Databridge Installation

Introduction

bksbLIVE2 allows 2 way data communication between bksbLIVE2 and your servers. This is achieved by installing a small web application (the bksb Databridge) on a server within your organisation which then permits bksbLIVE2 to store and retrieve information from the Databridge. This guide aims to assist you in the installation of the bksb Databridge web service.

While the Databridge has been designed to be as flexible as possible to suit our customer’s individual requirements, it is not possible to guarantee compatibility with all MIS systems. However, due to the use of Open Query, the Databridge is extremely versatile and should connect to any database that you have access to.

Known compatible MIS systems include:

• EBS
• Prosolution
• Unit – E
• Capita SIMS
• Maytas

This list is indicative of the compatible systems of the Databridge and should only be used as an insight into its compatibility.

Requirements

The Databridge can be installed on any webserver within your network, providing it contains the following features:

• Windows server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019
• IIS 6, 7 or 8
• IIS 6 metabase compatibility.
• Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5
• ASP
• SQL Server 2008 express or greater (This can be installed via the installation if you do not already have an SQL server to use.)

IIS Installation
The installation file can be downloaded from the link: Databridge Installer

Please follow the steps below to install the Databridge IIS entries.

• Once the installation file is running, you will see the screen below. Click next.
• Select your IIS installation address, providing the Site, Virtual Directory and Application pool that the Databridge will use. Click next.
• The installer is now configured. Click ready to install this configuration.
• The installation will now commence. When completed, it will automatically close the installation window and load the Databridge Configuration Tool.

SQL Server Installation

1. Once the configuration tool loads, click the ‘Install SQL’ tab and you will see the screen below.
2. The screen provides two options. You can either allow the configuration tool to install SQL express 2008 on the current server or launch a manual installation. If you already have SQL installed, you can skip this step by clicking the “Create database” tab.
   1. The automated installation will attempt to install an instance named ‘bksbLIVE2’ on the localhost.
   2. The manual installation will allow you to specify the Instance name.
      • ** Please note: The manual installation must be configured with ‘Mixed mode authentication’. This guide will assume the automated installation has been selected. **
3. You will now be prompted to download the SQL 2008 Express installation media. Specify the download location and click download.
4. Once the file has downloaded, click the ‘Install SQL’ button. SQL 2008 Express will now automatically install the bksbLIVE2 instance. Once this is completed, you will be returned to the ‘Create database’ tab of the Databridge Configuration Tool.

Databridge Database Creation

1. This screen will create the database that the Databridge uses to store the results pushed from bksbLIVE2. Click ‘Select Server’.
2. You can now enter the server details of the SQL server that you would like the Databridge database installed upon.

   Enter the SQL Server name (Localhost if installed on the same machine) Enter the Instance name (bksbLIVE2 if the automated installation was used) Enter the Database name (bksb_clientDatabase) Enter the Database admin account details (or leave ‘Windows Authentication checked) then click ‘Test’. You should see a successful message in the status window. Enter the login details of the ‘bksb’ SQL user of the Databridge database (Default is bksb for both username and password). Click ‘Create bksb user’ Click ‘Test’. You should see a successful nmessage in the status window. Click ‘Save’.

    
3. You can now click each of the ‘create database’ steps which are highlighted in blue. Be sure to click them in numerical order. You should see a successful message in the ‘status output’ for each step.
4. Once you have clicked each step, click the green ‘Save to config’ button then the ‘Next’ button.

MIS linked server configuration

1. On this screen, you will configure the Databridge password (used for linking to bksbLIVE2) and also create the link between the Databridge server and you MIS server.
2. Click the ‘Select Server’ button.
3. Click the ‘Test’ button on both the ‘Database Admin’ and the ‘bksb User’ sections. You should receive a successful message for both. Click the ‘Save’ button.
4. You can now generate the random password that will be used to secure the link between the bksbLIVE2 servers and your Databridge server. Click the ‘Generate Password’ button then select the ‘Save Settings’ button.
   • The ‘Debugging’ check box will help diagnose issues between bksbLIVE2 and your Databridge by logging every call and parameter sent from bksbLIVE2 to the Databridge. This should be left off unless required as large quantities of data are generated when activated.

1. You can now create the link between your Databridge and the MIS server. To do this, click the ‘Create link’ button. You will now see the screen shown on the right.
   1. Here you will enter the details of your MIS server. You should also select the SQL version that the Databridge database is running on (default SQL 2008 Express).
   2. Click ‘Create and Test’.
   3. You will now see a successful message and the link status will change to show ‘BKSBLINK’. The ‘Create linked server’ wizard will only function correctly with MSSQL databases. For other database types such as Oracle, you will need to create the linked server manually. The linked server should be labelled ‘BKSBLink’ to allow the Databridge configuration tool to recognise it.
      

MIS query construction

1. Now that the link to the MIS server is established, you need to enter the queries that will pull the data from the MIS server. These queries will be run via Open Query.
   
2. The Databridge will use five queries in total:
   1. The users query – this will pull the following data from the users (or equivalent) table of your MIS database.
      • Username
      • First Name
      • Last Name
      • DOB (Date of Birth)
      • Email
   2. Groups query – this will pull the following columns from the table where your students are grouped (Commonly ‘Course’ but will vary depending on your MIS system)
      
      • Group ID
      • Group Description
      • Private (This is in place to match the bksbLIVE2 database and should be passed as 0 to allow the group to be visible to all users.)
   3. Group Members query - this allows a user to be a member of a group. It will pull the columns below.
      
      • Username
      • Group ID
   4. Favourite Groups query – this will add groups to users ‘My Groups’. It will pull these columns below.
      
      • Username
      • UserGroupID
   5. Security Group Links query - this allows users to be added to their respective security groups. It will pull these columns below.
      
      • Username
      • Security Group Name
3. To write the queries, click the ‘Query builder’ adjacent to each query. You will then see the screen below where you can enter the queries to query the data of the MIS database. You can use the ‘Preview top 1000 rows’ button to check the functionality of your query before you click 'Save Query'.
   
4. By clicking the ‘MIS Table Browser’ link, you can view the table structure of your MIS system which should help you write your queries.
   
   1. You can use the ‘Filters’ box to filter your results between tables, views and system views. The table structure can be further filtered by using the search facility – simply enter your search criteria and click the ‘search’ button.
   2. Click the ‘Close’ button to return to the query builder.
5. Once you have written each query and saved them, you can now exit the Databridge Configuration Tool.
   • It may be useful to copy the Databridge Password to your clipboard as we will need this in the next step
     

LDAP Connection Configuration

As an alternative to setting up an MIS linked server, the bksb databridge can used to implement LDAP authentication between bksbLIVE2 and your Active Directory system. To configure an LDAP connection, you should click the “Configure LDAP” tab. You will now see a screen similar to below.

Here you can enter the details of your LDAP server and configure which of your LDAP server properties you would like bksbLIVE2 to use.

For example, you may link the “sAMAccountName” of the LDAP server to the Username property on bksbLIVE2.

To set each property, click the “Browse For Property…” adjacent to the property you would like to set. You will now be met with a screen similar to the one below.

To select an LDAP property to use, simply click the property and click “OK”.

** If no properties are listed, you can click the “Populate Properties” button to retrieve the property list from your LDAP server. **

Once you have linked all your required LDAP properties to the databridge you will see a screen similar to the one below.

**Only the Username, Firstname and Lastname properties are required fields. If you do not have any of the other properties in your LDAP server, just leave them blank. **

Here you will need to enter the credentials of a user account within your LDAP environment which will used to test the LDAP connection with bksbLIVE2. Once entered, click “Test” and “Save”.

You have now successfully configured the LDAP connection on your databridge. The final step is choose which authentication mode you would like to use when using LDAP with bksbLIVE2.

Each authentication mode is listed below:

• Default Authentication:
  
  • Users created within bksbLIVE2 will be authenticated using their password stored within the bksbLIVE2 database.
  • Users who don't exist in bksbLIVE2's database will have their username passed to the Databridge to be queried within your specified MIS database. A matched username will create a bksbLIVE2 user account with the default password of 'password' and user details retrieved from the Databridge.
  • Users who don't exist in either bksbLIVE2 or your MIS database will be presented with a "Username and password didn't match" message.
• Databridge (LDAP):
  
  • Users created within bksbLIVE2 will be authenticated using their password stored within the bksbLIVE2 database.
  • Users created by Databridge LDAP authentication will be authenticated against your chosen LDAP setup on the databridge on every login.
  • Users who don't exist in either bksbLIVE2 or LDAP will be presented with a "Username and password didn't match" message.
  • LDAP settings and username mappings are editable within the Databridge configuration tool on your Databridge server.
  • As passwords will be sent to the databridge for authentication we recommend that you assign a SSL certificate to your databridge server and use https:// in your databridge url.
• LDAP Direct:
  
  • Users created within bksbLIVE2 will be authenticated using their password stored within the bksbLIVE2 database.
  • Users created by Direct LDAP authentication will be authenticated against your chosen LDAP setup (configured on this interface when enabled) on every login.
  • Users who don't exist in either bksbLIVE2 or LDAP will be presented with a "Username and password didn't match" message.
  • LDAP settings and username mappings are editable in the "LDAP Settings" box below.

To select your desired authentication mode, you will need to login to your bksbLIVE2 website as an account with admin privileges. In the admin dashboard, under the “Advanced Settings” section, you will see the option to select “Authentication Mode” as shown below.

Use the radio buttons to select your authentication mode to be used between bksbLIVE2 and your LDAP server.

Linking to ProMonitor

If you are using a ProMonitor system to record your students achievements, it is possible to set up and automated task/job to periodically move learner results from the databridge to your ProMonitor database.

To begin, select the “Push Results” tab of the databridge configuration application. Select “Change server” under point 1 and click “test” under both the “Database admin” and “bksb user” sections, then select “Save” to make the “Push Results” tab live.

We can now create the linked server between the databridge and ProMonitor servers. To do this, select “Create Link” under section 2 of the “Push Results” tab. Here you can enter the server details of the ProMonitor server and select “Create and test”.

The “Linked server status” should now be showing “Connected” followed by your ProMonitor server address, as below.

We can now configure the scheduled task/job which will move the data from the databridge to the ProMonitor server. First, select the “Scheduler Type”, choosing either “SQL Agent” (not available when using SQL express) or “Windows Scheduler”. For the purposes of this guide, we will use a “Windows Scheduler”.

Next, select your target platform as “ProMonitor” and then select which result types you would like to push into ProMonitor using the checkboxes, as per below:

• Push IA Results – (Pushes learner initial assessment results)
• Push DA Results – (Pushes learner diagnostic assessment results)
• Push diag modules – (Pushes learner module progress information from their diagnostic result.)

You can now configure the following parameters:

• Log when a username is missing
  
  • (Users who exist in the databridge but not in ProMonitor will be written to the Scheduled tasks log file.)
• Days to retry results
  
  • Determines the max number of days the task will continue to attempt to run following a failure.

The final step is to configure the scheduled task settings in section 4.

First, select “Task Enabled” and then set the “Scheduled Interval”. This will determine how often the data is moved between the databridge to your ProMonitor database.

Once complete, select “Create Task” and you should see a screen as per below.

The task is now configured and learner data will be moved from the databridge to your ProMonitor at the next internal that is configured in the “Schedule Interval” field.

You can test the job now by selecting “Run Task” and then checking if the data has moved successfully to the “Learner_Information_InitialAssessment” table within your ProMonitor database. (This may take a while when running for the first time)

Viewing Results in ProMonitor

Now that the results have been pushed to the ProMonitor database, they can be viewed under the “My Strengths & Development” tab within the Student ILP in ProMonitor.

All Initial, Diagnostic and Skill Check assessments will be shown in the “Initial Assessment” grid within ProMonitor (see below).

The Initial Assessment will show under the “bksb Initial Assessment” type for the relevant subject, with the Mark/Grade showing as the level achieved, e.g., E3 (Entry Level 3).

The Diagnostic Assessment will show under the “bksb Diagnostic” type with the Mark/Grade showing as the percentage achieved at the level of diagnostic taken by the learner, e.g. 65%.

The Skill Check results will show a little differently to the other assessments. They will still be categorised under the “bksb Diagnostic” type for the relevant level; however, the Mark/Grade will display the number of Skill Checks available in that module, e.g. “Skill Checks: 0/1” means the learner has completed 0 of a total of 1 Skill Checks. The Comment will then show the module name, e.g. Area, and the Support column will indicate the learner competency for the module. For example, if the “Support?” box is checked for a module, it was identified as a skills gap of the learner by the Diagnostic Assessment.

Testing the Databridge Locally

1. You can now test your Databridge connection locally by browsing to the following address via the Databridge server internet browser.
   
   • http://localhost/bksb_databridge/service1.asmx

Your Databridge is working successfully if you can see the screen above.

Additional Local Testing

1. You can now test the communication between the Databridge and the MIS server by clicking the ‘GetUserDetails’ button. You will then see the screen below.
   
2. Here you can enter a username that is within your MIS server database. You should enter your Databridge password in the ‘Pwd’ field. Click ‘Invoke’.
3. If your Databridge is successfully communicating with your MIS server database, you will see users Username, Firstname, Lastname, Email, and DOB returned like the screen below.
   

Now that you have successfully tested your Databridge locally you can progress with your installation.

bksbLIVE2 to Databridge connection configuration

1. Now that the Databridge is successfully configured, you need to link it to your bksbLIVE2 site.
   
2. Log into your organisations bksbLIVE2 site and go to the admin dashboard, then click the Databridge section.
3. Use the “state” switch to enable the databridge settings.
4. Enter your Databridge URL. This should follow a similar structure to the one below.
   
   • http://Servername.DomainName/bksb_databridge/service1.asmx
5. Paste in the Databridge password we copied from the configuration tool earlier.
6. Click ‘Test Databridge’. You should receive a successful message.
7. Click ’Save Databridge’.

Your URL will need to be an external IP or DNS entry which is translated via the firewall to the internal IP address of the Databridge server. This will be via port 80 by default or 443 if using SSL. You can set this up via inbound firewall rules.

Databridge URL Security

The link between bksbLIVE2 and your Databridge is secured logically by your Databridge password that we set in the Configuration tool.

However, it is strongly recommended that SSL is used, to ensure data passing between your Databridge and bksb is secured in transit.

You can do this by using an SSL certificate. This will need to be a trusted SSL certificate and cannot be self-signed, the only exception to this is when the self-signed certificate originates from an officially supported root certification authority (such as through LetsEncrypt). Wildcard certificates are also compatible. If you make this change you will need to specify the port change in your firewall rules.

Restrict Accessible IP Addresses

To further secure the link between bksbLIVE2 and your Databridge, you can limit the IP addresses that are permitted to connect to your server, to the bksbLIVE2 servers IP range.

This is listed below:

• 54.77.122.39

This will deny any connection attempt to your Databridge that is not sent from the bksbLIVE2 servers.

Databridge configuration options

You can now configure the Databridge settings. These are explained below.

• Pull Learners
  
  • When activated, if a learner doesn’t already exist in the bksbLIVE2 database it will contact the Databridge to check if the username exists on your MIS System. If it does, the learner will be created with a default password of ‘password’ and their Username, Firstname, Lastname, DOB and email data will be pulled across to bksbLIVE2.
• Push Results
  
  • When activated, upon the completion of an assessment, the result will be pushed to your Databridge database.
• Synchronise groups
  
  • When activated, any group membership information will be automatically updated for the learner when they log in. This ensures synchronisation between bksbLIVE2 and your MIS system. Note that if a learner belongs to a group in bksbLIVE2 which does not exist on your MIS, they will be removed from the (bksbLIVE2) group. However, if they are not a member of any groups within your MIS database then their (bksbLIVE2) groups will be unaffected.

Any additional queries on the Databridge should be directed to support@bksb.co.uk. Alternatively, you can contact our technical support department on 0333 300 3467 and one of our engineers will be happy to help!

Technical Contacts

Here you can enter the details of your technical department. If an error was to occur with the Databridge, the email addresses entered here would receive a notification. Once entered, click the ‘Save Contacts’ button. The email address must be a full address. Multiple contacts should be separated by a comma, i.e. Cory@bksb.co.uk 

Any additional queries on the Databridge should be directed to support@bksb.co.uk. Alternatively, you can contact our technical support department on 0333 300 3467 and one of our engineers will be happy to help.