One interface to rule them all Ball State University Ball State University Libraries

University Library 800,000+ physical assets 5 levels + 2 branch libraries Multiple departments fulfilling dozens of services Dedicated technology department

“Factories” with informative “widgets” Custom Reporting to answer detailed questions

Our Dean We are collecting some amazing statistics What we don’t know, can hurt us Anecdotes and estimating can mislead Save time (i.e., $$$!) Share & democratize information Get money / funding

PHP CSS / CSS3 Databases / Publically available APIs MySQL MSSQL Facebook Google Analytics JavaScript jQuery & jQueryUI

factories (name, anyone_access, has_reporting, has_data_entry, default_color) widgets (factory, description, anyone_access) user_factory_permissions (factory, user, can_view_all_widgets, view_reports, data_entry) user_factory_preferences (factory, user, order, show_or_not, show_on_load, color) user_widget_permissions (widget, user) user_widget_preferences (widget, user, order, show) user_widget_favorites (user, widget, timestamp) WARNING Overkill Proceed only if you like LEFT OUTER JOINs!

PHP Code: echo “ ”; echo " DMR Factory "; include(“dmrPieces.php”); echo " "; wash...rinse...repeat...or write a function Drawback Output (most likely) will wait until final factory completes (in sequence)

Each factory has its own Query to find significant figure(s) Output the content in HTML chunks Metric Description Long description, tables, and/or graphs Help Timestamp for how current the metric / widget is Basic layout: [Metric] Description Long description The rest is ‘formatting’ handled by CSS

The simplest form jQuery code: $.get(“someFactoryPieces.php“, function(widgets) { $(".someFactory").html(widgets); }); Advantages: Factories are displayed ASAP Graceful failure

Knowing what to feature Adoption – YMMV Training / education A widget for everything is overwhelming Explaining caveats; what exactly is being counted? Managing user permissions with fine granularity Speed / System Performance Initial investment (time/resources) Data migration

Ensure top-down managerial interest, need, and involvement (across-the-board if possible) Seek out what is important to your organization “Good help” is hard to [write]...but important Invite others “in charge” of factories to create the metrics Patience Timestamp your data

And/or further show and tell!