Getting Started

The Esploro Activities Loader application enables you to generate researcher activities in Esploro from the metadata of your Esploro assets. It is implemented as a Cloud App, which means you can install it and use it directly from the Esploro Hub.

1. Ensure your institution has enabled Cloud Apps and that the Activity Loader app is allowed in the settings. (If they are not enabled/allowed, contact Support.)
2. Select to open the Cloud Apps pane.
3. Search for Esploro.

   

4. In the search results, select the Esploro Activities Loader app, and then select the Activate button. The app is activated. In the future, you will be able to open it from the list of Activated Apps.
5. Select Open. The app opens.

   

Once the app is installed, in the future you can open it simply by opening the Cloud Apps pane and selecting it from the list of activated cloud apps. (It appears in the Activated Apps tab.)

For more information on using Cloud Apps, see Configuring Cloud Apps.

Settings

Before you use the app to create activities from assets, you should check that the general settings are configured as you would like and ensure that an appropriate data mapping exists for you to apply when you run the app on asset records.

1. In the app, select  to open the Actions menu, and then select . The Settings screen opens.
   
2. Under General, configure the following settings:
   • Activities visible in public profile – Select this option to make the activities generated by the CloudApp visible in the Portal.
   • Activities visible in researcher profile – Select this option to make the activities generated by the CloudApp visible in the researchers' private profile.
   • Activities Language – In single-language environments, select Undefined. In multi-lingual environments, select the language to assign to the activity's name field.
3. Under Data Mapping, ensure that a data mapping that is appropriate for the assets on which you want to run the app exists. For additional information, see Data Mappings, below. 
4. Select Save. The settings are saved, and the Settings screen closes.

Data Mappings

A data mapping identifies certain properties of an asset that are required in order for the asset to be used to create an activity, and specifies properties that should, in turn, be assigned to the activity thus created. The app installs with a few preconfigured data mappings. You can add additional data mappings and modify or delete existing mappings. 

Each time you run the app, you select a single data mapping to apply during that run. For example, if you select an Event data mapping, configured as in the illustration below, when the Activities Loader runs on a set or list of assets, it will only process those that have the Asset Category Conference/Event, and will create activities for each of them with the Activity Category Events, the Activity Type Conference, and the Activity Researcher Role Contributor. The rest of the data the app will add to each new activity record will be taken from the metadata of the asset record from which it is derived.

 You can manage the data mappings in your system in the Settings screen, under Data Mapping (see Settings, above). 

• Select + Add New Mapping. In the dialog box that opens, enter a name for the mapping, and then select OK. The data mapping is created and added to the list of data mappings. You can now configure its settings by opening it for editing, as you would any of the data mappings that already existed, as described below.

1. In the list of data mappings, select the data mapping you want to edit. The data mapping expands so that you can see its properties (as in the illustration above).
2. Modify the following fields as required:
   • Name – The name of the data mapping
   • Asset Category – The asset category required to generate an activity. Select a specific category, or leave the field blank if no specific category is required. Assets that don’t belong to this category are not processed.
   • Asset Type – The asset type required to generate an activity. Select a specific type, or Any if no specific asset type is required. The list of asset types from which you can choose varies depending on the asset category selected in the previous field.
   • Creator Role – The creator role required to generate an activity. Select a specific role, or Any if no specific role is required. 
   • Activity Category – The activity category to assign to the activity that is being created. This field is required.
   • Activity Type – The activity type to assign to the activity that is being created. This field is not required.
   • Activity Researcher Role – The role to assign to the researcher in the activity that is being created.
3. When you finish editing the data mappings, at the top of the screen, select Save.

   

Running the App

You can select the assets for the Activities Loader app to use as input in one of two ways:

• Use an existing set of assets as input
• If the results of an asset search are currently open in Esploro, use some or all of the assets in the list as input 

1. In the main screen of the app. select one of the following:
   • Set – To create activities from an existing set of research assets, select this option and then, under Select a set, select the set.
   • Displayed Records – Select this option to create activities from all of the records in the displayed list of assets. (This option only appears if a list of assets is open in the background.)
   • Select Records – To create activities from some of the records in the displayed list of assets, select this option. A list of records appears below the option. Select the records from this list. (This option only appears if a list of assets is open in the background.)

     

2. Select Create Activities. The app begins to run. When it is finished, a run report is displayed. For each asset record processed, a message with the MMS_ID, title, and researcher ID of the asset, and the result of the process is displayed. If none of the assets selected meet the criteria of the selected data mapping, a message indicating this is displayed.