A Message to Colleges

CCC Technology Center Releases New PILOT (Beta) Environment for OpenCCCApply

July 15, 2015

On Thursday,  July 23, 2015, the CCC Technology Center will release a new testing environment for the OpenCCCApply applications and staff tools (Administrator and Report Center). The new “Pilot” site will replace the existing QA Environment, currently in use by colleges for implementation and testing.  

PILOT will launch fully functional and fully loaded, with all pre-existing college data, artifacts, user accounts, reports and administrator settings configured exactly as they appear in the current QA environment. (See below for the QA > Pilot Cutover Process and Timeline.)

The PILOT environment contains production-level code, which means it mirrors the student application exactly for the following OpenCCCApply applications:

• OpenCCC Student Account System

• CCCApply Standard & International Applications

• Board of Governor’s (BOG) Fee Waiver Application

• CCCApply Administrator

• CCC Report Center

Current QA Site Reaches “End of Life”

In conjunction with the release of the new OpenCCCApply PILOT site on Thursday, July 23, 2015, the Tech Center will take the opportunity to follow software development environment best practices and deprecate (retire) the current QA environment which has reached end-of-life.  

CCCApply college support services, and the CCC Tech Center IT team, will work with colleges to ensure a smooth transition for IT and Admissions staff (but, assuming all goes well, you won’t even notice that anything has changed).

What does this mean for colleges that are Live on OpenCCCApply?

Not much, really.  Colleges that have already adopted OpenCCCApply will continue to have access to a testing environment (beta site) that mirrors the Production student applications and tools, for testing and implementing additional OpenCCCApply applications (BOG and the International application).

 
There will be NO changes to the URLs you are currently using for the test environment Administrator & Report Center. The only change is the name of the site: PILOT!

User accounts for the QA Administrator and Report Center will not change, and all Administrator & Report Center data, settings, and artifacts (including rules, email messages, supplemental questions, and ad hoc reports) will be migrated over for you. 

QA > Pilot Cut-Over Process & Timeline

The deprecation of the QA Environment will take place on Wednesday, July 22nd.  During this time, access to the QA site will be unavailable to users.  An error message will notify colleges of the cutover and suggest users bookmark the new URLs (which appear below). The new PILOT environment will available for usage on Thursday, July 23rd.

College Access to the New PILOT Administrator & Report Center

To access to the new Pilot Administrator and Report Center, use the same URLs and college credentials you have been using for the retiring QA site tools.  The process should be seamless for college users.  

NOTE:  If you encounter any problems accessing the new Pilot URLs, please visit www.ccctechnology.info and navigate to CCCApply System Alerts category for FAQs or to submit a request for technical support.

College Access to the New PILOT CCCApply Application and BOG Fee Waiver Application

How will this affect colleges implementing now?

Again, the move from the old QA to the new PILOT site for testing and implementation will be very seamless for colleges.  The CCCApply college support team will work with you to ensure the transition of URLs and IP addresses are handled immediately. Any artifacts such as your email rule messages, supplemental question XML files, and custom reports will be moved over to the new site for you.  Staff and Administrator User accounts will not change and you will be able to log in to the staff tools on the PILOT site with the same username and password.  

Colleges who are in the middle of implementing OpenCCCApply, the BOG Fee Waiver application, or plan to adopt the International application, should contact the CCCApply Implementation team to ensure your transition is smooth.  

Terms of Use

Lou - do we want to take this opportunity to define some Terms for use and support of the new Pilot site?  Do we offer support to colleges that have already deployed to OpenCCCApply and no longer implementing (using the Pilot site for setting up and testing)?

Contact Us

For questions related to the QA > PILOT site cutover transition, please contact Patty Donohue, Project Manager, pdonohue@ccctechcenter.org.

For 24/7 online documentation and support, visit www.ccctechnology.info > CCCApply System Alerts   

CCCApply System Alerts Post

Title:  CCC Technology Center Releases New PILOT Test Environment for OpenCCCApply;  Existing QA Site Reaches End of Life

Post:  On July 23, 2015, a new OpenCCCApply test environment will retire and colleges live on OpenCCCApply will no longer have access to the OpenCCCApply QA environment. Colleges should transition seamlessly to the new Pilot environment, including all college test artifacts and user accounts. The process of migrating users from QA to the new Pilot test environment is available on the CCCApply Project Site > Development.  

CCCApply Category Page Posts

TBD

FAQs for GS Site

• • Question: “I am trying to test a new email rule for CCCApply and I can’t access the QA Administrator site.  I’m getting the following error message:  XYZ.  Is there a problem with the site?
    
    Answer:  On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, the OpenCCCApply QA environment will retire and will be taken off-line.  On Thursday, July 23, 2015, colleges will be directed to the new Pilot environment for the student applications, Administrator & Report Center.  
    
    For more information about the new OpenCCCApply Pilot cutover process and timeline, see A Message to Colleges…”  

Pilot Environment Benefits:

• • Will match Production after a new Production release

  • Will be used to demonstrate upcoming release features and functionality prior to a release to Production

  • Secure, stable environment for testing and onboarding new colleges

  • ?  Load