Help for the ERCAP Allocations Request Form

• Accessing ERCAP requests
• Renewing a request
• Starting a new request
• General layout of the Request Form and using its tabs
• Validating your User List
• Finishing your request
• Pasting from one request into another request
• Printing and saving to disk
• Getting help for specific questions
• Advice on answering long text questions
• ERCAP error messages
• Deleting a request

Accessing ERCAP requests

After you have logged into NIM select My ERCAP Requests from your My Stuff pulldown menu. If you are an existing PI or PI Proxy you will see your requests displayed in the ERCAP requests frame. Otherwise, you will see a button that allows you to start a new request as a new PI.

Renewing a request

To renew an existing project for the next allocation year click on its renew icon.

To continue working on a proposal you have previously saved click on its edit icon.

For the next step see General layout of the Request Form and using its tabs.

Image of request list

Starting a new request

If you have a new project and want new project accounts (repositories) scroll to the bottom of the ERCAP requests frame and click on the link Start a new request.

General layout of the Request Form and using its tabs

The questions on the ERCAP Request Form are divided into several sections. Each section is grouped under a tab.

When you first renew a previous year's request, or when you first create a new request, you will be in the first tab, called Project Overview. The other tabs are not clickable until you have saved the Project Overview, after which you can click on any tab in any order.

Note that the request number, PI name, and request title are not displayed in the tab title area until you have saved the Project Overview.

To save a section of the ERCAP Request Form, click the Save button, located at the end of the section.

Image of save button

Using the tabs to navigate between sections

Once you have completed the Project Overview you can edit the other sections in any order. Just click on a tab to edit the corresponding section.

Warning: each tab area must be saved before moving to a new tab. After you have finished your work in one tab area you must click the Save button located at the bottom of that tab area to save your changes in the database.

Validating your User List

As part of the ERCAP renewal process PIs (or PI Proxies) must certify their current user list. This means: review, correct and certify contact information, citizenship, and project role for your active users. DOE requires this to be done once a year.

The ERCAP system will not let you submit (finish) your request until you have certified your user list (renewed requests only).

For instructions see User List Validations.

Finishing your request

When you have completed answering to your satisfaction all the questions on the Request Form click the Other Info / Finish tab and select the Finished for the Current Request Status question. Reviewers can see all finished requests (once they have been validated by NERSC staff).

Note that the status of your request is displayed in the tab title area ("Not Yet Finished" or "Finished" or "Validated"). Once a request has been validated you may no longer edit it.

Pasting from one request into another request

If you want to copy and paste text from one request into another request you should bring up the request you want to copy from in a separate browser window. Here's how to do that:

1. Select My ERCAP Requests from the My Stuff pulldown menu.
2. In the resulting ERCAP requests frame click on the view PDF icon for the request from which you want to cut and paste.
3. After the ERCAP PDF form is displayed, click on the PDF Select Text Tool and highlight the text you want to copy.
4. Then you can paste the text into the request you are working on in your NIM browser window.

Printing and saving to disk

1. Select My ERCAP Requests from the My Stuff pulldown menu.
2. In the resulting ERCAP requests frame click on the view PDF icon for the request you want to print.
3. Then use your browser's Print... option to print the request.

When you have finished your request it is a good idea to save a copy to disk. Click on the view PDF icon for the request you want to save and use your browser's Save option.

Getting help for specific questions

Some of the questions have an information icon you can click to get help on answering that specific questions. Questions that are self-explanatory do not have the info icon.

Advice on answering long text questions

It is not recommended that you directly type in long answers. Rather, compose your answers elsewhere, and paste them into the ERCAP text boxes.

Note for Internet Explorer users: some Explorer browsers interpret a carriage return (the Enter or Return key) in the short text boxes (the text boxes without a scroll bar) as a Save: if you enter a carriage control in a short text box it is as though you had clicked the Save button. Also note that you can use the Tab key to jump to the next text box.

Most of the text boxes have a maximum of 4,000 characters associated with them. If your answer exceeds 4,000 characters you will get an error message when you click Save. You should remove some of your text and try to Save again. See ERCAP error messages.

Using HTML tags

We recommend that you use only a limited set of HTML tags in your answers. The HTML tags below are the ones that are recommended. Note that when you are editing your ERCAP request you will see the HTML tags; when you display the form in read/only mode (by clicking the the Show Complete Request tab) you will see your text as it should appear. If you need any help inserting HTML tags, contact a NERSC consultant.

<pre> and </pre>

Use these around sections of fixed width text to preserve column alignment.

^and; _and

Use these in formulas for superscripts and subscripts.

<img>

Use this to display an image. This can be useful for formulas: compose your formula with latex or word or some other tool. Save it as a GIF or JPG file at your home site. You can then display it with the <img> tag in an ERCAP text box. Example:

<img src="http://hpcf.nersc.gov/images/IBMSPphase2.jpg">

ERCAP error messages

If you enter invalid data into a text box, ERCAP will detect the error situation when you click the Save button. You will see the following red error message on top of the tabs:

FOUND ERRORS ! Please scroll down to correct.
This form cannot be saved until errors are corrected.

You should scroll down until you find another red error message adjacent to the text box that contains the invalid data. Correct the error and click the Save button again. Your work cannot be saved until you have corrected the error.

A common error is entering more than 4,000 characters into a text box. In that case you would see the error message:

Correct your error and try saving your answers again by clicking the Save button.

If you try to Finish your request without first validating your user list (this applies to renewals only) you will see the following message:

Please validate your user list before submitting your request. Request has been saved, but not submitted.

Deleting a request

If you need to delete a request contact the Account Support Office for help: 1-800-66-NERSC menu 2, 1-510-486-8612, or support@nersc.gov.