SITS Developer

SITS Upgrade

Project Duration

November 2016

Project Summary

Assisted with the upgrade of several SITS environments from 8.8.0 to 9.2.0

Project Details

Provided consultation and testing during the upgrade of several SITS environments from 8.8.0 to 9.2.0. Whilst many issues were picked up on and resolved during testing, several issues only emerged following the upgrade of the SITS production environment; these are discussed below.

Not quite a full-blown project, a mini project is a significant piece of work scoped, tested and implemented using normal software development methodology. A mini project will typically be an improvement to a business process, introducing efficiencies and reducing complexity where possible.

Conversion of SRL to HTML format

Project Duration

February 2017 to March 2017

Project Summary

Rewrite of SRL to HTML5 / CSS3 compliant format

Project Details

An SRL that was of plain ‘Letter’ type had a number of issues that I was tasked to investigate. The main problem was that this letter was printed on headed notepaper and needed to cover two sides of A4, regardless of the length of the letter. I created a new HTML5 / CSS3 version of the letter, allowing gaps for logos, addresses and footer text featured on the headed notepaper. In using HTML, it was possible to use styling / formatting that would not have otherwise been possible in the legacy 'Letter' format. Additionally, a generic template SRL was created, providing extensive notes and comments on how to customise this SRL for a range of circumstances.

Reference 1602-01396

Default 'Information Page' appearing in Paperless portal

Project Duration

January 2017 to March 2017

Project Summary

Not quite a warning message, but nonetheless an information page appearing when not expected

Project Details

A challenging problem that was traced back to a TUP that was being triggered by the change of a student interview outcome (i.e. changing from blank to passed or failed). This TUP was designed to trigger when a specific Vista was executed in order to perform the bulk change to one or more student interview outcomes. However, the TUP was also inadvertently being triggered when a similar change was being done in a different part of Paperless. As a result of this TUP, Paperless administrators were having their task closed before the final confirmation screen was shown, resulting in a default ‘Information Page’ (SIW_TCC_005) being shown in e:Vision. The fix had several components:

• Paperless task altered to set an IOI UDF (IOI_UF13) to a specific value, not used anywhere else
• TUP altered to check IOI_UF13 prior to triggering
• UDF re-labeled in IOI to reflect change of purpose of IOI_UF13
• Final step (TTE) of Paperless task also contained a couple of errors: ‘Display Step?’ was unticked and element type was blank (changed to ‘Question & Answer’)

References 1701-01971 and 00317304.

Issue with CAP_RLYN field

Project Duration

March 2017

Project Summary

Bug discovered in SITS:Vision

Project Details

The software supplier, Tribal, confirmed that we had discovered a bug (PPL 040030) in the software, that came about in the upgrade to 9.2.0. In the meantime, I created a TUP in order to mimic the action that would have been performed automatically prior to 9.2.0.

References 1703-00492 and 00331076

Automated process for withdrawn students

Project Duration

December 2016 to March 2017

Project Summary

A review of the processes around withdrawn student

Project Details

This relates to the Paperless in-tray. When the status of a student is changed to ‘withdrawn’, that student should automatically be removed from the Paperless in-tray; this process is triggered via a TUP. A user pointed out that possibly since the upgrade to 9.2.0, this process was no longer working. In resolving this issue, numerous problems were found and resolved: the Paperless stage ‘RVW_END’ had been misspelt ‘RVW_ END’ (meaning a back-fit operation was necessary to replace the typing mistake), the TUP had been set to process the change of field ‘Before Store’ instead of 'After Store' and also several conflicting legacy TUPs required disabling. All issues were resolved after the changes referred to above were made.

References 1612-01116 and 00307720

Document Upload Issue (#1)

Project Duration

November 2016 to February 2017

Project Summary

Document Records not being created

Project Details

When members of staff were using the Paperless in-tray to assess applicants and upload supporting evidence, TUPs were not automatically being triggered in order to generate DOC and DRR records for the documents uploaded. The solution was to amend the SRL that was responsible for creating the DOC records, as this needed changing to also create accompanying DRR records.

References 1611-01287 and 00294383.

Document Upload Issue (#2)

Project Duration

January 2017 to February 2017

Project Summary

Problem uploading documents

Project Details

Another problem uploading documents via Paperless. The problem only affected a single non-production SITS environment and turned out to be a discrepancy in one of the assignment files, wsvrsite.asn. For some reason, the following line was commented out:

men_yapp_s09 = $DOC:men_yapp_s09

However, this was inconsistent with other SITS environments. The solution was simply to uncomment the line above and restart urouter.

References 1701-01154 and 00308737

Performance Monitoring / Benchmarking

Project Duration

November 2016 to February 2017

Project Summary

Benchmark performance tests

Project Details

Over a period of time covering systems upgrades and hardware improvements, MEN_XPBT (running from a WinRun session) was utilised in order to perform benchmarking of both production and non-production SITS environments. MEN_PBT was then used to view and export the results in order that analysis could be performed and recommendations made.

Note to self - spreadsheet here - https://goo.gl/KULkGj (opens new window)

SLC Import Problem

Project Duration

December 2016 to February 2017

Project Summary

Resolution of software bug

Project Details

Following the upgrade of SITS to 9.2.0, the matching process for SLC files was found to be no longer working. The issue was brought to the attention of the supplier, Tribal, and a high priority issue (PPL 360227) acknowledged thereafter. The bug was addressed through hotfixes (920-0042S and 930-0016S) provided by the supplier. I was responsible for raising the issue to the supplier, keeping the users up-to-date with progress and implementing the fix.

References 1612-00561 and 00295819

Kinetics Interface

Project Duration

December 2016 to January 2017

Project Summary

Specification for changes to SITS-Kinetics interface

Project Details

Based on feedback from key users of Kinetics, I wrote a detailed specification of changes required to the interface between SITS and Kinetics. I then went on to implement several of these changes and provide advice and detailed instructions on how to implement the remaining changes. Trained members of staff on how to use the Kinetics interface to transfer student data from SITS into Kinetics.

See also:

• 'Kx: Specification of Changes Required' - https://goo.gl/b6zOGZ (opens new window)
• ‘Kx to SITS Interface Documentation’ - https://goo.gl/WAoh6h (opens new window)

Customising SITS:Vision Toolbar

Project Duration

January 2017

Project Summary

Reinstating university-wide customisations

Project Details

The upgrade to version 9.2.0 of SITS had removed university-wide customisations of the SITS:Vision toolbar. I reinstated the previous version of the toolbar, and also documented how to customise this on a per-user basis.

See also:

• 'Customising SITS client' - https://goo.gl/ImqXHm (opens new window)

References 1701-00069 and 00297273.

SITS e:Vision Crashing

Project Duration

January 2017

Project Summary

Discrepancies in assignment files

Project Details

Work previously undertaken to migrate the live SITS web servers onto four new load-balanced servers had caused a discrepancy in one of the assignment files, csvrlogical.asn. This assignment file contained an error, resulting in a definition of the logical MD5_HASH_PASSWORD that was inconsistent with the other three web servers. The solution was to ensure that csvrlogical.asn (and, therefore, the definition of the logical MD5_HASH_PASSWORD) was identical across all four web servers.

References 1701-00044, 1701-00062, 1701-00149 and 00302540.

PDF Configuration

Project Duration

November 2016 to January 2017

Project Summary

Configuration and Implementation of PDF printing component

Project Details

The University of Winchester had recently purchased the PDF component, MEN20, but had been unable to fully configure nor implement in a production environment. I resolved all outstanding issues to do with configuration and, once confirmed that users were able to create and view their own PDF documents, I then implemented the solution in a production environment.

References 1507-00265 and 1507-00265.

Note to self - further details contained here - https://goo.gl/ygf6ze (opens new window)

Installation of new SITS component, CAM37

Project Duration

January 2017

Project Summary

Installation and configuration of new SITS component

Project Details

Fairly straightforward task of installing new SITS component for programme rankings and waiting lists. Once done, user permissions were altered to allow specific groups access to this new component.

Reference 1701-00138

SITS:Vision Crashing

Project Duration

December 2016

Project Summary

TIMEOUT logical causing problems for users

Project Details

Several users reported that their SITS:Vision session would unexpectedly close after a short period of time. Following an investigation, it was quickly established that the problem was caused by the upgrade to 9.2.0 and the value of the TIMEOUT logical (found in the assignment file uclisipr.asn). The resolution was the commenting out of the TIMEOUT logical followed by a urouter restart.

References 1612-01115 and 00297323.

Email Whitelist

Project Duration

November 2016

Project Summary

Discrepancies in email whitelist definition

Project Details

Following the upgrade to 9.2.0, there were some issues surrounding email whitelists and discrepancies between the SITS production and non-production environments. I made changes to all non-production environments, ensuring that emails are only able to go out to members of staff (i.e. NOT students).

Note to self - further details contained here - https://goo.gl/DVyQeL (opens new window)

TUP Error

Project Duration

November 2016

Project Summary

A minor investigation into an Admissions process that was failing. The problem turned out to be a typing mistake: the trigger conditions for a TUP were separated by semi-colons rather than 'gold' semi-colons; replacing these resolved the problem

Project Details

Not applicable - see project summary.

Reference 1610-02117.