Post on 07-Aug-2015
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Advanced Argos Reporting for Degree Works
Josh Whitlock
East Tennessee State University
April 10, 2015
Session ID: 12296
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Session rules of etiquette
• Please turn off your cell phone/pager
• If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible
• Please avoid side conversation during the session
Thank you for your cooperation!
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
1 Introduction
2 Finding Degree Works Table Information
3 Selected Data Dictionary Views
4 Linking Reports Back to Views
5 Summary
Agenda
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Introduction
• Purpose of this Presentation
• Provide method of understanding the Degree Works database better through the Argos reporting tool.
• Benefits of Attending this Session
• Learn about the Data Dictionary which can be accessed in any Oracle database, not just Degree Works
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Finding Degree Works Table Information
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Argos & Degree Works
• Degree Works provides good reports– Data is per student though– Never enough data when you’ve got a problem
• Advantages of Argos– Aggregated data– Helpful in debugging problems
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Argos & Degree Works
• How do you know what to pull from where?– Visual Designer
• See schemas and tables– One table at a time– Lots of tables– No “search for a column” option– Lose your SQL if you were using “Free Type”
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• What if you could get all of the column names, table names, etc. into one, searchable Excel file?– Use the Oracle metadata / data dictionary
• All_objects• All_tables• All_tab_cols• All_views
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• The data dictionary is part of the SYS schema in Oracle
• Contains information about database objects• There are some caveats in searching the data
dictionary in Argos though– Invalid Class Typecast exception
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• All_objects– Get all of the objects that are available
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• All_tables– Get all of the tables that are available
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• All_tab_cols– Get all of the tables that are available along
with the columns in those tables
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• All_views– View source code for all Views
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
All_views
• Memo?– When you execute the report, you will see the
text of the view in the CSV file
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
All_views
• The original query does not actually pull all of the text
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
All_views
• Work around?– Use xmltable
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Caveats
• Work around to exception– Specify column names in query
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Caveats
• Schema for Degree Works tables is Dwschema
• Narrow your query by the schema owner to get all the relevant tables
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Data Dictionary
• Dictionary for Data Dictionary?– Sys.dictionary
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Other Useful Views
• Sys.all_tab_comments• Sys.all_col_comments
– Currently DegreeWorks does not have any comments on DWSCHEMA tables or columns
• It would be nice to have
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Linking Reports Back to Views
• You’ve got easy access to all the views… so what?– How do you link what you see on a degree
audit back to the right view?– Clues are in the HTML source
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Notes Report
• The Need:– Advisors are entering notes into Degree Works– Several Issues:
• Notes are not synced with Banner… should they be?• How many notes are there currently?• Which department is entering the most notes?• Which advisor is entering the most notes?
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Basic Steps for Creating Report
• Perform a program audit in Degree Works for a student with notes
• Identify where the data on the audit is coming from– Look at the HTML source for the audit– Search your new metadata CSV file
• Create the report– Visual Designer or Free-Type SQL
12296© 2015 ELLUCIAN. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY | Session ID
Summary
• The Data Dictionary can be used to quickly find where data is stored in the database.
• The Degree Works front-end interface provides clues for finding the back-end data.