speed up one more time again, because now "adding" save one more mouse click :-)

[Chafik Graiguer]

Have a look at the new version, because it speed up one more time again, because now "adding" save one more mouse click :-)

Yes I tested it
Bu How FET knows that a teachers reaches  full contract (Hide full teacher ) ?

[Volker Dirr]

Bu How FET knows that a teachers reaches  full contract (Hide full teacher ) ?

that is not implemented in that preview version yet. i am still coding on that feature. i think i can release tomorrow the hopefully last previewview version with all included features.

[Volker Dirr]

here is the promised new preview version:
DELETED, because it is old. Compare later entries to get newer version.

please check. the "hide full teacher" feature is now implemented (but it can't save that values in the fet-data-file.)

there are also several other new features added. you will see as soon as you test it. i think new features are self-explanatory if you see the new buttons/checkboxes. don't forget you can only toggle behaviour by choosing the radiobuttions in the "action"-box. also behaviour is different
a) if you press a cell or a table head
b) if a cell contain no, one or more activities
so you have much to check.

[Chafik Graiguer]

This is defintivelly a very usefull feature, because FET was always lacking a feature to speed up and check data inputting
As long as I play with this release, I came across some suggetions:
1- If you click under teacher's name, a new box appears asking:"Please enter the number of target hours"
It will be more precise to call it:"Please enter the number of Contract hours"

2- suppose we define "21" hours as the number of Contract hours
a teacher having 18 hours will have -3; that is OK
But a teacher having 26 hours will have 5
I suggest it to make it +5 , so I will not be confused with actualy entred hours
3- Even if I check "hide full teachers", teachers exceding their contract hours are still showing
I suggest to hide them as well or to add anew cjeck bow with "Teachers exceding contract hours" I mean doing supllemental work

the "hide full teacher" feature is now implemented (but it can't save that values in the fet-data-file.)

Do you mean "check box status" isnot saved or "the number of target hours" ?

Once again, this is so far a good feature, and I  ask Liviu if is it possible to include it in the official release

[Volker Dirr]

1- If you click under teacher's name, a new box appears asking:"Please enter the number of target hours"
It will be more precise to call it:"Please enter the number of Contract hours"

I am not an native english speaker.
Maybe also "debit number of hours", "quota" or "set number of hours". Your suggestion also sound ok to me. Maybe native speaker can tell the best sentence?

2- suppose we define "21" hours as the number of Contract hours
a teacher having 18 hours will have -3; that is OK
But a teacher having 26 hours will have 5
I suggest it to make it +5 , so I will not be confused with actualy entred hours

Nice idea. Will be easy to do that. i will do that now.

3- Even if I check "hide full teachers", teachers exceding their contract hours are still showing
I suggest to hide them as well or to add anew cjeck bow with "Teachers exceding contract hours" I mean doing supllemental work

You mean because you want to have same more space for the activity table?
Currently the "hide teachers" mean it hide only teacher that have exacly reach the target number of hours.
I think using a splitter is better, but i doesn't work like i thought. i will retry one more time to use a splitter, so you can set the size of the tables yourself.

the "hide full teacher" feature is now implemented (but it can't save that values in the fet-data-file.)

Do you mean "check box status" isnot saved or "the number of target hours" ?

Both is not saved. the checkbox statis is not critical in my opinion. the target number of hours is critical. Liviu and me already talked about that. we don't like to add a value into the fet file which is not directly needed to do timetabling. we are not sure were we should save that values.

[Volker Dirr]

1- If you click under teacher's name, a new box appears asking:"Please enter the number of target hours"
It will be more precise to call it:"Please enter the number of Contract hours"

I am not an native english speaker.
Maybe also "debit number of hours", "quota" or "set number of hours". Your suggestion also sound ok to me. Maybe native speaker can tell the best sentence?

I thought some more.
Using the noun "contract" is maybe not the best, because some guys maybe also add pseudo activities. So maybe they add also "luch"-activities. So it is maybe better to count also that activities, so it is different from the "contract".
But i will do as native speaker prefer. Other suggestions?

[Liviu Lalescu]

Once again, this is so far a good feature, and I  ask Liviu if is it possible to include it in the official release

I don't like to add the number of contract hours to the .fet file, because it does not belong here and may confuse some users. Also, this new feature of Volker needs testing.

[Chafik Graiguer]

3- Even if I check "hide full teachers", teachers exceding their contract hours are still showing
I suggest to hide them as well or to add anew cjeck bow with "Teachers exceding contract hours" I mean doing supllemental work

You mean because you want to have same more space for the activity table?
Currently the "hide teachers" mean it hide only teacher that have exacly reach the target number of hours.
I think using a splitter is better, but i doesn't work like i thought. i will retry one more time to use a splitter, so you can set the size of the tables yourself.

I mean simply that if  teachers have 21 hours on their  contract, I want every teacher to be hided once he has 21 or PLUS
Maybe it is better to add a new check box for : "Show/Hide teachers exceeding contract"

Once again, this is so far a good feature, and I  ask Liviu if is it possible to include it in the official release

I don't like to add the number of contract hours to the .fet file, because it does not belong here and may confuse some users. Also, this new feature of Volker needs testing.

I think number of contract hours could be addded to the Teacher Statistics window as well
Actualy we have:
-Teacher --- No. of activities --- Duration
Why not make it like this:
-Teacher --- No. of activities --- Duration --- Contract --- status
By status, I mean 0 or +n or -n depending on deiffrences between Contract and actual duration

This info could be usefull for schools where timetable makers needs to know teachers with less "load" to receive more activities
It can be inputted while adding new teacher
Data --> teachers ---> add
we will add both name and contract hours
much like adding Rooms with building and capacity info 
Contract Hours is the teacher's "capacity"

[Volker Dirr]

I mean simply that if  teachers have 21 hours on their  contract, I want every teacher to be hided once he has 21 or PLUS
Maybe it is better to add a new check box for : "Show/Hide teachers exceeding contract"

ah... ok. i fear guys maybe add sadly to many hours/activities to a teacher and they will not noctive it a long time. Having to many hours (is also a "bug". So isn't hiding only the teacher that reach exactly the number of hours better?! In my opinion "exceeing" is as problemetic as "under".

[Chafik Graiguer]

ah... ok. i fear guys maybe add sadly to many hours/activities to a teacher and they will not noctive it a long time. Having to many hours (is also a "bug". So isn't hiding only the teacher that reach exactly the number of hours better?! In my opinion "exceeing" is as problemetic as "under".

Yes
I agree with you
We should keep a close eye on teachers exceeding contract.. otherwise we may continue giving them more and more activities !!
So how it is possible to add a check box for "show/hide teachers exceeding contract" ?