Table of Contents
Overview
Ellucian Ethos
Non-Ethos Integration (Colleague Direct)
Related Articles
Overview
Coursedog supports real-time integration for scheduling, curriculum, and student analytics data from Colleague.
Coursedog is an Ellucian Partner and supports a validated integration pathway for both Ethos and non-Ethos (i.e. Colleague Direct) institutions.
Coursedog has successfully deployed this integration with both Colleague on premise and hosted/cloud/SaaS solutions. Both solutions are built to follow Ellucian designation best practice standards around architecture and security.
All data exchanges are handled through REST APIs that are exposed through our middleware.
The direct query model is accessed through stored procedures and does not require direct modifications to Colleague.
Ellucian Ethos
Overview | Supported Fields & Objects | Institution Type
Benefits | Considerations | Requirements & Assumptions | Installation Guide
Overview
Ethos is Ellucian’s preferred integration pathway for Colleague.
This pathway boasts a unified data model across all platforms built on Open standards (REST, JSON).
Supported Fields & Objects
See the Colleague Ethos data workbooks for a list of fields and objects that are currently supported.
If a field or object is in the spreadsheet linked above (on anything other than the “not supported” tab), that means the integration can support it. If you wish to do less, you can. However, if you want to do something beyond what is documented, then that would be considered a custom integration and will require scoping.
Institution Type
The Ethos integration is the best fit for institutions who are currently Ethos enabled.
Benefits
Modern standards based (REST, JSON) approach to expose your data.
Ellucian-supported solution that is under active development.
Security is consistent with Ellucian and industry standards.
Considerations
Requires that your institution already has Ethos deployed.
IT staff are required to have expertise/resources to perform upgrades.
Ethos extensions may be required.
IT staff must have expertise or availability to configure extensions (if necessary)
Requirements & Assumptions
Coursedog assumes that Ethos has been fully configured; is ready for use by external parties by the time of project kickoff; and meets the following minimum requirements:
Institution is using corresponding baseline Colleague Student processes and data structures (e.g. Course Scheduling, Course and Program inventory).
The Institution is responsible to meet the needs of their specific environment.
Installation Guide
Colleague Ethos - Integration & Extension Setup
Non-Ethos Integration (Colleague Direct)
Overview | Supported Fields & Objects | Institution Type | Requirements & Assumptions
Overview
Coursedog has a pre-built non-Ethos solution for bidirectional integration ready to deploy to your environment.
Coursedog interfaces with Colleague through the AMSA Colleague Adapter (java client hosted on a client side server) which performs a login to Colleague, executes AMSA's custom IS Subroutines inside Colleague to read/write data with Colleague over the database listener port, and then logs out to end the connected session.
Supported Fields & Objects
See the Colleague Direct data workbooks for a list of fields and objects that are currently supported.
If it’s in the spreadsheet linked above, that means the integration can support it. If you wish to do less, you can. However, if you want to do something beyond what is documented, then that would be considered a custom integration and will require scoping.
Institution Type
This is a best fit for institutions that are not Ethos enabled, or are highly customized.
Requirements & Assumptions
Coursedog assumes you meet the following minimum requirements:
Institution is using corresponding baseline Colleague Student processes and data structures (e.g. Course Scheduling, Course and Program inventory). The Institution is responsible to meet the needs of their specific environment.
The ability to whitelist IPs as needed for Test and Production. Coursedog supports an industry standard transfer protocol for both approaches. Coursedog will install a lightweight client that will pull the information from your database and expose the information externally via SSL/HTTPS. All transmissions will be handled over SSL so no need for you to open any additional ports (443).
Ports 443, 3001(test), 3000(prod)
You have a virtual or physical Server with web access. Windows 10 Server, 4 CPU Cores, 8 GB Memory, >10 GB of hard disk storage. For Windows, sometimes AD services may need to be added to the server (if not enabled already)
Your server Public Domain Name is configured as “integration.<domain>.edu”
The institution assists with CNAME setup for certificate installation (Networking Resource).
Both domain-specific and wildcard certificates are acceptable. However, the Certificate must be CA signed and not self signed. The format of the Cert should be .jks
VPN for access to the network.
RDP for access to Integration Web Server.
Admin User with ability to install software and URL to Colleague UI for Dev/Test accounts.
Hostname of the Colleague Server (IP address or domain name).
The path to the app server. Can be obtained through SA Valet or the DWEB screen in Colleague UI (e.g. J:/Ellucian/coll18/test/apphome).
Provide Database Listener Port.
Colleague Service Account (Username & Password).
Unidata Server Login (Username & Password). Typically the same as the Colleague Service account).
Colleague Studio access for Development/Test accounts.
Upcoming expiration dates of SSL certificates must be provided and the requirement is two weeks notice.