ListBuilder is a Java servlet-based Web application designed to allow users to quickly find the environmental regulatory requirements that apply to their facilities or operations.
ERDC-CERL produces more than 70 different environmental compliance protocol manuals based on Federal, State, Agency, and Host Nation environmental regulations. ListBuilder lets users search a database of all the protocol manuals, containing more than 70,000 individual checklist items. Users can select one or more jurisdictions/manuals to search from, and then tailor the search to focus on:
By using combinations of these search parameters, users can obtain highly specific sets of checklist items, thus freeing themselves from having to wade through masses of paper.
Once an initial set of results is obtained, users can browse through a table of checklist items that shows checklist item numbers and associated criteria statements (the "left-hand column" statements from the manuals), and weed out unwanted checklist items before producing a set of final results. Users can even browse the final results, complete with the entire text of the checklist items, and then go back to the initial results to remove unwanted items.
At this point, users can determine what type of output is desired for the final results: HTML, Excel spreadsheet, .txt file, or MS-Word file.
From the HTML output, users can choose to save the results as a Custom Manual, or to save the Search parameters.
topWhen users select the HTML output for the final results, they are presented with the option of saving the final results as a "Custom Manual." A Custom Manual is a set of checklist items, created and named by a user, that can be searched just like the original protocol manuals.
One of the advantages of creating Custom Manuals is that users do not have to perform complicated searches more than once. For example, if an environmental manager for an agency wants to have a list of only those checklist items that might apply to the agencies facilities in a particular state, he or she could tailor a manual based on particular topic sections. From then on, any employees of that agency could select that Custom Manual, and then do searches based on specific facility/activity types, keywords, free text, etc. By searching on the Custom Manual, instead of over the entire protocol, the agency employees would be spared the burden of wading through checklist items that do not apply.
As another example, take a motor pool manager at an Army Reserve facility in Alabama. He or she could perform a search over Federal, Alabama and Army Reserve protocols, narrow it further by facility type, and save the results. In the future, the manager could search through that Custom Manual for topics of immediate interest, such as spill response requirements, or personnel training requirements.
Once created, Custom Manuals are automatically updated. Any revisions to the checklist items are incorporated in future searches. If new checklist items are added to the source documents (the TEAM Guide, Alabama State Supplement, and Army Reserve Supplement in our previous example) after the time the Custom Manual was created, users are prompted to update the Custom Manual. If they choose to update it, users are presented with tables showing the Added checklist items, which can be added or not at the discretion of the user. Users are not required to updated a Custom Manual, but may leave that task to the creator of the Custom Manual.
The applications for Custom Manuals are limitless. One agency might decide to focus on specific checklist items for a round of internal assessments, and would therefore create a Custom Manual to be used at its facilities during that cycle. An environmental manager could tailor Custom Manuals for specific facilities, taking that task off the shoulders of overburdened facility managers. Still another agency might choose to tailor an entire set of State supplements for its own uses: Because the Custom Manuals are automatically updated, the agency would not have to reconfigure the Manuals with every update of the source documents, but could add sections to the manual at any time.
topWhen users select the HTML output for the final results, they are presented with the option of saving the Search parameters. The Search parameters are those choices the user made on the Search page, which may include jurisdiction/manual, chapters, topics, facility/activity types, revisions, keywords, or free text.
The advantage of saving the search is that it may be modified and run by other users, or by the same user at a later date. A user could create a search tailored to a specific type of facility, and then run it using different jurisdictions.
Searches based on Custom Manuals may not be saved at this time.
topThe default output option for ListBuilder is HTML. This option sends a page to the user's browser that contains a table of all the checklist items resulting from the search. The page also includes information on the search parameters selected (so that users can tell what they were looking for when they received the results), and navigation links to individual checklist items within the table.
HTML pages can be saved, using the browsers "File" menu. Once saved, they can be called up and searched, printed, edited, etc., just like any other HTML file a user can download from the Web.
Another output option is to have the results sent to the client in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Users will be asked if they want the file saved to disk, or opened. What the file will contain is a spreadsheet with nine columns. The columns will contain, in order:
The plain text option sends a table to the screen in the .txt format. It contains only the two columns of the checklist items.
The MS-Word option creates a similar table, but in a MS-Word format, which can be saved for later use.
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