Introducing Scheduling

These commands provide you with significant features for scheduling administration, housekeeping and end of period activities in Opera 3.

Feature	Description
Messaging	Messaging allows you to send desktop messages to users or groups of users in Opera 3. Scheduled messages are displayed on each user's desktop when they are using Opera 3. Any users who are not using Opera 3 when a message is scheduled to be displayed will be notified when they log in to the application if the message is still relevant. You can also view messages from the Windows Notification Area after logging in to Opera 3.
Shutdown	Shutdown allows you to schedule either a forced shutdown of selected users in Opera 3 or schedule a lockout so that users are prevented from logging in to Opera.
Task Scheduler Viewer	The Task Viewer form displays the server-side scheduled tasks that were set up in Opera 3 SQL SE. The view displays the type of scheduled server-side task, the description, the user who scheduled the task and when it was run.
Calendar	Calendar allows you to view the messages, shutdowns and lockouts that have been scheduled in Opera. It includes both future and historical records.

User Groups is an optional feature that allows you to arrange people that use Opera 3 into different groups. These groups can be used when you send messages or schedule shutdowns. For example, you could have a group called 'HR' for Payroll and Personnel users, or a group called 'FINANCE' for users working in the finance department. You may also have a group for directors and other senior managers or a group for administrator users who are responsible for the data backups and other housekeeping tasks.

Messaging

Messaging allows you to send desktop messages to users or groups of users in Opera 3. Scheduled messages are displayed on each user's desktop when they are using Opera 3. Any users who are not using Opera 3 when a message is scheduled to be displayed will be notified when they log in to the application if the message is still relevant. You can also view messages from the Windows Notification Area after logging in to Opera 3.

You can write your own messages to inform users of planned activities in Opera 3, for example that a batch invoice run will commence at a certain time or a end of period process is planned. For processes like these, that require exclusive access to data, users may not be able to use Opera 3 until the process is completed. You can also use messages for events that are nothing to do with Opera 3, for example to remind employees of company events or to send them season's greetings.

When you set up a message, you can add a title, date and time, frequency (once, daily, weekly or monthly) and the amount of time it is displayed on the Opera 3 desktop. You can also define a message as relevant only for specified users or specified user groups, and whether it should be displayed in all Opera 3 systems or only selected systems.

Shutdown

Shutdown allows you to schedule either a forced shutdown of selected users in Opera 3 or schedule a lockout so that users are prevented from logging in to Opera. Users will receive three messages before a shutdown happens. You can define when the messages are displayed so users have time to save their work. For example, the first message can be scheduled to be displayed 1 hour beforehand, the second message 30 minutes beforehand and the final message 5 minutes beforehand. Messages are not sent for lockouts because they only affect users who are already logged in to Opera.

Shutdowns or lockouts are likely to be scheduled so that essential maintenance, like upgrading the Opera 3 programs or running the Backup commands, can be completed by a system administrator. All selected Opera 3 users are affected by the shutdown or lockout event. However, an administrator can use the ADMIN user to log in to Opera 3 so that a maintenance task can be completed but all affected users will be locked out for a defined amount of time. The ADMIN user will be locked out of Opera 3 for between one and two minutes after the shutdown has occurred.

You can schedule shutdowns or lockouts for either users or user groups, or for a company or more than one company. If companies are selected, all users who have access to the companies will be locked out for a prescribed amount of time.

Important: Any unsaved entries that users are working on will be lost when Opera 3 is shut down. Also, if a lengthy process like a Period End command is being run when a shutdown happens, your data may be damaged. You must allow sufficient time for lengthy processes to complete and for users to save their work before the shutdown is scheduled to happen.

If anyone is using a Pegasus product that links to Opera 3, those products will not be shut down. It is advisable to close these products individually before the scheduled shutdown.

Example of a User Group Shutdown

Example of a Company Shutdown

Shutdown events and associated messages are defined on the System - Scheduling - Shutdown form.

Calendar

Use this command to view the messages, shutdowns and lockouts that have been scheduled in Opera. It includes both future and historical records. By default all the active messages are displayed on the form but you can tick the Include Inactive box to view records that are not currently active. The days when messages, shutdowns or lockouts are scheduled are highlighted in the calendar.

Windows Notification Area

The menu uses your secondary button on your mouse: to activate the menu, use your mouse right-click button if your primary button is the left button or use your left-click button if your primary button is the right button.

Messages that have already been displayed today are shown at the top of the menu.

Item	Description
Show last message received	A received message is one that has been displayed today and was then closed. Click this item to view the most recently displayed message.
Show all received messages	Click to view all the messages you have been displayed today and then closed.
Hide all received messages	Click to close all the messages that have been displayed today.
Deactivate all DIP messages	Click to mark all messages that were sent by a data intensive process as inactive. Inactive messages will not be displayed on the Opera 3 SQL SE desktop. Heavy duty ‘data intensive processes’ are run from the PC workstations but all the processing work is done on the Opera 3 SQL SE server. As well as minimising the impact on your IT network, this means that your workstations are not used at all for the intensive work that a heavy-duty process is doing. Instead they are available for other tasks. These data intensive processes are included in all the applications in Opera 3 SQL SE. See the Server-side processes Help topic for more details.
Delete all DIP messages	Click to delete all messages that were sent by a data intensive process.
Show all pending messages	A pending message is one which has not yet been displayed but will be shown at some point today. Click this option to view all your pending messages for today.
Hide all pending messages	If pending messages are displayed on your screen, click this option to close them.