HESA Student Record 2007/08

Catherine BenfieldHead of Operations Development

Kyle SummersHead of Software Development

Session Outline

• Update on documentation– Catherine

• Validation– Kyle

Documentation

• Major update (Version 2.0) released before Christmas– *J specification– New guidance documents on Modules and

Courses– Sample XML data– Responses to queries raised at seminars and to

email box

Updates

• Documentation now at Version 2.3

• Further updates will provide more guidance and necessary changes

What else is HESA working on?

• V0.1 validation rules

• Specification of the HIN process

• Standard groupings, populations and other derived fields

• Internal database structure

• Formalising arrangements with JCQ

• Finalising specification for the Aggregate Overseas Record

Software support

• Working with software houses– Consultancy– User groups

• Exploring other support mechanisms with UCISA– Institutions with in-house systems

For the future

• Re-specification of:– PIs– TQI– NSS population– POPDLHE

• Check documentation design

• What else do you need from us?

Validation kits

Student data Validation kit Validation result

Business RulesSchema

View

Print

Save

Types of checks

• Structural (schema or XSD)

• Business rules

Structural

• Everything exists where expected

• Fields contain valid codes

An Instance must appear within a Student

This field may contain one of the following valid values: xxx, yyy, zzz

This field must contain a valid date

Business rules

• Fields contain relevant values

Code x can only be used if Instance.FIELD is coded y

Instance.FIELD must exist where institution is in Wales

Instance.COMDATE must be before Instance.ENDDATE

Business rules

What do they do?

• Compare fields within an entity

• Compare fields across entities

Business rules

What don’t they do?

• Duplication checks across the entire return

• Checks for postcodes

• HIN checks

How do business rules work?

Introducing Schematron

A language for making assertions aboutpatterns found in XML documents

Schematron

• Uses XML to express rules

• Compares XML elements

<rule context="TTCID"><report test="(.='0' or .='3' or .='4' or .='5') and ../TQSSEC">

Course.TQSSEC must not be completed if Course.TTCID contains codes 0, 3, 4 or 5

</report></rule>

Schematron

• Rules used to produce XSLT files

<xsl:template match="TTCID" priority="4000" mode="M1"><xsl:if test="(.='0' or .='3' or .='4' or .='5') and ../TQSSEC">

<li><a href="#{generate-id(.)}" target="_self" title="Link to where this pattern was found...">Course.TQSSEC must not be completed if Course.TTCID contains codes 0, 3, 4 or 5

</a></li></xsl:if><xsl:apply-templates mode="M1"/>

</xsl:template>

Schematron

• XSLT files used to process student data

• Result is a list of errors formatted as … XML

Validation kit

• New validation kit software– New validation techniques– Graphical interface– Check for latest rules

Graphical interface

• Hides the complexities

• Select data file and collection within the kit

• View results within the validation kit– Optionally save or print the results

Latest rules

• Each set of rules identified uniquely

• Automatic check for newer rules from the HESA website

Results

• List errors … or congratulations

• View erroneous data in context

• Save or print error list

Other software

How can other software systems use these validation checks?

•Schema– Ensures the data is in the right language– Freely available on the HESA web site

•Schematron– Ensures the data makes sense– The XSLT files available for download

Uses industry standard techniques

Progress

• Basic techniques are working

• Performance testing the options available

• Provide more information on the web site