Right to Know Website

Agency Users Manual

 

 

 

 

 

 

Version 1.2

1 July 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1     Accessing the Right to Know Website. 3

1.1       Initial Access. 3

1.2       Assignment of User IDs. 3

1.3       Getting your Temporary Password. 3

1.4       First Time Login. 4

1.5       How to Change your Password. 5

1.6       Agency User Forgets Password. 6

2     Control Panel Functionality. 7

2.1       The Agency User Control Panel 7

2.1.1     Change Password. 8

2.1.2     Logoff Button. 8

2.1.3     Upload Contract 8

2.1.4     Search for a Contract 8

3     Upload Contract (Add Contracts to the System) 9

3.1       Contract Summary Data. 9

3.1.1     Upload Document Summary Data. 9

3.1.2     Subject Matter Box. 10

3.1.3     Agency Upload. 10

3.1.4     Adding Contracting Party. 13

3.1.5     Redacted Document Statement 14

3.1.6     Redaction Screening. 14

3.2       Contract File Upload. 14

4     Search for a Contract 17

4.1       Accessing the Search Page. 17

4.2       Contract Search Functionality. 18

4.2.1     Keyword Search. 18

4.2.2     Advanced Search. 19

4.3       Search Results. 21

4.4       Amendment or PO Upload Procedures. 21

4.4.1     Accessing the Upload page. 21

4.4.2     Amendment or PO document Upload. 23

4.5       Contract Upload for Previously FTP’d Summary Data. 23

4.6       Upload of Redacted Document Version. 23

 

 

1         Accessing the Right to Know Website 

1.1      Initial Access

 

The Treasury Right to Know website is accessed through the left navigation bar of the current PATreasury.org site (fig. 1).  Under the title bar “PA Contracts” there are two options:

 

Clicking on the “Search for Public Contracts” link takes the public user to a search contracts page.  There are no login requirements for the public.

 

Clicking on the “Agency Login” link will take agency users to the log in page, from which they can log in and access agency functions.

1.2      Assignment of User IDs

To simplify the access process, Treasury has decided to match Agency User IDs to the Agency user’s e-mail address.  Treasury has reached out to all applicable entities to gather a listing of agency users and Right to Know officers.  These agency users will be added en masse to the system database.  To add, modify, or delete agency users after the initial system rollout, agency Right to Know officers must forward the First and Last Name, e-mail address, and office phone number to the Treasury Bureau of Contracts and Public Records, e-mail contractinfo@patreasury.org.

 

1.3      Getting your Temporary Password

As agency users are added to the system, temporary passwords will be e-mailed to each user to allow initial system access.  Each password forwarded is a unique, secure, system-generated password which the agency user may copy and paste into the password textbox of the login page.  The initial log on by the agency user will generate a required password reset.  This process will be explained in detail in the next section of this document, First Time Login.

 

 

1.4      First Time Login

Clicking the “Agency Login” link will bring up the following (fig. 2):

 

 

Figure 2.  Agency Login Page

 

 

As you can see, the User ID is defined as the user e-mail address.  The user should type his/her e-mail address into the “Email Address” textbox.  The user may then paste or type the assigned temporary password into the password textbox.  Clicking the “Login” button will initiate the login process.  The functionality of the “Forgot your password?” link will be discussed later in this manual. 

 

The initial login to the system will automatically generate a “Change Password” page as shown (fig. 3):

 

 

 

Figure 3:  Change Password Page

 

As with any password change page, this system requires that the agency user input the currently active password into the “Current Password” box prior to entering a new password into the “New Password” textbox.  The password entered must be a minimum of seven characters.  The agency user must then reenter the new password into the “Confirm Password”, and click “Update”.  The system will propagate a “Success! Password changed” message automatically, and the agency user’s password will be reset.  All subsequent agency user logins will bypass the “Change Password” page, and take the agency user directly to the control panel page. 

1.5      How to Change your Password

The “Change Password” link is accessible from all agency users’ pages.  The function of this page will be discussed under “Control Panel”.


 

1.6      Agency User Forgets Password

 

If an agency user forgets his/her password, a link exists on the login page titled “Forgot your Password?”  Clicking on this link will take the agency user to a page that requires inputting an e-mail address to recover the agency user’s password, as shown in figure 4 below:

 

 

 

Figure 4.  Forgot Password Page

 

 

 

The agency user should type in his/her user id (e-mail address) in the Email textbox.  Clicking the “Send Email” button will send an e-mail with a temporary password for the agency user, which must be reset on initial login.

Figure 5.  Control Panel

2         Control Panel Functionality

 

2.1      The Agency User Control Panel

 

The agency user Control Panel is shown in figure 5 below, and provides links to the “Upload Contract” (Add New Contracts to the System), and “Search for a Contract” (To Attach an Amendment or PO) pages.  Additionally, links to the “Change Password” page and “Logoff” functionality are present.  This page is the gateway to virtually all agency user interaction with the system. 

 

 

Figure 5.  Control Panel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


2.1.1      Change Password

The “Change Password” link is present on all of the agency user pages.  When clicked, it brings up the page shown below (fig. 6):

 

 

Figure 6: Change Password

 

This page functions similarly to the initial logon password reset. 

 

2.1.2      Logoff Button

 

Clicking on the “Logoff” button located on all agency users’ pages will log the user out of the system, and return the user to the logon page.

 

2.1.3      Upload Contract

 

The “Upload Contract” icon is used to upload new contracts to the Treasury file system.  Clicking on this link will take the agency user to the contract summary page.

A detailed explanation of the “Upload Contract” function is contained in section 5 of this manual.

 

2.1.4      Search for a Contract

 

Clicking on the “Search for a Contract” icon on this page will take the agency user to the Contract Search page.  From the Contract Search page, the agency user may retrieve a contract, to which an amendment or purchase order may be attached.

A detailed explanation of the “Search for a Contract” function is contained in section 6 of this manual.

3         Upload Contract (Add Contracts to the System)

The manual upload process is composed of inputting the required document summary data in addition to uploading the actual contract files.   If the agency is utilizing FTP procedures to automatically preload the contract summary data, the contract file will be uploaded manually using the “Search for a Contract” function.  These procedures will be covered under the “Search for a Contract” section.

3.1      Contract Summary Data

To upload a new contract, the agency user will click on the “Upload Contract” icon on the “Control Panel” page.  This will produce the “Contract Summary Data” screen, as shown in figure 7 below:

 

 

Figure 7: Contract Summary Page

 

 

 

On this screen, the agency user will input the summary data for all uploaded documents, and attach the document files.  There are eight summary data elements for upload.  The “Begin Date” and “End Date” entries are the only ones that are not required for document upload.   We will address each part of this page individually in the following sections.

 

3.1.1      Upload Document Summary Data

 

The first section of the upload document summary data is comprised of the entries shown in figure 8:

 

Figure 8:  Initial Summary Page Entries

 

 

The “Contract #” entry must be a unique contract number for the agency.  The amount of the contract should be entered in the “Amount” box.  You may use any format (commas, no commas); however, if more than one decimal point is input the system will not accept the upload.  The dates may be input either with the calendar icon functionality or manually; the date textbox will accept most manually input date formats.

 

3.1.2      Subject Matter Box

 

The subject matter box is a textbox requiring a description of the uploaded document:

 

Figure 9:  Subject Matter Box

 

The input to the subject matter box should use the following example as a guide:

 

This agreement requires that the PA Institute for the Blind & Handicapped, Inc. provide material and labor to perform janitorial and mowing services for the PA DOT sign shop”.

This subject matter description will appear in the contract search results table.

 

 

3.1.3      Agency Upload

The agency upload box is shown in figure 10 below:

 

Figure 10:  Agency Dropdown and Collection Box

 

To upload the agency or agencies associated with the document, you may use the dropdown box below the “Agency” label by clicking on the arrow on the right side of the box and scrolling down to find the appropriate agency, as shown in figure 11:

 

Figure 11:  Agency Dropdown Box

 

Click on the agency name in the dropdown.  The dropdown should disappear, and the selected agency should appear in the Agency dropdown window as shown in figure 12 below:

 

Figure 12:  Agency Name displayed in Window

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, to enter the selected agency in the collection box on the right, click the right arrow adjacent to the agency name dropdown.  The selected agency should appear in the collection box on the right, as shown in figure 13:

 


Figure 13.  Agency moved to Collection Box

 
 

 

 


If there is more than one agency associated with the contract, follow the same procedures to add the agency to the collection box.  If an incorrect agency is added to the collection box, simply click on the agency name to highlight, and then click on the left arrow to remove the agency from the collection box.

 

You may also add agencies by typing directly into the window below the agency label.  The entry will auto-fill if it is found within the dropdown.

3.1.4      Adding Contracting Party

 

With one important exception, the procedure for adding a contracting party to the summary data is the same as that used for adding an agency.   If the contracting party for the new contract is already present in the dropdown, the procedures are exactly the same.  However, if the contracting party is not present in the dropdown, the agency user must add the name to the dropdown list by clicking on the “Add New Party” button located below the contracting party dropdown, as shown in figure 14:

 

 

Clicking on this button will produce the new page shown in figure 15:

 

Figure 15.  Adding New Contracting Party Page

 

 

The agency user should enter the name of the new Contracting Party in the textbox, and click the “Save” button.  This action will return the user to the summary data page, with the new contracting party name already present in the collection box.  Once this information is saved, the new contracting party will appear in the dropdown box. Clicking on the “Cancel” button will return the user to the summary data page with no changes made to the contracting party entry.  Additional contracting parties may be added to the collection box using the dropdown or “Add New Party” procedure.  Contracting parties may be removed from the collection box by highlighting and clicking on the left arrow. 


3.1.5      Redacted Document Statement

 

The checkbox and redaction statement located below the contracting party section and shown in figure 16 is to be selected if all of the documents to be uploaded are fully redacted and ready for the public to view.  Checking this box will allow all external website users to instantly view any document that has been uploaded in association with this contract. 

 

 

Figure 16.  Redacted Document Statement

 

If the box is left unchecked, the external website user will be given the option to request access to the document.  If a request is made to view a non-redacted document, e-mail will be generated to the appropriate agency containing the specific document(s) numbers requested.  The agency has two business days after the request to upload a fully redacted version of the document.  If a fully redacted version is not uploaded within the given time, the system will automatically make the non-redacted version available for public viewing.

 

3.1.6      Redaction Screening

 

If the checkbox associated with the statement “The following document(s) is/are redacted and ready for public inspection” is checked by the agency user, the document upload procedure will include a cursory screening for text patterns that may indicate a need for further document redaction.   This screening cannot determine if further redaction is required, only that some programmed text patterns have been detected during the upload.  These text patterns may or may not require redaction.

 

For example, if during the document upload and screening a number pattern that may indicate the presence of a social security number is detected, the agency user receive the message shown in figure 17:

 

Figure 17.   Further redaction may be required message

 

 

The number pattern detected may not actually be a social security number; it is up to the agency user to determine if all necessary redaction has been accomplished prior to upload.  If the agency user clicks on “Yes”, the process will continue, and the uploaded documents will be available immediately for public viewing.  If the agency user clicks “No”, no documents are uploaded, and the user is returned to the contract summary page. 

 

The process used to attach contract document files to the summary data is covered in the next section.

3.2      Contract File Upload

 

The system is designed to accept the following four file types:

 

o        Microsoft Word

o        Microsoft Excel

o        PDF

o        TIFF

 

Contract documents are uploaded using the “Select” button adjacent to the contract file box, as shown in figure 18 below:

Clicking on the “Select” button will bring up a “Choose File” pop up window as one would see with any file upload procedure.  From this window, double-clicking on a file, or a single click followed by a click on the “Open” button associated with the pop up window, will load the file into the “Upload File” window. 

 

The “Rem