MISLine Exposing Student Records Paul Walk January 2004

Contents  MISLine version 1  current development  MISLine version 2  future development

Context University of North London, 1999  SITS Student Record System (SRS)  steadily increasing number of users  locally installed ‘thick’ client required

The Problem  limit of <100 concurrent client connections  complexity of client (training, support)  maintaining locally installed client (upgrades)

Proposal  form cross-team project  MIS Team  knowledge of SITS database  SQL/Oracle development skills  understanding of user-requirements  Intranet Services Team  web application development skills and infrastructure  expertise with web-database solutions  SQL skills  develop read-only web-interface for SRS  call the new web application ‘MISLine’

Solution  Oracle – custom tables and views added to SITS Database  HTML 3.2  ColdFusion – server side scripting  Javascript (mainly for input validation)  database connection-pooling

MISLine Screenshot

Outcome  responsive, intuitive web application  very positive feedback  large user-base requiring no support  increased information transparency - exposed lack of accuracy in data  even users who needed to use the thick client adopted MISLine for some tasks

Context London Metropolitan University, 2002  merger of University of North London with London Guildhall University to form London Metropolitan University  SITS used by both legacy institutions  two ‘campuses’: North and City  MISLine for North Campus records only

New Problems  SITS databases merged, but not completely  issues with existing MISLine:  hundreds of unidentified users using generic departmental accounts - no auditing  unsecured browser connections  not designed to be redeployed  becoming dated (HTML 3.2)  no equivalent of MISLine for City Campus

Proposal  form cross-team, cross-campus project  develop new MISLine for City Campus  Introduce user and role-based authentication and authorisation.  reuse tables/views/SQL from existing MISLine  develop new business logic components in Java to expose student records as XML  develop new presentation layer to transform XML into XHTML  call the new web application ‘MISLine 2’

Solution  Oracle – existing custom tables and views added to SITS Database  Clustered & load-balanced Tomcat servers  LDAP based authentication and authorisation  Apache & SSL  Clustered J2EE web application:  Javabeans components producing XML  JSP + Jakarta tag libraries  Stylesheets (XSL and CSS)  Java Authentication & Authorisation Services (JAAS)

Software  Server Products:  Redhat Linux 9  Apache web server v2.0  Tomcat application server v4.1  JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) v1.1  Open SSL v0.9  Openldap v2.1  Development tools and libraries:  Java JDK 1.4  Eclipse IDE v2.1  JEdit v4.2  Mozilla v1.4  JDOM v0.9  Extensive use of open-source software. Everything listed here is free!

MISLine2 Screenshot <portletBody><record><statuscode><![CDATA[EE]]></statuscode><statustitle><![CDATA[ENROLLED]]></statustitle><surname><![CDATA[BARDEN]]></surname><forename><![CDATA[RICHARD]]></forename><studentid><![CDATA[M111499/1]]></studentid><coursecode><![CDATA[U/DDE/A]]></coursecode> <routecode><![CDATA[ADDE]]></routecode> </record></portletBody></istPortlet>

XML Record <portletBody><record><statuscode><![CDATA[EE]]></statuscode><statustitle><![CDATA[ENROLLED]]></statustitle><surname><![CDATA[BARDEN]]></surname><forename><![CDATA[RICHARD]]></forename><studentid><![CDATA[M111499/1]]></studentid><coursecode><![CDATA[U/DDE/A]]></coursecode> <routecode><![CDATA[ADDE]]></routecode> </record></portletBody></istPortlet>

Outcome  launched Dec 2003 after extensive beta-testing  has proven the viability of:  JAAS & LDAP for user/role-based authentication & authorisation  clustering & load-balancing Tomcat servers  XML & XSLT in web-applications - performance  feedback so far very positive  some spinoffs:  java/xml components reused to propogate new student user- accounts from SRS to various systems (e.g. library system, WebCT, system).

Current Developments  reusing Javabean components to form JSR168 portlets to allow students to see their own records in a student portal.  redeploying Javabean components with a Web Services layer, providing:  Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) portlets  components in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Flexible components

Future Developments  re-use Javabeans for IMS Enterprise transactions to form core components for an MLE. Some preliminary development work done with linking SRS to WebCT using IMS API.  re-use MISLine 2 framework with other datasources. Plans to use this approach to provide student/staff access to timetables & room booking information in CMIS system.

Ideal Future  Vendors provide Web Services for their products, so we don’t have to.  MIS Vendors adopt standards, especially IMS.