What is a Tool Group?

Tool groups are used to group together tools for a variety of reasons. Initially, they were developed to allow a simple method of booking and logging into a group of related tools. More recently, they have been used to create multiple Different configurations of the same tool.

Terminology

Group Tool – The primary tool that is used to create the group. This is the tool the other tools are grouped under, also referred to as the primary tool

Tool Group – The collection of tools included in a particular group. They are all connected through the Group Tool.

Impact

When booking or logging into group tools, the system will perform all of the standard permission checks on all tools in the group. This means that if a user attempts to use a group tool after hours, they must have after hour access on all tools in the group.

When booking a group tool, the system will check the availability of all tools in the group and only if they are all available will the booking be made. When successful, a booking will be made for all tools in the group for the requested period.

Creating a Tool Group

To create a tool group, we first assume that all the tools to be grouped have already been created. If not, create them first. Now create a tool to represent the Group Tool. Any tool can be a group tool, and any tool can be in a tool group; however, you cannot make groups of groups. Therefore, a group tool cannot be included in another tool group.

Once you’ve set up all the tools, go to Admin -> Tools -> Tool Groups. Select Add New.

Select the Group Tool (primary tool). Select the tools to be included in the group. Click Add Tool(s). The new group can be managed by clicking Current Groups.

You will see a listing of the currently configured groups.

Expand the desired section to edit the tools in the group.

You can add and remove tools from here.