DRAFT
Portal ERP Update
February 24th, 2003
Summary
The myUFLPortal project is on track for the production rollout on March 31st and the beta rollout on March 5th. Most of the technical validation tasks were unsuccessful and hasreduced the scope of the initial content and functionality. The assignment of role information via the UF Directory has been resolved. Alternative methods for automatic GatorLink authentication to key UF websites are being investigated this week.
Staffing
The core project team is anticipated to be able to handle the primary project tasks. Input from other ERP groups including integration, infrastructure, processes & standards and communications will also be critical to achieving project goals. It should be noted that the Portal Team has relied heavily on a single resource in infrastructure (Bill Freeman) and there is a concern that he may not have enough time to commit to this project as the beta release date nears. Additional resources are being utilized to handle integration issues with theISIS site, the Admin Menu and GatorLink account services. It should be noted that a significant amount of time by the core portal team is being spent with the user workgroups on help, training, usability and communication issues. The workgroups are providing valuable feedback relating to the launch of the project.
Project Planning & Schedule
Last week the UF Directory authorization was resolved for dynamic role assignment. In addition, the initial draft of the permission list and role structure was developed in conjunction with the integration team. It will be implemented and tested this week. . The GatorLink authentication to external sites is still unresolved but Scooter Willis and Lee Stevens will be working to resolve it this week for the Admin Menu, ISIS and GatorLink Account Services.
Some delays were encountered in the configuration process due to corrupted views in the database. The symptoms for this issue were fixed but the cause has not been identified. Delays were also caused by a problem running processes for the dynamic role queries. All elements related to this issue were resolved and the processes are now running smoothly.
The alpha release is anticipated to go live on Tuesday, February 25th (five days behind the originally scheduled milestone). This will utilize the PAQAT instance at the datacenter due to security restrictions on PATST (this is a change from the last report). The beta release is still on track for March 5th but will not include GatorLink single signon authentication to external sites.
Functional and Technical Issues
The technical validation for using the company news functionality to fulfill the requirements for distributing self-service campus news was successful.
The technical validation tasks for RSS news feeds, GatorLink WebMail integration and the Web-based Learning Assistant have concluded that these items should not be part of the rollout on March 31st.
The validation for the Exchange email and calendar integration has shown that it works but since it only applies to a relatively small number of users, it cannot be enabled by default. We are looking at ways of providing authorization to this component based on a user’s membership in the administrative affairs Exchange server. This will not be part of the myUFL beta release.
The validation for the UF Directory (LDAP) authentication was successful.
The validation for UF Directory authorization (assigning roles based on directory values) was successful. Since it is not possible to assign multiple roles based on directory values in real-time using out-of-the-box functionality, several alternatives were evaluated. The base functionality pre-populates all existing UFIDs for the given user classification (i.e. faculty) and this association is automatically assigned to a user when they enter the system for the first time. This will have the effect of real-time role assignment for most users and will be the solution used for the beta and production releases barring any unforeseen issues. In addition, another group in the UF Directory will be created to identify all GatorLink account holders. This group will be used to assign multiple default roles to any authenticating user. Other solutions may be necessary if this role assignment proves to be too computationally intensive since dynamic assignment is not a requirement at this level (the user already proves their membership simply by authenticating).
The validation for GatorLink single sign-on to ISIS and the Admin Menu has not yet been successful. Scooter Willis and Lee Stevens are working together this week to identify potential technical solutions to this problem. The other Portal team members will contribute as needed.
The Communications AUC continues to meet along with the help, usability and communications workgroups. The usability workgroup will not meet again until after the beta is launched – they will be the primary group members charged with user testing the beta instance and reporting any issues.
Design
The design for the site security was drafted last week based on standards provided by Janice Devlin. Additional configuration changes suggested by the Communications AUC are being documented this week. The solution to the UF Directory authorization task is being documented this week.
Development
Several configuration problems were encountered last week. The first dealt with the implementation of the directory rule dynamic role assignment functionality. The rule uses the messaging capabilities of the integration broker needs to be enabled for each instance. In addition, there was a problem with the writing of the report output that kept the process from completing successfully. These items were resolved. It is still necessary to setup a schedule to run the process on a recurring date and this will be configured this week.
The second problem involved the table views becoming corrupted and causing SQL statement errors in the news publication functionality. This was fixed by rebuilding the views but the source of the problem has not yet been identified.
The configuration of PADEV should be completed by early Tuesday of this week. PACFG will then be reconfigured (manually) based on the configuration documentation used for PADEV. PACFG will then be copied to PATST for a high-level systems test and then to PAQAT for the alpha testing.
Testing
It is being assumed that the Mercury Interactive product suite will not be available for any system, functional or performance testing of the Portal.
The alpha testing will begin Tuesday (2/25/03). A draft test plan was created last week in conjunction with the processes and standards group. It will be revised before the validation begins on Tuesday. It is expected that the test plan will be modified for the beta test based on feedback during the alpha test phase.
Deployment
Diane Craig is working with the Communications AUC workgroups to draft a training plan for news publications. Vickie Kitts-Turner is the lead workgroup member and has helped to create a draft process by which news publications will be managed. A draft training plan is expected shortly after the Portal goes into the beta test phase.
Communications
The communications plan was finalized last week and is being implemented. Primary communications channels include the NERDC update and the DDD list. The UFCN the primary communications channel for distributing information on setting up news publications within the Portal.
Processes and Standards
Substantial numbers of processes remain undefined or unknown and will require additional efforts to define and document. Table configuration, instance migration procedures, and test planning are areas which need attention. Advisory User Council workgroup meetings (communications, training, usability) provide good opportunity to understand necessary go-live processes and standards. Created, reviewed and updated flow charts detailing 3 stages of news publication processes for communication with Advisory User Council work groups. Three stages are publication request, section request, and article publication. Contributed to discussion and draft of Alpha phase usage. During Portal beta, Advisory User Council members expect to use issue system and will require training.
IT Infrastructure
The PADEV instance was implemented (as a copy of PACFG). Due to existing differences between PASBX and PACFG, PADEV will be used for all initial configurations and PACFG will only be populated when a configuration is proven to work in PADEV.
There were a number of new problems (discussed above in the development section) that were not seen during configuration of PADEV and did not exist in PASBX. Bill Freeman provided a substantial amount of assistance to the Portal team in resolving these issues and it is anticipated that similar services from the infrastructure group will be required through the portal’s beta and production rollouts. There is a potential concern that Bill (or another similarly qualified individual) may not have enough time to devote to the portal team because of the existing infrastructure workload.
This section still poses some risk to the project since all of the processes and procedures for a complete production infrastructure are not in place. The most significant at this point being the lack of managed source control.
Integration
Allen Rout and Dave Gruber were able to successfully get the UF directory authorization to work in the PADEV instance. Some additional modifications to the directory will take place this week to create a new group that will identify any user that has a GatorLink account. This group will be used to assign additional roles to all authenticated users – bypassing a single default role limitation of the portal’s user profile map.
The automatic GatorLink authentication for external sites is still an unresolved item. Solutions revolving around the use of the GL authentication cookie are being explored this week. The use of ‘pub cookie’ is not a viable solution given the short timeframe. While it would be ideal for a solution to be developed that can be used by any campus group, it is likely that three customized implementations will be created for authentication into ISIS, the Admin Menu and into GatorLink Account Services. Scooter Willis and Dave Gruber will meet with ISIS this week. Scooter is working with Lee Stevens on the Admin Menu and will be working with Mike Wright on the GatorLink Account Services
In addition, it is expected that tasks within ISIS, the Admin Menu and GatorLink Account Services will be individually available from the Portal and provide a similar look and feel. This will enhance the usability of the site.
The portal team will work with other campus groups through the integration team to attempt to get these other systems to conform better to the my.ufl Portal’s standards.
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