Setting GUI User Preferences

To control the GUI display and behavior, you can set the following:

• General Policies
• Communication Policies
• Alarm Policies
• Data Validation and Debugging Policies

General Policies

To set general GUI policies, click:

Tools > User Preferences > General tab

The User Preferences – General dialog box appears (Figure 3: User Preferences – General ).

Figure 3: User Preferences – General

You can set the following general GUI policies:

• GUI font size.
• Location of the Activities panel, in relation to the main GUI panel.
• Location of the Group Manager online help. For more information, see Obtaining Online Help.
• Whether the GUI displays tooltips and popup descriptions for list items.

Select the general settings and click OK.

Communication Policies

To set GUI communication policies, click:

Tools > User Preferences > Communication tab

The User Preferences – Communication dialog box appears (Figure 4: User Preferences – Communication ).

Figure 4: User Preferences – Communication

The User Preferences – Communication dialog box allows you to set:

• Connection policies. Control whether the GUI will attempt to reconnect with the group when the TCP/IP connection between the browser and the group is lost.

If you select Automatically reconnect if disconnected, the GUI will automatically attempt to reconnect for 100 seconds. If the browser fails to reconnect, it will display a dialog box informing you that you have lost your connection and asking if you still want to reconnect. If you answer yes, the GUI will make another attempt. If you answer no, a message appears in red in the upper lefthand corner stating that the connection has been lost. If you de-select the policy, the GUI makes no automatic attempt at reconnection and the dialog box appears immediately.

If you de-select Keep connection alive when temporarily leaving GUI page, you will lose your connection if you click the Back (or Forward) button in your browser. If you select the policy, the connection is kept alive for 10 minutes.

• Maximum data refresh interval. Specifies the maximum time interval between GUI data updates. The default setting is 60 seconds. For example, using the default value, GUI data will be updated every 60 seconds or less, depending on the group workload. The minimum interval is 5 seconds.

To manually update data displayed in the GUI, click the Refresh data icon in the upper righthand corner of the GUI (under the Logout button). Do not use the browser’s refresh button.

Select the desired policies and click OK.

Alarm Policies

To control the behavior of alarm notification and the event log, click:

Tools > User Preferences > Alarms tab

The User Preferences – Alarms dialog box appears (Figure 5: User Preferences – Alarms).

Figure 5: User Preferences – Alarms

The dialog box enables you to customize:

• Failure notification. You can control how the GUI indicates that a failure has occurred. You can choose to have the GUI flash the status icons of the failed objects or highlight failed objects using the color red.
• New alarm notification. When new alarms occur, you can choose to have the GUI open pop-up windows for them, or emit an audible sound.
• Event logging. You can choose how events are displayed when you click Events in the far left panel. You can choose to display the events in a separate window or choose to automatically retrieve the 100 most recent events when you start the GUI.

Select the desired policies and click OK.

Data Validation and Debugging Policies

To control the level of validation of user input and whether debugging information is logged to a Java console, click:

Tools > User Preferences > Advanced tab

The Modify User Preferences Advanced dialog box appears (Figure 6: Modify User Preferences Advanced).

Figure 6: Modify User Preferences Advanced

You can customize advanced user preferences as follows:

• Data validation behavior. You can choose whether text is checked for errors as you type it or when the information is submitted.
• Debug logging. You can choose to log data poller activities and server notifications to a Java console. If enabled, these options can slow performance, so keep them disabled for better performance.