Custom Sites in Sakai

Discussion of custom sites created by a middleware server between the SIS and Sakai. Talk given at #apereo13

Transcript

1. Order up! Cooking new dishes with Sakai Adam Hauerwas Providence College June 6, 2013 1
2. Why the cooking theme? June 6, 2013 2 • Sakai started with University of Michigan – Collaborative Higher Education Framework (aka CHEF) • Chef Hiroyuki Sakai, Iron Chef French http://hungrysormuijai.blogspot.com/2010/06/iron-chef-sydney-event-hilton-2010.html By SoRMuiJAi
3. Sites in Sakai are like meals June 6, 2013 3 • Different ingredients make up a meal (rice, fish, vegetables) • Different components make up a site – people – roles – tools – content http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Onigiri_bento_by_dwittkower.jpg By dwittkower
4. Course and Project Sites are like bowls of rice (gohan) June 6, 2013 4 • Why? Well, they’re pretty plain! – You need to do something to it in order to make it interesting • It’s a foundation – asagohan (morning rice) – hirugohan (noon rice) – bangohan (evening rice)
5. Project Sites June 6, 2013 5 • Roles – Organizer Participant Guest • Tools – Blank (until you add something) http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/4763112266/ sizes/n/in/photostream/ • Talk about boring! (but it is a starting point) By IRRI Images
6. Course Sites June 6, 2013 6 • Roles – Instructor Student – Course Assistant Course Designer Demo Student Guest Lecturer Librarian Observer Tutor • Tools – COURSE TOOLS Syllabus Resources Announcements Calendar Assignments Messages – SITE MANAGEMENT Roster Site Editor Site Statistics http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/4763112266/ sizes/n/in/photostream/ By IRRI Images
7. Different dishes for different tastes June 6, 2013 7 • Can you make a site that helps me in my job? – Communicate with my advisees – Arrange advising visits • How about communication in a discipline? – Enroll people by major? minor? class year? – Communicate with seniors? juniors?
8. So what’s in our kitchen? June 6, 2013 8
9. June 6, 2013 9 Advising Sites are rice balls (onigiri) • Roles – Advisor Advisee – Assistant • Italicized roles are synchronized • Tools – COMMUNICATION Announcements Calendar Messages – PROJECT TOOLS Resources Sign-Up – SITE MANAGEMENT Sections Site Editor http://www.flickr.com/photos/philman /4213399077/sizes/z/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos /framboise/182229930/sizes/z/in/photostream/ By Phil Dragash By Frambois
10. Program Sites are hand rolls (te maki) June 6, 2013 10 • Roles – Chair/Director Faculty Major Minor Student – Assistant Guest • Tools – COMMUNICATION Announcements Calendar Messages – PROJECT TOOLS Resources – SITE MANAGEMENT Roster Sections Site Editor http://www.flickr.com/photos/strausser/131237280/ By free range jace
11. To make these dishes, you make a template first June 6, 2013 11 • Create a project site in Sakai • Grab its Site ID from the Sites tool (or by copying the URL from a hyperlink) • Use the Realms tool to create roles • Make these new sites be templates (the Sites tool for within the UI, or in the local.properties for SIS)
12. • It’s a copy of a dish that you can point to, and say “I want one of those” • Unfortunately, changing the template doesn’t change dishes previously made from that template By megadem http://www.flickr.com/photos/megadem/143836743/sizes/z/in/ photostream/ A template is like plastic food June 6, 2013 12
13. Put the template in the window June 6, 2013 13 • Templates get put “on display” in the local.properties • Don’t forget roles to synchronize!
14. Where do you get your ingredients? June 6, 2013 14
15. June 6, 2013 15 Raw ingredients come from “the server farm” • The SIS knows courses, users, and rosters
16. June 6, 2013 16 Ingredients aren’t limited to “just rice” • But the SIS also knows about class year, majors, minors, chairs, directors, and faculty
17. June 6, 2013 17 A “sous chef” was needed to prep the ingredients • We created a middleware server to slice and dice data for Sakai!
18. June 6, 2013 18 The sous chef gives ingredients to Sakai – not the farm Sakai members users courses Three files are sent to Sakai using “Basic SIS” Sakai doesn’t really care what’s in the sausage! but you can put whatever you want in each file (as long as it’s internally consistent).
19. June 6, 2013 19 How does it work? • Virtual Machine with Win2K8 R2 and SQL Server Express • Free or open source tools to deal with data – Logparser to read files into SQL DB – Batch scripts to run queries – BCP to output courses.csv, users.csv, members.csv, sections.csv – WinSCP to copy files to hosting provider
20. June 6, 2013 20 Flexible, modular, and a little stupid • Subdirectory scripts (shell and SQL) called in order to perform actions
21. How does the “sous chef” transform the ingredients? June 6, 2013 21
22. June 6, 2013 22 Creates the courses.csv file with “orders” by template • Rows in file specify templates – Includes course, program, and advising sites • The file “points” to the “plastic food” in the local.properties
23. By 663highland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Shokado01s3200.jpg • Middleware server allows us to create course entries in courses.csv that do not exist in the SIS June 6, 2013 23 Also makes bento boxes! • In our prior LMS, instructors could create course sites that merged multiple sections – Done in Sakai with CM API (but we weren’t using that)
24. June 6, 2013 24 Sous chef keeps “recipes” for Program Sites • Program Sites are a little tricky – Some programs have multiple major codes – Some majors “roll up” to multiple departments • Middleware server maintains a table outside the SIS to define the relationships
25. June 6, 2013 25 Adds “seasoning” to the dishes with sections.csv • In merged course sites, sections are created for the child courses – Allows an instructor to send “class is cancelled” message to only one section • In Advising Sites and Program Sites, sections created for class year and major – Allows targeted communication to subgroups
26. Got anything else on the menu? June 6, 2013 26
27. June 6, 2013 27 From “sous chef” to “sushi chef” (sushi on a conveyor belt) • Placement Testing of incoming students – Language and Math testing sites – Undeclared site where students polled for interests prior to registration – Target goal: upload pictures for student ID’s http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiptoe/2581698058/sizes/z/in/photostream/ By Richard Tucker
28. June 6, 2013 28 Other creative dishes • Student Congress Elections (okonomiyaki) – Students enrolled by class year membership – Uses the Evaluation System to vote for candidates http://www.flickr.com/photos/weasel-on-wheels/6812266556/sizes/z/in/photostream/ By bigweasel
29. Caveats? (Don’t cut yourself!) June 6, 2013 29
30. June 6, 2013 30 Every kitchen’s different • You might use CM API and not Basic SIS – Create additional .csv files based on student attributes / relationships – Create templates in the system for manual site creation • Unclear to me how much of what we do is vendor-specific (e.g. role maintenance)
31. June 6, 2013 31 Digestif • Hope I haven’t stuffed you too full • Hungry for more? – Reach out to “Iron Chef Adam” at hauerwas@providence.edu
32. Questions? June 6, 2013 32