Bits and Pieces is a user interface framework for sensemaking based on a design idea introduced in the strand of the EU project Learning Layers. In its current implementation it comes with a timeline and an organizing widget. You can use the timeline to review your collection of bits and pieces (eg. notes) and drag and drop them from there to the organize widget in the lower part of the application. The bits and pieces are retrieved from the Social Semantic Server.
You would need to have an instance of the Social Semantic Server running. In order to be able to use the Service API one would need to deploy the Social Semantic Server REST Adapter onto the server, Apache Tomcat is assumed by the installation instructions. After having all of the required components running you need to adapt the value of sssHostREST key in js/config/config.json to match your installation location.
It is also possible to setup authentication with OpenID Connect, provided that SocialSemanticServer is configured accordingly. Layers OpenID Connect Instance could be used for that purpose. Please go to js/config/config.json and fill in the oidcAuthorizationUrl and oidcClientID with appropriate values. This should disable normal authentication, only one authentication scheme could be used at the same time. In case one is using Layers Infrastructure the oidcAuthorizationUrl should be https://api.learning-layers.eu/o/oauth2/authorize
Affect button will only be shown in case URL configuration is provided. This is done in js/config/config.json with key named affectUrl.
A URL for Help Manual will always be provided, although you could change it using js/config/config.json with key named helpUrl.
Search for bits/pieces could be configured from js/config/config.json with keys localSearchOp and globalSearchOp. The first one controls operator used within keywrds and tags groups, the second one defined the operator used between those groups. An example would be (kw1 AND kw2) AND (tag1 AND tag2). Please note that acceptable values are and and or. Configuration default to using and, it is also used in case no configuration provided.
Now open a web browser (Firefox or Chrome are recommended, Internet Explorer should be at least version 9.0 and latest is prefferable) and head to the root of the location where you checked out Bits and Pieces. Log in with your user credentials to start using the application, for instance localhost/BitsAndPieces/, the last part of the URL in the browser depends on the catalog name you put the application into.
If you have not created any Learning Episodes yet, please use the menu on the top left to create at least one. Click the Menu and choose Create new Episode. After the first episode has been created, a Timeline and Organize canvas should appear.
- SocialSemanticServer: v12.1.0-alpha (newer versions might also work if there have not been any changes that affect API consumption)
If at any time there is a need to determine the version of current BitsAndPieces instance it could be found either from js/main.js, variable appVersion. Or one could check the Title of the page that should have the needed information appended to the end, or see the version META TAG from the page source.