Activity Agent

When you log in, you will be informed of the number of comments entered by other members of your group since you last used CASCADE as well as the items which have remained unread. You can choose to view activity at that point as indicated above, or you can choose to do so by selecting the activity agent option from the Information button at any time during your session. A profile of your preferences is stored so that you may elect to see only certain categories of activity items. For example, you may want to see only actions made by a particular person(s), only certain types of activity (e.g., new comments), only ``Unread'' items, activity during a certain period of time. These and other options can be stored in the profile by selecting the ``Update Profile'' sub-option.

This button causes the display of a list of profile-specific elements related to comments and editorial changes made in the CASCADE context. It keeps track of which ones you have already looked at through CASCADE. You may view the comment/document by pressing the button for that item in the document area. Figure 9 illustrates the information displayed by this menu choice.

  
Figure 9: Activity Report Selector with Generated Report in Background

The activity list includes the following information:

Status

Read or Unread depending upon whether or not you have looked at the item.

Date

Date and time the item was changed or created.

Button

Indicates the type of document/link. A user name indicates a comment made by that user. Pushing the button with the commenter's name will take you to the comment, while pushing the button labeled ``parent'' will take to the document commented upon. ``Edit Activity'' indicates that the document itself has been edited. Any other text is the name given to the button by the user who created a link to another document.

Comment

Indicates the details of the activity -- e.g. ``changed by USERID of group GROUPID'' -- the person who made the changes and the group he/she belongs to.

This activity list is an ad hoc document prepared on-the-fly for the user based on profile setting. This document is ephemeral and therefore is not editable. To delete items, mark them as ``Read'' and set your profile to show only ``Unread'' items. Currently we are working to expand the set of Status types. This should allow more flexibility in suppressing the display of unwanted items. For example, if a status of ``Hide'' were available then items could be selectively excluded from reports without impeding access should the occasion arise at a future time.