Technical Overview for “Functionals” (Kuali-eze…It’s a Foreign Language!)

James Smith, University of Arizona

Barbara Sutton, Cornell University

Agenda

• What’s the Point?

• Acronyms

• Tech Talk

• Concepts

• Infrastructure

• Flexibility

• Confused?

What’s the Point?

It helps to understand, “just a little…”Connect the dotsIncrease your self-confidenceResume booster & social status enhancerImpress tech staff & reduce “glaze-over” effectPut some teeth into your technical requestsBroaden your social circle

Acronyms

How many K-Acronyms?

Acronyms

K: The Projects (4.x)KFS - Kuali Financial System

KEM – Kuali Endowment Management

KC(RA) – Kuali Coeus (Research Admin)KRice – Kuali RiceKS – Kuali Student

Acronyms

K: The Infrastructure - Rice (5)KEN – Kuali Enterprise Notification KEW – Kuali Enterprise WorkflowKIM – Kuali Identity ManagementKNS – Kuali Nervous SystemKSB – Kuali Service Bus

Acronyms

K: The Councils & Miscellaneous (6)KCFC – Kuali Coeus Functional CouncilKFFC – Kuali Financials Functional CouncilKSFC – Kuali Student Functional CouncilKIT – Kuali Integration Team*KTC – Kuali Technical Council*KTD – Kuali Test Drive

*currently being restructured into a new Kuali Rice governance model – more to come on this in the future!

Acronyms

Non-K: The PeopleBA or LBA – Business Analyst (lead)CA – Commercial AffiliateDM – Development ManagerED – Executive DirectorLD – Lead DeveloperPM – Project ManagerSME – Subject Matter Expert

Acronyms

Non-K: The TermsDD – Data DictionaryERD – Entity Relationship DiagramJPA – Java Persistence ArchitectureOJB – Object Relational BridgeOLRT – Online Real Time

Tech Talk

What do these have in common with Kuali?

Tech Talk

Java!

Tech Talk

Tech Talk

• What is Java and why do we care?

Tech Talk

What else do we use?

StrutsHelps draw the screensControls application flow

SpringFlexibility!!!Transaction management

Tech Talk

OJB - Object Relational Bridge vs.

JPA – Java Persistence ArchitectureTells the application how to map things to

the databaseSaves / queriesOJB (old)JPA (new)

Tech Talk

Service BusCarries messages from one application to

anotherHuman Resources System needs to talk

to Financial System, and they don’t speak the same language? No problem, there’s a translator on this bus

Tech Talk

Apache TomcatTranslates between application code and

the web browserCommercial applications work too, but

Tomcat is open source and freely available

Tech Talk

ERD - Entity Relationship DiagramWhat does your account table look like?How does it relate

to your chart?

Tech Talk

DD - Data DictionaryHow big am I?What’s my label?Am I a number?Do I have valid values?Rapid development!

Concepts

Concepts

Maintenance DocumentsHow do I change the attributes of my

accounts and keep track of changes?The set designer

Transactional DocumentsHow do I move $1000 from account A to

account B?The actor

Concepts

LookupsHow do I see what accounts currently exist for

my organization?

InquiriesHow do I see all of the current attributes associated

with account A?

Custom Document SearchesHow can I look at all the transfers from or to

account A? Or, look at all the changes to the attributes of account A?

Concepts

ModularizationWhat if I don’t want to implement everything

in KFS?How can I use KFS with my PeopleSoft

Purchasing system?Core “Modules”: Chart, General Ledger,

Financial Processing, Vendor, Pre-Disbursement Processing

Everything else is pluggable

Concepts

• Core Modules– (the things we couldn’t live without)– Chart of Accounts– Financial Processing– General Ledger– Pre-Disbursement Processor– Vendor

Concepts

• Modularization– Everything else you can plug in if you want

• Purchasing/Accounts Payable• Accounts Receivable• Contracts & Grants

– …though, of course, KFS will come with a full set of this functionality as well

Concepts

Active IndicatorFlag business object as inactive to prevent

erroneous use in KFSPreserves historical dataAudit trail

Concepts

CollectionsLists of entities of one type that relate to

entities of another typeAccounting Lines on the Transfer of Funds

DocumentContacts on a vendor

Active Indicator: How do I disassociate this old phone number with this vendor without having to dig for that historical information?

Infrastructure

AKA - Rice

Infrastructure

KSB - Kuali Service BusWe can talk to other applications

KEW - WorkflowRoutes e-Docs based on rules

KEN - NotificationFacilitates use of KEW to generate &

route messages

Infrastructure

KNS - Kuali Nervous SystemEverything looks and feels the same, and mydevelopers are fast!KFNS - KFS Nervous System

Infrastructure components unique to KFSKS and KCRA too!

Infrastructure

KIM - Identity ManagementShared common table for user dataSpecific “Associations” in each project

Flexibility

Flexibility

Technical FlexibilityCommunity Source

Access to code for customizationsSupports MySQL & Oracle

Works with either; MySQL is free!Supports various OS

UNIX/LINUXWindowsOSX

AuthenticationShould we use CAS or Shiboleth to log users in?

Flexibility

Functional FlexibilityRules

Create workflow to meet your needsParameters

Create business rules to meet your needsExtended Attributes

Create unique business elements to meet your reportingand routing needs

AuthorizationWho can initiate documents, see or edit certain fields, seean SSN instead of **********, inquire on certain tables…

Flexibility

User FlexibilityLookup/Inquiry & Document Search

Lookups = valid values from within an e-DocDoc Search = actual transaction or document that affected

the systemOnline Help & User Guide

Page-level online help on every screen in KFSStand alone User Guide also available

Workflow User Preferences - Action List & e-mailOptions for filters, display fields, labels, etc. and e-mail

notification

Confused?

Q & A