Use the offline functionality

The Meeting Manager has an extensive range of offline features. This allows you to use the Meeting Manager without a connection to the CoCon Room Server, and thus means that you can use the application out of the conference center or the room. This allows the creation of meetings or a delegate database in another location.

To access the offline mode, click the Offline button in the login window. Note that the Meeting Manager also goes into offline mode when the connection with the Server is lost. The offline Meeting Manager application looks like the online version, but lacks some functionality.

• The Save and Save Meeting Template buttons are unavailable and greyed out. This is because saving to the online database is not possible. The only way to save the meeting you are defining is to an XML-file, using the Load and Save buttons in the offline section of the ribbon.

• The Synoptic tab is unavailable, and the additional tab Offline Synoptic is available. Here it is possible to allocate the delegates to seats in a schematic way, as described below.

Figure 1-25 How the Meeting Manager looks like in Offline mode

Offline Database Management

The offline Database Management is very similar to the online Database Management with the following exceptions:

• Badges cannot be read or written
• Delegates cannot be allocated to groups
• No optional fields can be defined or edited.

The following actions are available:

• Consult the existing delegate database of the Room Server to which the Meeting Manager last connected.

• Create new delegates: When in the Offline Database Management, new delegates can be created using the same procedure and actions as described in "Database Management" on page 1. At that point, the delegates only exist in the local application. In order to copy these delegates to the online database, they need to be allocated to a meeting that is saved to XML and imported in the online Meeting Manager. See also next section.

Offline Meeting Management

The Offline Meeting Manager allows to create offline meetings with most of the functions of an online meeting. The exceptions are:

• Voting Templates are not accessible, as these are stored in the online database.
• The synoptic of the room is not available. Instead, a schematic view of the room can be created, as discussed in the next section.

After you have created a meeting, you need to import it into the online database. Follow these steps:

• Save the offline meeting to an XML-file using the Save button. This file will contain all the meeting information, as well as the newly created delegates that are in this meeting. Note that an offline delegate needs to be in a meeting to enable importing in the online database.
• Start the Meeting Manager in online mode and connect to a Room Server. Now do the following:

• Click the Load button in the Offline-section of the Home-ribbon.
• Select as format XML-file (not the “Readable XML”)
• Select the XML-file with your online meeting.
• The meeting is now loaded and you can review and/or modify it.

• Click the Save button in the Database section of the Home-ribbon. The meeting is now saved in the database, and ready to use.

Offline Synoptic

The following figure shows the view of the offline synoptic. Note that, on the right-hand side, there is a list with all delegates that have been added to the meeting in the “Delegate List” tab.

Figure 1-26 The Offline synoptic in the Meeting Manager

The ribbon on top contains the following functionality:

• Nr: this allows you to enter the number of seats you want to add to the offline synoptic.
• Add: click this button to add the number of seats you specified in the “Nr”-box.
• Remove selected seat: after selecting a seat in the offline synoptic, you can remove this seat by clicking this button. Note the following:

• Multi-selection is possible using CTRL and SHIFT.
• Once a seat number has been removed, it is not possible to add the same number again. Seats can only be added at the end of the list. For example:

• Add 10 seats
• Remove seat 4

• Add 1 extra seat: this seat will get number 11

• If you want to re-use a removed seat number, all the seats need to be removed, and then the seat number counter is reset.

• Associate-buttons: see below.

• Clear all associations: This button will clear all the associated delegates.
• Clear selected: This button will clear the delegates from the selected nodes.
• Orientation: use this drop-down button to layout the seats either vertical or horizontal

Assign delegates to seats in the offline synoptic

Delegates can be allocated to seats using the following actions:

• Drag-and-drop: click-and-hold a delegate in the list with delegates in this meeting, and drag it to a seat in the synoptic.
• Use the button Position all. This will position all the delegates in the list to the seats with the same identification number in the synoptic. The number in front of the delegate will be used. Note that this feature is only available if no delegates have already been positioned on a seat.
• Use the functionality Make synoptic by click. When activating this functionality, a selection will appear in the list with Delegates in this meeting. When you click on a seat that has not yet a delegate assigned, CoCon puts the highlighted delegate on this seat. You can use the Skip delegate button to continue to the next delegate.