Add / edit information about instruments

Where can you add/edit information about an instrument?

To add/edit information about an instrument, go to the Instrument Settings page of the instrument. One can reach the Instrument Settings page in several ways, and here is one example.

1. Click on INSTRUMENTS in the navigation menu on the left.
2. Click on the ID number in the # column of the instrument you want to edit.

Essential settings and information

Resource tab

• INSTRUMENT PRICE CATEGORY: Here, set a predefined category or create a new one. See a separate guideline on how to define an Instrument Price Category.
• PROJECT NUMBER: This field appears by clicking on Advanced Settings. Add the subproject number for the instrument for revenue posting (if relevant). If it is the same as what is registered on the core, this field can be left empty.
• HIDE PROJECTS: If the instrument is completely free for all users, this can be turned on. This means that end users will not see their project to select for payment of booking or usage of the instrument.
• ALLOW DRAFT RESERVATIONS: Keep this as "N/A".
• FORCE FULL DAY RESERVATIONS: Do not turn on this as it causes error at booking. Use rather a combination of Working Hours settings and Working Hours Based Time Slots.

Asset tab

The information set here will be displayed on the Asset Detail page of the instrument. Below are the fields that should be filled out.

• CAMPUS: Select the campus where the instrument is located from the dropdown list. If you do not find the campus area in the list, please contact bookitlab-hjelp@usit.uio.no
• BUILDING: Select the building where the instrument is located. If you do not find the building in the list, please contact bookitlab-hjelp@usit.uio.no
• ROOM: The room must be registered first under the building. Please see the separate guideline to add rooms in a building.
• OPEN TO PUBLIC: If the instrument's information should be available publicly without login, turn this on.
• SHORT DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENT and DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENT fields: Apart from the above fields, it is up to each individual facility whether the information about the instrument is maintained within BookitLab or on the facility's website on Vortex. In the latter case, it is recommended that you add the URL to the webpage where users can read about the instrument in one of these fields.

Booking-related settings

Working Hours tab

The instrument can only be booked during the times set as its working hours. If the default setting (8:00-18:00 as Peak and other times as Off Peak) does not align with your pricing or the instrument's working hours, edit this.

Note

• It is not possible for regular users to book time slots that are/include "non-working hours". For example, if only 08:00-18:00 are set as the instrument's working hours, one without core admin role cannot book it over multiple days in a single booking, as it has to include the period from 18:00 to 08:00 the next day, which is non-working hours.
• Holidays or public holidays cannot be set. This is included in the supplier's development roadmap and will hopefully be implemented in the future.
• Unfortunately, it is not possible to export and import Working Hours.

Special case: Use of WORKING HOURS BASED TIME SLOTS

When WORKING HOURS BASED TIME SLOTS is chosen for DURATION RESTRICTIONS on the Restrictions tab, all individual bookings must be fixed to a complete time slot (Time Slots) defined in the Working Hours tab, or multiple slots if there is no deviation between the time slots.

Example: Let's say an instrument can be booked in different ways between daytime on weekdays (Peak Time) and otherwise (Off Peak Time). During Peak Time, it has to be booked in a fixed slot, either 8:00-12:00 or 13:00-17:00, while it can be booked flexibly between 18:00 and 7:00 the next day and all day on weekends. Since the DURATION RESTRICTIONS setting applies regardless of Time Slot Type, you need to create many rows with an hourly time slot in the Working Hours table to cover evenings and weekends, so that users have enough flexibility to book from xx:00 to yy:00, for example.

If only one user books an instrument per evening/night, it is okay to have only one row to cover Off Peak Time (e.g., Monday 18:00-07:00, Tuesday, etc.). In that case, you need to consider how to set the price, because if it is set to Reservation (H), it will charge the rate times the number of hours covering the entire Off Peak Time slot, even if the instrument is used for only one hour.

Restrictions tab

Here you can set restrictions; who can book the instrument and common restrictions for all who can book it. 

Reservation Restrictions section

Restrictions that can be set for all users include:

• Length of booking (minimum and maximum, if booking is fixed to time slots set in the Working Hours tab)
• Time between bookings for different users
• Number of hours / days or time of day it must be booked before the instrument is to be used

Reservation Quotas section

WHO IS ALLOWED TO BOOK field has three options:

• All users can book with no limitations
• Custom rules (Whitelist)
• Only Staff can book (users can view calendar)

When creating a new instrument, the last one is selected by default. By selecting Custom rules (Whitelist), you can add more settings that apply to certain user groups or individuals. 

There are three levels for booking rules. From the highest priority level, they are:

• For selected users (highest priority),
• For a specific instrument, and
• For a specific core/facility.

Define a Permission Level

Rules for users can be defined as Permission Level. This is called "permission" as this defines conditions under which the instrument can be booked. For conditions that are not within defined conditions in Permission Level, it is not possible to book the instrument.

Permission Level must be defined before adding a rule for certain users or user groups.

1. (If you are not yet on the ADMIN PANEL) Click on ADMIN PANEL in the navigation menu on the left side.
2. Click on INSTRUMENTS in the navigation menu and then Permission Levels in the submenu. 
3. Click the + icon to create a new Permission Level.
4. There you can choose between the two types of permissions:
   • Reservation Period Limitations: Number of hours per day / week / month and number of open bookings.
   • Booking Window Limitations: Start / end of booking window and max time in advance of the attempt that it is allowed to book. 

Add Permission Levels for users

1. Go back to the Restrictions tab on the instrument's INSTRUMENT SETTINGS page
2. (If not done) Select Custom rules (Whitelist) in the WHO IS ALLOWED TO BOOK field.
3. Click the + icon in the User Permission section below on the page.
4. There you can select the Permission Level and when (Time Slot Type) and who (different levels of user groups or individuals) this should apply to. It is important to pay attention to the following:
   • FACULTY: this cannot be used as certain users' information about affiliated faculty is not retrieved from Feide.
   • ORG UNIT: the selected org unit does not apply to the user's org unit but to what is registered on the project booked with. Except for projects of external customers, Project Admin is guided to set "Regular users@uio.no" to the project's org unit. If you want to use the project's org unit to create a User Permission criterion per user group for an internal/contribution project, contact bookitlab-hjelp@usit.uio.no
   • TRAINING LEVEL: this can be used to create a User Permission criterion for those who have achieved a certain Training Level. Training Level can only be created by main admin. If you need a new Training Level defined, contact bookitlab-hjelp@usit.uio.no.

Cancellation Tab

Rules for canceling bookings can be defined here.

Cancellation Policy

To prevent cancellations on the day the booking is made, the deadline for cancellation can be set as a specific time.

Other Rules

Other rules can be defined by filling in the following fields on the Add New Record row and clicking the Insert button.

• HOURS BEFORE START: Specify the number of hours before the start (of the experiment) that the rule applies to.
• % OF RESERVATION COST: Specify the percentage of the cost that should be charged.
• ALLOW USERS TO: Choose between different rules/conditions;
  • No changes allowed: no changes are allowed.
  • Allow to modify: modifications are allowed but not cancellations.
  • Allow to cancel: cancellations are allowed.

If multiple rules are selected, the one that is the "most recently passed on the timeline" (towards the start of the experiment) applies.

Training Sessions Tab

Here you can set rules for registrations for planned training sessions on the instrument. A new training session on the instrument can be created from here.

Create a New Training Session

1. Click on View/Add Training Sessions. This takes you to the instrument's Instrument Specifications page.
2. Go down to the Training Sessions section and click the + icon.
3. Fill in the necessary details about the training session and click the Submit button.
4. The training session will be visible in the calendar.

Users can book themselves into the training session. It is also possible for core admin to add users to the training session.

Common Rules for Training Session Registrations

• To ensure that registrations for training sessions must be approved by core admin, select PENDING for CREATE TRAINING SIGN-UP AS. Registrations with PENDING status can be approved from the Reservation Details panel for individual bookings.
• If there is a deadline to achieve a minimum number of participants, it can be set on DEADLINE FOR REACHING MINIMUM ATTENDANCE (H). This must be specified in terms of the number of hours (for example, if it is 2 days prior, enter 48 hours here).

Approvals Tab

Here you can set whether the instrument should be booked with assistance, either optionally or mandatorily depending on various conditions.

When bookings require approval, either only the first reservation or all future reservations, the setting can be configured here by making the assistance mandatory.

Choose Whether Assistance is Optional or Mandatory

• If optional, only turn on TRAINING/APPROVAL POSSIBLE (any assistance must be approved).
• If mandatory, turn on both TRAINING/APPROVAL POSSIBLE and TRAINING IS MANDATORY FOR ALL USERS.
  • Assistance is mandatory for the first reservation.
  • Core admin can decide whether assistance is mandatory after the first reservation, namely admin approves the first and also future reservations.
  • If the user still requests assistance after the first reservation, it must be approved.
• If assistance is available only for certain time intervals (displayed in the calendar), turn on both TRAINING/APPROVAL POSSIBLE, TRAINING IS MANDATORY FOR ALL USERS and ASSISTED RESERVATIONS ARE ALLOWED ONLY DURING ASSISTED HOURS.
  • Set when assistance is available in the sections below on the page.
  • You can choose between weekly set times or specific date and time.

Choose What the Approval of Assisted Reservation Applies to

When core admin approves Assisted Reservation, they can choose what the approval applies to:

• Just Approve this one reservation: Approval only applies to the specific reservation.
• Create Detailed Training Record: This opens the Add New User Training panel so that core admin can manually edit.
• Pre-Approve future reservations: A User Training is automatically created with the training date as the reservation date.

Note that bookings still require approval when attempted before the date and time of the reservation to which the created User Training is tied.

If some users are approved for future reservations once, but this needs to be canceled for some reason, turn off the Active toggle on the applicable User Training record that is created. User Training can be found under TRAINING on the navigation menu on the left side.

Notification Tab

Here you can set up various types of email notifications and who should receive them.

It is highly recommended to create email notifications if the instrument requires approval for reservations.

Note that the Core Emails option in the WHICH ROLES TO NOTIFY field refers to the email addresses entered in the TRAINER EMAIL field on the Core Settings tab on the core's editing page.

Other Settings

Files-tab

Here you can upload the documents you want, for example:

• Routines
• HMS (Health, Environment, and Safety)
• Warranties
• All kinds of documents

You can choose whether users should see this information and which parts of it.

Prerequisite Trainings Tab

When the instrument requires users to have completed training on another instrument or training program beforehand, this can be set here.

It is also possible to make training on one instrument a requirement for booking other instruments, such as similar instruments within the core or across the university. The training program itself can also be registered as an instrument. This can be done by selecting Training programs in the AVAILABILITY field on the Resource tab.

Access Control Tab

Currently, this tab is not very relevant to the UiO environment.

Accompanied Tab

If the instrument must be booked along with a service, it can be set here. The service itself must be created in advance from the Accompanied Services menu found under INSTRUMENTS in the navigation menu on the ADMIN PANEL.

IMPORTANT! Pay attention to the following:

• The price set on the Accompanied Service selected during booking will override the price set on the instrument itself.
• When multiple Accompanied Services are selected during booking, the total price of the selected Accompanied Services will be summed up.
• As long as one or more Accompanied Services are defined and active on an instrument, at least one Accompanied Service must be selected during booking.
• If ONLY core admin should be able to select which Accompanied Services to use for a booking, the following should be done:
  1. Create multiple Accompanied Services, including one set as the Default Accompanied Service.
  2. Check the Staff Only checkbox on all created Accompanied Services EXCEPT for the one set as default.
  3. Set an Accompanied Service in the Default Accompanied Service field.

It is highly recommended to test how Accompanied Services function and how pricing is calculated in various scenarios in the stage environment before setting it up in the production environment. If you have any questions, please contact bookitlab-hjelp@usit.uio.no