Getting Started
Bloom Enterprise is designed to be user-friendly, intuitive, efficient, and easy to navigate. This chapter guides you through the basics of its navigation to help you familiarise with the software usage aspects.
Login and logout
The first step to start using the system is to log in to the backoffice:
- Type the IP address or URL of Bloom Enterprise in the URL bar of a web browser of any device connected to the system’s network. The ‘Login’ page will open.
- Type your credentials.
- Click on the ‘Login’ button or press the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard.
Default credentials
besadmin
password
To log out, click on your profile picture - located at the top right of the backoffice - and select the ‘Log out’ option. If you are using QM-PAD or Concierge, click on the ‘Log out’ button.
Functional areas and pages
Bloom Enterprise’s backoffice is divided into six functional first level areas: Dashboard, Data, Queueing, Appointments, Essentials, System, and QM-PAD. Each one of these areas has one or more second-level pages.
At the top of every page, there is a navigation bar. The background colour of this bar identifies the functional area the page belongs to (for instance, Queueing pages will have a light blue navigation bar and Essentials pages will have an orange navigation bar).
The navigation bar includes a menu bar with a horizontal first level menu. Hovering the mouse on that menu will trigger a flyout vertical second-level menu. Clicking on one of these second level menu options will take you to the selected page.
Above the navigation bar, on the top right, you find the ‘User profile’, ‘System’, and ‘Notifications log’ buttons.
On almost every page there is an action bar, with a grey background, under the navigation bar. This action bar contains some major action buttons (like the ‘Save’ button, for instance), and a filter section.
Selecting items
Items selection
On any list, you can select a record by ticking the respective individual checkbox. Alternatively, you can choose all the displayed records by ticking the global checkbox. Clicking an individual checkbox that was already selected will deselect that record and will also deselect the global checkbox. Clicking the bulk checkbox when it is already selected will deselect it and also deselect all individual checkboxes.
Dropdown menus with checkboxes
Sometimes you will have to select values and options to achieve your goals.
Whenever you are allowed to select more than one option at a time, Bloom will present you a dropdown checkbox group. This dropdown will open when you click on it. All the options or values you click on while the dropdown is open will be considered as your choice. To close the dropdown and accept the selections you have made so far you will have to click on somewhere outside the dropdown. To reset the selection and close the dropdown you will have to click on its first option.
If you are allowed only one of a set of values, then Bloom will present you a dropdown selection list. This dropdown will open when you click on it and will close as soon as you choose one of the options available.
Buttons
Individual versus bulk buttons
On any record in a list, there may be one or more individual buttons – like the ‘Edit’ button, the ‘On/Off’ button, the ‘Delete’ button and the ‘Expand/Collapse' button. Clicking on one of those individual buttons will trigger an action that will be executed over that selected record. The following table describes the individual actions.
Table 1 - Individual actions
| Clicking on | Will |
|---|---|
| an EDIT button | Always opens an edit subpage where you can edit the details of the selected record. |
| an ON/OFF button | Changes the state of the selected record. |
| an EXPAND/COLLAPSE button | Expands or collapses the selected record line to show/hide its details. Expanding a record line will automatically collapse others. |
| a DELETE button | Deletes the selected record. |
| an ADD button | Either opens an edit subpage or creates and expands a new record line in the list (also enables the Save button). |
On the top of any list, there may be one or more bulk buttons – the ‘Bulk edit’ button and the ‘Bulk delete’ button. Clicking on a bulk button will trigger an action that will be executed over all the selected records. The following table describes the bulk actions.
Table 2 - Bulk actions
| Clicking on | Will |
|---|---|
| a BULK EDIT button | Always open a new bulk edition subpage where you can edit the selected records. |
| a BULK DELETE button | Delete all the selected records. |
Whenever you click on a ‘Bulk edit’ button a new subpage will open. There you will see a few ‘Locker’ buttons. Those buttons are intended to partially lock the save functionality.
Remember that bulk actions are applied simultaneously to a group of records - whenever you press the ‘Save’ button on a Bulk Edition page, Bloom will persist all the unlocked details to all the selected records. So, be sure to only unlock the details you want to update.
Enabled versus disabled buttons
The bulk buttons will be enabled if one or more records in the list are selected. If the bulk buttons are enabled, then the corresponding individual buttons of the selected records will be disabled.
Saving changes
Whenever you make any change to the record details, a ‘Save’ button will be available at the top right corner of the page to confirm the changes you entered.
When you click on the ‘Save’ button all changes made in the page will be saved and eventually, any expanded record line will be collapsed. You will always be informed of the good execution of your action.
Discarding changes and getting back to main page
On every subpage, you have available a ‘Back’ button that allows you to get back to the main page.
Whenever you make any change to the record details, the ‘Back’ button will allow you to choose whether you want to save or discard the changes before returning to the main page.
Filtering
On almost every records list the items can be filtered using the predefined filters presented in the action bar.
The predefined filters can be a single-choice or multiple-choice dropdown menu. The filtering tool will find any records that have a relation with any of the selected options. If more than one filter is active at any given moment, the displayed records will be only those that match all the active filtering conditions – this means the more filters you activate the fewer results will be displayed.
Search tool
Additionally, the records can also be filtered using the free search box present in the same action bar.
The free search filter is a very powerful tool that finds all the records matching the string you insert in the box (with a minimum of 3 characters) in any of the record fields listed in Table 3. This free search is case insensitive. If you want to clear the free filtering, just erase all characters from the search box.
Table 3 - Search fields
| Page | Searching Fields |
|---|---|
| Queueing > Management | Location’s name |
| Appointments > Management | Location’s name |
| Appointments > Management > Location | Visitor’s name, phone, or email |
| Essentials > Resources > Locations | Location’s name |
| Essentials > Resources > Services | Service’s name |
| Essentials > Resources > Schedules | Schedule’s name |
| Essentials > Staff > Users | User’s username, first name, last name, display name, or email |
| Essentials > Visitors > Users | User’s username, first name, last name, display name, or email |
| Essentials > Assets > Forms | Form’s name |
| Essentials > Assets > Gallery | File’s name*, or tag* |
There are some exceptions to the 3 characters rule. The record fields marked with “*” in the above table are searched with a minimum of 1 character.
Filtering data in charts and lists
To maximise the usefulness of the provided tools, you can filter the data you want to analyse. The available filters and options for the Statistics and Lists pages are now described:
- View - allows you to select a previously created view.
- Charts - defines which charts will be generated and displayed.
- Time period - filters the available data. Only the data belonging to the selected period will be considered.
- Aggregate - groups the information into time frames and shortens the x-axis span. The span of the x-axis is dependent on the unit selected in the Time unit dropdown. For instance, if the selected time unit is Hour, the x-axis will span along a full day and the data will be grouped according to its hour attribute and irrespectively of its day attribute.
- Time unit - defines the scale of the x-axis. The available options (depending on the chosen period) are an hour, day, week, month, quarter, or semester.
- Presented by - defines how you wish to display the information in the chart: by service, counter, or day of the week (lines of the chart).
If you click on ‘Show additional filters’ you will have access to a few more filters (click on ‘Hide additional filters’ to close this section):
- Locations - filters the available data by the locations it is associated with.
- Services - filters the available data by the services it is associated with.
- Users - filters the available data by the users it is associated with.
- Questions - filters the data by the questions it is associated with.
- Devices - filters the available data by the devices it is associated with.
- Visitors - filters the available data by the visitors it is associated with.
- Contains - search field where you can search for the ticket number, customer name, phone and email, staff usernames and display names and locations names.
- Order by - defines how the information will be displayed in the list: In the Tickets tab: by ticket number, service name, generation date and time, call time, end time, waiting and service times, time on site and staff display name. In the Appointments tab: by location name, service name, staff display name, booking date and time, check-in time, appointment confirmation date and time and appointment date and time. In the Visitors tab: by visitor display name, number of served appointments, number of cancelled appointments and number of non-attendances.
- Transfers flow - filters the available data by the flows it is associated with.
- Search - you can search for the information you wish by question ID, visitor ticket and service name.
Not all filters and options are available for all charts and lists.
If you want to clear any predefined filter with multiple-choice, just select the ‘None’ option of the dropdown. To select all listed items, click on the ‘Select all’ option.
Filtering data in the location calendar
Similar to the statistics and lists, the calendars provide filters to improve the usefulness of the page. The available filters and options for the Manage appointments page are now described:
- Calendar - defines the time frame displayed in the grid. You can select a specific day (if you are using the Daily view in the grid) or a specific week (if you are using the Weekly view in the grid). If you are seeing the appointments in list view, the selected period defines the beginning date for the displayed information (for example: if you are filtering the current week, the displayed appointments are all booked appointments as of this week).
- Location groups / Locations - filters the available data by the location it is associated with. You can only select one location at the time and locations are displayed by location group.
- Service groups / Services- filters the available data by the services it is associated with. You can select as many services as you wish, and services are displayed by the service group. You can also select all items assigned to a service group by clicking on the group name.
- Staff roles / Staff- filters the available data by the users it is associated with. You can select as many users as you wish, and users are displayed by assigned roles. You can also select all items assigned to a role by clicking on the role name.
- Appointment status - filters the available data by the appointment status it is associated with waiting for confirmation, confirmed and checked-in.
The available services are the ones assigned to the location that is selected in the Location groups / Locations filter.
The available users are the ones assigned to the location that is selected in the Location groups / Locations filter.
Filtering data in logs
As in the statistics and lists pages, the logs information can be filtered. This page includes the Time period and Users filters already explained, and the Severity filter - filters the available data by the severity level it is associated with.
Future items selection in the filters
New resources may be added to the system in the future, which may affect the already created views in the statistics and lists pages. To facilitate the inclusion of new resources, Bloom provides options to include future locations, services, users, counters, questions, and/or devices that can be activated while creating views.
With this configuration, new resources are automatically added to the views without further action.
Pagination
If more than 10 records existing in each (filtered or unfiltered) list, you may choose how many of them you want to see at a time. By default, 20 records will be shown simultaneously. Clicking on the ‘Navigation’ buttons you can navigate all the available records.
Colour assignment
Whenever Bloom expects you to assign a colour attribute to a record, a colour picker will pop up. This can happen by clicking on a ‘Colour picker’ button or area.
The pop-up is composed of a closing button, a square colour field, a vertical colour slider, a vertically divided previsualization box, a code box, and an ‘OK’ button.
The left half of the previsualization box always indicates the colour that is assigned to the record you are working with. The right half of the previsualization box reflects your colour selection. You can choose the colour in two different ways:
- choose the pure colour by moving the selector up and down on the colour slider bar and then choose the shade by clicking on the colour field.
- in the code box insert the HEX code or an RGB code of the colour. If you insert an RGB code it will be automatically converted to the equivalent HEX code.
Assignment tables
On the Essentials > Assignments page there is a set of assignment tables. Assignments tables are just 2-way tables that relate two different sets of resources.
Appointments views
On page Appointments > Manage appointments you will find a pair of ‘View’ buttons inside the location calendar. Those buttons will toggle between two different views: Grid view and List view – the Grid view will show the scheduled appointments in a table, and the List view will show each record in one line.
Interacting with the charts
Dashboard and statistics charts usually allow you to interact with them to further depict the information they present.
On the top right of every chart, you can find the list of actions the chart will respond to. There are three main types of chart actions:
- Zoom – hover the mouse over the chart, scroll up to zoom in and scroll down to zoom out.
- Hover interaction– hover the mouse over one point (for flowcharts), over one vertical grid line (for line charts), over a bar (for bar charts) or a block (for treemap charts) to popup a window with the data concerning that element.
- Click interaction – on a block chart, click on a block to expand and decompose it in subblocks. On other charts, click on a variable’s legend to show/hide that variable in the chart.
Download reports
Bloom provides a report download feature in the pages of the Data menu. To perform a download, click on the ‘Download’ button - a loading pop-up will appear. You can choose to keep it open or close it (by clicking on the ‘OK’ button). While the report is being downloaded, you should not navigate to another page. The loading icon will disappear once the download is finished.
Tooltips
Whenever you find the 
icon, you can hover your mouse on it to get a tooltip that will help you with your task.