rSmart Blog Posts: Kuali
Blog posts from the rSmart team about specific topics in Sakai, Kuali, open source, education and technology.
Tips for Tailoring KFS User Guides
When your institution implements the Kuali Financial System, your users will be successful more quickly if you provide customized user guides that reflect your unique KFS configuration and financial administration processes. Such guides are not replacements for user training. They serve, instead, as day-to-day references that help users work effectively with your KFS system and the associated procedures and processes.
The importance of understanding dependencies between modules in the Kuali Financial System
Before you start building your institution's data elements and chart(s) of accounts, you need to understand the dependencies within the Kuali Financial System, especially dependencies between modules. For example:
Selenium Scripts for Kuali Financial System Posted on test.kuali.org
Several weeks ago, I posted information about Selenium test scripts I've been creating to verify functionality in the Kuali Financial System. Approximately the first two dozen scripts have now been posted here as part of the Automated Testing (scripts) Project for KFS.
The test scripts that have been posted to date on the Kuali site are automated Selenium IDE scripts that can be run in FireFox.
We will continue to add more scripts to the list in the next several months and beyond. Additionally, the page will also list automated scripts for Selenium RC that can be run in other browsers.
To use the Selenium test scripts:
Deploying different instances of the KFS with different CAS configurations
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We've come up with a way to deploy different instances of the KFS (such as test, production, and development) such that only the production deployment is configured to use the production CAS, while dev & test use the builtin CAS that comes with KFS. Most institutions want single sign-on in their production system but not in their test or development system. At San Joaquin Delta College we've addressed the differing CAS configurations by creating multiple versions of the source code file in which CAS is configured (web.xml). The build uses a different file depending on which instance is being built. This approach has saved us a lot of time because we don't have to change the code in this file each time we build.
Mike DeSimone
Sr. Technical Consultant
rSmart
KFS Accounting Line Import Feature Helps You Work Efficiently
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As I explained in earlier posts, global e-docs are among the most helpful features in the Kuali Financial System. Another time-saving feature of the system is mass import of accounting lines and other data. This feature is especially helpful when users have multiple lines of accounting data to enter and do not want to enter each line separately. Using this feature, they can quickly enter data into an import template and then upload it into the appropriate electronic document.
NACUBO Article Reports on Kuali Financial System Implementation Successes
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Publication of Anna-Louise Jackson's insightful article, "Going for the Bold" (Business Officer Magazine, February 2010), confirms what the Kuali Community has long contended—that collaboratively developed administrative software provides enormous benefit to higher education institutions of all types and sizes.
More on KFS Global Documents
Here's some more info on one of my favorite features in the Kuali Financial System—global e-docs. I told you about the Account Global document last time I posted. This time I'll introduce Account Delegate Global.
Account delegates are KFS users that are authorized under certain circumstances to take workflow actions on a document in the place of an account's fiscal officer. The Account Delegate Global document allows users to create delegates for multiple document types on one or more accounts on a single document. Like other global documents, it's quite a time saver.
The Bliss of Global e-Docs
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Before being introduced to the Kuali Financial System, I'd never worked on a financial application that provided a global change feature. When I saw global e-docs in KFS for the first time and realized what a time saver they are, I felt like saying, "Where have you been all my life?" This functionality remains one of the things I like best about the KFS, so if you're unfamiliar with global e-docs, I'm happy to have this chance to introduce you.
Turning on the ClearCacheJob in the 3.0 Kuali Financial System
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One of the batch jobs that was used often during development was the ClearCacheJob. However, just prior to 3.0 release it was removed from the default list of jobs. For some schools, it's still a nice job to have around.
Please note that this batch job is not perfect. Even though it would seem from the name that it should clear all the caches, in reality it does not and what it does clear out is sometimes inconsistent. So use it carefully and if all else fails, restart the application server.
To turn the ClearCacheJob back on, in your spring-sys.xml file make the following changes (either add the values to the lists, or even better, add this code directly to your own version of spring-sys.xml so you don't change any core code):
