« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
August 31, 2005
Judicial & the Future....
Well it's Project Time here in Residential Computing!
Today I finish the Judicial Project, which is basically a secured online form allowing RAs (Resident Assistants) to submit Incident Reports that is integrated to our CBORD Odyssey System.
It needed a small amount of recoding, but most importantly it got a major face lift from last years version. We took the new NetConnect Stylesheet (most notably used for the WOU NetConnect CD*) and applied it to these new Judicial pages. So most of the RA pages will look and flow the same way, with a few minor exceptions (to be corrected in the not-too-distant future).
With Judicial safely behind us, we can now proceed to the two largest projects left to complete for the summer.
1. The completion of the Judicial project is a larger step than it appears. Because this minor functionality is now working, we can more easily and smoothly implement the New! Online Housing Application for October 1, 2005. As the DB server, and web server are now linked, we can more quickly implement the Online Housing Application. More to come soon.
2. REDWOLF 2, although already in production, is far from complete. Student registration has been steadily increasing over the last 2 weeks, with VERY few issues. Many reports/interfaces/functionality must still be written, but half of the mission-critial processes already exist and are in place. This program will need to have it's RESIDENT, RESHALL and HELPDESK modules complete before Sep 18. The TELECOM and ADMIN modules need a small amount of work, and the CAMPUS module needs not even to be begun until move-in is completed.
*The WOU NetConnect CD is provided to all student rooms to expedite the student computer registration process. It contains valuable step-by-step information as well as utilites and Sophos Antivirus for all students on campus.
Posted by ellism at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2005
Redwolf 2
One of the most important skills of any DB (database) programmer, in my opinion, is the ability to design a DB well, correctly and with growth in mind.
Thus far, I've been well-pleased with the design of Redwolf 2. It was designed by Paul Lambert and myself. We've made a few small additions/modifications for added functionality, but the core of the program seems to be holding together quite well.
I've been spending the majority of my time lately re-programming Redwolf 2. It has enhanced security, modularization, cababilities, reporting - and most importantly will be utilized to manage the campus switches in the near future. This will make the program quite powerful, and able to suit the needs of 3+ departments (not to mention managing the ports for ALL departments on campus).
Back to design, I was terrifically pleased by Redwolf 1, which had 3 modules. Redwolf 2, now has 5 modules covering a much wider scope of possiblities and taking advantage of some of the newest technologies we've developed (cookie security, iframe/inner-html, dynamic report sorting, Perl script interfacing, SSL, etc...).
I'm very pleased with the way it's shaping up. However, with Fall Term move-in looming, will I have the time to finish Redwolf 2 and make it the Champion of the World it's designed to be? Only time will tell....
Posted by ellism at 2:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2005
Missouri BookStore
Today was a momentous occasion. The WOU Bookstore has a MBS (Missouri Book Store) system that has the ability to interface with our CBORD system. Mike Ross first worked on this project over 6 years ago, and today we made the first successful transaction.
This MBS <--> CBORD interface has been worked on MANY times by multiple people is multiple departments. In the 3+ years I've been here, I have called support and worked with Telecom and Mike Ross many times, but to no avail. Yesterday we used the CBORD specifications to 're-wire' the connection with a positive result.
The transactions still weren't going through yesterday, but a CBORD technician whom I respect greatly has been emailing with me back and forth all day. Finally after many questions and changing some MBS stuff, we posted the successful transaction(s) (which we then VOIDed - and the VOIDs posted as well).
All seems well now, except that Karen will have many questions and might even have to reconfigure much of her operation to streamline this new opportunity for increased sales, campus inter-departmental collaboration and student access.
And this is one big NICE JOB to Mike Ross.
Posted by ellism at 1:41 AM | Comments (0)
August 5, 2005
Camera Upgrade
Sometimes I feel like crying when we have to scuttle and old-but-great program (although I don't recommend crying on the inside in Oregon due to mildew). However, it is just about time to retire our BigBro program (currently in version 2.1).
This program was designed to view the security cameras on campus in a specific and secure way so that only authorized access would be allowed. BigBro is in it's third version and all three versions served us well for their particular duration. However, time marches on.
With our most recent upgrade of the camera recording software we use, we were 'given' access to use a new feature that allows remote viewing (both live and recorded) as well as export from a browser.
Currently those people around campus, such as building managers, use a modified version of the recording software to view their cameras live. The problem is that we have many versions of this software out there, and I rarely hear about the software unless it's broken. Also as updates come out, they are not done due to the decentralized nature of that software (among other things).
This new web tool will continue to give us the solid performance we desire, combined with excellent security and flexiblity.
We hope to finish configuring this tool, and begin deploying it before school starts on September 26th. I am currently working with support to finish the configuration and get our testing going.
Once we have finished the testing we can roll out this new web tool, which will replace either the stand-alone old-versioned recording software (mentioned earlier) or will replace BigBro. I'll be sad to see it go, but am pleased to be able to offer the campus a more powerful and attractive tool at no cost to them.
Posted by ellism at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)
New Position!
Aaah! The long-awaited event has finally occurred. I have more help...
Today we offered an applicant the User Support Analyst position here in Residential Computing, and they accepted. This is very good news for everyone. Everyone, that is, except 3 of my fine & brave lab attendants.
The new position took over the lab time for 3 of my 5 standard lab attendants, as well as many of the duties of my Lab Manager. Things will take some time to transition but I'm feeling positive about the whole experience and our new hire should arrive in 1-2 weeks.
Mostly I'm relieved because I've been doing 1.5-2 people's worth of work by myself and I'm a bit tired/behind. Having another full time person here will really help me out. By the time they are fully trained, I should be able to spend little to no time with the Lab, and lots of time in my chair programming.
This is a good step forward, and I'm glad we're finally here.
Posted by ellism at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)