University Expertshttp://experts.sjsu.edu
HigherEdWebDev 2006October 22-25, 2006Rochester, New YorkTrack: TPR9
Harish V. ChakravarthyInterim Lead & Web Applications DeveloperWeb Services [email protected]
Session Layout
BackgroundAbout us
IT infrastructure
Relaunch of Univ. Experts Lessons learned Objectives Solutions Architecture Roll out Usage status
Future road map
Q & A
Before we get started:
First time at HighEdWebDev Conference First time to Rochester I am thrilled to be here!
Feel free to ask me any questions during the presentation
Feel free to let me know, if you can’t understand what I am talking about
Slides will be available online!
Background: About us
Background:About us
http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices
Formed in Fall 2002 Web site redesign project
ORG chart Office of the President
Office of the Provost Academic Technology
Web Services Unit
Services we provide Maintain University main Web site (www.sjsu.edu)
Maintain content for top level pages
Maintain the Content Management System Create subsites for Site Masters
Maintain and configure search engine
Develop & Maintain web applications for University needs News, Events, Form Handler, Syndication Feed, web survey and more…
Web space
and more …
We are responsible for the overall web presence of San Jose State University
Background:About us
http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices
Staff University Web Master
Position open since Mar/2006
Web Applications Developer (me)
Content Editor/Programmer New position
Staff hired in May/2006
Web Infrastructure Servers
4 Sun Solaris, 1 Windows
Set up Production
Stage
Development
Web Servers Apache, Tomcat
Database MySQL
Languages JSP, Perl, XML, XSLT
Version Control CVS
We are work with numerous open source applications
Background:About us
http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices
We serve Academic Units and Departments
Faculty
Staff
Students Current
Prospective
Alumni
We serve the entire campus
Units we work very closely with University Computing & Telecommunications (UCATS)
Servers in a cold room
Ensure 24X7 uptime (power supply)
Monitor network
CMS Team (my.sjsu.edu) Query tables for information
University Communications & Marketing Approve content for top level pages
University Logo and Seal usage guidelines
Web Oversight Committee (Formed in Spring 2006) 16 member team
University wide representation
University Web Policy (Ist project) Currently debated in the Academic Senate
Background: IT Infrastructure(related to this session)
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Campus IT Infrastructure
Decentralized
Numerous authoritative sources of information
We have more than one login and password to access various services offered.
Faculty & Staff Directory
http://www.sjsu.edu/directory/
Authoritative Source
Phone number
Email address
FAX number
Location
Building
Floor
Extended Zip
Department
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Faculty Affairs
http://fa.sjsu.edu/
Authoritative Source for faculty
Education: Terminal Degree
Licenses & Certificates
Job Classification
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Bursar’s Office
http://www.sjsu.edu/bursar/
Authoritative Source
Tower ID Photo
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Human Resources
http://www.sjsu.edu/hr/
Authoritative Source
Name
First
Preferred first name
Middle
Last
Prefix
Suffix
Working Title
Employed faculty & staff
Not Phone Directory!
Background: University Experts (Version 1.0)
Background: University
Experts
Maintained by Univ. Marketing and Communications
Information was manually updated by staff
Static pages with no search and proper navigation
Primary key was not Tower ID
Sometime information was out of date
There was no easy way to know!
There was a need for a better system!
Background: University
Experts
One earlier attempt Developed some time before 2003
A standalone web application
One more login and password
Not user friendly to input or view
Not a committee approach
Unsuccessful in achieving its objective
Relaunch of University Experts(Version 2.0)
Project Objectives:
Lessons Learned
Put a committee together
Automate as much as possible
Pull data from authoritative sources
Empower experts
To update their “own” information
Ability to opt-in and opt-out
Initiative Launched:
Fall 2004
Project Team
Rhea Williamson, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research Mary Jo Gorney-Moreno, AVP, Academic Technology Jeff Gordon, Director, Business Development, SJSU Foundation Joan Merdinger and Angee McGhee, Faculty Affairs Nancy Stake, Media Relations Officer, University Advancement Paul Nozicka, University Webmaster Harish Chakravarthy, Web App. Developer, Web Services Rigo Vargas, Enrollment/Academic Services-IT Danielle Moon, MLK, Jr. Library Special Projects Sara Willis, Sponsored Programs Office, SJSU Foundation Beth Lemke, Content Editor, Univ. Marketing & Communications Bethany Shifflet, Faculty, Kinesiology Andrew Wood & Christina Sabee, Faculty, Communications Studies Carrie Medders, CMS Project Support
16 member team!
Project Objectives
Increase Awareness of SJSU Experts
Foster Collaborative Opportunities
Leverage Investments/Resources
Capture information in a standard format
Identify top categories External Speaker
Contact for news media
Collaborative researcher
Provide accurate information
Retain the SJSU look and feel
Keyword searchable
Easy to navigate
Standards compliant
“One stop shop” to find experts
Possible Solutions:
Plan A
Write a new web app. from scratch
Pros:
Develop inhouse We already have the infrastructure
Save time Less coordination with rest of campus
Cons:
One more login and password!
One more standalone application!
Possible Solutions:
Plan B
Use MySJSU, PeopleSoft Portal (my.sjsu.edu)
Pros: Currently in use
University has vested interest
In built modules available to capture
similar information
No need for additional login and password
Cons: In built modules will require customization
May require approval from Chancellor’s Office
Will require coordination with the CMS team & other teams on campus
Long process
Possible Solutions:
Plan Aor
Plan B We decided on Plan B!
(A road less traveled)
Using MySJSU:
Customize modules
Identify modules to capture informationEducation-Degrees
Courses-Teaching Experience
Research-Scholarly Activity
Professional-Service Activity
Licenses-Certificates
Publications-Presentations
Customize Text changes
Remove fields
Add fields Easy to Copy & Paste
Accept Home page URL
Accept to existing URL’s
Courses
Publication
Using MySJSU:
New module
Faculty Info
Display Tower Image
Yes
No (Default)
Select 3 categories
External Speaker
News Media Contact
Collaborative Researcher
Expertise Summary
Keyword field for search
Experts should select any one of the 3
categories to be found inside university experts
Provide a way to out-out if desired
We went through 13 iterations!
(Fall 2004 - Summer 2005)
Using MySJSU:
Architecture
Identify Authoritative Sources
Query for a list active experts
Pull information for active experts from various
authoritative sources Various databases across campus
Map information gathered using Tower ID as the
primary key
Map Tower ID to unique random key (public display)
Generate SQL inserts
Update local database
DBTrainman
(a command line driven program written in JAVA)
Putting all this together & making it work …
CMS DBmy.sjsu.edu
UCATS DBwww.sjsu.edu/directory
Experts DB
DBTrainman(The BRAIN)
Active Experts vis CMS
Education(Terminal Degree from Faculty Affairs)
Office of Public Affairs
News Media Contactdatabase
Graduate Studies & Research/Foundation
Funding alerts and Keywords database
Towercard Photo from Bursar’s Office
Faculty Initiated pages• Courses• Research• Publications …
http://experts.sjsu.edu
Univ. Experts:Roll out
Step I (early Fall 2005) Identify beta testers
Request feedback & make required changes
Step II (Beta Launch, November 2005) Communicate via campus mail and email
Request experts to check accuracy of information
Raise awareness
Request experts to fill out their information
Step III (Full Service Public Launch, January 2006) SJSU Press Release
Point all references to Univ. Experts
http://experts.sjsu.edu
Univ. Experts:
Project Update
# Experts
Feb/01/2006 Oct/20/2006 change
Contact for News Media 329 362 10%
Collaborative Researcher 38 76 100%
External Speaker 47 91 94%
Tower Images 19 45 137%
# Records
Active Experts 2016 1743 -14%
Education 2120 2366 12%
Licenses & Certificates 19 21 1.6%
Research & Scholarly Activities 363 386 6.3%
Courses & Teaching Expertise 196 375 91.32%
Professional & Service Activity 258 305 18.21%
Publications & Presentations 264 334 26.5%
Univ. Experts:
Future Roadmap
Increase awareness Offer hands-on lab session
Memo from Office of the Provost
Meet with Department Chairs and College Deans
Visibility on website and other forms of communication
Students newspaper
Technical Improvements UI Improvements
Import publication from University Library
Integrate data with other web applications
Beta Site Demowww.sjsu.edu/cats/2003/showcase/
http://experts.sjsu.edu/
Additional Slides
DBTrainman:Code: Output
Generating a Vector of active IDs ...
Generated a Vector of existing Mapping ID
Checking for complete ID Mapping ...
Insert into sjsu_id_map values (531281767,"55AESWE34");
Generating ID Map ...
Generating DeptID Map ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact sql ...
rows processed:1748
Generating sjsu_experts_info header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_info sql ...
rows processed:479 (392)
CR/ES/NM:76 91 362
Generating sjsu_experts_education header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_education sql ...
rows processed:6568 (2366)
…
Generating Images ...
rows processed:45
Generating sjsu_experts_contact_from_ucats header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact_from ucats sql ...
rows processed:6160 (1770)
…
Statistics for today ...Oct/23/2006 1748 392 2366 21 386 375 305 334 45 76 91 362
DBTrainman:Code:
Images
DBTrainman:Code: Query
Phonebook
Service Oriented
Architecture