AIS Newsletter , March 2001






EDITORIAL

 

RECENT NEWS

From Legacy to webacy

In our last issue we concentrated on the question "Is CERN an e-business ?" where e-business was defined as on-line administration preferably via the web. To be ready for e-business means we must no longer have applications running legacy or old code. In the pre-web days applications were developed to run in client-server mode - the move from code optimised to run in client-server mode towards code optimised to run in a web environment is what can be referred to as web-enabled or "webacy".

The AIS applications, and how they were developed depends where the code was written; in-house at CERN or off-site Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) standard applications. The AIS policy has always been to buy COTS solutions where possible only developing in-house what was very specific to the CERN environment and impossible to find on the software market.

The core administrative business areas such as finance, purchasing, human resources are served by COTS applications whereas the "glue" surrounding these applications helping them to work for the CERN environment has been developed in-house.

Any in-house AIS application developed since 1997 (e.g. CFU, PPT) was developed directly for the web, so the problem of legacy code does not exist. However since 1997, when the AIS strategy was re-focussed towards the web, older in-house applications such as the Electronic Document Handling (EDH) application, the Budget Holder's Toolkit (BHT) and the Human Resources Toolkit (HRT) had to start moving to the web which involved the development of server-side frameworks in Java, using standards where possible, and generally using the opportunity to cleanup as in some cases the code had been written and in use since the early 90's.

BHT was the first of these applications to move to the web. The porting exercise started in 1997, and was completed in 1999 when BHT became web-enabled allowing it's 1000+ users to perform budget follow-up and management anywhere in the world.

The porting exercise for HRT started later in 1998, and was completed at the end of 2000, following user testing and feedback. WebHRT finally became web-enabled in February 2001 as you can read from one of the articles in this newsletter. HRT allows users to perform human resource management including reporting on career history and training. The HRT legacy code (Excel HRT to be precise) will be stopped on April 30, 2001.

EDH is the largest and the oldest AIS application developed in-house. It was originally developed in 1990 with the first electronic document being the Purchase Requisition. EDH evolved through the last decade keeping pace with the evolving technology world, and adding new functionality and new electronic documents. Its move to the web started in 1997, but due to the size and complexity of the application it was decided to go for a phased approach.

  • Phase 1 of WebEDH allowed users to read and sign documents via a web browser.
  • Phase 2 allowed users to access information screens and search for documents.
  • Phase 3 allowed users to start creating documents directly on the web.

Today we have completed phase 3; all documents can now be created on the web. To completely switch-off the EDH legacy code (EDH Version 2.1 to be precise) we must ensure that all our users can do everything they always did in 2.1 on the web, and much more. Some very specific functionality used by a few of our active users is in the process of being added to webEDH to finalise the porting exercise. Already today of our 9,500 registered users 6,000 very regularly perform administrative actions either at CERN or from home, while travelling or from their institute via webEDH. EDH is almost web-enabled, and will be by June 30, 2001 when the legacy code will be stopped.

Becoming web-enabled will eventually allow us to further integrate our in-house and COTS applications, accessible from a single and secure AIS Login. This process goes slower for our COTS applications as we are in the hands of our suppliers and have less control over the timing. However eventually we will be able to provide all AIS functions on the web and offer them to our users based on their role within the organisation, as described in the Portal article.

So, AIS is well on the road taking us from legacy to "webacy" to check the current status please look at the AIS desktop, and we look forward, as we hope you do, to the future exciting possibilities offered in the AIS web world.

Sue Foffano
AS-IDS Group Leader


 

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GREYBOOK

Greybook via the Web

Greybook belongs to the physics community and is daily updated electronically by the Users office and experiment secretariats. You can consult it directly! (Published on 20/03/2001)





HRT

HRT Goes Web

WebHRT, the web version of the Human Resources Toolkit allows the user to retrieve various data about the Human Resources situation at CERN in HTML, Excel or Graphical format. WebHRT now also makes HRT available on Windows NT and 2000 based computers. To know more go to the HRT Home Page or have a look at the quick tour. (Published on 05/03/2001)




A great collaboration is born

In preparation for the LHC collaboration, Users Office and the Experiment Secretariats (ATLAS, ALICE, CMS, NA48, HARP, OPAL, DELPHI, ALEPH, LHCb, L3) work together in the maintenance and update of LHC, LEP, SPS and PS users data using PIE. (Published on 12/02/2001)




What will change on my pay slip?

As from the 1st of January 2001, the 5-yearly remuneration review implementation applied to CERN staff members will modify your pay slip. Find out more! (Published on 23/01/2001)




Make your home page: AIS web site

What is the advantage of making the AIS web site your home page?
The AIS website helps you find answers to most common questions about existing applications and projects. It compiles all FAQs, documentation, presentations and quick references. With its application desktop you can access your preferred AIS application.

Mark it as your home page!
Go to the preference settings of your browser and in the navigator window set your home page to http://ais.cern.ch (Published on 15/01/2001)




PORTAL

Just suitable for you!

PORTAL project will provide users with an "AIS Home Base" on the web, a unique entry point to all AIS web services. (Published on 27/11/2000)




CFU

CFU uses EDH Workflow

Did you know?
CFU
now uses the EDH implementation of Oracle*Workflow to support the routing and authorization processes for Divisional Requests!

Divisional Requests (DR) can be routed as EDH external documents. Although the DR data is part of the Contract Follow Up information system, the actual routing and collection of electronic signatures are handled by the EDH workflow.

This new functionality, as well as the routing rules applied to DRs are described in a document called " Workflow of CFU"

There is more to come!

It is planned to extend CFU workflow to the routing of Market Surveys/Invitations to Tender and Price Enquiries, as well as the routing of Contracts minutes. (Published on 15/11/2000)




EDH

Quality Assurance!

If each EDH user on average has only one question per year this still amounts to a call every twenty minutes. We value the availability and reliability of the EDH Software and for this reason we have put into place a number of quality assurance measures. Every line of Java code that is written by anybody working in EDH must conform to the EDH Java Coding Standards. This ensures a minimum level of quality and maintainability. Furthermore, every Java programme must be code reviewed before it is allowed to go into production. Code reviews ensure that we find defects and potential problems with the code before they occur. Programmers learn how to be better programmers and the programmes produced are more reliable, more maintainable and understood by more than one person. Individual blame is a thing of the past - for us shared responsibility is the key. (Published on 31/10/2000)




Happy Birthday!

Our AIS site is 1 year old and growing fast.

You could participate in this celebration by sending us your comments on how you find our site and how we could improve it. (Published on 16/10/2000)





LEAVE

How to take one's leave

Please note the New Leave Management system is in production since 1/10/2000.

On your webEDH desktop you will find Icons for:

On-line help is available for each document (open the document and click on the Help button).

Please note as part of this change, and as previously announced, EDH 2.1 can no longer be used to create, visualise or authorise any leave document.

Should you need to access leave information from the old leave system, please note this is visible via HRT accessible by your secretary or DAO.

Find out more about it here!
(Published on 02/10/2000)