Colleague Troubleshooting and

Investigation

Ben Jenkins – bljenkins1@waketech.edu

Tools of the TradeDocumentation

Internal Relationships

Colleague Studio

Web UI

Terminal

External Relationships

College Information System (CIS) Helpdesk

Documentation

• http://clients.datatel.com/support/support.cfm

Answernet

• https://teamtrack.nccommunitycolleges.edu/ttexternal/tmtrack.dll?

TeamTrack

• http://forums.datatel.com/

Users’ Community Forums

• http://clients.datatel.com/support/documentation.cfm

Ellucian Documentation

Help Menu (In UI and Webadvisor)

Internal Relationships

• Inter-Department• Fellow IT

Colleague Studio

The best thing since:

Colleague Studio (Projects)

Colleague Studio (Projects)

• A great tool for organization– Gather related pieces of information– Easily identify past projects– Create a naming convention

• Close completed projects– Removed from the project list– Easily reopened and added to the visible project list

Colleague Studio (Projects)

• Active project list:

Colleague Studio (Projects)

• Closed Projects:

Colleague Studio (Show Reference)

Colleague Studio (Show Reference)

• Show References(Entity Attribute) • Show References(Process)

Colleague Studio (Show Reference)

“Show Reference” Results

Colleague Studio (Show Reference)

If you see this:

Run the Build CS Objects Indexes (BCSO) utility in the target environment. •Doesn’t need to be run on a quiet system•Can take 8 hours or moreSee BCSO “process help” for details of functionality.

Colleague Studio (Search)

Colleague Studio (Search)

• Process Search:• Easily import results

Colleague Studio (Search)

• Entity Attribute Search:

Colleague Studio (Search)

• Typically a search will result in:

Colleague Studio (Search)

• On occasion:

Colleague Studio (Search)

• If only an application is returned– Use JDEF to identify

parts– Import individually

Colleague Studio (Reporting)

Colleague Studio (Reporting)

• Reports– Easily searchable– Inserts can be included– All code listed

• Process Event Code• Field hook code

• Rt click project > Studio > Report

Colleague Studio (Debugging)

Colleague Studio (Debugging)

• Debugging!– Test and Debug WebAdvisor • Without defining a web server connection

– Step through code– Set breakpoints– Create custom views and watch as variables

populate– Hover over variables to check values

Web UI

Web UI

• File Element Inquiry (RFEI)– Simple navigation– Drilldown to Database Element

Presentation(RDEP)• Identification of valcode tables and files

– Validation Codes (VAL)• Who doesn’t wonder what the heck these codes mean

from time to time??– Rules Test and Debug (RLTD)!!

Terminal

Terminal

• Direct access to search the database!!– Esearch and Select• <<appl>>.ERROR identifies the calling process• Find that elusive MISC.TEXT record

• There must be 50 things I can list here

External Relationships

College Information System (CIS) Helpdesk

Research Example

• Somewhat new HR employee taking over duties of a retiree

• Confusing LVAU errors– Listing people who haven’t been employed for

years

Research Example

• Research– Walk through the process with the young lady

who had the questions– Create a project in Colleague Studio• Can easily be referenced next time

– Import the process• Had to use JDEF on that one

– Debug the code

Research Example

• Conclusion– PERLVACC already exists with start date of xx/xx/xx

• I spot checked a couple of these and it looks like you added them through some other method at some point earlier in the month. Employee 1953085 had a SVAC accrual of 9.33 hours added by you on 4/1/13 and employee 1412371 had a SVAC accrual of 9.33 hours added by you on 4/15/13. If the leave plan, employee ID, and start date match an existing record you’ll get this message because a duplicate accrual record can’t be created. It looks like you probably added leave plans for these people (new full-timers maybe?) so it’s telling you that not enough info has changed for a new record to be created. I would assume that in most cases this error can be blown off, but if you can think of a case where you created a new leave accrual record for someone, and in the same month you want a change to the accrual amount, you’re going to have to do it somewhere other than LVAU, if you see what I’m saying.

• And…

Research Example

• Conclusion (Continued)– XXXXXXX - Person is not employed as of xx/xx/xx

– XXXXXXX - Cannot create default Person Leave Accrual record • It took me a while to figure out exactly what was happening here. Here’s a breakdown… The

LVAU process starts by pulling in everyone (actively employed or not) with an HRPER record and a SVAC (in this case) leave plan. It then eliminates anyone who wouldn’t have an anniversary date between the days you specified, in this case 4/1/13 to 4/30/13. At this point we still have ex-employees in the list. Next anyone who has an anniversary date between those days, but isn’t hitting one of the benefit effecting years (5, 10, 15, 20) is eliminated because, regardless of whether they’re employed or not, a new accrual record doesn’t need to be created, nothing is changing for them. Next it starts looking at the date ranges on the individual’s position and wage records and the roadblock is finally hit, resulting in first the “Person is not employed…” warning and then finally the “Cannot create default…” error.

THE END!