The main user interface for System Integrator 5 (SI5) is called the SI5 Navigator, or Navigator for short. The Navigator opens when you launch the SI5 application.
There are eight primary interfaces in the Navigator that are represented by tabs along the bottom left side of the screen: Start, Manage Data, Clients and Contacts, Projects, Reports, Orders and Accounting, Scheduling, and Setup.
The main display has buttons along the top for various functions. Each sub-screen displays links to common actions for each function.
Most of the Menu Options are just an alternative way to accomplish a function that is available elsewhere in the Navigator. Two notable exceptions are detailed below.
This option is primarily for laptop users that need to work away from your network. Your status can be verified by clicking File on the menu bar. When connected to the SI5 Server, you will have the options of disconnecting should you need to remove yourself from your network:
The “connected” symbol also displays in the lower left had corner of the Navigator interface. The symbol is grayed out when disconnected:
It is important that you check out any projects that you wish to work on prior to taking yourself offline. An example of when you would take yourself offline would be if you are working on a laptop and wish to work away from your office network. When you choose to take yourself offline you will see the following prompt reminding you to check out any projects that you wish to edit while offline:
If you want to be able to review but not edit a project while you are offline, you must use the “Make project available offline” function. See Project Functions for details of these functions.
When you are disconnected from the SI5 Server, SI5 will launch without you being prompted to login. That is a clear indication that you are not connected to the SI5 Server. You will not be able to use many of the functions within SI5 including the Orders and Accounting interface or the Scheduling interface. You will not be able to check-in/out projects or synchronize your database while offline.
When you choose to disconnect from the SI5 Server you effectively “cache” your license of SI5 locally to your machine. This means that one license from your “license pool” will be unavailable to all other users of SI5 on your network while you have that license “checked out” to you. To add your license back into the “license pool”:
1) Connect your machine you your network
2) Launch SI5
3) Select File->Connect to SI5.5 Server
Once connected you will have full functionality of SI5 and should synchronize your database and check in and projects to update the copy on the server.
This option is not checked by default. This option will automatically synchronize your local product database with your SI5 server database. Checking this option is a good idea. For more information see LANSync.