Understanding Callista Connect Manager

This Help page deals with Callista Connect Manager functions used for Callista Connect. In particular:

Information regarding the Web Administrator is provided separately in Understanding the Web Administrator.

Detailed explanations and instructions for the use of individual Callista Connect Manager (self serve) forms can be accessed from the Callista Connect Table of Contents or via the numerous links provided here.

 


Callista Connect Manager

This facility is used to manage Callista Connect security and applications, to maintain validation messages and an institution-level configuration, and to administer individual user details. Key functions in this management process are:

Terms used in Callista Connect Manager

To understand Callista Connect Manager, it is necessary to understand several key terms. Details of these terms can be found in the Subsystem Glossary. 

How to use Callista Connect Manager

User Responsibilities

Each institution will use Callista Connect Manager according to its own business practices and security requirements. For example, an institution may choose to use only a subset of Callista Connect's student applications, and to implement a pre-existing external authentication protocol rather than the internal authentication methods provided with Callista Connect.

Callista Connect Applications

Callista Connect applications are Web page facilities for displaying or adding/updating Callista held information. For example, view student results, view enrolment details, change addresses.

There are three levels of applications - system, institution and Web element.

System Applications

These are the system applications incorporated in Callista Connect Web pages. Examples are, PE-PREFS (View/Change Personal Web Page Preferences), PE-RESULTS (View Results) and LOGIN. Each application has specific functionality and incorporates system defined data.

A facility has been provided to enable the update of the system application templates. This can be found in SSFF1120 (Maintain System Self Serve Application). However, it is recommended that any required changes to the application templates are undertaken in the Web Administrator. Details on this are provided in both SSFF1120 and the Maintain Application form.

Institution-Defined Applications

An institution-defined application must be created for each system application that the institution wishes to make available to users. These are defined in SSFF1100 (Maintain Self Serve Applications). Institution-defined applications are then defined in the Maintain Application page of Web Administrator, enabling the Web Administrator to incorporate an application as one of the elements of a specific page. See below for further details on Web element applications.

Some system Self Serve Applications may be mapped to more than one Self Serve Application, depending on which applications the institution wishes to include in the suite of Self-Enrolment applications. Refer to the PERSON-INQ and ENR-STEPS System Self Serve Applications for further details.

Web Element Applications

To enable the insertion of an application in a Web page, the application must be created as a Web element. Web elements are created in the Maintain Application page of the Web Administrator tool. An application Web element is created by assigning the same name as the institution-defined self serve application name defined in SSFF1100. Once created as a Web element in the Maintain Application page, the application (Web element) can be used within Web pages. In the Maintain Application page, the Web element template can be altered without affecting the system application template. For further details on system application templates refer to SSFF1120. For further details on the Web Administrator refer to Understanding the Web Administrator.

Configuring Application Data

A facility is provided to allow institutions to manage the information displayed in each Callista Connect system application.

For example, in the Person Results Inquiry application (PE-RESULT) users may view all unit attempts and outcomes for a particular course by clicking on a Results History link. The retrieval and display of the results history may take some time. In SSF1300 choose the field associated with the LINK TO COURSE RESULTS HISTORY data in the Redirect Web Element Code column and  select an appropriate Web Page Code. When a user clicks on the Results History link  the browser will be redirected to this Web page informing the user that the page they selected will be loaded in a few moments. Once the results have been retrieved, the browser then loads the correct Web page containing the results history.

Callista Connect Global Configuration

Using the form SSFF1200 (Maintain Self Serve Configuration), an institution-level style for all Web pages can be specified. The Web style must first be defined in the Styles section of the Web Administrator. This global style may be overridden for individual pages by specifying a Web page style. It may also be overridden by individual users via the PE-PREFS (Person Preferences) system application. This application allows a user to select a style for applications they access.

As part of the self serve Callista Connect configuration, a login page may be created in Web Administrator with the LOGIN application included as part of the page. The Web Login Page Code is selected in SSFF1200. Wherever security over the entire contents page/s is required (rather than over the application/s only) this login page will display first, before the target page. Login is then verified before allowing the user access to the target pages and their components (i.e. the applications, text blocks, etc). In such cases it is also necessary to map the target pages to a user-defined application in SSFF1110. (see institution-defined applications above).

A series of timeouts can be recorded to ensure further protection of secured applications. These times, when reached, require the user to re-authenticate when navigating to secured applications. An Encryption Key Age Timeout can also be recorded. It adds further protection by changing a user's ID/Password Encryption Key after the specified time expires.

If the CALLISTA ID authentication method is used:

Callista Connect Security

Institutions will typically apply different levels of security to their Web pages according to content. For example: information on the institution and links to the course guides may be seen as not requiring any security (i.e. PUBLIC access). However, access to a student's results requires a high level of security — users should be required to confirm their identity by providing the necessary valid authentication (login) details. To achieve this, a facility has been provided to enable institutions to define levels of access (access codes) and types of users (user categories).

Maintaining Callista Connect User Authentication Information and other Security Related Information

Callista Connect Messaging

A facility is provided for the maintenance of Callista Connect validation messages. These are maintained in the System Self Serve Message window in the form GENF0003(Maintain System Message). Each self serve message is mapped to a system message.

Activity Logging

A facility is provided to display information on the errors encountered by students when trying to access Callista Connect and any of its applications. This information can be viewed in SSFF4000 (Inquire on Self Serve Activity Log). This form is used primarily to advise administrators of the reasons for students not being able to access Callista Connect or a particular application. Users query a student's record and advise why they could not gain access. For example, a student trying to access the PE-RESULT application may be unable to do so because there is not a valid Cohort Process Window for the student or they have a Results Block Encumbrance applied.

To prevent large numbers of activity logging records building up for each student a job has been provided to remove all activity log records older than the specified number of days. For example, the job could be run to delete all records older than 31 days. Records can be deleted by running the Delete Self Serve Activity Log process (SSFJ0010).

Cohort Process Windows

As part of the core Callista functionality, cohorts and Cohort Process Windows have been developed to allow institutions to define windows for when applications are available to students. For further details refer to Understanding Cohort Process Windows in the General Service subsystem in Callista.

Initiating Attend for Student Connect

To set up data in Student Connect prior to using Attend for the first time, it is necessary to run the SSFJ0100 job.

It is recommended that this job is run before the commencement of student Self-Enrolment cycles.

 

Last Modified on 27 January, 2004

History Information

Release Information Project Change to Document
13.1 1323 - Documentation Quality Improvement Updated introduction and added links to other Connect pages
11.1.0.0 1538 - Data Simplification Enablement Added section on Initiating Attend for Student Connect