Using the Period Browser

The period browser allows normal users to browse and view the available budget periods in your Zingoolarity instance and allows administrative users to maintain these (create, update and delete).

To invoke the period browser, select Periods from either the main menu or from the home page:

(Zingoolarity period browser)

Searching & Filtering for Periods

The period browser allows you to search and filter for the following period attributes:

• Name
  Enter part of a period name.
• Active
  Select whether you want to see all periods, only active periods or only inactive periods.

Click the Search button to perform the search or click the Clear button to reset the already entered search criteria.

Exporting Periods

If you are an administrative user, you can export the currently filtered list of periods in ZML format to a local file.

Click on the Export button to perform the export.

A file named export_period.txt will be created in your local Downloads directory.

Adding a New Period

To add a new period, click the Add button.
The new period editor screen will appear:

(Zingoolarity period editor screen)

Let us have a look at the different available attributes of a period:

• Name
  The Name of a period represents a short and easy-to-understand label for the period.
• Active
  The Active toggle of a period can be used to disable (or enable) a period.
  Disabled periods are not available in the various views or drop-down boxes of Zingoolarity.
  Setting a period to inactive can be used as some kind of soft delete.
• Config
  The optional Config of a period allows you to configure the behavior of a period.
  At the moment, you can place the keyword @break; here to force a break to a new column in the rendering of the period slots in the budget entry field.
• Seq
  The Seq of a period is a numeric value which directly influences the sort order of periods in the different views of Zingoolarity.
  This order is honored for example by the budget entry field of topics.

At the bottom of the screen, a couple of buttons are available:

• The Save button will just save your changes (without leaving the editor screen).
• The Save+Back button will do the same but return to the previous screen.
• The Cancel button will just return to the previous screen (without saving).
• The Delete button will request confirmation, will delete the record and then will return to the previous screen.
  Note: Deleting a period is only possible, if the period is not yet used somewhere in Zingoolarity already; if this is the case, you will see an appropriate error message.
  The Log button will show a historical transaction log of the current record (for auditing purposes).

Editing an Existing Period

To edit an existing period, click the Edit button next to the period in the list shown in the period browser after searching.