See also

• CCB Instruction's ChemGrades FMPro DB support procedures

Links

When completed, here's the URL for the read-only web access:

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• https://chemlabs.csotest.arts.cornell.edu/grades/

Updates

8/16/13

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None, as of 9/13/13.

Projects anticipated to start-up, once everything is settled and working

Enable NetID access to FMPro server

• For all TAs and for all staff.

Review Becky's needs of Grades DB

• Expect prep work in fall 2013.
  • Thus, expect implementation/ cut-over no sooner than winter break.
  Any benefit in changing the current "export" process?

To do's for this project

See the following section for context related to these to-do's.

New as of 9/13/13:

Scheduling Faculty meeting to present web service

Lead(s.

Enable Pat's "push" capabilities so her DB info can be seen on the web

): PatH

• Proposed date: Thur, 9/26/13, 2:30pm
• With assistance from Dani in presenting.

Add permission access to Grades web application

Lead(s): Tu

A control table in FMPro (or edit via web directly?) with who can see what via the Grades web application:

Decide on date to turn on web application for student use

Lead(s): Pat

Do after 1st prelim. Maybe Oct 31st, Thur.?

Who do students contact if they have questions or concerns about the web site?

Lead(s): Pat

Decision from 9/13/13 discussion:

• Tu: Add link from web Grades to to CCB Courses page.
• Pat's office: Create an FAQ page on that Courses page.

Initial questions:

• What is done now for the Waiting List web application? Do same thing?
• Would it not be PatH's office? If so, how communicate on the page?

Change all TA access to be by NetID (and FMPro p/w), instead of their name

Lead(s): PatH

• PatH to make the appropriate updates soon.
• This is not to be confused with enabling true NetID-based access, using CU's NetID p/w's.
• PatH must reinforce to TA Grads that they should //not// use their true NetID p/w's!!

Decision from 9/13/13 discussion:

• Add (or find existing) field to hold TA name.
• In existing "TA" field (currently holding the TA name!), enter TA's NetID
• Ensure Pat enables ~"reset password on next use" checkbox.Tu will work with Roger.
• Tu needs IP addresses. Roger can do the installs.
And Roger may have better alternatives. :-)

Test PatH's restore procedure.

Lead: PatH

• Do ~end of Sept? (No later, please!)
• To be done by PatH. Presumably via self-service. :-)

Enable PatH's remote access

• ChemIT must do this. Oliver must do or assign.

Enable ChemIT staff's access to CCB FMPro DBs.

• Do via AD group. Enable only "Admin" accounts, not ChemIT staff's user accounts. (Right, Roger?)
• Tu to work with Roger.

...

Try with course 3570 (no TA data). Do with Dani.

Ensure FMPro access by Cynthia

Lead(s): PatH, MichaelH, and Roger

• Report from Pat and Dan that Cynthia was not able to access the FM DB.
  • Tu asks: Was Cynthia in the AD group <as-chm-GradAdm>? Answer: No!
    • Oliver added her to the group, 9/13/13 and wrote her to tell her to try again.

Done:

• Ensure that all "single account set up for a whole course for use by many TAs" is cleaned up. (Legacy capability which is no longer needed. And confuses things now.)
  • Dani and PatH
• Ensure works from systems at: TA room, DanL, CynthiaK, and Sam's.
  • MichaelH.
• Create appropriate "read-only" account for Becky to allow her to continue doing exports herself.
  • Roger (working with Becky)
  • Outline some options, for later focus. (Unlikely do any other changes right now!)

Decisions, processes, and procedures

Previous:

Done: Establish procedure for PatH to update web-hosted data. "Push the button".

As of 10/17/16, this was done several years ago. (As of 8/16/13, function doesn't exist for PatH.)

• Requires ODBC connection. Not possible at FMPro server; must be set up at FMPro client's computer.
  • Do for PatH's computer. As backup, do on Sam's computer.
  • Current plan: For each computer, set ODBC up as system's Admin (vs. user) so ODBC accessible/ configured for any computer account.

Done: Fulfilled Becky's needs of Grades DB

10/28/2013Mon: MichaelH completed this, following Oliver speaking with Becky and Pat.

LabSer's AD group (3 staff) added to access FMPro DB with read-only access. Access is done for specific classes:

• Setup AS-CHM-LabSvc to read only access of 1560, 2070, 2080, 2090, 2150, 2510, and 3010.

Becky confirmed access to relevant course via <grades.chem.cornell.edu>, within her FMPro (Mac) DB, and successful import.

Past notes:

• Any benefit in changing the current "export" process?
• Create appropriate "read-only" account for Becky to allow her to continue doing exports herself.
  • Roger (working with Becky)
  • Outline some options, for later focus. (Unlikely do any other changes right now!)

Done: Enable Pat's "push" capabilities so her DB info can be seen on the web

Lead(s): Tu

• Tu will work with Roger.
  • Tu needs IP addresses. Roger can do the installs.
  • And Roger may have better alternatives. :-)

Done: Confirm PatH's MacroExpress scripts work with server-based FMPro.

Lead(s): PatH

• PatH to confirm right away.

Done: Enable PatH's remote access

Lead(s): Oliver

• ChemIT must do this. Oliver must do or assign.

Done: Enable ChemIT staff's access to CCB FMPro DBs.

Lead(s): Roger

• Do via AD group. Enable only "Admin" accounts, not ChemIT staff's user accounts. (Right, Roger?)
• Roger to work with/ keep Tu informed.

Done: Shut off access to old ChemIT-run instance (Win7 VM). "Legacy Grades".

Lead(s): Roger

• Per 8/15/13 meeting, do anytime. Not being used now- no current data and not being updated anymore.
• Roger to do.

Decisions, processes, and procedures

Make appropriate changes to source FMPro data

• Change all TA access to be by NetID (and FMPro p/w), instead of their name.
  • This keeps the access process the same as it was, but:
    • Enables the correct access restrictions via the web application.
    • Facilitates transition to trueNetID-based access, as a future project.

Establish semester-start procedures and processes. Includes:

This fall, PatH's first pull is no sooner than 8/29/13 (Thur). Later for lecture-only courses.

• Initially populating the DB with PeopleSoft data via a PeopleSoft import.This is a one-time event each semester for each course. (Courses done at different times, depending on course.)
  • Do imports in productions course DBs.
    • Can zero out if mistake made. If major problem, contact Dani or Tu to revert to prior DB.
• At the beginning of the semester (add/ drop period), PatH will periodically grab copies of the back-ups so she can created statistics re: rate of enrollment changes.

Establish semester-end procedures and processes. Includes:

• PatH pulls the final data from the backups.
  • NOTE: If an edit is done, must wait until that edit shows up in a backup (~ half a work day) and then that backup becomes the "final data" for that course.
• PatH zeroed out each of the ChemGrades DBs before the start of their next use.
  • PatH does this within FMPro, when she needs it done (varies by course).
• Cut off TA's access to FMPro.
  • PatH does this within FMPro, when she needs it done (varies by course?).
• Some courses must not show the grade of the final exam, per faculty member's requirement.
  • In those cases, PatH will simply not "push" her final data to the web (varies by course).
    • For these courses, grade changes for a student done after the last push (right before final exam grades entered into FMPro, ideally) will thus not show up on the web.
      • These are edge/ rare cases and PatH will inform the student of this fact.

Establish DB revert procedure. Initiating request and subsequent restoration from back-up.

PatH has access to last 7 calendar days of backups, 2 times per day. So, 14 backup files per course at steady-state, whether changes were made or not.

...

• Zero out course data on the A&S FMPro server.
• Importing data from the correct course backup file.
  • Latest version would be from ~half a work day before.
• If PatH needs backup data older than what she has access to herself (> 7 days, so rare), she must contact Dani or Tu for them to get via back-ups of the SQL server data (or from EZ-Backup).
  • Note that A&S's EZ-Backup would itself only have the 3 prior versions. If course DB was changed each day, that's just three backups. If course DB rarely changed, then that can be a long time.

Enable Pat's view of DB data from home.

The need for this has been reduced since many folks can self-serve, and PatH herself has view-only web access.

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Rejected idea, for future reference: With FMPro installed on dept. laptop, access AS's FMPro server off-campus and do the work that way.

Ensure security of FERPA data in Grades DB.

See Michael Hint's emails with Tu and Frank for more on this. Some thoughts, initially:

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• Confirm FMPro server access is correct: Functional and secure.
  • Confirm that only permitted staff can access Grades (and other CCB) DBs.
  • Confirm Becky can see what she needs to see.
    • Add a read-only account for Becky.
    • Becky will still be able to exports her data, but no longer using PatH'/ the Admin account.
  • Confirm TAs can see/ edit what they need to edit for the TA room's computers.

Clarify support and maintenance expectations

For staff

Useful to distinguish between something breaking (worked yesterday!) and something new needed (consultation/ design/ implementation).

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• Debugging a problem is easier if changes to the source DB is known up-front.
• There are many, many moving parts to this complex and interdependent system!

A&S's role

• A&S is providing the FMPro server hosting services.
  • This includes performing and confirming back-ups and restore procedures, especially focus on addressing an infrastructure problem at their end.
• A&S staff can Design/ Creation on a case-by-case basis
  • This will usually require Frank's approval.

Map out transition steps remaining

For students

Who do students contact if they have questions or concerns about the web site?

• What is done now for the Waiting List web application? Do same thing?
• Would it not be PatH's office? If so, how communicate on the page?

Keywords, for searching results

• FileMakerPro
• Change direction of cname, <grades.chem.cornell.edu> from old to new instance.
  • ChemIT needs a date.
  • Doing this means other systems (2 computers in TA room; Becky's computer) automatically cut-over. :-)
• Shut off access to old ChemIT-run instance (Win7 VM). "Legacy Grades".
  • ChemIT needs a date.
• When add access via AD groups?