Summer's Blog http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/ en-us 2009-11-18T15:54:30-08:00 Summer's Blog http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogtitle.gif http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/ amCharts http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/11/amcharts.html Data at irregular intervals
Column and line chart mix
Auto-resizing chart
Chart with scroller

The Radar and Polar ones looked cool, but I'm not sure what we could use them for here.

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runyans 2009-11-18T15:54:30-08:00
SPOT http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/11/spot.html So I was asked to beta test the new student plsql ...something... training program, for new student programmers to learn the basics of the tools we use here at WOU. I was created by students for students! (Catchy, right?)

So it looks pretty good, easy to use and goes over the basics. I really am nit-picking, but I wanted to get all the bugs down:

In the try it boxes, there are spaces in the textarea that have to be deleted before typing will work. Otherwise it just shows it as wrong.

In GET/POST - submit button doesn't show t

In JAVASCRIPT - "Click to Execute" doesn't do anything..
What should go there? <script> or rescomp.js ?

In the try it, a new window pops open, but the Home link on that page takes you out of the portal with no style.

On all continue to next section, I always get the alert: You are not allowed to view this page yet.

PL/SQL - It says to delete everything, but don't delete author, created date, and purpose! It's important for later programmers to know a little about this program later.

Also, I noticed the use of htp.prn(', htp.p(' and htp.print(' without explanation.

In the URL for the db, also give the aliases - public2db and debug2db.

INFINITE LOOPS - Add exit or exit-when for them to test it, ie EXIT WHEN x > 5;

EXCEPTIONS - weather should be whether

PL/SQL Quiz - This quiz was ridiculous. It took me 6 times to pass it, and that was just by remembering what I picked before and using a process of elimination. The answers are confusing and there are gotchas, which is not the point of quizzes. Some are even plain wrong:
What's done every time you create a table? -> Says correct answer is create test data, but that is not what the training said. It stated to create a sequence.
Foreign Key is suppose to be a key from another country? Come on...
Doesn't keep money total from quiz to quiz.
Doesn't give correct answer when wrong.
Question make a custom exception -> should be declare a custom exception.
exception BOO; -> should be BOO exception;
when BOO then...

SEQUENCES - misspell --> relationps

RELATIONSHIPS - They primary key --> The primary key

ODL and SSN Example - intelligible (?) I think you mean something else; subscript 1 on hover says Easter Egg! I'm not sure what's up with that.

Okay, that's all I got for now.

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Misc Work runyans 2009-11-10T14:30:00-08:00
Project List http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/06/project-list.html Priority Project Status Due Date Notes
1 Admissions App In Process 30-Jun
1 Admissions Project No contact from Adm
1 Forums SSO In Process
1 Friend & Family page In Process 25-Jun
2 Grad App Test
2 HTTP-REQUEST In Process
2 accountlookup error handling In Process
3 Blogging In Process
3 Teamwork In Process
4 SpEd Trio-App In Committee
4 Wireless debug On list of things to do
4 Staff Development On list of things to do ajaxian.com iGoogle, Dojo AJAX
5 IRBAPP Done
5 PR News On Hold

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Misc Work runyans 2009-06-23T16:46:40-08:00
Spaces in names throwing off spaiden http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/06/spaces-in-names.html There have been cases where spaces are being allowed in names of students who are applying on line for admissions. When these students pay, their record is then created in spaiden, using the information they put into the application. Since it appears that students are adding spaces to the end of their name(s), it's creating havoc in banner, making it difficult to find students and search not working.

Doing a search on first name within the admissions table for trailing spaces, I actually got 720 records! I changed those records to remove the trailing spaces and fixed the code when students apply to trim all trailing spaces from names.

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Banner runyans 2009-06-22T13:01:31-08:00
Teamwork http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/05/teamwork.html I've finally managed to update Teamwork with current projects and also my staff development hopefuls. Yeah me!

I've realized there were quite a number of updated I needed to do since I hadn't been in there in awhile. It's fairly up to date now, and I'm going to try and stay with it. I even noted that I was added to another task put in my Mike H. (Still not quite sure why I'm on this project, but oh well.)

There are a number of annoyances with this application. Noticeably, the links at the top for project takes you to a search page, rather than a list of your projects; the subtasks need individual assignments rather than follow through from the parent with the option to edit; and it's just not a very sexy application, but maybe I just need to spend more time working with it.

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Misc Work runyans 2009-05-05T14:19:50-08:00
IRB Application http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/04/irb-application-5.html I've finally got the new print process done and in production. I also just received two service requests from users having issues with the IRB application, so I'm not sure if it's coincidence or I screwed something up. I'm hoping for the former, but I'm waiting to hear back more information. Hopefully my time with this application is near the end!

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runyans 2009-04-21T17:25:26-08:00
Budget Cuts... http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/04/budget-cuts.html 2.2.jpg
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NEW OFFICE POLICY
Dress Code:

1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.

2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:
We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:
Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays.

Bereavement Leave:
This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements in your place. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the fun eral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to
allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.


Bathroom Breaks:
Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will
sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on the
company bulletin board under the 'Chronic Offenders' category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy.



Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concern s, complaints,
frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusati ons, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.


The Management

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Personal runyans 2009-04-16T16:53:29-08:00
IRB Application http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/04/irb-application-4.html IRB Application has caused me nothing but problems, and it has all been connected with the, then required, pdf creation page. Since the numerous changes with the administration of the IRB, it's become non-important. I've therefore decided to scrap attempting to fix this quagmire, and instead just give the option to print an html page. This should solve many of the issues and make it a much more usable application.

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Programming runyans 2009-04-09T16:18:26-08:00
Admissions ... again http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2009/03/admissions-agai.html It looks like the admissions application is back in the picture - did it ever really leave? Now they would like the admissions application to link with Banner so they no longer have to manually type in the information from the applications (since they are on different DBs). It would have been nice if they'd let me do this from beginning, but alas, politics. At least we're now working with a better credit card piece as well as starting on ACH. Hopefully that will be up and running soon!

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Banner runyans 2009-03-24T19:59:10-08:00
Prism update http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2008/07/prism-update.html Been working on Prism for what seems like too long. I've been making good progress though. I'm currently finishing up all the tallies required for the admin side and the database back end for the courses that are available. Currently they are all being posted to the website by hand. I'd like to automate as much as that as possible.

I've been going off the readoregon site for the formating, but there are some differences I've needed to make for prismoregon.org site.

Once we get courses in and record which students have taken which courses, I'll be able to finish the reports for that data as well.

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Programming runyans 2008-07-22T16:36:52-08:00
Week 48 http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2007/11/week-48.html Well, it was a sad week, as we had to say farewell to Joe Crowe ... Ye will be missed. We had a nice party on Thursday and many of you were able to come and wish him good luck and goodbye.

After the Banner consolidation, on Sunday I brought the Admissions application back online, and it's been causing nothing but grief since then. Once the process passes to wouprd and collects the credit card information, etc..., it appears to be running through the charge process twice on some runs, but not all. It always seems to happen when someone wishes to pay both the housing application fee as well as the admissions fee. We had it so it called the charge procedure once and then applied the correct proportions to tbraccd by calling wou_ar twice, so I modified it to call once and not break up the payments. This may cause some accounting nightmares, but I hoped it would make it only charge the card once. No success. I've added more debug code and I'm still trying to figure out where it's going wrong. Logically, it should work perfectly! Very frustrating, as this piece of the program has been since the beginning.

I've also progressed on the PrISM Oregon project and have most of the table structures completed and the application page started. I'll add in Steward's design code to get a feel of how it will eventually look.

I've created a new php page to be included on the home page to show specific events chosen by PR to show up automatically when the date falls within the current two week range. It's been working beautifully, until today. It was having connection issues, and rather than dying nicely like it should, it decided to throw an error and stop the rest of the page from loading. Obviously that will never do, but I'll have to wait for Ron to come in on Monday to figure it out.

I met with Bruce Vickers Wednesday morning to review the Vault and go over the application details. It's pretty straight forward and it hadn't been taken beyond a report repository, but I believe he'll want to expands it's capabilities.

Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Misc Work runyans 2007-11-30T17:17:27-08:00
Week 47 http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2007/11/week-47-1.html Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Personal runyans 2007-11-21T17:32:01-08:00
Week 46 http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2007/11/week-47.html I've been back from vacation for two weeks now, and I think I'm finally caught up. My project load is actually looking pretty good. Edsmart seems to have dissipated, or at least I haven't heard of it continuing. I've been put on the new PrISM Oregon project, which is "a statewide public/private initiative to build capacity of elementary and middle school teachers in math/science". I'm currently working on the table architecture and application flow. The page design will be implemented by Stewart Gilbert.

There is also an HR project on the list for the electronic authorization of employment documents. This project will put the following forms on line and available for approval by a digital signature:

  • Authorization To Fill
  • Employment Authorization
  • Pay Adjust

This will speed up authorization as well as send reminders to those who have waiting forms waiting for their approval. Once approved, it will automatically be forwarded to the next person for approval, finally arriving back in HR.

I still have football recruit database in my queue, but that will just have to wait, again, until January, along with a few other projects.

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Misc Work runyans 2007-11-16T16:16:19-08:00
Week 40 http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2007/10/week-40.html With the aup emails going out we came across ldap only account for generic emails that were attached to valid vnumbers. If you have received an email for one of these generic accounts, please respond to the email stating that it is not a personal account.

The wireless package was confusing some users due to the wording. I've modified the application to check the user type and display appropriate wordage, including fees that will be due. Also, Brian pointed out to me to check on the pidm that's returned and not put a charge in Banner for -1. All has been fixed.

The second notification for aup is going out today. If you have not signed both the Acceptable Use Policy AND the Monitoring Consent form, you will receive another email and should look like this:

'Dear x:

This is your 2nd of five emails reminding you to sign the Acceptable Use of University Computing Resources policy AND the Monitoring Consent form. There are two seperate pages. The first one is the Acceptable Use of University Computing Resources, the second is the Monitoring Consent Form. Please be sure you electronically sign both documents to ensure your account is not disabled.

You currently have 14 days to sign the policy.

The Acceptable Use of University Computing Resources policy and the Monitoring Consent form can be electronically signed at http://www.wou.edu/accountlookup

Your account will be disabled on October 19, 2007 if you do not sign the policy. In order to re-enable your account you will need to sign the Acceptable Use policy and change your password. This can be done electronically at http://www.wou.edu/accountlookup

Please view Bill Kernan''s Blog for further information http://www.wou.edu/~kernanb/blogs/archives/2007/08/computing_syste.html

Thank you,
Computing Services'

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Misc Work runyans 2007-10-05T16:48:44-08:00
Week 39 http://www.wou.edu/~runyans/blogs/archives/2007/09/week-39.html Seeing as it was the first week of class, it was actually fairly slow for me. Wednesday was the busiest. I had a meeting with Joe Sendlebaugh in the morning to go over the vault and what was all involved in that. I also removed a user that would no longer need access to it. It was a nice, short meeting. I then had a meeting in the afternoon with Arne Ferguson and Tim Bowman. That was not so short. They really want to integrate everything they use to keep track of players, from first meeting, recruitment, playing and alumni, all in one place, but using multiple tools. I've been attempting to do some research on how to pull this all together, but it looks like there will have to be some manual steps in between.

I've still be getting errors from Kimber on EdSmart (shocker), and neither Ross nor I are having much luck tracking down the source. She's still wanting changes and updates to this program, but so far, that just seems to break it more. I believe Ross has been trying to get all the data they need pulled directly from the tables.

We had some small issues with wouprd on Wednesday as well that created havoc across numerous apps, including accountlookup. It fortunately didn't last long and everything is working.

The wording for the aup email has been modified to include explicit instructions to also check the form for monitoring consent. It appeared that users were going into accountlookup, accepting the aup and then stopping before also checking the monitoring consent form. So those users that have only checked one will be required to go back in and check both.

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Misc Work runyans 2007-09-28T16:36:21-08:00