RMS II
RMS Scheduler Application

RMS Scheduler

• Introduction
• System Requirements
• Software Components
• Software Installation
• Software Setup
• Notes

Introduction

The RMS Scheduler application provides a GUI interface to help you generate RMS II script files. The Scheduler allows you to import an FMDS text schedule as a starting point, or you may manually add programs to the schedule. You may also schedule scan, e-mail, FTP, and Web Monitoring events. The Scheduler application shows you graphically whether or not the events you scheduled fit within each time block. If they don't fit, you may alter the events in the time block until they do fit. When the schedule is to your liking, you simply issue the command to generate a script file and the application generates the text RMS script file for you.

System Requirements

CPU:          Any 680x0 or PowerPC Macintosh, PowerBook, or clone
Memory Usage: 3.5MB
Disk Usage:   1.0MB
Network:      none required
OS:           System 7.5 or later, including System 8 or 9

Software Components

• RMS Scheduler application (v3.7)

Software Installation

1. Copy the application file "RMS Scheduler" to the Mac's hard disk.

Software Setup

To use the RMS Scheduler application it may be best to first set up a template schedule document so that you don't have to re-enter a lot of data whenever you create a new schedule. To create a template document, follow these steps:

1. Launch the RMS Scheduler application by double clicking its icon.
2. Create a new document by choosing New from the File menu.
3. Set the schedule document defaults in the dialog that appears. In this dialog you set the default sampling interval duration, and the default settings for Sound, Scan, E-Mail and FTP events for the entire schedule document. Remember to configure the FTP and E-Mail settings in the sub-dialogs which are accessed by clicking the "FTP Settings" and "Mail Settings" buttons.
   • The FTP Settings sub-dialog lets you specify the document defaults for:
     • FTP Event Duration - This specifies how long to do FTP transfers.
     • NTP - This specifies whether to also set the date/time via NTP.
     • FTP URL - The URL of the FTP server to connect to.
     • Receive - Whether to look for a new script file on the FTP server.
     • Send - Which files to transfer; sound, scan, or log.
   • The Mail Settings sub-dialog lets you specify the document defaults for:
     • Mail Event Duration - This specifies the minimum amount of time to do Mail activity. If there is extra time available in a sampling interval then the Scheduler automatically extends the mail event to use up that idle time. The setting in this dialog specifies that a mail event be "at least" so long. When the RMS Server actually runs the script and encounters a mail event, if there is no more mail to send or receive, then it will terminate the mail event prematurely so that the Server is free to do other tasks (e.g. encode sounds, or respond to incoming Client connections).
     • NTP - This specifies whether to also set the date/time via NTP.
     • Mail To addresses - The e-mail addresses to mail to.
     • Receive - Whether to look for a new script file in the incoming mail.
     • Send - Which files to mail; sound, scan, log or script.
     • Web Monitoring - Whether to do web monitoring or not; if so, the Web Monitoring sub-sub-dialog lets you specify which web sites to monitor, the web monitoring parameters, and which e-mail addresses to send the web monitoring logs to.

   Click OK in the main dialog when you are satisfied with the default settings.

4. Next, set the event timing parameters that correspond to the RMS Server that will eventually execute the script file generated by the Scheduler. Choose Event Timing Parameters from the Schedule menu to open the configuration dialog. For a description of how to calculate the values in this dialog, see the section RMS ScriptCheck Software Setup. The Preferences in the RMS ScriptCheck application is similar to the Event Timing Parameters dialog in this application.
5. Save the document and name it something like "Template Sked SSSS" where SSSS is the RMS Server site code.
6. Close the document.
7. In the Finder, select the document icon and choose Get Info from the Finder's File menu. Convert the document to stationery by checking the Stationery Pad box. Now whenever you want to create a new Scheduler document for site SSSS, just double click the stationery icon and you will get a new document with the settings that you have just configured already in place.
8. If you ever want to change your template, just uncheck the Stationery Pad box in the Finder Get Info, edit the template document, save and close the document, and then re-check the Stationery Pad box in the Finder Get Info.

Notes

• Before using the Scheduler application, make sure you follow the steps outlined above in the Software Setup section.
   
• Suggested application usage:
  • Make New Document
    1. Double click your stationery pad to get a new Scheduler document with pre-defined default settings.
    2. In the new document, adjust any Time Block, FTP, or Mail defaults that you want different from the stationery template (if any). To do this, switch to Time Block View by choosing it from the View menu. Then use the "Change Scans in Time Range", "Change FTP in Time Range", and "Change Mail in Time Range" commands from the Time Block menu to alter the defaults. These commands let you change the defaults for a particular set of days in a particular time range. Use 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 to specify an entire day.
  • Add Programs
    1. Import the bulk of the programs from an FMDS text schedule (the easy way), or enter all of your programs manually (the hard way). To import, choose Import Schedule from the Schedule menu and then select an FMDS text schedule file. Note that FMDS can generate two different formats for the text schedule, the Newton format (.nsked) and the Palm format (.psked). In order for the Scheduler to know which format is contained within a FMDS text schedule file, you must add a '.nsked' or '.psked' to the file's name. The Scheduler will only recognize files whose names end in '.nsked' or '.psked'. To enter a program manually, choose Add Program from the Program menu and fill in the Add Program dialog with the program information - broadcaster, language, days, time, frequencies, etc.
    2. If you imported, add any special case monitoring by manually adding programs using the Add Program dialog.
    3. The programs appear in the document window as grey boxes in the calendar. The program broadcaster and language are displayed in each grey box. If two or more programs overlap then multiple sets of broadcaster/language will appear in the grey boxes, and the grey will be a darker shade.
       To select a program, click in one of its grey boxes - it outlines in yellow. If there are overlapping programs, then click and hold - a popup menu appears which lists the overlapping programs. Selecting a program from the popup menu selects the program in the calendar.
    4. You may edit or delete a program by selecting it in the calendar and then choosing Edit Program or Delete Program from the Program menu.
    5. You may replicate an existing program by selecting it in the calendar and then choosing Replicate Program from the Program menu. Replicating a program creates a new program which looks just like the existing program, except that it may be scheduled on a different time and/or days. This is useful if you are adding a program that is very similar to an existing program; you can just replicate the existing program and then edit the new one, instead of entering all of the data from scratch.
  • Adjust Time Blocks
    1. Once you have added (or imported) all of the programs, you should next switch to Time Block View to make sure that all of the events fit into each time block. To switch, choose Time Block View from the View menu. In this view, the calendar is automatically broken up into many time blocks. A new time block is created for each contiguous area of time which contains the same set of frequencies being broadcast by one or more programs. The time blocks are automatically generated by the application - you can't directly change their size or position in the calendar.
    2. Each time block displays its contents as shaded areas of different colors:
       • Blue - sound events
       • Light Blue - scan events
       • Purple - mail events
       • Pink - FTP events
       • Grey - unscheduled time
       • Red - WARNING: scheduled events don't fit in the time block
    3. You should first add any special case Scan, FTP or Mail events in the desired time blocks. Select a time block by clicking in it and then choose Edit Time Block from the Time Block menu (or double click the time block). This opens the Edit Time Block dialog. In this dialog you may configure Scan, Mail and FTP events for just that one time block.
       Alternatively, you may use the "Change Scans in Time Range", "Change FTP in Time Range", and "Change Mail in Time Range" commands as described above to alter several time blocks at once.
    4. After you have customized your time blocks (if necessary) your schedule is complete. There is only one more thing to do before generating the RMS script file - check for overcrowded time blocks. These time blocks are displayed in the calendar entirely in red. Switch to Time Block View and scroll through the entire calendar from 00:00 to 23:59 looking for red time blocks. If you have none, you may skip to the next section.
    5. To resolve overcrowded red time blocks, you may either use the Auto-Fix command to attempt to automatically resolve them, or you may fix them manually by editing each red time block individually.
       To use the Auto-Fix command, switch to Time Block View and then choose Auto-Fix Red Blocks from the Schedule menu. A dialog appears that lets you specify how to auto-fix; you may eliminate e-mail/ftp events and/or eliminate band scans at the start or end of the interval. Each red block in the schedule is auto-fixed as follows. If you chose "e-mail/ftp," then those events are eliminated. If that does not resolve the red block and you chose "scans at start," then the scans at the start of the interval are eliminated. And if that does not resolve the red block and you chose "scans at end," then the scans at the end of the interval are eliminated. If after all that the block is still red then it must be manually fixed.
       To manually fix a red block you edit the time block by double clicking it. This opens the Edit Time Block dialog. You may resolve the overcrowding problem by doing any combination of the actions listed below:
       • Increase the sampling interval
       • Decrease the sound duration
       • Omit certain sound events by unchecking them from the list
       • Uncheck Band Scan inclusion at the Start or End of each sampling interval
       • Shorten the band scan indent time
       • Remove band scan events from the list
       • Omit certain band scan events by unchecking them from the list
       • Uncheck Mail or FTP event inclusion
       • Decrease the Mail or FTP event duration (in the settings dialog)
    • Note that editing a time block only affects that time block and no others.
  • Add Web Monitoring (optional; only for those RMS sites where this is required)
    1. Create a '.wsked' file containing the web sites that you want to monitor at what times. See Reference B: Data File Formats for how to make a .wsked file.
    2. Choose the "Import Web Schedule" item from the Schedule menu. Select your .wsked file in the Open dialog.
    3. The web sites that you specified in the .wsked file are added to the mail events in your schedule document.
  • Generate Script File
    1. To generate the RMS script file that corresponds to your Scheduler document, choose Generate Server Script from the Schedule menu. This creates a text script file that you can install on an RMS Server.
    2. If necessary, you may tweak the text script file by hand, but this is not recommended.
    3. Run the script through RMS ScriptCheck to ensure a properly formatted script. The script file contains the Event Timing Parameters from the Scheduler document, so when ScriptCheck checks the script file, it will load these settings from the script and use them when checking the script.
        
• Note that script generation is a one-way process. That is, there is no command that lets you go from a script back to a Scheduler document. For this reason, it is best to refrain from manually editing the script if at all possible. Otherwise, if you make changes to the Scheduler document and then re-generate the script, you will lose all manual changes made to the previous script. Another way of looking at it is that once you manually edit a script, then all further changes must also be made manually directly in the script.
   
• Changing the Event Timing Parameters has an effect on any existing time blocks as well as any new time blocks.
  
• SHORTCUT: Holding down the option key while selecting a program from the popup menu will select that program and open the Edit Program dialog in one step.
  
• SHORTCUT: Holding down the option key while clicking in the panel of day-of-week buttons will select or deselect ALL buttons in the panel at once.