DARS on the Web

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DARS on the Web

• Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
  Systems

Mr. Angel M. Juan Programmer Analyst Southwest
Texas State University
2003 Users Conference June 15-18, 2003
Orlando, Florida
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Project Goals

• Create an on-line degree outline accessible to
  students and advisors
• -- Objectives
• Provide better advising for students
• Check prerequisites to stop students from
  enrolling in courses for which they are not
  prepared
• Allow students to plan their academic career with
  certainty
• Allow students to do What if audits by
  evaluating their course work against a particular
  degree

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Project Goals

• Enable our advisors to provide student exceptions
  and degree audits processing
• -- Objectives
• Better placement of transferred courses on degree
  audits, ELNA (elective non-advanced) and ELADV
  (elective advanced)
• A mechanism for tracking substitutions that have
  been approved by the college deans in a degree
  program
• A mechanism for confirming that a student has
  completed all requirements for a degree and is
  eligible to graduate

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Approach

• Programming tasks
• Development of SWT Degree Programs for all
  Colleges (Started with the undergraduate degrees)
• Installation of DARwin Client/Server on a PC
  Windows environment (Used for development
  testing of degree programs)
• Data Access between DARS tables and Mainframe
  datasets (Upload download modules)
• Conversion of DARwin Daemon for the Mainframe
  environment (Converted to a callable shareable
  image)
• Degree Audit Reports (Web Interactive Web batch
  access)
• Maintain DARS Exceptions (Web Interactive access)
• DARS Degree Programs index web pages (Batch
  module, used by the Degree Audit Reports module)
• SWT Degree Programs report (Batch module, used to
  check data integrity)

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Application

• HTML/Mainframe/Cobol
• -- Pros
• Get the job done with limited staff resources
• Fit into our current Student Administrative
  Services
• Security well established for sign in/out
• Wide client, database and browser compatibility
• Ability to turn audits on/off
• -- Cons
• The DARwin new releases are more difficult to
  implement
• Longer development time than other solutions

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• SWT Environment

• Production
• Hardware HP AlphaServer 4100 5/600 running
  VMS V7.3-1,
• DARSMNSHR Shareable Image (DARwin daemon
  converted)
• Web Server OSU/3.9alpha2Multinet (OSUOhio
  State University),
• HTML PUBLIC (//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0
  Transitional//EN)
• Software Compaq COBOL V2.8-1286
• Database System 1032 Version V9.81-1 (4GL,
  Database Mgt. System),
• Computer Corporation of America
• Development
• Hardware Dell OptiPlex GTX-150 running
• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.00.1381
• Software DARwin 2.1.0v10 A (Client/Server
  DARS)
• Database Microsoft SQL Server 7.00.1004
  (Standard Edition)

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Architecture

• Encoders Interface

DARwin SQL Server
Darwin data upload process
The Darwin Client/Server application is currently
used only for development of degree outlines
DARwin Relational data tables
coding
DARwin
DARS driver
testing
Data Link
Student Information data download process
Degree Outline Audits
StudentInformation data tables
Degree Outline Dumps
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Architecture

• Upload Interface

DARwin data tables are dumped into a S1032
mainframe DARS database, excluding the exception
tables
DARwin Data
DARwin Relational data tables
Mainframe DARS database
Mainframe DARS Exception datasets
PC
Mainframe
SQL Server
S1032
S1032
BCP bulk copy program
S1032 Input data files
ADDPBDDAR build/load DARS data
Web Indexes Re-configure upload process
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Architecture

• Upload Interface (continue)

Web Indexes Re-configure
Mainframe DARS Database
ADDPBDDAR build static html pages
S1032
ADDPBDDAR re-configure web applications
DARSFOODB open/close module
ADWBPRDAR create index pages
ADWBIQDAR build online degree audits
ADDPCLDAR build detach degree audits
Degree Programs by Colleges
ADWBUPEXC add/update exceptions
Database new?
no
yes
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Architecture

• Download Interface

Student Information Data
DARwin Relational data tables
Mainframe Relational datasets
PC
Mainframe
S1032
SQL Server
BCP bulk copy program
SQL Input data files
ADDPEXSTU extract student information data
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Student Services

• Web Interface

Degree Audits
Mainframe DARS database
S1032
SWT Web Server
DARSMNSHR driver
CatsWeb
ADWBIQDAR online degree audits
Student Information datasets
S1032
s a v e
ADDPCLDAR detach degree audits
Stored degree audits
Degree Audit Report
Enrollments Transcripts datasets
S1032
Audit requests dataset
S1032
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Administrative Services

• Web Interface

Degree Audits Exceptions
Mainframe DARS database
S1032
SWT Web Server
CatsWeb
ADWBUPEXC online exceptions
ADWBIQDAR online degree audits
Student Information datasets
S1032
DARSMNSHR driver
Degree Audit Report
s a v e
Stored degree audits
Enrollments Transcripts datasets
S1032
ADDPCLDAR detach degree audits
Exception Report
Audit requests dataset
S1032
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Administrative Services

• Web Interface

Batch Degree Audits
Mainframe DARS database
SWT Web Server
S1032
CatsWeb
ADWBADDOR web module
DARSMNSHR driver
Student Information datasets
S1032
ADDPCLDAR detach degree audits
Degree Audits HTML
ADDPBDDOR batch module
Enrollments Transcripts datasets
S1032
Degree Audits Report
Audit requests dataset
S1032
Degree Audits email process
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• DARS Driver

• Conversion process
• -- Phase I DARS CICS version with VSAM
  structure
• Major unresolved data structure differences
• Three months of development lost Didnt work
  for us!!!
• -- Phase II DARwin Client/Server with ODBC SQL
  structure
• Adaptation of Micro-Focus Cobol code to mainframe
  environment
• Replacement of SQL statements with S1032 commands
• Data manipulation in the DARS driver to improve
  layout readability performance
• Manipulation of the DARS driver modules,
  libraries and objects by using the mainframe
  management tools
• Execution of the DARS driver as a callable
  shareable image to save memory

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Demonstration

DARS_at_swt
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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• To-Do List

• Unfinished business
• Modify the Mainframe DARS Exception module to
  support the schedule modification exceptions
  (Needed by the Graduate College)
• Add to the Mainframe DARS Exception module our
  own SWT exceptions (Needed by the Graduate
  College)
• Modify the DARS Degree Program indexes module
  (Split degree programs between Undergraduate
  Graduate Colleges)
• SWT Course Inventory report (Batch module, used
  to check data integrity)
• Graduation certification using DARS (Certify SWT
  students have completed all of the qualifications
  for graduation)
• Upgrades
• Upgrade DARwin Client/Server to the latest
  version
• Conversion of DARwin Daemon to the latest version

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Questions?

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DARS on the Web
Audits Exceptions delivered by our Homegrown
Systems

• Contacts

• Questions about

DARS Program Mr. Gary Springer DARS Project
Coordinator [phone] gs12_at_swt.edu Mr.
Mark Reyes Degree Audit Encoder (512)
245-2430 mr21_at_swt.edu
Systems Programming Mr. Randy Young Systems
Analyst III Information Systems Services (512)
245-2271 ry01_at_swt.edu Mr. Angel M.
Juan Programmer Analyst Information Systems
Services [phone] aj01_at_swt.edu
SWT Address 601 University Drive San Marcos,
Texas 78666