Showing posts with label Admissions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Admissions. Show all posts

Monday, September 7, 2015

HCM/Campus Solutions Address Validations

If anyone has worked on a CI or a web service (e.g.: CWS - Constituent Web Service, AAWS - Admission Applications Web Service) that involves loading data related to addresses into HCM/Campus Solutions applications then you must have run into the address validation problem. The problem with the validation on the addresses component/page is that the fields displayed on the address subpage (specific to a country) would vary depending on the country.

This complicates the process of dynamically identifying the list fields that need to be populated depending on the current country that is being used for data entry. Let us take the example of the Admission Applications Web Service to put things into perspective. Typically, there would a web front-end for the admission applications and that would in turn invoke the AAWS web service to create and save applications into Campus Solutions. Now, the problem for the web front-end application is to dynamically figure out the list of fields that need to be populated on the AAWS request message based on the current country. Once we determine the list of fields that need to be populated, we would additionally run into the problem where the validation on the fields (required/translate/prompt edits) would differ per country.

Here are a list of logical steps and SQLs that would help with building some of that dynamic address validation logic. I was able to write some SQLs that look into PeopeTools metadata and pull out the information we need.

E.g.:


Address Formatting:

To identify the list of fields to display and populate (CIs/Web Service calls) data use PS_EO_ADDR_FMT_TBL.

E.g.:

select * from PS_EO_ADDR_FMT_TBL where COUNTRY = 'ESP';


The address format data could be found online as well.



Address Validations:

Required Fields:

Only the following fields are required:
-    COUNTRY
-    ADDRESS1* or ADDRESS2* or ADDDRESS3* or ADDRESS4*: At least one of these fields is required depending on how many exist in SQL1.

* The SQL1 provided must return the fields listed.

E.g.:

For ESP (Spain), SQL1 only returns ADDRESS1 and ADDRESS2 fields. Therefore, at least one of ADDRESS1 or ADDRESS2 fields is required for Spain.
For BRA (Brazil), SQL1 returns all fields ADDRESS1, ADDRESS2, ADDRESS3 and ADDRESS4. Therefore, at least one of ADDRESS1 or ADDRESS2 or ADDRESS3 or ADDRESS4 fields is required for Brazil.

Fields With Translate Edits:

The SQL1 provided must return ‘Y’ for TRANSLATE_EDIT value for the corresponding COUNTRY, FIELDNAME.

E.g.:

ADDR_FIELD1 for Spain (ESP) is based on a translate edit.


Note: For List of Translates Values for a particular field use SQL2.

Fields With Prompt Table Edits:

The SQL1 provided must return ‘Y’ for PROMPT_EDIT value for the corresponding COUNTRY, FIELDNAME.

E.g.:

STATE field for BRA (Brazil) has a prompt table of STATE_TBL. The key fields on the prompt table are COUNTRY, STATE.
CITY field for BRA (Brazil) has a prompt table of CODE_CITY_BRA. The key fields on the prompt table are STATE, CITY.


Note: For List of Values for a particular field use the prompt table (PROMPT_TABLE) with the associated prompt table keys (PROMPT_TABLE_KEYS).

Other Scenario:

If a field exists in PS_EO_ADDR_FMT_TBL and does not fall into any of the above scenarios then there is NO field validation.

SQL1 - Address Format Sub Page Information Based On PeopleTools MetaData:

SELECT Substr(A.pnlname, 9, 3) AS COUNTRY,
       A.fieldname,
       CASE
         WHEN Bitand(B.useedit, 512) > 0 THEN 'Y'
         ELSE 'N'
       END AS TRANSLATE_EDIT,
       CASE
         WHEN Bitand(B.useedit, 16384) > 0 THEN 'Y'
         ELSE 'N'
       END AS PROMPT_EDIT,
       edittable AS PROMPT_TABLE,
       (SELECT Listagg(Y.fieldname, ', ')
                 within GROUP (ORDER BY y.fieldnum) "PROMPT_TABLE_KEYS"
        FROM   psrecfield Y
        WHERE  Y.recname = B.edittable
               AND Bitand(Y.useedit, 1) > 0
        GROUP  BY Y.recname)   AS PROMPT_TABLE_KEYS
FROM   pspnlfield A,
       psrecfield B
WHERE  A.pnlname IN (SELECT X.pnlname
                     FROM   ps_eo_addr_subpage X)
       AND A.recname <> ' '
       AND A.fieldname <> ' '
       AND MOD(A.fielduse, 2) = 0
       AND A.recname = B.recname
       AND A.fieldname = B.fieldname
--and substr(A.PNLNAME, 9,3) = 'BRA'
ORDER  BY country,
          A.fieldnum; 


SQL2 – List Translate Values For A Field:

SELECT A.fieldname,
       A.fieldvalue,
       A.xlatlongname  AS DESCR,
       A.xlatshortname AS DESCR_SHORT
FROM   psxlatitem A
WHERE  A.fieldname = 'ADDR_FIELD1'
       AND A.effdt = (SELECT Max(A_ED.effdt)
                      FROM   psxlatitem A_ED
                      WHERE  A.fieldname = A_ED.fieldname
                             AND A.fieldvalue = A_ED.fieldvalue
                             AND A_ED.effdt <= SYSDATE)
       AND A.eff_status = 'A';

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

AAWS - Targeted Error Handling

While troubleshooting AAWS issues (Admission Applications Web Services delivered in Campus Solutions) in a Production Environment, I found the following options that might come in handy.

Let us take AAWS - Submit Application (SAD_SUBMITAPPL) service operation as an example for this blog. Note: The same approach could be extended to any other AAWS service operation.

The problem or difficulty with troubleshooting this service operation is that the faults generated are very generic in nature and does not help with identifying the root cause of the problem.

Here is an example of a fault message generated by SAD_SUBMITAPPPL:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP-ENV:Body>
    <SOAP-ENV:Fault>
      <faultcode>Client</faultcode>
      <faultstring>An Error occurred processing this request (14098,286)</faultstring>
      <detail>
        <MSGS>
          <MSG>
            <ID>14098-206</ID>
            <DESCR>Error during Application submit, Contact the Administrator</DESCR>
            <MESSAGE_SEVERITY>I</MESSAGE_SEVERITY>
            <PROPS/>
          </MSG>
        </MSGS>
      </detail>
    </SOAP-ENV:Fault>
  </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

While I can understand why AAWS faults are generic, potentially to mask the nasty error messages from being displayed to the end user, it is my personal opinion that this type of fault message is unacceptable especially for a high volume web service such as AAWS (from a service maintenance point of view). Let us explore how we can put controls in place to be able to identify the root cause for this error in real-time.

Using Delivered Campus Service Oriented Architecture Logging (Doc ID 1511543.1):

This document details couple of options.
  1. Setting up the regular logging at the routing level. This does not really add much value in the case of AAWS.

    Logging:



    Results:



    You will notice that there are no errors logged for the synchronous transaction.

  2. Setting Log Type and Threshold using delivered Campus Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Logging.



    We can set the Logging Type to Database or File. For this example I chose the Database option. For the Log Threshold we have many options. The 'All' option would provide a lot of detail and something like 'Severe' option would probably give us what we want (in terms of errors).

    The result of this logging should be available in the PS_SCC_INTEG_LOG table. Use the following SQL to get the most recent entries first:

    select * from PS_SCC_INTEG_LOG order by 1 desc;

    You will notice that SCC_INT_LOG_MSG (where SCC_INT_LOG_LEVEL=2) would contain the error message that we are after. In my case, I found that my error message was as follows:

    "Transaction Manager Exception: Error Saving: XXX_CUSTOM_STG tempid: 579 (0,0) SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.StagedEntity.OnExecute  Name:save  PCPC:16872  Statement:322 Called from:SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.ChildEntity.OnExecute  Name:save  Statement:101 Called from:SCC_C"

    Now, this would tell us exactly why and where (peoplecode statement) the error occurred. This helps greatly in comparison to the Generic Error Message (Error during Application submit, Contact the Administrator).

    While this is very useful for short term/unexpected troubleshooting, one downside of the Campus SOA Logging is that it is not specific to a service operation. So if we turn on logging it would take effect for all delivered service operations that are represented using the Campus SOA. You will notice that if we have this logging turned on in a Production Environment then the table PS_SCC_INTEG_LOG would quickly fill up. Another scenario where this logging might fall short is if we want to send back real-time meaningful response/fault messages for the consumer to process and take action.
Now that we have exhausted delivered options (please correct me if I missed anything!), let us look at a targeted error handling approach (returning appropriate exceptions in the fault message) involving a minor customization. Note: While customizations would involve cost and maintenance considerations, it is generally the case of whether the benefits outweigh the effort and maintenance. I will let you make the decision based on the circumstances in your organization.

AAWS Targeted Error Handling - Customizing the Handler:

The OnRequest Handler code for the AAWS - SAD_SUBMITAPPL is implemented in the following class and method:
Class: SCC_OLA.HANDLERS.Admissions.OnExecute
Method: submitApplication

Let us take a look at a snippet of the delivered code that deals with part of the error handling which I customized:


Here is the same snippet of delivered code with my customization:


Let us examine my customization in detail:

         /* XXX - SV - 20141013 - Test Start */

         Local SCC_COMMON:ENTITY:LOG:MessageEntry &msgEntryCust = create SCC_COMMON:ENTITY:LOG:MessageEntry();
         Local array of string &parms = CreateArrayRept("", 0);
         &parms [1] = &e2.ToString();
         &msgEntryCust.DataPopulateV1(14098, 181, &msgEntryCust.Severity_Error, &parms, "", "", "");
         &returnError.writeEntry(&msgEntryCust);

         /* XXX - SV - 20141013 - Test End */

I made use of the MessageEntry class to create another message detail (<MSG> section), populate the message detail with the exception information and append it to the &returnError object which is the fault message.

Note: I used the same message set number and message number (14098, 181) that is referenced in the logError method right at the start of this exception handling section. 
&p_logger.logError(MsgGet(14098, 181, "", &e2.ToString()));

Let us see the results of this customization.

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"> 
  <SOAP-ENV:Body> 
    <SOAP-ENV:Fault> 
      <faultcode>Client</faultcode> 
      <faultstring>An Error occurred processing this request (14098,286)</faultstring> 
      <detail> 
        <MSGS> 
          <MSG> 
            <ID>14098-206</ID> 
            <DESCR>Error during Application submit, Contact the Administrator</DESCR> 
            <MESSAGE_SEVERITY>I</MESSAGE_SEVERITY> 
            <PROPS/> 
          </MSG> 
          <MSG> 
            <ID>14098-181</ID> 
            <DESCR>Transaction Manager Exception: Error Saving: XXX_CUSTOM_STG tempid: 583 (0,0) SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.StagedEntity.OnExecute  Name:save  PCPC:16872  Statement:322
Called from:SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.ChildEntity.OnExecute  Name:save  Statement:101
Called from:SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.StagedEntity.OnExecute  Name:saveChildren  Statement:374
Called from:SCC_COMMON.ENTITY.StagedEntity.OnExecute  Name:save  Statement:303
Called from:SAD_ADM_APPL.ApplicationManager.OnExecute  Name:saveApplication  Statement:70
Called from:SCC_OLA.HANDLERS.Admissions.OnExecute  Name:submitApplication  Statement:595
Call
</DESCR> 
            <MESSAGE_SEVERITY>E</MESSAGE_SEVERITY> 
            <PROPS/> 
          </MSG> 
        </MSGS> 
      </detail> 
    </SOAP-ENV:Fault> 
  </SOAP-ENV:Body> 
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Highlighted in orange is the marker for the custom message that was added and highlighted in green are the details of the custom message.

You can see how we can improve the details in the fault messages enabling both technical and functional staff to quickly identify the problem with the application and take corrective action. This is very effective especially when there could be application submission peaks where we can expect thousands of application requests in a day.

Note:
  • Please test (test and test!) this thoroughly before applying the suggested customization to your Production Environment (if you think this might be useful).
  • In the submitApplication method used in this example there are a 4 occurrences of &returnError.writeEntry method being invoked. It is recommended that each of those are appropriately extended using the approach in the sample code and example provided in this blog.
  • Customization Environment Details: Campus Solutions 9.0 (Bundle 34) and PeopleTools 8.52.22.