Self-Service Delivery of
On-Demand DocumentsM1.11
Presented by:
Denny Savage
Associate University Registrar
The University of Alabama
2
Introduction
• Purpose:— Share a method of providing online delivery of
dynamic documents to students via Self-Service
• List the benefits of attending this session— Identify the business opportunity—Understand the technology—Explore possibilities for application—Gain ideas for business solutions at your own
institution—Get information on technologies that can complement
your institution’s development palette with minimal to no $$$.
Session ID 4427
Letter of Transiency
Letter of Transiency – Old Request Process
- 8 Academic Divisions- Students from 6 of the 8 divisions go to divisional student services office to request letter- Arts & Sciences students request in-state letters from divisional student services office and out-of-state letters from University Registrar- Nursing students request all letters directly from University Registrar
Session ID 4427 4
Letter of Transiency – Old Request Process (cont.)
- Most students fill out form internal to their college of enrollment to request transient letter.- College staff member then prepares the letter which is sent to University Registrar for verification.- Students requesting letters directly from the University Registrar fill out a form as well for the classes they intend to take as a transient student.- These students are required to know the class they intend to take at the transient institution
Session ID 4427 5
Letter of Transiency – Old Request Process (cont.)
Session ID 4427 6
- University Registrar employees check articulation records for each course on every letter submitted to determine if course equivalency already exists.
- If the equivalency exists, the letter is finalized, mailed, copied, and filed.
-If the equivalency does not exist, the letter is turned over to our transfer credit department to begin the process of determining the equivalency.
-Once equivalency is determined, the letter is finalized, mailed, copied, and filed.
Session ID 4427 7
Letter of Transiency – Old Request Process (cont.)
Letter of Transiency – Possible Path of Request
Session ID 4427 8
Student
College Staff
Transfer Credit Staff
Registrar Student Workers
Advisor
University Registrar Staff
University Registrar Staff
University Registrar Staff
• Entirely too much paper• Too labor intensive for students & staff• No reporting ability• Higher costs involved• No efficient means of tracking requests or recalling past requests• 4,000 – 5,000 letters/year = 1,600 – 2,000 hours/year•1 FTE ~ 1937.5 hours worked/year
Session ID xxxx 9
Letter of Transiency – Pain Points
Letter of Transiency – The Idea
-Develop an online system that students will be able to access through a single sign-on portal within self-service Banner- Tie the request system to articulation tables that already exist-Restrict access to certain student types that are approved to request letters of transiency- Put the onus on the student to produce and deliver the letter-Develop reporting capabilities from the online request system
Session ID 4427 10
Letter of Transiency – New Request Process
Letter of Transiency – New Request Process
Letter of Transiency - Course Selection
Letter of Transiency - Equivalencies Table
Letter of Transiency - No Equivalency?
Letter of Transiency - Information Verification
Letter of Transiency – The Final Product
Letter of Transiency – Sample Reports
Four distinct reports have been developed so far:
1. Number of requests by institution, by term
2. Number of requests by division, by major, by term
3. Detailed listing by student, by college, by term including detailed class info
4. Number of requests by UA course, by college, by term
Letter of Transiency – Benefits
- Access to the letters 24/7 from any internet connection- Transient letters in hand in under 2 minutes- Create as many letters as needed- Ability to save and send letters in pdf format potentially expediting the admissions process- The only time that University staff get involved is when equivalencies do not already exist- Number of requests since going live in February 2010: 14,157
Session ID 4427 19
Session ID 4427 20
A Look at the Technology
Letter of Transiency
Session ID 4427 21
• Information already exists in the Banner transfer articulation tables, so it was just a matter of presenting that to students online.
SOBSBGI-Transfer
Institutions
SHBTATC-TransferCourse Catalog
SHRTATC-TransferCourse
Equivalency
Letter of Transiency
Session ID 4427 22
The official letter is dynamicallygenerated usingBIRT for Eclipse,an open sourcereporting tool runningon a Java applicationserver.
BIRT
Business Intelligence Reporting Tool
BIRT
• BIRT is an open source reporting tool developed by Actuate corporation (there is also a commercial version with more features).
• Delivery of Rich Data Visualizations
• Flexible and extensible
• Easy to integrate into existing applications
• Event Handlers (Javascript and Java)
• Developer community (www.birt-exchange.com)
• Eclipse-BIRT download available at www.eclipse.org
Session ID 4427 24
Eclipse BIRTReport Designer
Palette Options
Session ID 4427 25
BIRT data source
Data Explorer
Session ID 4427 26
BIRT data set
Data Explorer
Session ID 4427 27
BIRT data set
Data Explorer
Session ID 4427 28
Build report Then your data elements are available in the data explorer.
You can drag them from here and drop them into the containers (grids, tables, dynamic text) you’ve built on your report using the Palette.
Session ID 4427 29
BIRT Preview Pane
There is also a preview pane that allows you to see the effect changes to your report without having to deploy it.
Always check output after deploying to ensure it looks just like you want when displayed in a web browser or through the BIRT Viewer.
Session ID 4427 30
BIRT XML Output
End result is an XML source file that has all elements of your report design specified.
Includes the information for your database connection and the SQL you defined for your Data Sets.
Even images are stored as binary data in this XML file.
Session ID 4427 31
BIRT Runtime Engine
Place this file (*.rptdesign) in the reports directory of a server where you’ve installed the BIRT-Runtime-Engine. We have this running on an Apache Tomcat web server.
Report is then able to be viewed in the formats you allow in your environment (as a webpage, .pdf, .doc)
Session ID 4427 32
APEX
How APEX fit into our solution
APEX
• Oracle Application Express – (apex.oracle.com)
• Allows for quick development of web applications
• Quick learn for developers with a lot of database (SQL and PL/SQL) knowledge who do not have much web development experience
• Still, you need some familiarity with html & web programming concepts.
• Available for download if you have an Oracle database license
• Installs on database server (you may need assistance from your DBA and/or server administrator).
• Plan some ground rules around APEX development in your environment.
Session ID 4427 34
APEX ApplicationAPEX Application Builder is used to create a new APEX web application.
APEX is installed on the database and is aware of any database components for which it has access.
You can define multiple pages. Some pages have special purposes (e.g., Login and Page Zero). You can also create forms, reports, and interactive reports.
Session ID 4427 35
APEX Development EnvironmentCreate pages, page regions, buttons, items. Look is template driven and you can customize.
You can also create computations, validations, processes for page rendering, page actions, and security.
You define the authentication scheme for your application as well as authorization schemes that can be applied at the page level.
Conditional items and processes allow you to secure your pages even more granularly (hiding regions, items, or buttons based on user’s permissions).
Session ID 4427 36
APEX PL/SQL ProcessHere is an example of a PL/SQL process (anonymous block) embedded into the APEX application.
Upon page submission, this process inserts a record into the database.
Session ID 4427 37
APEX and Javascript
Here is the call to the BIRT report via a Javascript function that
gets executed on-button-click
Session ID 4427 38
Same javascript call could have been made from an SSB page.
39
Summary
Closing Thoughts
• Get creative with your business solutions.
• Identify processes that are painful for staff and students and see how you might apply technology to help.
• Explore BIRT
• Explore APEX
• Try it yourself!
• If you come up with a good idea, put it to use at your institution.
• Big wins with your students and staff can be relatively easy and inexpensive.
Session ID 4427
40
Questions?(once again…no technology questions!)
Session ID 4427
41Session ID 4427
Thank You!
Denny Savage
Jennifer McMillan
Technical Consultant