Holy Grails - A Groovy Solution

One of the main PALET project requirements was to create a single source of course data that can be reused across our corporate systems. This will provide students with a consistent view of programme and module descriptions irrespective of which system they are using e.g. school web sites, prospectus, VLE, printed handbooks and so on.

To achieve this we firstly extract, transform, and load data from our student records system to our data hub giving us a clean and simple structure to report from.

To allow access to this information it was decided to use a Representational state transfer (REST) architecture to provide standard web services. These can be used by schools to reuse the data as they wish, and allow other systems to consume the data.

Development of the RESTful service was undertaken in house using Grails (http://grails.org/). This is an open source web framework, which uses the Groovy programming language (which is in turn based on the Java platform). Grails incorporates Hibernate and Spring frameworks under one umbrella. It is intended to be a high-productivity framework by following the "coding by convention" paradigm, providing a stand-alone development environment and hiding much of the configuration detail from the developer.

It has been a challenge to get Grails to work with a legacy database. The framework works best when you allow it to control the database design and constraints. Once the framework ‘understands’ our database design, the process to create the services and map URL’s is very easy. Building functionality so that users can switch between output formats e.g. html, json, xml works very well.

The architecture used in this project is the first of its kind in Cardiff University and is rapidly becoming the standard to produce a whole catalogue of data services, which are robust and efficient.

Web Services and Portal Developments

A production web-service for publishing module descriptions is now available and ready for testing. This service surfaces module data held in SIMS via the University data hub.

Upon completion of the PALET Programme Structures workpackage in July 2011, the data hub will be developed further to hold programme structures and programme information for students. A web service will then become available to share this information across systems.

We are currently working with a number of pilot schools to develop ways for them to include the module web-service in school web pages, Learning Central (Blackboard) and the portal.

The next step is to write the specification for the Programme Management portlet. Features that may be included:

• Direct access to SITS tasks to manage and seek approval for module and course data;

• Facility to review existing module and course descriptions;

• Tools to help schools develop course handbooks;

• Support for curriculum design.