Retrieving stored meter readings  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to retrieve the collected readings from any chosen meter.

Go to the Retrieval tab, select the Location of the meter you require and press Continue. Then select the Meter you want and the Start date and End date of the period for which you require data (by default the start and end date will give data for the five years).

When you click Retrieve the records for the selected meter will be sent to you as a CSV (comma-separated value) file. On most Windows computers you will be offered the choice of opening the file or saving it to disc. If Microsoft Excel is installed and you choose the 'open' option, the data will appear as an Excel workbook.


Editing, deleting and inserting stored meter readings  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to edit or delete stored meter readings, or insert additional readings.

Choose the Management tab and then the Histories tab; then select the Location of the meter and the Meter itself. If the meter has two or more registers, you will need to select the required Register as well.

The screen will show the register's readings in pages of up to ten entries each, with the most recent in view. <<page and <line button step you back ten lines or one line at a time; page>> and line> step forwards ten lines or one.

To edit a record click on its Edit link. The format of the line changes to allow the date, time, reading, bypass, and comment values to be changed, and a Save button appears which commits any changes.

To delete a record, click on its Delete link and confirm the action when challenged.

To insert a new entry, click the Add Entry button. An editable empty record will appear below the table. Note that you can add a reading with any date and time; when you click Store it will be sorted chronologically.

When you are finished, you can select a different register, meter or location; or you can click on the tab for a different function.


Uploading readings in bulk  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to upload meter readings from a local data file.

Choose the Management tab and then the Upload tab.

Select first the location and then the meter that you wish to upload. Then give the filename of the CSV file that you wish to upload (you can browse for the filename if you wish).

File format

The upload file must be formatted exactly like the file you would get using the Retrieve function: The data line format is: day, month, year, hour and minute followed by pairs of readings and bypass values for each register. Here is an example:
School of Rocket Science,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Propellant Campus,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Main electricity,,,,,Day,Bypass,Evening,Bypass,Night,Bypass,Weekend,Bypass
18,9,2004,9,30,154549,0,98818,0,146251,0,448661,0
25,9,2004,9,30,154634,0,98874,0,146437,0,450075,0
A line with the same datestamp as an existing record will overwrite the existing record.

If lines 1 - 4 of the upload file do not exactly match expected values, you will get an error message and the upload will not be carried out. Hint: the safest way to create a well-formed upload file is to retrieve data from the meter in question, save the resulting download file, editing its data lines for subsequent upload.


Generating management reports  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to produce various management reports.

Choose the Management tab and then the Reports tab.

You can opt to View any report on screen or Download it as a CSV file, which can either be saved to disc or opened as an Excel spreadsheet.

The available reports are:

Meters and registers can be viewed for the organization as a whole or for a selected location.

When viewed on screen, the tabulations show the database ID of each listed item. The IDs are hyperlinks which allow you to edit the details of the item in question with the following exceptions:


Defining "locations"  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to define, amend or delete the definitions of locations.

A 'location' is usually a building or address where a number of meters exist (by contrast a position is the place where a specific individual meter is installed). A location can have meters, a contact person, users who are authorised to take readings there, and sequence lists to guide them.

To set up a location choose the Management tab and then the Locations tab. You will be invited to Define a new location or select an existing one before pressing Continue.

Points to note when editing or setting up a location:


Setting up meters and their registers  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to define, amend or delete the definitions of meters and their registers.

Choose the Management tab and then the Meters tab.

You must then pick the location where the meter is installed and click Select. However, if the meter's location has not already been registered within the scheme, you have the option of clicking the New button and defining it at this point.

The minimum information required for a meter is as follows:

The Comment box can be used to note special information such as, for example, where to find the keys to access the meter.

The minimum information about each register comprises:

The Add another register link at the foot of the form allows you to define additional registers when required. You should define registers in the order that they will be read, as the system presents them for input in the order that they were defined.

The second and subsequent registers have a Remove link allowing them to be deleted. You cannot delete Register 1.

The Confirm button stores the new or amended definition in the database. Once defined, a meter cannot be deleted; it can, however, be removed from sequence lists so that it is not offered to meter readers.


Setting up and managing users  

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this facility, which allows you to define, amend or delete users within the scheme.

Choose the Management tab and then the

People

tab. The "Set up a person's details" screen will appear, where you can either define a new user or pick an existing one before clicking Continue

As well as editing the user's name and email address, you can change their login ID and password. However, you cannot see their security question and answer.

There are various settings which you can change that users themselves are not permitted to alter:

Clicking Store commits any changes to the database.

Granting access to meter-reading data through "tokens"  

This facility is available to the scheme owner only.

'Tokens' are unique security keys which give their holders permission to download meter reading data, even though they may not be registered as users within the scheme. Typically tokens would be used to allow external consultants or utility suppliers to share the collected readings. Such external users require a token for each location whose data they are allowed to see.

A second and very important use for tokens is to allow automated systems to collect data.

Tokens can be revoked by the scheme owner, immediately preventing further access on the part of the person to whom the token was issued.

To generate, modify or delete a token, select the Management tab and then the Tokens tab. Next, select the location to which the token will apply or (if the location does not yet exist in the scheme) click New and define one.

Having picked a location you can either Define a new token or select one that has previously been defined, before pressing Continue.

If you opt to define a new token, you must give it a Description and click the Store button. Choose a description such as 'NIFES bureau access' which identifies the user and the purpose in such a way that you will be able to pick the token again from a list when you need to.

Once the new token has been stored, or if you selected one that had already been defined before, you will be shown the token itself (a six-character string like 'B2JSeV'). Use the Copy token button to copy it to the clipboard so that it can be pasted into a message to the user, or into an automated data retrieval application.

Below the token will be a list of the meter IDs belonging to the location in question. The token user will need this information to construct the special call to a web page (URL) that generates the data. URLs have the form:

http://www.meterpad.com/reports/s=dd-mm-yy/e=dd-mm-yy/m=xx/t=B2JSeV/
where the parameters have the following meanings:

s: start date
e: end date
m: meter ID
t: token


Customising the scheme  

This is a premium facility, available at extra charge. When available, it is accessible to the scheme owner only. It allows you to change the name of the organization and upload a logo image. You can also change the strapline which normally says 'meter readings and associated data'.

Select the Management tab, and under that choose the Settings tab.

There are three sections on the settings form corresponding to the scheme name, logo and strapline.

Changing the organization name

Enter a new name (up to 40 characters long) in the box labelled 'Change organization name' and click the Change button. The screen will refresh with the new organization name at the top.

Changing the logo

Before you start you will need a JPG format image file with maximum dimensions 160 pixels wide by 80 pixels high stored on your computer.

In the Settings tab, under 'Upload custom logo', use the Browse button to locate and 'open' the image file, and then the Upload button to upload it.

On successful uploading, the screen will refresh to show the new logo next to the organization name. If you try to upload a file that is too big, or not in JPG format, you will see an error message. You can revert to the standard MeterPad logo by clicking the Restore Defaults button.

Changing the strapline

If you are using MeterPad to collect data other than meter readings, you can change the strapline 'Meter readings and associated data' to some other phrase such as 'Field data entry'. Type your preferred phrase in the box, up to a maximum of 40 characters, and click Change.

You can revert to the standard wording by clicking Restore Defaults.