SIS/CIS Admin System¶
[Team : Johnson Team] [Tech Lead : meh37] [Service Owner : TBC] [Service Manager : meh37] [Product Manager : TBC]
This page gives an overview of the Staff Information System (SIS) and College Information System (CIS) Admin System, describing its current status, where and how it's developed and deployed, and who is responsible for maintaining it.
Service Description¶
The SIS/CIS Admin System is an application for The Research Information Office. It works with HR data from CHRIS and the College Information System, interpreting and presenting that to end departments through a SharePoint front end to help RIO form the University's HESA return.
It fulfils three main functions:
- to provide synchronisation of HR data from CHRIS and CIS to SIS
- to allow RIO staff to make changes to data in SharePoint
- generate reports for the Research Office of SIS/CIS and CHRIS data
NOTE: The focus of the admin app is far more on the SIS than the CIS. The CIS is generally operated from Sharepoint. The admin app allows some editing of data and reports, while the reconciliation will synchronise CIS data, but it is the SIS side that is pre-eminent.
Service Status¶
The Staff Information System and College Information System are both currently live.
Contact¶
The SIS/CIS admin system is owned and supported by the Johnson Team.
Technical queries and support should be directed to devops-johnson@uis.cam.ac.uk
and will be picked up by a member of the team working on the service.
Components¶
The SIS Admin system has the following components:
- C# Class libraries that hold the logic that talk to SQL Server and SharePoint and that hold the necessary business logic
- MS SQL Server that holds a related database and that links to HR Datamart on Oracle
- A console app that will run a daily reconciliation
- A windows forms app that will allow users to run reports and manipulate data
Environments¶
The Staff Information System is currently deployed to the following environments:
SharePoint¶
User link:
| Name | URL | Supporting VMs |
|---|---|---|
| Production | https://refsystems.admin.cam.ac.uk/staff/ | TBA |
| UAT | https://uat-refsystems.admin.cam.ac.uk/staff/ | TBA |
API link:
| Name | URL | Supporting VMs |
|---|---|---|
| Production | https://refsystems.blue.cam.ac.uk/staff/ | TBA |
| UAT | https://uat-refsystems.blue.cam.ac.uk/staff/ | TBA |
Human users of the system should use the first set user links above; these use MFA. The API links take a username and password that is used by the system account, e.g. to run the reconciliation, where MFA is not enabled.
NOTE: Even if you use the API links, and even if you use a valid username/password through the browser you will not get into the site. Adjustments are needed to the header to access; these will not be listed in this document for security.
Windows App¶
| Name | Location |
|---|---|
| Production | Z:\J Share\Applications\DotNet\RIO\HESA\Live |
| Pending | Z:\J Share\Applications\DotNet\RIO\HESA\Pending |
NOTE: Z:\ is presumed to map to \blue.cam.ac.uk\group
Source code¶
History¶
The SIS was born out of a need to complete the REF (Research Excellence Framework) submission for 2021. This is done by UoA (Unit of Assessment) and had to be released very quickly. This system then needed to be modified, again very quickly, to be appropriate for the HESA return. This is done by department. The same solution has been repurposed but what this means for us is that some of the projects have been deprecated. This is reflected in the repository table below.
Repositories¶
The source code for the Staff Information System is spread over the following ACTIVE repositories:
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| Solution root | The source code for the main application server |
| CoreDataDAL | Data access library code for the core HR data, e.g. from CHRIS |
| WorkingDataDAL | Data access library code for the SharePoint data that displays to end users |
| BPL | Business Process Library; knits data from core and working with the underlying business logic |
| HESAFormsApp | The Windows application used by RIO admins for reports and data manipulation |
| HESAReconciliationConsoleApp | The console app that runs unattended daily to reconcile data |
All other repositories should be considered deprecated.
Technologies used¶
The following gives an overview of the technologies the Staff Information System is built on.
| Category | Language | Framework(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Libraries and apps | C# | .NET Standard 4.8 |
| Database Server | SQL | MS SQL Server 2019 |
Components used are downloaded through NuGet - this includes libraries for example to access SharePoint or to read/save Excel files.
Development¶
This system is Windows based - for the user application our user base work in a Windows environment# so we can leverage that to create a powerful application. Then the console application can be set up to run from a bespoke Windows server using Task Scheduler (the Windows equivalent of cron jobs).
This means that development has been done using Visual Studio, and this enforces certain requirements.
- Development needs to be done on a Windows machine in the University's BLUE domain
- Visual Studio 2022 Professional edition or later is required
- A tool such as Microsoft SQL Server Management Tool to access the database
Operational documentation¶
Operational documentation is deployed and maintained by the end users and can be viewed here (permissions permitting).
How and where the Staff Information System is deployed¶
See Environments above to see how SIS Admin tool is deployed.
Service Management¶
The Team responsible for this service is Johnson Team.
The Tech Lead for this service is meh37.
The Service Owner for this service is TBC.
The Service Manager for this service is meh37.
The Product Manager for this service is TBC.