[Wactclc-alma] Patron loads failing at multiple institutions

[Thomas, Kirsti]

Hi folks,

South Puget Sound, Spokane, and Big Bend all report that they've discovered patron loads are failing at their institutions.  You'll want to check your patron load reports and make sure you don't have the same problem. If you're having problems, contact your IT department.

Melinda will post instructions on how to check the patron load reports shortly.

A frequent cause of patron load failure is ctcLink records that contain non-ASCII or non-UNICODE characters.  Your IT departments should be able to examine user records in ctcLink for this problem.


Here are notes about the patron load process that may help you with troubleshooting. Some of the info is specific to Seattle Colleges:


The patron load is a  3 step process:

    Step 1: Extract data from ctcLink (really a special server called DataSync which mirrors data in ctcLink to use for reporting purposes)
    Step 2: Deliver data as zipped XML file
    Step 3: Alma loads data



Step 1: Extract data from ctcLink

John Davis in IT uses a script created in-house to extract current employees and student records into a single XML file.

We have detailed queries that identify students taking classes at multiple colleges and employees who are also currently taking classes. These individuals are assigned a single Alma user group that reflects their multi-campus affiliation and/or the fact that they're simultaneously an employee and a student.

We do NOT track the college that an employee works for-- too many people work at multiple colleges and there's no easy way to report on this in ctcLink. Tracking this information would also make the number of Alma user groups unmanageable.  All employees have the same borrowing privileges across all libraries.

We only include the following employee types in the patron load:

Classified
Exempt
Full-time faculty
Hourly
Paraprofessional
Part-time faculty

As of 04/11/2022 we're loading students when they register for classes, whether they've paid or not. This is different from the old HP/SMS system where we could only extract student data once they had paid (i.e. enrolled).

John Davis has a process that can identify students who show up as registered one day but have dropped registration the following day. John's script assigns these students expiration/purge date = [today]

John Davis and Kirsti have it on their to-do list to figure out how to extract only student records if the students have paid (i.e. are enrolled as opposed to registered) but we're not there yet.

We're also haven't figured out how to use the IT script to update Alma expiration/purge dates when employees leave Seattle Colleges.


Step 2: Deliver data as zipped XML file

The extract job creates a zipped XML file and delivers the file to an FTP server hosted by Ex Libris.

Access to the SFTP server requieres the use of a single authentication key.  See OneNote > Alma-Primo Migration-LTS > Patron Load > SFTP access<onenote:>  (Web view<https://scedu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/kirsti_thomas_seattlecolleges_edu/_layouts/OneNote.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fkirsti_thomas_seattlecolleges_edu%2FDocuments%2FOneNote%20Notebooks%2FAlma-Primo%20Migration-LTS&wd=target%28Patron%20Load.one%7C76717DD1-4F66-4B26-9900-15C0E7B3DD76%2FSFTP%20access%7C2930C9E1-EAAB-44B5-9252-E02FC97C9165%2F%29>)


Details about the XML file requirements are here:
https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/user-management/sis/synch/
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/090Integrations_with_External_Systems/050User_Management/010Student_Information_Systems


Step 3: Alma loads data

Alma runs a daily jobs to process and load the XML file. The load job is configured in:

Alma configuration > Configuring: [Seattle Colleges] > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles > ctcLink Patron Load

The job is configured to run every day at 4:00 am

If you need to run the job manually, go to:

Alma configuration > Configuring: [Seattle Colleges] > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles > ctcLink Patron Load

Select Edit



Select the Actions tab





Scroll down to the Synchronize section and click Run





It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu<mailto:kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>



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