AppLEAP

Operational Data Store (ODS)

Appalachian has installed a new product from Sunguard SCT Higher Education called the Operational Data Store. The ODS makes reporting easier by providing a few BIG tables to report from instead of thousands of small tables. Complicated "joins" are done for you behind the scene. For example, the ODS provides a view named PERSON that has 151 fields from 15 different Banner tables.

Additionally, the ODS provides documentation that will enable developers to find the table/field information they are looking for quickly, easily, and with a high level of confidence. The implementation of the ODS is still several weeks away, but we can take advantage of the documentation now.

The first type of documentation is called the ODS Reporting View Meta Data Reports. These are HTML documents that list all the ODS views and allow you to drill-down on each view to see the tables, fields, and forms behind it.

The second type of documentation is called the ODS Business Concept Diagrams. These are "Entity-Relationship-Diagrams" that show not only the fields available in an ODS view, but also the relationships among the fields. For example, it shows that a person can have one address, more than one address, or no address.

Other information available for each field includes:

1. The Banner Form in which it was entered
2. The table it came from
3. The names of other ODS views that contain it

Scheduled refreshes occur daily:

• Finance tables
• ASU_ACADEMIC_STUDY_CURRENT finishes around: 7 a.m., Noon, and 3:50 p.m.
• Other student tables are refreshed every half hour.

ASU WebFOCUS Reporting Standards

WebFOCUS reports developed for personal use inside a user's own "My Reports" folder are generally quick-and-dirty reports and need not adhere to strict standards for headings or naming conventions.

However, WebFOCUS reports developed for a wider audience need additional documentation so their use and purpose will be clear to all who access them.

ASU has adopted the following standards for WebFOCUS reports.

Report Naming Convention

WebFOCUS report names have three parts. The first part is a clear but concise description of the report. Avoid cryptic abbreviations. The second part is a version number of the report, and, optionally, a brief description of what's different about this version from its predecessor. From time to time reports will be replaced by newer versions. Knowing the version number can help resolve questions quickly when comparing current output to prior periods. The third part of the report name is the programmer's name or User_ID.

Example:
Simple Account List, v1.2 (Fund Code Added), AtkinsonLR

Report Headings

It is extremely important to have sufficient information in the heading of a report so that there will be little or no confusion as to the information it contains. ASU standards for report headings are:

1. Title of the report. This is usually the same as the first part of the report name, above.
2. Filters and/or record limits. Example: "Chart of Accounts 'A' only"
3. Sort Order. Example: "Sorted by Fiscal Year, then Account, and then Transaction #"
4. Source of the Data, including the Oracle Instance and Table/View name. Example: "From ODST, General_Ledger"
5. Date Run. The date the report was run. the WebFOCUS system variable "&DATE" can be used.
6. Author of the Report. This is the name of the original (or primary) programmer.
7. Name of the last person to modify the report. (If different from Author).
8. Name of the report. Including the version number.

Example:
SIMPLE ACCOUNT LIST
Chart of Accounts "A" Only
Sorted by Fiscal Year, then Account, and then Transaction #
From ODST, General_Ledger
Date Run: &DATE (this will put the current date in place of the system variable "&DATE")
Written by: Linda Atkinson
Last Modified by: David Webber
Program name: Simple Account List, v1.2 (Fund Code Added), AtkinsonLR

Banner Security Administration and Reporting Support

The "BARS" team is Tamara Lamont. BARS can be reached by e-mail at BARS@appstate.edu.