Client Usage — Documentation 1.6

Name¶

tryton - Graphical user client of the Tryton application framework

Synopsis¶

tryton [options]

After startup, there raises the login dialog and optionally a tips dialog.

Options¶

`--version`	Show program version number and exit
`-h, --help`	Show help message and exit
`-c FILE, --config=FILE`
	Specify alternate configuration file
`-v, --verbose`	Enable basic debugging
`-d LOG_LOGGER, --log=LOG_LOGGER`
	Specify channels to log (ex: rpc.request, rpc.result, …)
`-l LOG_LEVEL, --log-level=LOG_LEVEL`
	Specify the log level: INFO, DEBUG, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL
`-u LOGIN, --user=LOGIN`
	Specify the login user
`-p PORT, --port=PORT`
	Specify the server port
`-s SERVER, --server=SERVER`
	Specify the server hostname

Overview¶

The following schematic illustration of the Tryton client shows the names of all important visual parts.

Figure: Tryton client application:

Client Window       _______________________________________________________
                   |                      Tryton                      _ o x|
                   |-------------------------------------------------------|
Menu bar           | File User Form Options Plugins Shortcuts Help         |
                   |_______________________________________________________|
                   |                                                       |
Tool bar           | New Save | Delete | Find Previous Next Switch    v    |
                   |-------------------------------------------------------|
                   |          ______                                       |
Tab bar            | [Menu]  |[Tab1]| [Tab2] ...                           |
                   |---------|      | -------------------------------------|
                   | .-------        ------------------------------------. |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
View               | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |                                                   | |
                   | |___________________________________________________| |
                   |_______________________________________________________|
Status bar         |username company      Waiting requests...     login@...|
                   |_______________________________________________________|

Menu Bar¶

The menu bar is the main control unit. It provides most of the functionalities of the client application. The menu bar is grouped into categories. It is controlled with mouse or keyboard. The menu bar items are explained later.

Mouse and Keyboard Use¶

Most functions of the Tryton client can be accessed with mouse or keyboard. Key bindings for all menu items are preset. Furthermore all key bindings are manually configurable. To change the binding of a menu item the user needs to put the cursor onto it and simply press the user defined key combination. For this purpose it is needed to activate the configuration of the key bindings with Options > Menubar > Change Accelerators. After the configuration it is preferable to disable Change Accelerators, to avoid accidental changes of key bindings while navigating the Menu bar with the keyboard.

To remove a key binding simply press the delete button while pointing the cursor on the menu item to change.

Note

Usually key bindings are composed with modifier keys.

Additionally the menu bar items are accessible with the Alt or Option key. The user needs to hold the Alt or Option key followed by the underlined character of the menu bar item to choose. To dive into deeper menu levels, he needs to release the Alt or Option key and to simply press the underlined letter of the sub menu item. If there exist several menu items with the same shortcut, repeated activation of the shortcut key will jump to the next one.

The second mouse button (usually right mouse button) provides an additional contextual menu for some views and fields. In this context menu the user finds actions to copy and paste contents or setting up default values or selections for several fields.

Tool Bar¶

The tool bar contains some often used menu functions mapped to icons. In addition to the menu bar the tool bar contains a button called Attachment.

Attachment¶

The attachment item handles the document management system of Tryton which is able to attach files to any arbitrary model. On click it opens the attachments dialog. The default dialog shows a list view of the attached files and links.

A single Attachment has the following Options:

Attachment Name: The name of the attachment.
Datas: The attached File. The file size is displayed as text.
Link: Link to an external site as URL.
Preview tab: Shows a preview picture of the selected attachment.
Description tab: Shows and and provides editing of a free text description for the selected attachment.
Actions:
- OK: Closes the Dialog and saves the attachment(s).

Tabbed Main Frame¶

This part of the client contains all the related contents and functions provided by the Tryton server modules. All aspects inside the main frame depend at least on the individual set of installed modules.

The main frame provides a tabbed document interface to arrange different views side by side. New tabs are opened by special actions, like choosing a menu item or clicking some action buttons. All tabs include titles which show the name of the provided view.

Tabs can be arranged by Drag and Drop.

Note

Inside views there can be tabs, too.

Main Menu¶

The first left tab contains the main menu (… not to mix up with the menu bar!). The main menu does not contain fixed menu items. All of them are dynamically provided by the actual set of the installed modules depending on the access rules of the current user. If a menu item is clicked, the appropriate action will open in a new tab. As the figure below illustrates, the main menu is split up in three frames.

The upper left frame contains the first or top level entries of the main menu. Standard top level entries are ‘Administration’ and ‘Tryton’.

Note

The administration menu will be explained in the modules documentation for the ‘IR’ module, the information repository.

The top level entry ‘Tryton’ connects to the website of the Tryton project.

The right frame is showing a tree view substructure of menu items and headings. With the arrow keys it is possible to navigate inside the menu. By pressing Enter or double-clicking onto the menu item the appropriate views open. Use left and right arrow to expand or contract sub items of a heading.

Figure: Main Menu Tab:

 ________________________________________________________
|                      Tryton                       _ o x|
|--------------------------------------------------------|
| File User Form Options Plugins Shortcuts Help          |
|________________________________________________________|
|                                                        |
| New Save | Delete | Find Previous Next Switch     v    |
|________________________________________________________|
|   ______                                               |
|  |[Menu]|   [Tab1]   [Tab2] ...                        |
|--|      | ---------------------------------------------|
|  |       -------------.------------------------------. |
|  | Top Level Entry 1  | Menu                |        | |
|  | Top Level Entry 2  |---------------------+--------| |
|  | ...                |   Item 1            |        | |
|  | Administration     |   Item 2            |        | |
|  | Tryton             | > Heading           |        | |
|  |____________________|     Sub Item 1      |        | |
|  | Shortcuts    [+][-]|     Sub Item 2      |        | |
|  |--------------------|     > Sub Heading   |        | |
|  | Sub Item 2         |         Sub Sub ... |        | |
|  |                    |                     |        | |
|  |                    |                     |        | |
|  |____________________|_____________________|________| |
|________________________________________________________|
|username company      Waiting requests...     login@... |
|________________________________________________________|

The lower left menu frame shows a user adjustable shortcuts menu. This menu is for collecting often used menu items. Using a shortcut item will open the appropriate view in a new tab, just with a double mouse click. A menu item is added to the shortcut menu by pushing the plus button [+] in the shortcut menu. The minus button [-] removes a selected shortcut item from the list.

Home Action¶

Another tab opens during the startup of the Tryton client: the home action. It is usually an item of the Main Menu opening when the user calls his Home action defined in the preferences.

Status bar¶

The status bar provides general informations of the state of the Tryton client. It is divided in three parts.

On its left side the real name and company name of the users actual company is shown.
In the center of the status bar the number of waiting requests for the actual user are displayed.
On its right side are details of the server connection shown including database and user informations if connected. It is also noted there, if there is no connection to a Tryton server at all. The right side information of the status bar is build with the following pattern:
```
<user-name>@<tryton-server-address>:<port>/<database-name>
```
If the client is connected to the server with an SSL-secured connection, an additional lock icon appears rightmost some certificate details in a mouse hover popup.

The Status bar can be enabled and disabled in the menu at Options > Form > Status bar

Menu Bar Items¶

The following section describes the function of each menu bar entry in detail. A rule of thumb: All items of the menu bar that are suffixed by three dots (…) will open an intermediate dialog for setting up the provided menu action. Most dialogs provide a Cancel button, used to stop the complete dialog process.

File¶

The file menu level provides functions about Tryton server login, Database maintenance and closing the client application.

Note

Depending on server configuration for session timeout, the actual user may be logged out of the current session, and need to login again. Default timeout for inactivity logout is six minutes.

Database¶

This menu level provides tools to maintain Tryton databases. For all database operations the user needs to know the Tryton server password.

Warning

Consider not to use this server-site maintaining functions, if there are security concerns. Since there are always security concerns in a multiuser environment, better disclaim to provide these functions on database level.

Note

Database names are restricted by some rules:

Allowed characters are alpha-nummeric [A-Za-z0-9] and underscore (_).
First character must be an alphabetic letter.
The maximum length of a database name is 64 characters.

Tryton automatically checks if the given database name follows the rules.

New Database

Opens a dialog for creating a new Tryton database with an initial user called admin.

Server Setup:
- Server Connection
- Tryton Server Password: The password given in the Tryton server configuration.
New Database Setup:
- Database Name: The name of the new database.
- Default Language: The default language of the new database.
- Admin Password: The admin-user password of the new database.
- Confirm Admin Password: Repeat the password of the new ‘admin’ user.
Actions:
- Create: Creates the new database with initial user admin and the provided password.
- Cancel

Note

The appropriate Tryton database user (defined in the Tryton server configuration) needs to be authorized to create databases for this step.

Restore Database

Opens a dialog to restore a previously created database backup file.

File choose menu dialog
- Choose a database backup file in the file system to be restored.
- Actions:
  - Open: Open the chosen backup file.
  - Cancel
Restore Database dialog:
- Server Connection
- Tryton Server Password: The password given in the Tryton server configuration.
- File to Restore: Show filename and path.
- New Database Name: Enter a new name for the database to be restored
- Actions:
  - Restore: Proceed database restore.
  - Cancel

Server (connection) dialog:

This dialog is widely used to setup a Tryton server connection. This dialog shows the actual state of the client/server communication. It also shows when there is no connection to a Tryton server at all. The Change button opens a dialog for connection details:

Server: Network address or IP number of the Tryton server (protocols are not supported)
Port: Port where the Tryton server listens.

Note

If there is no connection to a Tryton server, many items in menu bar and tool bar are deactivated.

User¶

This menu bar item controls the preferences of the actual user and connects to the request system in Tryton.

Preferences…

A preference dialog opens, where the actual user can show and edit his personal settings. All user preferences are stored server side. I.e. logging in with the same credentials from different computers always restores the same preferences.

Name: Real name of the Tryton user.
Password: Password of the Tryton user.
Email: Email address of the Tryton user.
Signature: Signature block for the Tryton user.
Menu Action: Defines the action which is called as the main menu.
Home Action: Defines the action which is called as home action.
Language: Language of the client interface.
Timezone: The local timezone where the user/client resides.
Groups: Displays the users membership to access groups.

Read my Requests

Opens a tab in tree view showing all requests related to the actual user. Fields and actions of requests:

On top
- From: User name of the sender
- To: User name of the request recipient
- References: Count of the attached references
- Subject: The subject of the request.
- Priority: An importance priority of the request.
  - High
  - Low
  - Normal
Request tab
- Body: The textual part of the request.
- History: The history of past replies to this request.
  - From: Sender of the past request
  - To: Receiver of the past request
  - Summary: Summary of the body text of the past request.
Trigger Date: Defines time and date when the request will be sent automatically.
State: State of the request. Possible states for the request are:
- Draft: The request is saved in the system, but not posted.
- Waiting: The request is sent without receiving a reply message.
- Chatting: The message is replied or in discussion.
- Closed: The message is closed/fulfilled/answered.
Actions:
- Send: Sends the actual message
- Reply: Replies or answers the actual message
- close: Closes the actual message
References tab
- References
  - Reference: The reference type
  - (Target): Defines an reference attached to the request.

Note

When talking about requests, think of an internal system of Tryton, which is very similar to email.

Form¶

The form menu contains functions for the actual form in the tab which is open. Some operations are working with one record or with a selection of records. In form view the actual record is selected for operations. In tree view all selected records are used for operations.

Find…:

Opens a dialog for finding fields with search criteria and operators.

Search criteria: Defines the aspects to seek for.
General search operators:
- Equals: Search for results which are exactly the same as the following term.
- Does Not Equal: Search for results which are different from the following term.
Additional search operators on numbers, amounts and strings:
- Contains: Search for results which contain the following term.
- Does Not Contain: Search for results which do not include the following term.
- Starts With: Search for results beginning with the following term.
- Ends With: Search for results ending with the following term.
Additional search operators for numbers and amounts:
- Is Between: Search for results inside a range (from - to).
- Is Not Between: Search for results outside a range (from - to).
- Is Different: Same as ‘Does Not Equal’, see above.
Advanced Search expander opens additional search criteria.
- Limit: Limits the count of results.
- Offset: Skips a number of results and show only the following.
Actions:
- Find: Search for results of the given criteria.
- New: Create a new record (used when search was fruitless, to create quickly a new record).
- Ok: Open the selected results.
- Cancel

Note

To search for deactivated records the Active search criteria must be set to No.

Export Data…:

Export of current/selected records into CSV-file or open it in Excel.

Predefined exports
- Choose preferences of already saved exports.
All Fields: Fields available from the model.
Fields to export: Defines the specific fields to export.
Options:
- Save: Save export as a CSV file.
- Open: Open export in spread sheet application.
Add field names: Add a header row with field names to the export data.
Actions:
- Add: Adds selected fields to Fields to export.
- Remove: Removes selected fields from Fields to export.
- Clear: Removes all fields from Fields to export.
- Save Export: Saves field mapping to a Predefined export with a name.
- Delete Export: Deletes a selected Predefined export.
- Ok: Exports the data (action depending on Options).
- Cancel

Import Data…:

Import records from CSV-file.

All Fields: Fields available in the model (required fields are marked up).
Fields to Import: Exact sequence of all columns in the CSV file.
File to Import: File dialog for choosing a CSV file to import.
CSV Parameters: Setup specific parameters for chosen CSV file.
- Field Separator: Character which separates CSV fields.
- Text Delimiter: Character which encloses text in CSV.
- Encoding: Character encoding of CSV file.
- Lines to Skip: Count of lines to skip a headline or another offset.
Actions:
- Add: Adds fields to Fields to Import.
- Remove: Deletes fields from Fields to Import.
- Clear: Removes all fields from Fields to Import.
- Auto-Detect: Tries to auto detect fields in the CSV File to Import.
- Ok: Proceeds the data import.
- Cancel

Options¶

The Options menu sets up several visual and context depending preferences.

Menubar¶

Mode¶

Form¶

Email…:

Open a dialog to set up an email reader.

Command Line: The command line calling the email reader.
Placeholders:
- ${to}: the destination email address
- ${cc}: the carbon copy email address
- ${subject}: the subject of the email
- ${body}: the body of the email
- ${attachment}: the attachment of the email
Examples:
- Thunderbird 2 on Linux: thunderbird -compose "to='${to}',cc='${cc}',subject='${subject}',body='${body}',attachment='file://${attachment}'"
- Thunderbird 2 on Windows XP SP3: "C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Thunderbird\\thunderbird.exe" -compose to="${to}",cc="${cc}",subject="${subject}",body="${body}",attachment="${attachment}"

Note

The path of Program Files may vary dependent on the localization of your Windows version.

Plug-ins¶

Plug-ins are client side add-ons for Tryton. There are some included plug-ins with the standard client.

Execute a Plug-in¶

Translate View:: Creates a translation table of the current view.
Print Workflow:: Creates a graph which shows the work flow of the current view.
Print Workflow (complex):: Like ‘Print Workflow’, with additional sub work flows inherited by the current view.

Shortcuts¶

A collection of user defined shortcuts for specific resources.

Help¶

Appendix¶

Configuration File¶

~/.config/tryton/x.y/tryton.conf      # General configuration
~/.config/tryton/x.y/accel.map        # Accelerators configuration
~/.config/tryton/x.y/known_hosts      # Fingerprints
~/.config/tryton/x.y/ca_certs         # Certification Authority (http://docs.python.org/library/ssl.html#ssl-certificates)

Client Usage¶

Name¶

Synopsis¶

Options¶

Overview¶

Menu Bar¶

Mouse and Keyboard Use¶

Tool Bar¶

Attachment¶

Tabbed Main Frame¶

Main Menu¶

Home Action¶

Status bar¶

Menu Bar Items¶

File¶

Database¶

User¶

Form¶

Options¶

Toolbar¶

Menubar¶

Mode¶

Form¶

Plug-ins¶

Execute a Plug-in¶

Shortcuts¶

Help¶

Appendix¶

Configuration File¶