Instrument is a powerful tool that provides a new and innovative way to master your data. To accomplish this, it has been designed with a focus on simplicity and transparency; empowering users to solve complex issues with as little friction as possible.
In a nutshell, the goal of Instrument is to do the following:
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Simplify complexity by providing a consistent interface with a contextual toolbar
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Maintain the context of the data you are working with so that you can return to where you started
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Provide guidance for solving issues through the use of dynamic errors and warnings
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Make it easy to organize your data via the work area and perspective concepts
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Offer various accessibility options for anyone who needs them
Prerequisites
What are the steps to try out Instrument?
There are a few requirements needed before you can activate the Instrument UI:
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Be on the most recent STEP version. Going forward, update to the latest version when available. Instrument updates will not be backported.
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Have the Elasticsearch license and Elasticsearch server configuration setup.
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Have the In-Memory license and setup.
Contact Stibo Systems to determine how best to meet these requirements and get started.
Additionally, some system administration setup is required before using Instrument. Administrators should refer to the Administration section.
Accessing Instrument
The Instrument user interface (UI) is accessible via your system's Start Page or by appending your system URL with "instrument."
For example, https://[system name]/instrument.
To log in, you simply enter your STEP credentials (username and password).
When you first log in, you will select a default context.
If the admin user has set the default context via the Configuration Tool, then you will not need to choose a context. Once you are logged in, you will still be able to change your context while in the User Settings.
Instrument Concepts
This tool allows you to organize your data into groups and then work with those groups via tab groups. This gives you the ease of editing and managing your data in a way that makes sense to you.
This is accomplished through the use of work areas and perspectives:
Work areas are methods of viewing and working with your data in a format you customize.
If this is your first time logging into Instrument, a default work area with a Tasks perspective will display.
You can customize the work area name, description, and background image. If you find that your work requires more than one work area, you can add as many as you need, giving each work area its own unique title, image, color, and description to differentiate them and make them easily recognizable.
Important: Prerequisite—Verify, or have a system administrator verify, a classification folder for work area images has been set up in STEP. For more information, refer to the Administration section.
Perspectives provide a customized look into your data and exist as tabs that reside within a work area. There are three types of perspectives you can add to your work area: tasks, browse, and collections.
Within a perspective, you can view your data in a list view or a details view. The list view provides a high-level view of all nodes, while the details view focuses on the data specific to a selected node.
A contextual toolbar is accessible whenever you are viewing a perspective. Any actions not relevant to the view you are in will be automatically hidden from the toolbar.
Important: Prerequisite—Verify, or have a system administrator verify, that business actions have been set up for you to view and use in Instrument. By default, no business actions are shown without this setup. More information for your system administrator is in the Administration section.
Functionality for Work Areas is covered in Using Instrument documentation. Refer to the Perspectives topic for a more in-depth look at perspective features and functions.
Working With Your Data
While Instrument gives you many methods for customizing the display of your data, it also offers several ways to action it. You can accomplish many simple data maintenance tasks from the perspective list view, or you can get a more detailed view of the data by toggling to details view.
From the list view, you can edit attribute data cell by cell if needed, or you can edit in bulk. If in details view, the details pane shows all available attributes for a selected product, allowing you to edit attributes and to quickly navigate between attribute groups.
For more information, go to the Using Instrument topic Managing Data.
Instrument Documentation
To easily find information within the documentation, you can use the search bar at the top of each page. Search by keywords or phrases. Exact phrases can be searched by putting quotation marks around your search terms.
In addition to using the search bar, you can navigate through the online help hierarchy using the topic links in the left navigation area or by using the topic "navigate next" and "navigate previous" buttons found at the top of each topic. Use the browser back and forward buttons navigate to and from topics you have recently visited.
Once you are familiar with the Instrument concepts or if you just want to jump into using the interface, the Using Instrument section covers how you work with work areas, perspectives, etc. And, while there is no administration needed to get started, the Administration section covers a few areas that are important for system administrators.