PeopleSoft Preferences Import

An import job setting is provided to allow room characteristic section scheduling preferences entered in PeopleSoft to be imported along with a term’s section meetings as meeting-level room scheduling preferences in Astra Schedule.  These preferences (PrefRuleRoomItems (feature preferences for Section Meetings)) will impact room assignment for a meeting in that term only, and not be recorded as part of a permanent preference set.

There are two PS tables involved in this process.  The first, PS_ROOM_CHRSTC, stores information on which features are available to select.  The second, PS_CLASS_CHRSTC, stores the features that were selected for sections.  These two tables are linked by the ID field “Room Chrstc”.  PS_CLASS_CHRSTC is linked to the section information by the fields Crse ID, Crse Offer Nbr, Strm, Session Code, and Class Section.

PS_CLASS_CHRSTC

• Crse_ID
• Crse_Offer_Nbr
• Strm
• Session_Code
• Class_Section
• Room_Chrstc
• Room _Chrstc_Quanti

PS_ROOM_CHRSTC

• Room_Chrstc
• Effdt
• Eff_Status
• Descr
• Descrshort

Preference Import Rules

1. PeopleSoft room characteristics must be defined in the 'PS_ROOM_CHRSTC' table and their 'DESCR' values must match the text name of room features in Astra Schedule EXACTLY so that a name lookup can be performed to match the appropriate room feature. 
2. Astra Schedule does not import the feature definitions themselves, so users will need to manually enter them in Astra Schedule for the import to work.
3. PeopleSoft room characteristics will continue to be appended to Astra Schedule room feature preferences during subsequent imports. Existing preferences in Astra Schedule are not deleted, but only updated or inserted.
4. Room feature preferences are not exported from Astra Schedule to PeopleSoft.
5. Any imported room characteristic that includes a quantity for a feature that does not support quantities will be set to 1.
6. Room characteristic preferences imported for sections will NOT be flagged as "Required". They will be flagged as "Normal".  If "Required" is desired, please contact Ad Astra Software support.  For more information on preference statuses, please reference Edit Section Scheduling Preferences. 
7. A job parameter (import job form setting) will determine the scheduling weight assigned to imported preferences.