[LON-CAPA-admin] Batch creation

[Stuart Raeburn]

Hi Paul,

> I can't find createcourse in /home/httpd/html/adm/ (or anywhere else  
>  for that matter) where is it really? What kind of file is it? Perl?  
>  I can read that. If it's compiled Java that might be trickier. But  
> I  can't read it if I can't find it.

URLs which start /adm/ usually point to LON-CAPA perl modules found in:

/home/httpd/lib/perl/Apache

The Apache config file: /etc/httpd/conf/loncapa_apache.conf provides  
information about mapping of a URL to a perl module (.pm) file.

e.g.,

PerlHandler Apache::loncreatecourse

is the entry for /adm/createcourse indicating
/home/httpd/lib/perl/Apache/loncreatecourse.pm is the corresponding  
mod_perl file.

> The docs for the "CCRS page" said to use the remote.

Yes, that documentation needs updating -- CCRS refers to the four  
letter abbreviation (the label on the Remote Control button) for the  
/adm/createcourse utility used by a Domain Coordinator to create  
courses, one at a time, via the web GUI.

There are likely still a number of other places in the LON-CAPA  
documentation where reference is made to the Remote Control, when for  
most users (who use the inline menu) this is not relevant.

Also, the use of Batch Creation to create multiple courses (from an  
XML file) although still supported, has been superseded by the ability  
to assign the right to particular users, or groups of users, to submit  
course requests.

In this case, a course instructor will log-in to LON-CAPA, and use  
Main Menu -> Course/Community requests to display a web form which  
he/she will complete to submit a request for creation of a course.   
The domain coordinator can configure how particular types of course  
request will be handled -- options are to: (a) create automatically,  
if LON-CAPA can verify that the requester is instructor of record or  
(b) hold in a queue, and notify the Domain Coordinator(s) who can  
choose to process the course requests, or (c) create automatically,  
possibly up to a limit for the number of courses which may be requested.

Internally, LON-CAPA uses the same XML as used in batch course  
creation, when it creates courses from these requests submitted by  
instructors via the course request web form.

Information about domain configuration to support course requests is  
available in the domain coordination manual:

http://lon-capa.bsu.edu/adm/help/domain.manual.pdf

(e.g., see section: 2.11 Course/Community Requests).


In answer to your specific questions:

> In particular, I don't see anything about owner, or users. Are the   
> owner and users specified on later pages in the creation process? (I  
>  don't want to create a course accidentally.) Why does the example   
> have multiple users?

The owner is the username:domain of the person entered in the first  
box -- entitled: Course Owner (will be assigned Course Coordinator  
role) when creating a single course, as Domain Coordinator, via  
adm/createcourse?phase=courseone.

When using: /adm/createcourse?phase=courseone  there is no option to  
include additional personnel in the course creation process. Those  
users/roles can be added later after the course has been created,  
e.g., by a Course Coordinator.  The "Course Owner" can also add  
additional Course Coordinators.

The example (XML for batch processing) has multiple users because both  
batch creation (used by the Domain Coordinator) and the course request  
process (used by faculty) allow additional course personnel, besides  
the owner/requester to be specified (including section affiliations  
etc.).  However, there is no requirement to specify course personnel  
at creation time, aside from the required course owner (who receives a  
CC role automatically).

> What is "<generation>"?  Is it things like "Jr", "III", "IV", etc?

Yes. See: http://lon-capa.bsu.edu/adm/help/adm/help/Generation.hlp

> What is the <studentID>?  Will that correspond to  our regular  
> student ID numbers? Is it used internally in lon-capa?

The studentID is the student/employee ID used at your institution.  It  
is used internally in LON-CAPA, as a secondary unique identifier (the  
username is the primary unique identifier).  It is also used when  
bubblesheet exams are graded in LON-CAPA.  In this case a student will  
have bubbled his/her studentID on the bubblesheet, which will be  
incorporated in the raw data made available by scanning the  
bubblesheets.  LON-CAPA compares the bubbled studentID with studentIDs  
for students enrolled in the LON-CAPA course to match the bubblesheet  
data to the correct student.

> How about "<roles>"? One of the example users has a role  with id  
> "in". What does that mean? What other roles might go there?  What  
> are the start and end dates within <user> <role>? What other  role  
> id's are possible? What is <usec>?

In the example XML in the help file:
http://lon-capa.bsu.edu/adm/help/adm/help/Batch_Creation.hlp

you will find:

<roles>
<role id='in'>
<start>2005:01:01:12:10</start>
<end>2005:12:01:12:10</end>
<usec>1</usec>
<usec>2</usec>
</role>
</roles>

The <roles> </roles> tag includes all the roles being assigned to that  
particular user.  The id attribute is the internal role name, which  
can be cc, in, ta, ep, or st for Course Coordinator, Instructor,  
Teaching Assistant, Exam Proctor, or Student respectively.

See: http://lon-capa.bsu.edu/adm/help/tex/Course_Roles.hlp for  
information about the privileges assigned to each role.

The two dates: <start> and <end> are the start date and the end date  
of the role, respectively, in the format YYYY:MM:DD:HH:MM.  The <usec>  
</usec> tag contains the section number for the user for that  
particular role in the course.  One user may have multiple roles in a  
course. A Course Coordinator role will *not* have an associated  
section; but all other course roles can. A single user can receive  
multiple roles of the same type (in different sections), except for  
the st (Student) role, for which a specific user may only be assigned  
once (either a blank section, or a section number/letter).

Stuart Raeburn
MSU LON-CAPA group

Quoting "Neubauer, Paul" <pneubauer at bsu.edu>:

> Hi Stuart,
>
> Thanks for the help on the Remote Control question.
>
> (Note, I am primarily the sysadmin for the box, and can log in as   
> the domain controller, but I am not really a primary "user" of   
> lon-capa.)
>
> I was asking about the Remote Control because I have been trying to   
> figure out what the XML element are for the batch creation document.  
>   I was looking at   
> https://s3.lite.msu.edu/adm/help/Batch_Creation.hlp#Batch_Creation   
> where it says "For format of other parameters, refer to the   
> interactive CCRS page and view how the equivalent parameter is   
> displayed in the web form."  The docs for the "CCRS page" said to   
> use the remote. It still is not quite clear where I go from there,   
> but having chosen "Course/Community Creation" and then "Create a   
> single course", I get a page   
> http://lon-capa.bsu.edu/adm/createcourse?phase=courseone that does   
> not seem to have all the same information as the XML file.
>
> I can't find createcourse in /home/httpd/html/adm/ (or anywhere else  
>  for that matter) where is it really? What kind of file is it? Perl?  
>  I can read that. If it's compiled Java that might be trickier. But  
> I  can't read it if I can't find it. I've tried
>
> find / -name createcourse
>
> But that has produced no results. I'm stuck for now with no idea   
> where the page source lives. If someone can point me to that, some   
> of my questions below may become moot.
>
> In particular, I don't see anything about owner, or users. Are the   
> owner and users specified on later pages in the creation process? (I  
>  don't want to create a course accidentally.) Why does the example   
> have multiple users? What is "<generation>"? Is it things like "Jr",  
>  "III", "IV", etc? What is the <studentID>?  Will that correspond to  
>  our regular student ID numbers? Is it used internally in lon-capa?   
> For what?  How about "<roles>"? One of the example users has a role   
> with id "in". What does that mean? What other roles might go there?   
> What are the start and end dates within <user> <role>? What other   
> role id's are possible? What is <usec>?
>
> Sorry for just tossing out a lot of questions. I would be more than   
> happy to just get a pointer to the answers rather than having my   
> hand held all the way through each one.
>
> I'm afraid that I'm going to have more questions soon, though. :-(
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
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