\label{Domain_Coordination_Overview}
The Domain Coordination Manual includes both a description of tasks
which require standard LON-CAPA interaction via a web browser, with
the Domain Coordinator role active, but also tasks which require command
line access to the primary library server in a domain. In some cases
one individual may complete both these types of task, whereas in others
a separate Systems Administrator may need to be called upon for tasks
completed from the command line.
With the Domain Coordinator role active, the Main Menu provides a
Domain Coordinator with access to the functionality needed to complete
the routine tasks which a Domain Coordinator carries out, including
creation of courses, approval of course requests, and assignment of
author roles. Courses can be created interactively by completing a web
form or can be created in batch mode by uploading a file containing course
specifications for one or more courses. The right to submit course requests
via a web form may also be granted to groups of users, and requests can
be set to be processed automatically, or require Domain Coordinator approval.
Addition of users/roles can similarly be carried out interactively,
or by uploading a text file of users. The Domain Coordinator may also
periodically need to modify domain settings via the Domain Configuration menu.
LON-CAPA provides hooks to permit integration with institutional information
systems to support the following procedures:
\begin{itemize}
\item Authentication via an institutional authentication service (e.g., LDAP)
\item Automatic updates of classlists
\item Automatic updates of user information
\item Automatic processing of validated course requests for ``official'' courses.
\item Retrieval of institutional user information for individual users
\item Searches for users at the institution
\item Automatic import of student photos from an institutional repository
\end{itemize}
There are three perl modules included in LON-CAPA (\emph{localauth.pm}
\emph{localenroll.pm}, and \emph{localstudentphoto.pm} all located in
\emph{/home/httpd/lib/perl}) which need to be customized to provide
integration with institutional systems.
Although customization and testing will involve a systems administrator,
and programmer(s) at an institution, a Domain Coordinator is likely
to be involved in the design and testing phases of the integration,
if not in the actual implementation. Set-up of a standalone LON-CAPA
instance on a separate server is advised for the purposes of implementing
and testing institutional integration, before enabling the new functionality
on the production system.
Besides the integration described above, at present customization
of \emph{localenroll.pm} is also needed to define user population terms/titles
used at an institution (e.g., Faculty, Staff, Students), and also
to define official course categories (e.g., Year, Semester, Department,
Number) which can be used as filters when searching the Course/Community Catalog.
LON-CAPA installation and/or update will provide unmodifed copies of the three
customizable files in \emp{/home/httpd/lib/perl}, each with -std appended, i.e.,
\emph{localauth-std.pm}, \emph{localenroll-std.pm}, and
\emph{localstudentphoto-std.pm}. These files receive updates when ./UPDATE is
run to update a LON-CAPA installation to a newer version, while their
customized equivalents will be left untouched.
If you have previously customized localenroll.pm it is recommended that
you compare the contents of localenroll.pm and localenroll-std.pm after
an update to see if there are new subroutines (which exist as stubs in
localenroll-std.pm) which can be copied to your custom localenroll.pm
and later customized, should you wish to use that functionality.
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