Running Callisto and loading the example document

In this section, you will start up Callisto, load the example document and watch as Callisto begins to monitor a set of bulletin boards for new articles.  Most of this happens automatically after you start Callisto - there isn't much for you to do at this stage!

NB - you will find it easier to follow the tutorial if you are connected to the Internet before you start Callisto.

Contents

1. opening the example document
2. the Document Window
3. the Bulletin Boards
4. retrieving saved topics
5. reading the bulletin boards
6. storing the topics
7. continuing to read the boards
8. summary

1: opening the example document

Open the Callisto program using its desktop shortcut or by going to the Callisto folder on the Start menu.  Callisto automatically loads the last document it used.   The document tells Callisto which bulletin boards to search and how to organise the information it finds: by using different documents in Callisto, different people using the same computer, for example, can monitor different sets of boards.

If you have not yet created a document of your own, you should see the example document Callisto.

If you previously used another document and wish to follow the tutorial, close your document by selecting File and Close.  (Don't worry if closing the document takes a few moments - Callisto is making sure the saved information for the document is up to date.)  Now open the example document by selecting File and Open and choosing Callisto from the list of available documents: make sure you select the file with the green Callisto icon next to its name and not the folder called Callisto.

2: the Document Window

Callisto displays the main components of the active document in a Document Window:

• the bulletin boards which Callisto will read when this document is open (in the pane marked Web);

• the Callisto forums in which it will store the topics it reads from the bulletin boards;

• a board name (Callisto Example) to be used when the contents of the document are displayed as a Web page.

The window also provides a set of command buttons which allow you to add to or change the definition of the document, and to view the topics which Callisto has read.

In this section of the tutorial, we will concentrate on the list of bulletin boards; Callisto forums will be covered in the next section.

3: the Bulletin Boards

Look again at the list of bulletin boards in the example document. MarsJupiter and f5hosting are the names of bulletin boards; Software and Hardware are the names of folders which have been used to group together boards that cover similar subjects.  To see the list of bulletin boards in a folder, you simply double click on the folder symbol; you should find that the complete list of bulletin boards in the example document looks like this:

These are the bulletin boards which Callisto will read whenever the example document is open.

Details such as which forums on each board to read, how often to read them and where to put the results are all defined within the document and can be edited from the Document Window.  This subject is covered in the tutorial Creating your own Documents.

4: retrieving saved topics

Callisto saves an up to date list of the topics it has read every time you close a document, and automatically loads them when you next open the document, so that they are immediately available for you to view.  

You should see messages about the number of saved topics loaded appearing in the Log Window at the top left of the screen:

If the number of topics read is different from the illustration.

Don't worry!  The number of saved topics depends on when the Callisto document was last opened.  If this is the first time you have run Callisto, there may be no saved topics at all.

5: reading the bulletin boards

After loading the saved topics, Callisto begins to read the bulletin boards listed in the document.  This procedure also starts automatically and requires no action from you, so long as you are already connected to the Internet.  If you are not online, you will be prompted to connect now.

As Callisto begins to read the boards, you will see more messages appearing in the message windows at the top of the screen:

• messages in the Log Window tell you when Callisto has found a new topic, or one that has been updated since it last read the board;

• messages in the Jobs Window tell you whether or not Callisto was able to read each of the forums in the bulletin boards;

If you see error messages

If Callisto cannot read a bulletin board, it will report each forum in that board as 'COMPLETE - failure' and place a message in the log window telling you that it couldn't connect.  Don't worry - this can happen for a number of reasons and is usually a transient fault - next time Callisto looks for the board it will usually find it.

Hint - if this kind of error occurs in one of your documents it might be because you have specified the board incorrectly - see the tutorial Creating your own Document.

6: storing the topics

Callisto stores up-to-date information about the topics in the Callisto forums of the active document.

Note that Callisto does not store the actual articles that make up the topics. Instead, it stores certain information about each topic and the Web address of the page where the topic is displayed.  The next section of this tutorial covers what Callisto stores and how to view the topics. 

Deciding which Callisto forum the topics from a particular board should be stored in is part of designing a document and is covered in the tutorial Creating your own Documents.

7: continuing to read the boards

After a while, you will notice that messages are no longer appearing:  Callisto has finished reading the boards in the example document.  To ensure that its information remains up-to-date, however, it will read all the boards again after an interval of about 20 minutes, for as long as the document is open.  (You can specify this update interval separately for each bulletin board when you create your own document.)

8: summary

Just by connecting to the Internet and running Callisto you have caused it to:

• load a default document;
• load the saved topics previously found for that document;
• read topics from the bulletin boards specified in the document;
• store details of the topics it has found.

It really is that simple!

The next step 

To view the topics which Callisto has found, leave Callisto running and proceed to the next section: viewing the topics