General Overview
WebFOCUS is a business intelligence and data analytics tool. It is used to navigate and select functions for reporting. InfoAssist is a tool within WebFOCUS used to create and edit a report. The DataMart (e.g., KFDM, SADM, HRDM, etc.) are Oracle databases which source information for financial, student administration, and human resource reporting at UConn.
UCSADM is the University of Connecticut Student Administration Data Mart. It was formerly known as SADM and was a mostly purchased piece of software. It was a SQL server database housed on a Windows 2003 server. The UCSADM databases although modeled after SADM, were developed here at UConn by a team of UConn employees. They are now Oracle databases that are stored on an EXADATA server. There are ETL processes (Extract, Transform and Load) that are used to load the UCSADM database tables from the PeopleSoft Student Administration system tables every day. Because of that, the data in UCSADM is usually always one day old, from yesterday.
There are three main database pieces to UCSADM, the database created daily, ODS_CURRENT, and the two census databases, ODS_CENSUS and ODS_END. The ODS_CENSUS database is created on the 10th day of each and every term. The ODS_END databases are created at the end of each term. The CENSUS databases are a “point in time” snapshot of the database to make a historical record of the data for institutional reporting purposes. You will mostly be using ODS_CURRENT for all of your UCSADM reporting.
To query the UCSADM databases we will be using the WebFOCUS InfoAssist tool. We are currently using Information Builders WebFOCUS Release 8.1.0.5 for all of our WebFOCUS environments. The URL for our production environment is throughout the university to create, publish, share, and collaborate on analytics content. The foundation of this tool is the WebFOCUS query and reporting engine, which enables users to gain access to numerous databases and file systems through a Web browser. Some of these databases at the university include the Kuali Financial Data Mart (KFDM), the Student Admin Data Mart (SADM/UCSADM), and the Human Resources/Payroll Data Mart (HRPYDM). These are Oracle databases, stored on an EXADATA server and loaded daily through an ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) process.
We are currently using TIBCO (formerly IBI) WebFOCUS Release 8.2.06 and the URL for our production environment is https://bi.uconn.edu