Vorpology 201

The latest Vorpal set is like the first, only much better. As in the first set, it comes in 3 flavors: 'Vorpal Stadium2' (Mac app), 'Vorpal Transfer2' (Mac App) and 'Vorpal Ithingy2' (iPad app).

'Vorpal Stadium2' allows a user to create a clickable seating chart on a Mac by putting overlays on a background image of the seating chart. it also allows a user to create a window with with customized field to be use in holding customer information.

To turn an image into a clickable seating chart, the user first uploads an image of a seating chart (such as a stadium or airplane seating chart). When the image is uploaded, three buttons on the left part of the window will appear (<Create Seat>, <Select Seat> and <Move Seat>). After clicking on <Create Seat>, The user can go to anyplace on the chart and create a clickable area by clicking on the desired location and dragging a green rectangle over the area until it is of the desired size. If the rectangle is not exactly where the user desires, clicking on <Select Seat> and dragging a selection rectangle over the overlay(s), followed by clicking on the <Move Seat> button will allow the clickable area to be moved to the desired new location. Other options available for a selected seat (in the menubar) are Edit->Cut, Edit->Copy, Edit->Paste and Edit->Delete. Each clickable area has to have a seat name and a seat class. This is accomplished by clicking on <Move Seat>, then double clicking on a clickable area. A small window will pop up that allows a user to enter the seat name and class. Each seat name must be unique, although the seat class does not need to be. After all the overlays are created for the seating chart, they must be saved to the internal persistent store by choosing File->Vorpal->Save Seats from the menubar. To make them available to the other Vorpal apps, they. must be saved to a file by selecting File->Save from the menubar.

When creating customer meta data, the user needs to select Edit->Open->Client Metadata from the menubar. This will bring up the 'Field Organizer' window with options for creating text fields, text labels and text views to hold customer data. On the bottom right of the window, there are three buttons <Label Field>, <Text Field> and <Text View>. Clicking on one of these buttons then clicking on the working pane of the 'Field Organizer' window will create a field of that type in the working pane. This field can be dragged around the working pane and edited with the options available in he attributes pane on the top left of the window. Each field must have a uniques name within the 'Field Organizer' window. After completion, the metadata must first be saved to the database (the <Save> button on the bottom of the working pane), then exported to disk by choosing File->Export Client Meta Data from the menubar.

Vorpal Transfer2 allows a user to enter customer information for each seat and transfer that information to an iPad running 'Vorpal Ithingy2'

To create or edit customer data, double-clicking on a seat overlay will bring up the 'Client Data' window with information (if any) about the customer assigned to that seat. The <Save> button will save the data to the internal database and File->Save will save it to disk. This needs to be done before the customer information can be sent to the iPad.

To send the data to an iPad, both the iPad and the Mac must be connected to each other via wifi. On the Mac side, this is accomplished by clicking on the globe in the 'Network Status' window. If the Mac is connected, but waiting for an iPad connection, the lightning bolt will be red. If it turns blue, there is an iPad connected. There is a option to create a passcode for the connection process that both the Mac and the iPad use to securely connect to each other, but if not used, a default passcode for both sides is used (it is recommended to create a passcode and let trusted iPad users know about it).

Choosing the menubar's File->Vorpal->Send to Device will send the customer data to a connected iPad. The data is pushed from the Mac to the iPad (the iPad does not request the data). Likewise, when receiving data from the iPad, the Mac does not request it, rather it is pushed from the iPad.

Vorpal Ithingy2 is the only app of the three to run on the iPad. It allows users to track customers by clicking on the seat assigned to the customer to bring up the customer data transferred to the iPad from the Mac. Any changes to the data can be offloaded later to a Mac running 'Vorpal Transfer2'.