SED-Core Database
Purpose
This database will house standard SED-wide information such as degree codes, HEGIS codes, room numbers, and publicly available faculty staff directory information.
By housing this information in one place, we can make sure all the other databases that need this information pull from the same pool and do not have to re-invent the wheel, cart, AND horse.
Tables
- Buildings
- Floors (important for floor plans)
- Rooms
- People
- Room Use Codes
- Departments
- Ranks (for people)
- Units
- Degree Programs
- Hegis Programs
- Room Occupants (you can't just use a room field in People. That is for their office. For facility purposes, a person can "occupy" multiple rooms.)
Dependant Data Bases
- SED-IT (rooms and people)
- SED-Grad-Admit-* (people and hegis tables)
Schema
People
For people, "Login" is the key field. So for "user@bu.edu" their login is "user". It is guaranteed unique by BU. In the unusual case of someone not having a login their external email address can be used.
We use Login instead of Email address for key field because some users don't like to publicize their email address. I could create a "Private Email" field if needed.
The other reason we use Login is because it is shorter which helps with dual field pop-ups.
Rooms
The key ID field for rooms is "SED 125" for "Two Silber Way, Room 125". This is far more stable than an address as seen by the address change in 07/2008.
HEGIS Programs
For HEGIS programs the situation is a bit strange. For Subconcentrations and Minors, the Parent HEGIS code is important. For the Majors/Degrees, the Parent HEGIS code is a copy of the HEGIS code to allow for better sorting.
Not only that, it allows for better relationships to programs. See the Graduate Admissions system for details.
