Documentation for the St. Tammany Parish Emergency Operations Center

 October, 2006

1. Introduction
2. RAM Tools
3. Viewing Available Resources
4. Updating Available Resource Information
5. Conclusion

Introduction

This document provides a quick walkthrough of the various tools in RAM and how to use them.

 

 

RAM Tools

RAM consists of two sides of resource availability:

1. Viewing
2. Updating

 
For St Tammany Parish, resource availability is considered to be the number of vacancies available in the Shelters and Hospitals around the parish.

 
RAM makes viewing of all the available resources very simple by mapping them in a web-based application.  In the map, symbols help to show the type and location of each resource.  Labels aid in denoting the availability of each resource on the map and provide a quick and simple visual cue.  A legend is also provided as a quick reference guide for the meaning behind each symbol and label.

 
For each type of resource there is a website that can be utilized for updating the availability status of each resource.  Depending on the resource, a user login and password may be required.  The login information is used to determine which resource(s) that user is allowed to update.  Once the user is into the website, they are allowed to select the specific resource from a drop down list and update the resource's availability.

 
It is important to note more tools based on other resources can be created and added to RAM.

 

This screenshot shows the initial RAM tools page.  The current location of this page is:

 http://show.nvs-inc.com/RAM

 

Viewing Available Resources

The RAM Map allows you to quickly and efficiently locate available resources and gather specific information about each resource.  The map can be reached from the main RAM tool page from the "View Shelters and Hospitals Map" link.

Instructions:

 

1.      Select the "Zoom In" tool from the toolbar above the map.

 

2.      Click-and-drag a box or just click on the map to zoom into an area of interest.

 

 

3.      Select the "Get Details" tool from the tool bar above the map.
 

4.      Click-and-drag a box around the resource you are interested in getting more information about.

 

5.      If you selected a valid resource a window will pop up with all the information associated with that resource including name, address, etc.

Updating Available Resource Information

St. Tammany currently has 6 Hospitals and 22 Shelters throughout the Parish.
In an emergency, these resources will have the number of vacancies available change fairly often.
In order to let users update the number of vacancies the following pages have been added to the RAM web site:

 

1. Update Shelters Vacancies.
2. Update Hospitals Vacancies.

 

The hospitals information can only be updated by verified users.
The following tables show the default users and their respective hospitals that they are allowed to update.

 

NAME	USERNAME	PASSWORD	HOSPITAL #
Bob Smith	bsmith	bsmith	1, 2
Mary Jane	mjane	mjane	3, 4
John Patterson	jpatterson	jpatterson	5, 6

 

 

Instructions for updating resource information:

1.  Click the appropriate link from the RAM Tools page to navigate to "Update" page of the desired resource (Shelters Vacancies or Hospitals Vacancies).

 

2.  Enter your username/password into the textboxes (if no username or password is requested continue to step 3) and press enter, or press the "Login" button.

 

3. Select the resource that you want to update from the drop down menu.

 

 

4. Enter the new resource information into the appropriate boxes.

 

5. Click the "Submit Update" button.  You will know that the operation was successful when you see a message similar to "Vacancies Successfully Updated".

 

6.  You can now go back to the RAM tools page by clicking on the "Back to Main Menu" button, or you can select another resource, repeating steps (3-5).

Conclusion

This document describes the current RAM tool set as of October 2006.

 

For questions contact:

 Craig Harvey, CIO
NVision Solutions Inc.
Suite 217, Building 1103
NASA Stennis Space Center, MS 39529
Phone: 228-688-2205
Cell: 228-342-8395
Fax: 228-688-3843
E-mail: charvey@nvs-inc.com