It should be noted that the transformation process proceeds without regard to how the results of the degree audit are to be presented. The results exist as work data within the object and are the same regardless of how they are to be presented. In fact, in the actual situation, those results need to be presented in a number of ways and in a variety of environments. For example, the initial audit by the Registrar’s Office is often presented in an MS Windows interface (shown on the right). Within that interface, the results can be shown in three ways:

They can show the requirements met within a display of all the requirements. (Noted as Type 1 below.)

 

 

 

They can show only the requirements that have been met. (Noted as Type 2 below.)

 

 

 

They can show only the requirements that have yet to be met. (Noted as Type 3 below.)

 

 

 

Because the results of the audit exist within a work-in-progress object, they can easily be modified for different kinds of displays. For example, to turn display type 1 above to display type 2, the whole object is copied (with one statement) and all course entries without a “met” indication are removed. Type 3 is accomplished in the same way, except for removing all the “met” group entries instead. Returning to Type 1 is accomplished by simply going back to the original work-in-progress object. In each case, the same exact Report definition is used. Only the content of the object presented changes.

Another presentation is the printing/emailing of the “official audit.” This is a particular format that is either printed or emailed as a PDF to the student. Part of the Report definition of that document is shown on the right. That definition is simply a mapping of the attributes in the audit object to pages on a document.

In addition to the official audit, a student or advisor can print an unofficial audit for review from the web interface. This contains basically the same information as the official audit, but is formatted in a slightly different manner. It is presented on the web through a PDF, generated through an XSLT form and a XML object, both generated from a Report definition similar to the official audit and the degree audit object. That second Report definition was created by copying the original definition and making a few formatting modifications. Again, the interface (shown at right) provides the same 3 ways to display the results as on the MS Windows interface, using the same Report definition in each case.