ODS – Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is FERPA?
    • Usage of student data is restricted under FERPA guidelines. These guidelines require a need to know for educational purposes and information about students cannot be shared without a signed statement from the student.
    • Please read FERPA Policies prior to accessing Student Data
  • How should I get started?
    • Usage of student data is restricted under FERPA guidelines. These guidelines require a need to know for educational purposes and information about students cannot be shared without a signed statement from the student.
    • Familiarize yourself with the Operational Data Store (ODS) and the Data Dictionary in order to determine the types of data you will need access to.
    • The most commonly-used views have been organized into roles. You can request access to these through AAR, then clicking on the “Data Access Request” link. If you need access to additional views, consult with your Data Steward in order to determine which views should be requested and then please complete the form in order to be granted access to data that you need.
    • Once access has been granted, you next need to install software/configure your computer in order to connect to ODS. There are many tools that you can use to access ODS. Please see “What software will I need to connect to/query ODS” below for further information.
  • How do I get access to data on campus?

    Please see IT: Electronic forms for information on how to be granted access to restricted data at CSU. Also don’t forgot to read the section on “How should I get started?”

  • What software will I need to connect to/query ODS?
  • How do I tell if a student is enrolled for the current semester?

    QUERY: Select * from CSUS_TERM_INFO_CUR

  • What are the policies on storing data?

    See IT: Policies & Standards for information on data storage.

  • What is ARVID and how does this differ from Finance subject areas?

    ARVID was created for Accounting Reporting views. It contains data from Accounts (COA), Assets, GL, Object Codes, Purchasing, Vendors and KFS Document Routing. BFS created the purchasing views to be able to connect Requisitions, POs, Receiving, and Payment Requests which are all related KFS documents. This information can also be found in the Finance Subject Areas views, but the report writer will need to connect the information (whereas much of this is done for you in ARVID).

  • How do I access data in the ODS from my PC?
  • I am running a query and I get an error that the “table or view does not exist”. How do I get past this?
    • Confirm you have correctly typed the name of the table or view.
    • Confirm you have access to that table or view. You can do this by checking which views are available in the roles you have been granted. If the view is in a role you do not currently have, you can request access to the role that it goes with.
    • Refer to the section ‘ODS Data Dictionary Documentation’ to see the various reporting roles and views.
  • How can I request access to a table or view?

    Refer to the “How do I get access to data in the ODS?” section on IT: ODS.

  • How can I stay up-to-date on what is happening with the ODS?

    Subscribe/Unsubscribe to the ODS_L list serv

  • What is PIDM and PERSON_UID?

    The Banner system uses the field PIDM as the record key field. The ODS uses both PIDM and PERSON_UID as the record key field, and they are interchangeable. When running a query, specifying the PIDM/PERSON_UID value will often improve speed/performance. If you are using a query that uses 2 or more views, they should be joined together with the PIDM/PERSON_UID. INT_REF_ID_ARIES is another synonym for PIDM and PERSON_UID.

  • Why are there so many views in the Data Dictionary that I don’t seem to have access to?

    Access to ODS data is not automatic. You need to request it. Please refer to section on How do I get Access to Data in ODS. This will explain the steps involved with the data access approval. The dictionary will provide documentation on all reporting views, including ones that you may not be able to query.

  • Why is the Data Dictionary missing so many descriptions of column/field names and even view descriptions?

    DoIT publishes the Data Dictionary to assist campus users who need to write reports. However, we are not the functional area experts who are most familiar with the Student, HR, and Financial data. We will work closely with these functional experts to define the missing information.

  • What is a view or reporting view in ODS?

    Many report writers are familiar with database tables that store the university information. The ODS was developed to provide access to this information in the form of views. The views will join one or more tables together using some rules (like exclude a person with deceased_ind = ‘Y’). For the most part, you can consider a view to be a table (although it may provide data from one or more tables).

  • How Do I find out Who My Data Steward is?

    See IT: Data Stewards

  • How do I know if a student has requested their information to be confidential?

    In the csug_gp_demo view, there is a field titled confidentiality_ind. If that column is ‘Y’, the student has requested that all of their information, including what is considered by CSU to be directory information, to be confidential. This means you cannot release or publish any information about that student and you cannot contact that student without the student presenting a photo id in person to you. This is similar to seeing the red confidential flag on the top of the ARIESweb screen when you look up the student. Please respect these students choice not to have their information released. Release of information for a student with a confidentiality_ind of ‘Y’ is a violation of FERPA regulations.