Screen Notes

Screen Notes are shared notes on a runtime page. Users with the Screen Note Edit Right add, move and remove them, and every user who can open the page sees them.

Updated 6 min read
On this page (12 sections)
  1. Functional explanation
  2. Rights
  3. Runtime menu
  4. Notes button
  5. Note editor
  6. Note
  7. Moving a note
  8. Template pages
  9. Limits and automatic removal
  10. Audit Trail
  11. Pages, projects and backups
  12. Theme

Functional explanation

Screen Notes are shared notes on a runtime page. Every user who can open the page, as set by the User Groups of the page, sees its notes. Users with the Screen Note Edit Right add notes, and move and remove any note. A note is attached to an object of the page or placed at a page position, and is removed automatically after the time set in Remove After.

Screen Notes are available on pages with the page setting Allow Screen Notes on. The setting is in the Page Decorator of the editor and in the Settings dialog on the Pages page, and is off by default. A change of the setting applies after the next page load. Turning Allow Screen Notes off hides the notes of the page; the notes are kept and are shown again when the setting is turned on.

Notes are stored on the server and replicated to the standby node. Notes are changed on the primary node only: the standby node answers a change with Access denied. Screen Notes can only be changed on the primary node. Other open screens show a change within one refresh.

Rights

Members of the Administrators group always hold the Screen Note Edit Right.

ActionAllowed for
View the notes of a pageEvery user who can open the page.
Add NoteUsers with the Screen Note Edit Right.
Move a noteUsers with the Screen Note Edit Right, for any note.
Remove NoteUsers with the Screen Note Edit Right, for any note.
Edit Note (text, Color and Remove After)The author of the note, with the Screen Note Edit Right.
Show Notes / Hide Notes, MinimizeEvery user who can open the page. The choice is kept per user and browser and is not shared with other users.

The Screen Note Edit Right is set per group on the User Groups page. The Operators group of a new installation has this right; the groups of an upgraded installation start without it until an administrator grants it.

Runtime menu

Add Note and Show Notes / Hide Notes are entries of the runtime menu. The menu opens with a right-click on the page, or with a press and hold of about 0.6 seconds with a finger or a pen, outside Edit Mode. These entries are offered on every spot of the page, including spots covered by objects. On an object that displays a value, the menu shows the Quick Trend entries first (see the Quick Trend article) and outlines the object. On the empty page and on objects without a value, such as shapes, images and Containers, the menu shows the Screen Notes entries only.

EntryDescription
Add NoteOpens the note editor at the clicked spot. On an object that displays a value, the note is attached to that object. On any other spot the note keeps that page position; to attach it to an object, drag it onto the object afterwards (see Moving a note). Shown to users with the Screen Note Edit Right.
Show Notes / Hide NotesShows or hides the notes of the page. Shown while the page has at least one note; the entry shows the number of notes.

Notes are placed on the page, not on popups: Add Note is offered outside popups.

Notes button

On pages with Allow Screen Notes, the Notes button appears at the bottom right of the screen while the page has at least one note, and shows the number of notes on the page. Select it to hide the notes, and select it again to show them. While the notes are hidden, the button shows hidden next to the number. Hiding the notes and minimizing a note apply to the own user and browser only.

Note editor

Add Note opens the note editor at the clicked spot. Edit Note opens the same editor on an existing note.

FieldDescription
TextThe note text, up to 500 characters. Line breaks are kept. A counter shows the number of characters used.
ColorYellow, Orange, Blue or Green. The default is Yellow.
Remove After8 hours, 24 hours, 7 days or Never. The default is 24 hours. In Edit Note the list starts with Unchanged, which keeps the current removal time.
CancelCloses the editor without saving. Esc does the same.
SaveSaves the note. Ctrl+Enter does the same.

Note

A note shows the following elements:

ElementDescription
HeaderThe user name of the author and the time the note was added: Today 06:12, Yesterday 22:15, or the date for older notes. edited is added after a change of the note.
TextThe note text.
FooterThe time left until the note is removed, for example Removed in 6 d or Removed in 19 h 25 min, or Kept until removed for Remove After Never. For an attached note the Object Name of the object follows, or Detached when that object no longer exists on the page.
MinimizeReduces the note to a small square with the initials of the author. Select the square to show the note again.
Edit NoteOpens the note editor. Shown to the author of the note.
Remove NoteAsks Remove this note? with Cancel and Remove. Shown to users with the Screen Note Edit Right.

Moving a note

Users with the Screen Note Edit Right move any note by dragging its header. A note dropped on an object attaches to that object; a note dropped on an empty spot keeps that page position. An attached note follows its object, for example on a page with Fit Mode Fluid or when an engineer moves the object in the editor. Moving a note is not recorded in the Audit Trail.

Notes follow zoom and pan. The size of a note follows the page scale between 75 % and 100 % of its normal size, so a note stays readable on a small screen.

Template pages

A page that is opened through a Navigate To action with page replacers keeps its notes separately for each set of replacer values. A pump detail page opened for P-101 shows other notes than the same page opened for P-102.

Limits and automatic removal

A page holds up to 50 notes; on a template page the limit applies per set of replacer values. A further note is refused with the message This page holds up to 50 notes. Remove a note first. A note holds up to 500 characters.

A note is removed automatically when its Remove After time has passed. The server checks the removal times once a minute and records each removal in the Audit Trail with the action Expire.

Audit Trail

Every change of a note is recorded in the Audit Trail with the following values. Moving a note is not recorded.

ColumnValue
CategoryOperator
Entity TypeScreen Note
Entity Name<page name> #<note number>. On a template page the replacer values follow the page name.
ActionCreate, Edit, Remove or Expire.
Old Value / New ValueThe text, the color and the removal time of the note.
User NameThe user who made the change. Expire is recorded as System.
OriginUI for a change on the screen, API for a change through the Runtime API. Expire is recorded as System.
ReasonPage deleted for a note that was removed together with its page.

Pages, projects and backups

Renaming a page keeps its notes: the notes follow the page. Deleting a page removes its notes, recorded in the Audit Trail with the Reason Page deleted. Duplicate Page copies the settings Allow Screen Notes and Allow Quick Trend, and leaves the notes on the original page.

Export Project and backups contain the notes. The Git export holds no notes, and a Git import in replace mode clears them.

Theme

The runtime menu and the Notes button follow the Viewer colors of the active runtime theme of the client (Viewer colors on the Parameters page, themes of the Color Library), not the Edit Mode theme. A note has the color chosen in the note editor.

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