One Report, Two Data Sources Reporting from Unidata and SQL Server in a single report PRESENTER: Jared Carter| | October 11, 2010

Quick Facts about Thomas Edison State College Primarily an online distance education institution Approximately 18,735 students Approximately 45% of our students in the military Datatel (Unidata) Blackboard (SQL Server)

Challenge Certain military contracts required TESC to notify the military when a student fell behind in a course. Manually reporting from Mentors was: Labor intensive Inconsistent and confusing Resulted in potential contract violation A decision was made to use the date the student last accessed a course to indicate “tardiness” in the course. This information will be reported regularly to the military.

Solution Create a report that pulls “live” data from both Datatel and Blackboard Steps 1.Identify and prepare data sources, tables, and fields needed for reporting. 2.Define the selection criteria (Filter) 3.In Informer, map data source, files, and remote links. 4.Create Informer Report.

Identify your data sources, tables, and fields SQL Server: Tables, Views, Fields Unidata: Entities/Files, Attributes, computed columns/i-descriptors Searching through 3 rd party software, databases, and documentation is time consuming, and at times, very frustrating. Solicit help.

Blackboard Data Sources USERS – pk1 – user_id COURSE_MAIN – pk1 – users_pk1 – course_id – batch_uid COURSE_USERS – crsmain_pk1 – last_access_date Datatel Data Sources PERSON – SSN, LAST.NAME, FIRST.NAME STUDENT.COURSE.SECTION – SCS.STUDENT – X.SCS.SYNONYM – SCS.REG.METH COURSE.SECTIONS – SEC.TERM – SEC.SUBJECT, SEC.COURSE.NO, SEC.START.DATE, SEC.END.DATE, SEC.NAME COURSE.SEC.FACULTY – CSF.FACULTY

STUDENT.COURSE.SECTION STUDENTSPERSON COURSE.SECTIONSCOURSE.SEC.FACULTYFACULTYPERSON USERSCOURSE_MAINCOURSE_USERS This will not work because you need a single linked key and your associations must be a hierarchy.

STUDENT.COURSE.SECTION STUDENTSPERSON COURSE.SECTIONSCOURSE.SEC.FACULTYFACULTYPERSON NEW VIEW: BEHIND_PACE_vw COURSE_USERS In SQL, create a new view that has a unique key field called “ID” In Unidata, create a unique computed column in the entity (file) that will be your key to the “ID” field in your SQL view.

Blackboard Data Sources BEHIND_PACE_vw – BB_SCS_KEY – user_id – course_id – batch_uid – last_access_date Datatel Data Sources PERSON – SSN, LAST.NAME, FIRST.NAME STUDENT.COURSE.SECTION – SCS.STUDENT – X.SCS.BBKEY – X.SCS.SYNONYM – SCS.REG.METH COURSE.SECTIONS – SEC.TERM – SEC.SUBJECT, SEC.COURSE.NO, SEC.START.DATE, SEC.END.DATE, SEC.NAME COURSE.SEC.FACULTY – CSF.FACULTY

Define the selection criteria (Filter) When using two data sources, only one data source can have a filter. (However, if you are using a view, you can add criteria to the view.) For this example: – SCS.REG.METH = “EARMY” – SEC.TERM = >

Map Datasource Tables

Add Properties to your Tables

Add Links to your Tables

Add details for Remote Link

Create Informer Report

Add selection criteria

Add Fields

Sample Report

What’s Next? More reports! More data sources!

Thank you! Any questions?

Supporting documentation