Blackboard Asia-Pacific User Group Forum 2003 XML For Data Integration 19 November, 2003Copyright © 2003 The University of AdelaideSlide Number 1 Ian Roberts,

19 November, 2003 Copyright © 2003 The University of Adelaide Slide Number 1

Blackboard Asia-Pacific User Group Forum 2003

XML For Data Integration

Ian Roberts, ITS/LTDU, The University of Adelaide([email protected])

The IMS EP01 XML standard presents institutions with the ability to integrate Blackboard with enterprise data systems such as Blackboard. I will introduce the standard, outline its relevance to Blackboard integration, describe the problems we encountered and the solutions we developed.




Technical Environment Peoplesoft Student Administration v7.62 (ANZ)

Blackboard v5.x – v5.5.1 - Build 144 (2000–200?)

License Type: License Level 3 – Oracle

Currently migrating to Bb v6

Unix (Solaris)




Historical background

Pilot 2001:

Semester 1 (22 courses, 1400 users)

Semester II (100 courses, 5000 users)

Manual processing of data for user accounts and courses

Testing & preparation for deployment of production system




Historical background (continued)

Production system 2002 – present: Automated data flow PS => Bb Full coverage Person records: 43,129 (14,474 invalids) Groups (Courses): 2,160 current-semester-based + (sundries) Enrolments:

– Memberships: 1,612– Members: 40,491 (mean 25 members/course)




Data Interface

Automated data feed from Peoplesoft (SA) to Blackboard Reliable Accurate Limit data sent to Blackboard (especially person) Uni-directional Appropriate frequencies (weekly, nightly, more frequently?) Reasonable time for processing




Options

Home grown

Peoplesoft:

Flat file (Blackboard CourseInfo 4)

OR XML (XML v1.01) –IMS EP01




Choice

Chose Peoplesoft/XML option because:

Open source documentation (IMS EP01)

Option with more future than past

Generic expertise available/acquired




IMS Project

IMS Global Learning Consortium Membership

– Blackboard– WebCT– Microsoft– Oracle– Peoplesoft (claim membership but not currently listed by IMS)– SCT– MIT Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI)– …




IMS EP01

Scope: interoperability between systems in same organisation LMS Enterprise Systems (HR, Student & Training Admin,

Library management)– Personal Profile Data Maintenance (students & staff)– Group Management (courses & organisations)– Membership Management (enrolment)– Final Result Processing

IMS specifies data not functionality




Basic System Architecture

IMS © 2002




Group recursion

Not implemented in Bb Substantial challenge to Bb

architecture Much discussion amongst e-lists Our (partial) solution:

– Generate groups (courses) based on generic, unique class section (reported by Hopkins et al at EDUCAUSE)

– Develop panels in Peoplesoft to allow merging of courses (strictly within teaching periods)

IMS © 2002




Information flow

Strictly PS => Bb PS source of definitive data Only interested in subset of data available via IMS (esp people)

IMS © 2002




Data elements

IMS © 2002




Data elements (continued)IMS Bb Description

PERSON USER Container for data about a particular individual

GROUP COURSE / ORGANISATION

Container for data about a GROUP and its relationships to other groups

MEMBERSHIP COURSE_USER The container for date about the MEMBERSHIP in a particular GROUP




ENTERPRISE Data Objects

Name Explanation

PROPERTIES Container of the basic packaging information

DATASOURCE Identifier for the source system

TARGET Identifier for the target system

TYPE Describes the type of event that generated the data objects

DATETIME Date and time the data objects were generated by the data source

PERSON Container for all of the data about a particular individual

GROUP Container for all of the information about a group

MEMBERSHIP Container for all of the information about the members in a Group




PERSON Data Objects SOURCEID Person’s unique ID as specified in source system

USERID The person's user ID to access the learning management environment

NAME The name of the Person

FN Formatted name

SORT Name parsed and re-ordered to sort appropriately

NICKNAME Full name formatted in the way that the Person prefers to be addressed

N Name with all parts distinguished

FAMILY This is the family name and not the last name

GIVEN The given name and not necessarily the first name

OTHER Other name parts

PREFIX Name prefix

EMAIL E-mail address used to contact a Person

DATASOURCE An identifier of the source system of the Person object




GROUP Data Objects SOURCEDID The ID of the Group as defined by the source system.

DESCRIPTION Description/name of the Group.

SHORT Intended to be displayed on screen on less than one line.

LONG Longer descriptive name for the Group.

FULL A longer description of the Group.

ORG The organization administering or 'sponsoring' the Group.

ORGNAME The name of the organization.

TIMEFRAME Time frame when the Group is active.

ENROLLCONTROL The container for the enrolment control data.

ENROLLACCEPT Indicates if the Group is accepting enrolments.

DATASOURCE An identifier of the source system of the Group object.

EXTENSION The proprietary extension facility for the Group object.




MEMBERSHIP Data Objects SOURCEDID The ID of the Group as defined by the source system.

MEMBER Group member.

SOURCEDID The ID of a Person or a Group as defined by the source system.

ROLE The role of the member in the Group.

ROLETYPE The member's function within a Group.

SUBROLE Further qualifies a member's role in the Group.

STATUS Indicates if a member is active or inactive in the Group.

USERID Person's user ID to access the Group for this role.

TIMEFRAME Time frame of membership in the Group.

EMAIL E-mail address used to contact a member.

DATASOURCE An identifier of the source system of the Member.




Challenges

Novel application of enterprise data DTD Version control Documentation Pre-existing bugs Peoplesoft & Blackboard non-compliance




Peoplesoft issues

SRLMSEX.SQR:– ANZ version (ZIP/POSTAL)– Non-printing characters– Truncate course description to meet field length restriction (IMS 2048, Bb 4000)– Prefered name included if present– Email address– Relationship-to-institution rules relaxed to include applicants– Remove redundant characters from course Ids

Other mods include:– SCP instead of FTP– Course/Organisation cataloguing data from Field of Education tables




Blackboard issues

Missing IMS EP01 DTD IMS EP01 DTD version issues Unable to handle ampersand characters; impact on:

– PERSON (O’Neal, etc)– Course fields

Data source key problems wrt GUI-created content Java Problems




Blackboard Java problems

XML-specific problem with large data sets (especially enrolments)

File must be parsed and assessed as well-formed (validated against DTD?)

Modify bridge.sh to increase memory allocation for Java VM (256MB–512MB)




Application

Seek to manage Bb data exclusively via data integration tools (bridge & DSM) –avoid DSK problems

Data Bridge tool (predominantly using XML & snapshot action) Forced into fairly complex DSK system (>50 DSKs) Lightweight data feed Parsing XML—pros & cons




XML Enhancements Removed from Peoplesoft Removed from data feed Record disabled via snapshot action

(ROW_STATUS changed)

Remain in Peoplesoft as dropped enrolment

Remain in data feed with AVAILABLE_IND = ‘n’

Disabled via snapshot action via availability flag

Dropped (was enrolled) / Withdrawn from Class

Data retained in Blackboard Record re-enabled with minimum anguish Disabled records generate some name clashes




Conclusions

Good decision Good result—satisfactory processes in-place Harder than it needed to be Unexpected benefits/functionality Without IMS more difficult to debug IMS EP01 provided a sound basis/reference




Acknowledgements

IMS: Images and data for this presentation and our implementation BBADMIN-L: source of reliable and timely information ITS Team:

– Chris Doherty, Geraint Draheim, Danielle Hopkins, Tarmo Rohtla

Documents

Blackboard Asia-Pacific User Group Forum 2003 XML For Data Integration 19 November, 2003Copyright © 2003 The University of AdelaideSlide Number 1 Ian Roberts,