Service Definition for Get Entry Profile service

NameService Definition for Get Entry Profile service
Projecte-Portfolio for Lifelong Learning Reference Model Project
AuthorAlan Paull
Creation date4 July 2006
Last update date12 July 2006
Version0.1



Introduction
UCAS Web Services will apply the UKLeaP Standard (standard number: 04/30098152 DC BS 8788-1; standard title: UK Lifelong Learner Information Profile (UKLeaP); Part 1. UK Lifelong Learner Information Profile (UKLeaP); Guide. Url: http://www.bsonline.bsi-global.com/) where possible. For information also see: http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/, and http://www.cetis.ac.uk/profiles/uklip/schemas. At present, the UKLeaP standard is still in draft, and has not yet been finalised. Once this standard is complete, we will finalise the mappings to our xml schema.
From XML-Link technical manual

1. This document describes a service for obtaining a UCAS Entry Profile for a Higher Education course. It should be read alongside its Web Service Description Language (WSDL) file and other project material relating to the “Narrative for a learner making an application to a higher education institution”, part of the e-Portfolio for Lifelong Learning Reference Model Project.

2. This service definition is based on the current UCAS XML-Link Web Service. XML-Link is specified by UCAS through a technical manual and WSDL file and covers applicant data and management data. The technical manual for XML-Link is available to UCAS member institutions for download from the HE staff section of the UCAS web site: http://www.ucas.com. For security reasons UCAS’ XML-Link WSDL file is only provided to authorised institution members of UCAS who have requested to use it.

3. This service definition refers to current UCAS course data structures, but many of the complexities of these structures have been ignored (for example specific vocabularies), because they would be covered by detailed implementation design and development, and they will be subject to change as a result of projects already started in this area within UCAS.

4. No usability requirements have been included in this service definition, which is limited to system-to-system requirements.


System Definition

5. This service enables a remote computer system to obtain Entry Profile information for a specified course at a particular Higher Education Institution (HEI) from UCAS. From the UCAS system perspective, it is externally facing and available over the Internet. It is assumed that the service would be implemented as a web service.


Interface Definition

6. Access to the Get Entry Profile service would be via UCAS’ web site, an already existing interface usable by UCAS member institutions. It is envisaged that this would be alongside the XML-Link service, which is accessible via a secure server at UCAS. As no implementation details are currently being specified, this is indicated as ‘https://ucas.com/...’ within the details for this service.

7. The system that is using the Get Entry Profile service requires its own client, ideally from within its e-Portfolio engine, to invoke the methods of the service.

Login authentication

8. No login process is defined. This process could be specified as a separate service, or integrated within the service itself, which is the approach taken by the existing XML-Link service. It has been assumed that HTTPS with a username and password would be used in a real-world implementation.

Defining the web service

9. This service is presented as a simple Web Service with two processes:

10. The formal definition of the Get Entry Profile Web Service is contained within an operational WSDL file. This file defines the data types, message formats and operations provided by the Web Service.

11. Data types: While the data types are specific to current UCAS internal systems, it is envisaged that a UCAS-flavoured XCRI format would be implemented. In the meantime a mapping from a UCAS-flavoured XCRI to current UCAS formats has been developed. See MapXcriUCAS.xls.

12. Message formats: describe the data being passed.

13. Operations: describe the transport protocols and sequence of processes.

14. Transport protocol: SOAP, as defined in the SOAP v1.1 encoding schema at http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/. This is the method used in XML-Link, and the current release of UCAS’ Web Services uses encoded RPC-oriented services (Remote Procedure Call).

15. Port: the real port on ucas.com will depend on implementation details, so has not been fully defined. Port type has been defined as EntryProfilePortType and not as an XML-LinkPortType, although this may be a possible future development.

WSDL

16. See GetEntryProfile.wsdl file.

17. While UCAS has implemented responses to data requests as arrays encoded in SOAP packages within the XML-Link service, this WSDL file is limited to showing the data items, rather than the full implementation as arrays.

18. This is a light-weight Web Service, so no attempt has been made to combine it with others within this domain.


Data Dictionary

Data Elements
XCRIGenericUCASNotes
REQUESTorganization.identifierProvider identifierinst_codeThis is a UCAS identifier, e.g. A20. It is more stable than institution name, but could be replaced by UKRPN. Published widely.spec.code(year_code)Year of Entryyear_codeYear of entry of the course.spec.code(jacs_code)JACS Codecourse_codeUsed to identify courses in UCAS applications. Published widely.RESPONSEorganization.dc:titleProvider namefull_namespec.code(year_code)Year of Entryyear_codeYear of entry of the course.spec.code(jacs_code)JACS Codecourse_codeJoint Academic Coding System (subject classification)spec.dc:titleCourse Titlefull_titlerequirement.descriptionEntry Profile ItemOutput from a transformation of UCAS source data. Each Entry Profile Item must be constructed from the UCAS profile_text and profile_header tables, each block of text being identified by a sequence number (line_no), the course_no, an item_no and a year_code. The text itself is either a line_text field or a blank line, identified by line_type (T or B).requirement.identifierEntry Profile Item Identifieritem_noInternal ID for Entry Profile item used in UCAS systemHeading for Entry Profile ItemheaderEach Entry Profile Item has a header in the UCAS system. Part of Entry Profile Item.line_textEach Entry Profile Item may have multiple blocks of text. Part of Entry Profile Item.

19. An Entry Profile is a collection of Entry Profile Items, each of which has a header and multiple blocks of text. Each course has zero or one Entry Profiles.

UML Use Case diagram
     Get Entry Profile Use Case diagram
UML Class diagram
     Get Entry Profile Class diagram
Data Flow
     Get Entry Profile data flow diagram