Update on the Web Tools for the Carbon Benefits Project

[Mark Easter]

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for using the Carbon Benefits Project web tools. This
letter is to inform you of some recent changes to the web tools and
notify you of an impending maintenance cycle.

The Carbon Benefits Project tools are just beginning to come on line
at this time. With any new web tools there will likely be issues that
arise, and we are prepared to address those issues as quickly as
possible. Please consult the document appended to the end of this
email to report bugs, defects, or request system improvements. You
may also utilize the Provide Feedback button in the upper right hand
corner of the CBP toolkit pages. We deeply appreciate your interest
in the project tools and we are dedicated to making them meet your
needs.

Following are some updates:

Web Site URL changes: The Project Information Module (PIM) has been
officially migrated from the development server at Colorado State
University to its permanent home at United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) web site at the Hague. The Carbon Benefits Project web site
can be found at http://www.unep.org/ClimateChange/carbon-benefits.
The toolkits can be accessed at http://www.unep.org/ClimateChange/carbon-benefits/cbp_pim/#.
This is where you can log in and set up your projects.

Server Migration Issues: We have been informed by some users that
problems occurred in the process of migrating their projects to the
www.unep.org home site. This only affects users accessing the
modelling tools, not the measurement tools. We sincerely apologize
for these issues! We have taken measures to ensure this problem does
not re-occur in the future. The most expedient solution has been for
users to simply recreate a duplicate of their project on the new
site. Please contact me at Mark....@colostate.edu or +1
970.491.1098 if you are experiencing problems with the site and I will
notify the technical team immediately.

Carbon Benefits Project user group: Join the CBP user group on Google
for the most current information and to seek help in using the tool
kit. You can join the group by clicking here: http://groups.google.com/group/cbp-users.

Down Period: The Modelling tools (Simple Assessment) will be down for
system upgrades and maintenance on December 22 from 0100 to 1300 GMT.
Thank you again for your interest in the Carbon Benefits Project. We
look forward to your feedback.

Sincerely,

Mark Easter
Technical Lead, Modelling Team
On behalf of the Carbon Benefits Project Team

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How to Report Bugs, Defects and System Improvements

Thank you for helping evaluate and test the CBP system. For the
purposes of this project, bugs and defects are defined as follows:

- A bug is a computer software problem that causes a feature or a page
to behave erratically or not to work at all. For example, a bug
exists if clicking on a link leads to a page that reads “http: 404
error, page not found”.

- A defect is a feature the user believes is not behaving like it
should or was designed to do, a spelling error, a translation error, a
possible error in a greenhouse gas flux calculation, or similar item.
For example, if clicking on a link leads a user to a viable web page
but not the page they expected, the actual link may need to be updated
or the text describing the link may need to be improved.

- A system improvement is a desired feature the user believes will
improve the usability, functionality, or accuracy of the CBP system
To report a bug, defect or system improvement, please log into the cbp-
users user group on Google Groups:

http://groups.google.com/group/cbp-users?lnk=srg

Post an email to the group labelled “CBP Bug Report: < subject >”, or
“CBP Defect Report: < subject>” or “CBP System Improvement: <subject>”
in the subject line, where you substitute an appropriate subject
description for < subject >. For example, a problem validating your
login account might have a subject line that reads like this: "CBP
Bug Report: Problem with email validation".

Please include the following information in your posting:

1) Bug, defect or system improvement? State what category the
issue involves.
2) Name of the page where the issue occurred: Ideally you should
share a screen shot of the page involved. You can produce a screen
shot by pressing the “PrtScn” or “Print Screen” button on your
keyboard. This creates a copy of your screen. Then use the “edit-
paste” feature in Microsoft Word to paste the screen shot into a word
document, and then upload the file to Google Docs (http://
docs.google.com). Then include the link to the document in your
posting so others can see it. For help how to share documents in
Google Groups, please see http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66343.

Or, users can paste the screen shot into an email and send it to
mark....@colostate.edu.

3) Steps leading up to the issue occurring: Please describe the
steps leading up to the point where the issue occurred.

4) Description of the issue: Describe what you think the problem
is or your system improvement idea. Some problems such as “http: 404
error, file not found” are self-explanatory. Other issues,
particularly defects, may require detailed explanation of what
happened compared with what you believe the web page should have done.

CBP Technical staff will take all such reports seriously and will
respond to you as quickly as we are able. We appreciate your help,
and thank you!