Return to Domain_Coordination_Overview.tex CVS log

Up to [LON-CAPA] / loncom / html / adm / help / tex

- Institutional status types now defined using Domain Coordinator's web
  interface for setting domain configuration.

\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, customization
of \emph{localenroll.pm} is also needed (at present) to define the
titles used for 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 \emph{/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.