Panel¶
This page gives an overview of Panel, describing its current status, where and how it's developed and deployed, and who is responsible for maintaining it.
Service Description¶
Panel provides a discussion system for graduate funding, allowing departments to identify candidates for admissions, funding and supervision to assess their potential and select those more suitable.
Service Status¶
Panel is currently live.
Currently there is no planned roadmap for the future of this service; however, the service is widely used to support departments with the graduate Applications and there are regular updates made to the business logic.
Contact¶
Technical queries and support should be directed to uis-cloud@lists.cam.ac.uk and will be directed to Martin Hunt, who is the member of the team who works on the service.
Environments and Client¶
Panel has the following component:
- A web client used by departments to score and assess applicants in the system and to administer their users/applicants etc.
Web¶
Authentication is global and partially governed through Raven. Raven protected sections are under the URL Raven/. Panel has a database with approved users. Environment is decided by URL as listed below.
The Panel web app is currently deployed to the following web environments:
| Name | URL | IIS Servers |
|---|---|---|
| Production | https://panel.admin.cam.ac.uk/ | Dreamer/Executive |
| Staging | https://uatPanel.admin.cam.ac.uk/ | Dreamer/Executive |
| Development | localhost | localhost |
Source code¶
The source code for the Panel can be found at the following URL:
https://dev.azure.com/meh37/panel
The code is spread over the following repositories:
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| BEL | Holds business objects |
| BPL | Holds business processes; knits together BEL and DAL |
| BuildProcessTemplates (Deprecated) | Not currently used |
| ConsolePullDocuments | Used by Computer Lab, this pulls the CamSIS documents into one downloadable zip file they can source |
| DAL | Data access routines, for example a library to communicate by SQL server |
| Database (Deprecated) | No longer used as requires a subscription from Redgate - use SQL instead |
| Documents | A library that can hold documentation |
| EDMSTestingApp | A testing application for EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) - this is a bespoke library that accesses data related to applicants |
| FormsTestApp (Deprecated) | Deprecated project for an unused windows forms application |
| packages | Holds the NuGet packages for the project |
| SQL | Holds SQL change scripts |
| TestConsole (Deprecated) | Deprecated library that holds console app for testing |
| UnitTests | Unit tests around Panel |
| Website | Holds source code for the website |
Technologies used¶
The following gives an overview of the technologies Panel is built on.
| Category | Language | Framework(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Database Server | MS SQL | SQL Server 2019 |
| Web Code | VB.NET | 4.6.1 |
Operations¶
How and where Panel is deployed¶
Web¶
It is important to note that this application does not use docker, rather it is directly installed on the server.
| Server | OS | IIS version |
|---|---|---|
| Dreamer | Windows Server 2012 R2 | 8.0 |
| Executive | Windows Server 2012 R2 | 8.0 |
The websites are set up locally on the E drive on those machines. To keep files in sync a DFS share has been set up between the two servers that can be accessed here:
\\internal\support\IIS_Data
Deploying a new release¶
Web deployment is done through Visual Studio. Profiles have been set up to copy the web files and can be deployed through a right click publish. UIS Windows Server Team are responsible for monitoring the underlying machines.
Admin app deployment is done through copying files to the file server location.
Service Management and tech lead¶
The service owner for Panel is TBA
The service manager for Panel is TBA
The tech lead for Panel is Martin Hunt
NOTE: The system is currently developed and maintained by a single developer; this is a known risk that needs addressing. Effectively at present all roles are being filled by Martin Hunt.