Reporting, the easy way
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The document discusses the challenges and solutions for reporting on OSP form data during the 11th Sakai Conference. It highlights the difficulties of accessing field-level data from XML structures and introduces the OSP tool to facilitate SQL-level access for reporting. The presentation emphasizes the advantages of using off-the-shelf reporting tools, such as Cognos and Pentaho, for decision-making based on evaluation data.
Reporting, the easy way
- 1. Reporting on your OSP Form Data... the Easy Way Will.Trillich@serensoft.com, Sean.Keesler@threeCanoes.com ePortfolio Wonks Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 2. Reporting on your OSP Form Data... Making it Suck Less the Easy Way Will.Trillich@serensoft.com, Sean.Keesler@threeCanoes.com ePortfolio Wonks Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 3. Let’s talk about Reporting 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 3 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 4. Why Bother With Reporting? • What’s the big deal? • Why collect all this data? 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 4 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 5. Why Bother With Reporting? • What’s the big deal? • Why collect all this data? • We can make decisions based on patterns in the information • But if you can’t get information out, then putting data in is a waste of everyone’s time and effort! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 5 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 6. A Sample Evaluation Form • Imagine using an Evaluation form as shown here: • For this to be useful you must be able to aggregate all these evaluations... • per course • per academic year • per student • per evaluator • etc 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 6 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 7. So Create Some Reports Then • Let’s take a look at what’s going on, rst 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 7 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 8. Oh Look... Sakai Already Has a “Reports” Tool Of Its Own 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 8 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 9. Sakai’s Built-In “Reports” Tool • Why not just use that, then? • Once it’s set up you can pull lots of useful patterns from your data 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 9 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 10. Sakai’s Built-In “Reports” Tool • Why not just use that, then? • Once it’s set up you can pull lots of useful patterns from your data • “Once it’s set up”! • Enormous investment, attention, resources to get it working • You don’t have to be IU—but it helps :) 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 10 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 11. The OSP “Reports” Tool • Here’s what it looks like after you install it in your worksite... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 11 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 12. So... Now What? • Can you see how to create a report? • What will you need to know to get it working? • Can you hook it up to Crystal Reports or Cognos tools or Pentaho and get straight to your Evaluation-form elds? Nope. 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 12 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 13. How do you Use it? • To use the OSP “Reports” tool here’s all you need to know in order to create a new report... • XML data structures and operations • XSL to transform the XML • XSD to see where the data comes from • SQL to issue queries to the database • Be Command-line Savvy, and have backstage access to the Sakai server • ...for EVERY NEW REPORT! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 13 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 14. That’s a PAINFUL learning curve! Yikes! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 14 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 15. Why Is OSP Reporting So Challenging? • When you build a new XSD form from scratch it could have any (ANY!) structure • The programmers couldn’t predict in advance what data structures would be needed • So OSP Collects form data in big, amorphous, black-box XML chunks as a universal “solution” • For example: 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 15 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 16. One of Sean’s Awesome AAC&U VALUE Rubric Forms Get it from h+p://www.openEdPrac7ces.org 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 16 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 17. Each Row in that Grid Represents a “Field” • The actual data collected for the ve “axes” in this form are shown below the grid: 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 17 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 18. This is Why the Programmers Opted to Store XML Blobs • So the Sakai Programmers let us create any form structure we want • The result gets stored as an XML blob, such as: <eval-‐form> <organiza7on> 3 </organiza7on> <language> 4 </language> <delivery> 4 </delivery> <support> 3 </support> <message> 4 </message> <commentary> Great improvement... </commentary> <ra7ng> 3.6 </ra7ng> </eval-‐form> 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 18 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 19. A Contact Info Form Will Look Completely Different <contact-‐info> <name> <first>Bob</first> <last>Smith</last> All these different forms </name> are too amorphous for the programmers to predict! <emails> <work>bob@work.net</work> <personal>kahuna@mongo.org</work> </emails> </contact-‐info> • Difficult to conjure a database arrangement to accommodate all these different structures 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 19 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 20. Forms can Vary Widely • Other forms are totally different • Résumé/CV, Contact Info Form, Re ection Form... • The programmers knew we’d conjure up all kinds of different XSD form structures • So the programmers chose to just store the XML • But XML is for transport, not storage... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 20 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 21. PROBLEM: How can you Reach the Field-Level Data? • If you want an average or total of a particular eld for all students... • It’s buried inside all this text! <eval-‐form> <organiza7on> 3 </organiza7on> <language> 4 </language> <delivery> 4 </delivery> <support> 3 </support> <message> 4 </message> <commentary> Great improvement... </commentary> <average> 3.6 </average> </eval-‐form> 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 21 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 22. You Could use XSL to parse it... • XSL is designed to transform XML to something else (often HTML) • But there’s a STEEP learning curve there • Requires IT mojo and lots of caffeine • Sure would be nice if we could just use a point- and-click reporting tool like Crystal Reports or Cognos or Pentaho... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 22 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 23. Pentaho, Crystal, Cognos and more! The Report-Enabling Gizmo to the Rescue! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 23 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 24. It makes your Form Data Reachable • It makes everything SQL-selectable! • Don’t need to learn XML, XSL, XSD, backstage command-line hooey • Cognos? Pentaho? Crystal Reports? No problemo • We came up with some sample reports to illustrate: 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 24 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 25. A Sample “Cognos Impromptu” Report • Who’s getting what scores? • Marie is squeaking by Blaise • And who’s giving what scores? • Hmm, let’s see this another way... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 25 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 26. Another Example Cognos Report • Chip is giving everyone a perfect score! • Time to have a talk with him... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 26 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 27. Reports like this Help you Make Decisions and Take Action • Here we can see one evaluator is likely not taking his task seriously • Reporting enables you to see stuff like this and then take action to nd out more, or to work it out • Sure is easy to come up with reports like this if you can use Cognos or Crystal or Pentaho • ...which you can’t do when the data is buried inside XML blobs 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 27 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 28. Let’s See the OSPTOOL Gizmo in its Element • Once the tool is installed in your !admin workspace: • Open the OSPTOOL there • Specify which forms to process • Click “Parse Selected Forms” • Kick back, be awesome, bask in the accolades 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 28 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 29. How to use the “!admin” Interface • Select which forms to parse • Then “Parse” them! • Let’s follow an example... 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 29 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 30. Create a New Filled-Out Form Instance • Evaluator responds to a Student Submission: Evaluator fills out Evalua7on form Normal workflow: Student’s cell is now LOCKED 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 30 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 31. Now “Parse” the Chosen Forms • Visit !admin worksite • Make sure your chosen form is selected for Parsing • Then... Parse! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 31 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 32. Now you can just REFRESH your Reports • Evaluator added new Evaluations for 2 Students! « BEFORE REFRESH ...Then a quick PARSE... AFTER REFRESH » 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 32 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 33. Magic! How Does This Work? 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 33 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 34. Reporting Tools Require Access to SQL Fields • If the data is available at the SQL- eld level then off-the-shelf reporting tools like Cognos or Pentaho or Crystal can reveal patterns • The OSPtool Gizmo makes all the form elds available directly via SQL • (You do still need to know SQL, or have access to someone who does, but now you can forget the XSD and XSL and command-line voodoo) 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 34 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 35. Common Patterns in All Form Structures • Sure, some forms have text elds for email, others have numeric elds for scores... <eval-‐form> <organiza7on> 3 </organiza7on> <contact-‐info> <language> 4 </language> <name> <delivery> 4 </delivery> <first>Bob</first> <support> 3 </support> <last>Smith</last> <message> 4 </message> </name> <commentary> Great improvement... </comme <emails> <average> 3.6 </average> <work>bob@work.net</work> </eval-‐form> <personal>kahuna@mongo.org</work> </emails> </contact-‐info> 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 35 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 36. Common Patterns in All Form Structures • Sure, some forms have text elds for email, others have numeric elds for scores... contact-‐info <contact-‐info> <name> name emails <first>Bob</first> <last>Smith</last> </name> first last work personal <emails> <work>bob@work.net</work> <personal>kahuna@mongo.org</personal> But each field element </emails> has a “parent” element </contact-‐info> and belongs to a form 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 36 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 37. Common Patterns in All Form Structures • Sure, some forms have text elds for email, others have numeric elds for scores... • But all eld elements have a position inside the form data • All eld elements have a “parent” element • All eld elements have a root-level “form” element • Why not leverage that? 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 37 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 38. That’s Exactly what the OSPtool Gizmo Does • Each eld knows what its “parent” is • Easy to determine the “root” form for any eld • That’s it! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 38 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 39. So here’s the upshot The Good and the Bad 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 39 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 40. The Good Parts • It’s freely available as Source Code • https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/serensoft/ • Your report-writers will only need to know SQL • Any off-the-shelf SQL reporting package will work • Pentaho • Cognos • Crystal Reports • etc 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 40 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 41. Even Better • Wouldn’t it be great if your OSP form data were stored this way by default instead of having to go through a separate “parsing” process? • But I digress... :) 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 41 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 42. The Bad Parts • Does it scale? • Absolutely no idea, please test it! • Is the !admin interface elegant and clean? • Um, no • It’s not “live” • Updated (and new) forms require re-parsing before the data is visible in SQL • Does it auto-run (via Quartz jobs)? • Not at the moment, “Parse” is manual-only 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 42 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 43. Please Use it and Get to the Patterns in your Data! • Please install it and try it out • You won’t need an army of XSL/XML/XSD engineers, only someone with some SQL skills • Have fun Unravelling your XML! 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 43 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 44. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sakai10 https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/serensoft/ will.trillich @ serensoft.com 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 44 Thursday, June 17, 2010
- 45. 11th Sakai Conference -‐ June 15-‐17, 2010 45 Thursday, June 17, 2010