1. CCCTran Programming Quick Start for IT CCCApply / CCCTran Northern California Workshop April 9, Chabot College, Hayward, CA Kris Backus IT Analyst Los Rios Community College District

2. CCCTran at Los Rios CCD
Pilot for Sacramento City College – programming began in November 2005
LIVE for requests – July, 2007
Additional colleges that are live:
Folsom Lake College
American River College
Cosumnes River College
Total transcripts released: 28,698 (4/8/09)
Interfacing SIS: PeopleSoft CS 9.0

3. Agenda
Where to start?
Design and development – what are your institution’s requirements?
Request processing and transcript generation
Testing (the Beta site)

4. Where to start?
Get the CCCTran Implementation Guide (see below)
Build your team: IT staff, A&R staff (functional expertise, testing)
Data Dictionary, View Specs, examples: ccc-tran.org > File Repository
Help from others: CCCTran List Servs, IT staff at Live colleges

5. Where to start? (cont.) Implementation Guide at www.ccc-tran.org:
File Repository > Support Files > Implementation Guides > CCCTran Implementation Guide rev 1A

6. Where to start? (cont.) Get the XAP Communicator:
Not required for initial testing, but you will want to plan for automating your uploads and downloads
Login to beta.control.xap.com
Application Processing > Download Manager
Click “Automate Download” tab
Download and install the XAP Communicator executable (can be installed on local machine for testing)

8. Design and Development
Questions to answer:
Will you generate transcripts, requests or both?
What file format(s) will you use?
Will you automate? how often?
Will you support request hold options? (wait until grade posting, degree/certif. award, etc.)
Do you have any student holds that prevent release of transcript?
What fields are required to match students in your SIS?
How will you handle offline records searches?

9. Design and Development (cont.)
How Los Rios answered:
Will you generate transcripts, requests or both?
Transcripts only for Phase I
Requests for Phase II (student self-service requests)
What file format(s) will you use?
ASCII
Will you automate? how often?
Yes. Download requests every 15 minutes. Upload transcripts on same schedule.

10. Design and Development (cont.)
How Los Rios answered:
Will you support request hold options? (wait until grade posting, degree/certif. award, etc.)
Yes.
Grades, degrees/certs., specific date
Do you have any student holds that prevent release of transcript?
Yes – Balance Due hold, Athletic Equip., Library fines

11. Design and Development (cont.)
How Los Rios answered:
What fields are required to match students in your SIS?
SSN and birthdate or
Student ID and birthdate
How will you handle offline records searches?
“OR” response back to CCCTran – A&R staff to monitor

12. Request Processing CCCTran – Parties involved:
Requesting Institution
Recipient Institution
Transcript Institution
CCCTran – Files involved:
Request File
Response File
Transcript File

13. Request Processing

14. Request Processing

15. Request Processing

16. Request Processing

17. Request Processing

18. Request Processing

19. Request Processing

20. Request Processing

22. Request Processing (cont.)
What does a request file look like? ASCII example:
RCL|O Adams| |1515|OR|T||||||||
REQ|038713|004462| |Folsom Lake College|Christine College Parkway|Folsom|CA|US|95630
TRN|038713|004462| |Folsom Lake College
REC||038713|004462| |Folsom Lake College|Christine College Parkway|Folsom|CA|US|95630
STU|Adams|John|||||||||||||||||||| ||| ||||||||||||||||
99A|O Adams
What do all these fields mean? That’s what you need the Data Dictionary for!

23. Request Processing (cont.)

24. Sample Request Processing Flowchart

25. Sample Request Processing Flowchart

26. Request File Accept requests from which institutions?
Control Center setup or control locally?
Format – ASCII or XML?
Set in Control Center
How will you access the data?
Store locally for later access?

27. Search for Student Record
Fields? ID, SSN, DOB, Name, other?
Should be same as setup in Control Center.
Also consider Fields for Offline Records search.

28. No Match  Response Response format – ASCII or XML?
Offline Records (OR) or No Record (NR)?
Search list for A&R – from Control Center or locally generated list?

29. Multiple Matches  Response
At Los Rios this situation does occur – we sometimes have duplicate IDs on our SIS.

30. Deceased Student  Response
Unlikely, but can be included in your programming if the information is available.

31. Request Conditions? Wait to send transcript until after:
Grades posted, degree/certificate awarded,
grade change, current term enrollment, specific date, “other”.
Will you support some or all?
Control Center setup (available terms)

32. Condition not met  Response
If possible, indicate a Planned Release Date.
Will be used for Request Recycling

33. Check for local holds

34. Local Hold (not recycled)  Response
Transmission Type (RCL08) = OR (Original) means the initial Request
Transmission Type (RCL08) = RP (Replacement) means a Recycled Request
Response – include Hold Reason

35. Recycled Request – Holds Changed?
What holds existed at time of most recent Response?
Best to avoid repeated responses for the same condition.

36. Recycled Request – Repeated Response

37. Recycled Request – Respond or Ignore
If same hold(s), then do nothing.
If different holds, send a new Response.
Optional: If Request is “too old”, then reject the request. Response Status = CN (Cancelled).

38. Generate Transcript Format – ASCII or XML?
If partial transcript, set 01A13 = P

39. Programming - Transcript
What fields to include? Optional?
Include everything on your official transcript
District-wide transcript?
See the District-Wide Transcripts Guide on XAP
SIS free text to CCCTran coded field
If variable may be difficult or impossible to translate

40. Programming - Transcript
7.4.3 Structure and Construction of Transcript Files
The CCCASCII Transcript file includes the following segments:
• Transaction Controls Segment (01A) – General Transcript information: Transcript ID; Request tracking ID; date and time; flags for official/unofficial, original/replacement, production/test, partial/complete, district-wide.
• Student Identity Segment (02A) – Identity and contact information about the student whose Transcript is to be provided.
• District Identity Segment (03A) – Optional: Identity and contact information about the college requested to provide the Transcript.
• College Identity Segment (03B) – Identity and contact information about the college(s) providing Transcript data. There can be just one 03B segment unless the district-wide flag is set in the 01A segment.
• Various transcript data segments (04x to 09x) – Consult the CCCTran Data Dictionary for more information.
• Recipient Institution Identity Segment (10A) – Identity and contact information about the college to receive the Transcript.
• End of Request Segment (99A) – Repetition of the Transcript ID.
When the Transcript is constructed, the following will be copied from the Request:
• Transaction Controls Segment– Request tracking ID; flags for official/unofficial, original/replacement, production/test.
• Recipient Institution Identity Segment– All.

41. Programming - Transcript
Views Specification – map your data fields to the CCCTran transcript view (File Repository > Support Files > Data Specifications > CCCTranViewsSpec v2.8)

42. Testing – the Beta Site https://beta.control.xap.com
Beta Control Center/beta server allows complete testing
Upload validation on Control Center very helpful to programmer
Admissions and Records should test all info that appears on your transcript
To/from your own college (transcript views)
With trading partners
Follow Best Practices for guarding SSNs

43. Helpful Resources SSN Best Practices:
File Repository on
Implementation guides, sample code
Data dictionary, view specifications
This presentation!

44. Questions?

45. Kris Backus Technical CCCTran listserv:
IT Analyst
Information Technology Department
Los Rios Community College District
Steering Committee listserv:
Technical CCCTran listserv: