PERSONA Campus Online > Rich Client

The Campus Online database has the ability to be partitioned. Partitioning is a very powerful tool used on larger systems. The effect of partitioning is to divide the system hardware, cardholders, cards and the entire set of program data such as schedules, access levels, etc. in such a way that users can only see a portion of what is contained in the entire system. For example, a multi-purpose facility may want to divide the readers and objects into sections so that academic, residence, and office areas are all in their own partitions. In that way, a user in a given partition can only program and interact with readers and cardholders in his or her space. In fact, the partitions can be set up such that a user cannot even see objects from another partition and hence have no knowledge of their existence. Of course, there may be times when an object such as the front door may need to be viewable from multiple partitions. In this case, the front door reader can be “shared” in to another partition. If a door is shared, the users from the other partitions (that the object was shared in to), can interact with the door but cannot delete it. Those users’ partitions do not “own” this door; it was only shared with them. Any objects in the system can be owned and shared as needed. Typically, users, cardholders, and cards are shared with all partitions. Items such as readers are less likely to be shared.

At any given time, the Campus Online application is “active” in only one partition. That is to say, the data on the screen pertains only to the active partition. By default, the initial Campus Online installation will install the “System” partition. In many cases, a single partition is all that is needed and therefore the Campus Online application will only contain the System partition. If the Current Partition is not displayed that toolbar may have been turned off. Right clicking on the system bar will give the user the opportunity to turn this display back on, provided the user has sufficient privileges.

NOTE: Using Partitions is an advanced feature of the PERSONA Campus Online system. The below instructions will cover the basic processes. If you need additional assistance, please contact PERSONA Support.

Creating a New Partition

To create a new partitions, go to the Campus Online Admin Tools, more commonly referred to as the Rich Client. Once you're logged in, click on the "Partition Manager" button on the top. This will launch the Partition Management screen. From there, you can give the partition a name, a description and create a default partition administrator that will be able to create new users.

Sharing Items to Other Partitions

Everything in the software is an “object” to be owned and consumed by partitions. An object is owned by one and only one partition. That partition has the sole rights to delete the object. That partition also has the right to share the object – make it “available.” Once the object is available, administrators to other partitions may choose to consume the object by making it visible to their operators.

The screen below is used to manage the objects owned by a given partition. The options are to keep them private or make them shareable. The list box shown below is used to display certain categories of items owned by the partition. In this example, the screen is showing all of the Cardholders owned by the System partition. Moving items from the Private list to the Sharable list makes those items available to other partitions.

The rightmost tab on the partitions screen is where the user controls which items are actually shared and into which partitions. The screen above is the owner listing items that have permission to be shared, but does not dictate who would want to have access to those items. The screen below is where the user specifies which of the sharable items are to be consumed by which partitions.

To close the partitioning window, click the Close button in toolbar. This will return the operator to the previously opened windows in the Campus Online desktop and will prompt to save any pending changes.