GASFAA’s Fall 2014 Workshop

Banner Population Selection Reference

The Banner Population Selection training is provided by volunteers who have extensive experience in writing and using Banner population selections (popsels). These volunteers endeavor to provide accurate information and instructions; however, each Banner instance is different. This training reference provides standard procedures and examples, and it is shared for informational purposes only. This reference is not all-inclusive, and it is not meant to replace the more detailed workbooks available through Ellucian.

2014-2015 GASFAA Professional Development Committee

Page | 2  

The Process Step I: Identify the population of students you wish to select. Be specific and detailed in your criteria. For example, do you want all students who have been awarded funds or all students who have a packaging date? These are not the same. Step II: Identify the Banner field names and tables used in your criteria. You can find this information in several different ways.

Help/Dynamic Help Query for individual field o Table name is in the Block field o Field name contains the table name

Page | 3  

RORRULE/Table Name for list of fields in a table

Page | 4  

Release Guide for new/changed fields (Excerpt from Banner Financial Aid 8.20 Release Guide.)

Step III: Consider the possible values in the fields to determine the way the popsel should be written. Which operators will you need? Are there “null” values? Will every student have a “PIDM” in every table? Step IV: Write the popsel (GLRSLCT). Step V: Run the process GLBDATA (GJAPCTL). Step VI: Review the output and extract if needed (GLIEXTR/GLAEXTR/RORAPLT).

Page | 5  

Creating a Population Selection

GLRSLCT: Form used to build your popsel

Application: The department/module (FINAID)

Selection ID: Name of the popsel that you designate

Creator ID: User Name

Selection Description: Brief description

Manual: Turns off the automatic joining of PIDMS on tables when checked. This is normally left unchecked.

Locked: Limits access to view results on GLAEXTR and GLIEXTR to Creator ID only when checked.

Delete: Provides option to delete the popsel and its rules from the database. This can only be used if the popsel is empty. (To empty, view in GLAEXTR and select Delete All.)

Application Level Rules: Box is populated automatically if application level rules exist on GLRAPPL. Normally no rules are assigned to FINAID.

Select: The PIDM from the main table used in your criteria. (RORSTAT_PIDM)

Page | 6  

From: List all tables included in your popsel criteria.

Rules: Enter the criteria you are using to identify your population using field names, operators, parameters/static values, etc.

This is a simple popsel to identify all students who have applied for financial aid for 2014-2015. (Because all students who apply are placed in a tracking group, that criteria can be used to identify this group of students.)

Page | 7  

This is a rather complex popsel to identify students who should receive sophomore level loans and may need to have the year in college updated on RNANA.

Note: Note how the parenthesis () sets, AND/OR statements, joins, and dynamic parameter

are used. Some sets may not be needed depending on your institution

(ROVST14_DEGC_CODE_1 NOT LIKE ‘CER%’). ROVST14 is a view and is used here to ensure the most current student record

(SGASTDN) is being evaluated for degree code. Without the view it would be difficult to isolate the current record on the student side. Because this view is aid year specific, the popsel is named to indicate the aid year.

Aid year is hardcoded because view is aid year specific.

Page | 8  

Combining Population Selections Often times you may need to combine two different popsels in some way to achieve accurate results. You do not need to run each popsel separately before combining. MINUS – Meets the rules for popsel 1 but does NOT meet the rules for popsel 2;

results are placed in new popsel 3. (All students who DO have all packaging requirements complete with no packaging date but DO NOT have a SAP record on ZOASAPR for a specific term.)

UNION – Meets the rules for popsel 1 OR meets the rules for popsel 2; results are placed in a new popsel 3. (All students who DO have all packaging requirements complete with no packaging date OR have a SAP record on ZOASAPR for a specific term. This will include students who meet EITHER OR BOTH.)

INTERSECT – Meets the rules for popsel 1 AND meets the rules for popsel 2; results are placed in a new popsel 3. (All students who DO have all packaging requirements complete with no packaging date AND DO have a SAP record on ZOASAPR for a specific term. This will only include students who have BOTH.)

This popsel identifies students who have all packaging requirements complete with no packaging date (PCKG_REQ_COMP) and have no SAP record on ZOASAPR for a specific term (ZOASAPR_EXISTS). POPSEL 1 – PCKG_REQ_COMP

Page | 9  

POPSEL 2 – ZOASAPR_EXISTS

GJAPCTL (form), GLBDATA (process), RP_NOSAP (parameter set)

Manual Population Selections

Create a popsel on GLRSLCT with no rules Check the Manual box (optional) Add or remove IDs through GLAEXTR

Page | 10  

Population Selection Results

GJIREVO View .log file for number of students selected or errors generated Access form from Options tab after running on GJAPCTL Access job from GJIREVO through the Process drop down box.

GLIEXTR View ID/Name for students selected Note Creator ID and User ID if viewing someone else’s popsel

GLAEXTR View ID/Name for students selected Note User and Creator if viewing someone else’s popsel Add and/or Delete IDs Extract data (Help/Extract Data No Key) Common delimited file format with double quotes (“) as the delimiter

RORAPLT – Basic Applicant Report Process run from GJPACTL Produces .lis file with ID/Name and Application Date Access .lis file from GJIREVO

Page | 11  

Important Notes

PIDM A PIDM is a unique identifier created internally for each ID. The PIDM is present in every table that stores student-specific data such as RPRAWRD. Tables that do not contain student-specific data, such as validation tables like RTVAWST, do not have a PIDM. Why is the PIDM important? The PIDM connects data from different tables for the same student to ensure accurate data. IMPORTANT: The PIDM must exist in every table used in your popsel. If you use two tables (RORSTAT and RPRAWRD) in a popsel and a student has a PIDM in RORSTAT but not RPRAWRD, the student will not be selected. Operators Operators affect how the data is filtered. =, <>, >, <, >=, <= LIKE, NOT LIKE IN, NOT IN IS NULL, IS NOT NULL BETWEEN

Important things to remember when selecting the operator:

If the field can have multiple values and you want to find those who do not have a certain value, “<>” will not work. Example: RRRAREQ_TREQ_CODE <> ‘ISIR’ (will find all those with a requirement other than ISIR, but will not exclude them if they also have the ISIR requirement).

“In” cannot be used to identify those persons who have two values; some persons selected might have both values, but only one or the other is required in order to meet the condition.

“Not In” does not eliminate those with a particular value; it simply looks for those with at least one attribute other than the one listed, but the person may also have one or both of these attributes as well.

A field cannot have more than one value at the same time in a popsel (it cannot be equal to A and at the same time also be equal to B). RRRAREQ_TREQ_CODE = ‘ISIR’ AND RRRAREQ_TREQ_CODE = ‘SSN’ is not valid. (See Union and Intersect later in the reference.)

Dates may contain hours, minutes, and seconds. Do not use equal (=) sign; use <, >, <>, <=, or >=. (GURMAIL_DATE_PRINTED >= ’30-MAR-2014’ AND

GURMAIL_DATE_PRINTED < ’31-MAR-2014’) is acceptable.

Page | 12  

Connecting Rules You may need to connect certain criteria with AND or OR. Parenthesis must be used if you have an AND and OR statement in the same popsel. Be careful where you put your parentheses in order to achieve the result you want. Remember your high school algebra… (1+2) X 3 = 9, but 1 + (2X3) = 7. Example: (RCRAPP1_VERIFICATION_MSG <> ‘1’ OR RCRAPP1_VERFICATION_MSG IS NULL) AND RCRAPP1_AIDY_CODE = ‘1415’

Table Joins Certain data fields from different tables need to be “joined” in order to ensure accurate data. Examples could include PIDM, Aid Year, Term Code, Sequence Number, etc. If certain fields are not joined properly, data from different records could be used in the evaluation giving erroneous results. Example of RCRAPP tables to find those with a parent e-mail address: RCRAPP4_P_EMAIL_ADDRESS IS NOT NULL AND (RCRAPP4_INFC_CODE = RCRAPP1_INFC_CODE AND RCRAPP4_SEQ_NO = RCRAPP1_SEQ_NO AND RCRAPP1_CURR_REC_IND = ‘Y’) RCRAPP4_AIDY_CODE = RCRAPP1_AIDY_CODE Dynamic Parameters A dynamic parameter allows you to enter data each time the popsel is run. This is especially helpful for Term Code and Aid Year so that the popsel can be used for multiple terms/years. Prompt for input using “&” symbol (dynamic parameter) – &term_code

Example: SGBSTDN_TERM_CODE_EFF >= &term_code Be consistent when naming parameters Cannot use with LIKE, NOT LIKE NOTE: Dynamic parameters are not enclosed in quotes while static values are

enclosed in single quotes. Views Views are different than tables and are often aid year specific. Think of them as a virtual table where data from various tables has been collected and all joins have been done for you. When using aid year specific views you will need to create a new popsel for each year and update the view (ROVST14 vs. ROVST15). Views should be used with caution as they can cause a process to run very slowly.

To be sure all data is 

from the transaction 

marked current. 

Page | 13  

Results Remember, a popsel will only result in unduplicated ID and Name. If you need to display other fields, you will need to run a report or write a query. Copying Popsels can be copied. To copy, open the popsel on GLRSLCT, Next Block or <CTRL> <Page Down> past the Rules block and enter the information for the new popsel, and Save. The Selection name can be the same if the Creator ID is different.