Table of Contents
Transcript Processing Agent
The Transcript Processing Agent will accept an order from the Document Processor and process the Transcript order item to generate the High School Transcript that will be delivered to the recipient.
Receive Transcript Order Item
The process begins with the Transcript agent receiving the order item that is to be processed.
Validate Transcript Order Item
The order items are originally validated when constructed, however some orders do not get processed as soon as possible, and are held by the system until the order’s required processing date (Control Schedule) occurs. This means that some orders may fail validation at processing time when they may have passed validation at order entry time, due to changes in the data over time. Order items can be entered into the system for approximately a year prior to their required delivery.
The following validations are performed by the Transcript Processing Agent for all order items:
Validation errors orders are stored in a common location regardless of the type of order. Document Errors create an error record in the appropriate table for each validation error that occurs. The system stores both the validation error code and the validation error description in the Document Generation Error table, as these will be transmitted through a separate delivery process (ie. IAE response or APAS response).
Update Document Order Item Status
This table shows what happens to the Document Order Item when a student has a Student Hold or if there are other validation errors.
| Delivery Method on Document Order Item | Student Hold | Validation Error | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| n/a | No | No | Transcripts are produced. Order Item Status = “Ready for Delivery” |
| RequestorRetrieval | Yes | n/a | Order Item Status = “Cancelled” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
| Electronic | Yes | n/a | Order Item Status = “Cancelled” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
| Digital Transcript PDF | Yes | n/a | Order Item Status = “System Hold” Status Change Reason = “Student Hold” |
| Anything other than “ApplyAlberta”, “Electronic“ or “Digital Transcript PDF” | Yes | n/a | Order Item Status = “System Hold” Status Change Reason = “Student Hold” |
| ApplyAlberta | No | Yes | Order Item Status = “Cancelled” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
| Electronic | No | Yes | Order Item Status = “Cancelled” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
| Digital Transcript PDF | No | Yes | Order Item Status = “System Hold” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
| Anything other than “ApplyAlberta”, “Electronic” or “Digital Transcript PDF” | No | Yes | Order Item Status = “System Hold” Status Change Reason = “Processing Error” |
Gather Transcript Content
Once a transcript order item passes validations, a Document Order Item File record will be created that will contain the transcript PDF as well as XML (PESC and PASI version) holding the data that is contained within the transcript.
In order to generate these documents, the following information is gathered and then formatted into the documents:
- ASN, Name and Date of Birth
- Delivery Address
- Credentials and Requirement Exemption information
- Course Mark information and Additional Credits
- External Credentials
The following transcript files are generated for each document order item:
- Document PDF1) holds PDF version of the transcript. See High School Transcript (PDF Specification) for more information.
- The standard transcript pdf file is created and stored. All deliverable transcript content is based on this with different overlays added, as needed.
- A standard transcript Document XML file holding the PASI xml version of the transcript is also generated and stored. See PASI Transcript XML Specification for more information.
Based on the document order item details, where the transcript is to go to:
- For a Digital Official Document Consumer, the Standard Transcript PDF content is overlaid with the Official Transcript overlay for delivery.
- For a printed transcript recipient, the the Standard Transcript PDF content is overlaid with the Official Transcript overlay for delivery.
- Where an ApplyAlberta-enabled organization is a recipient, the standard transcript Document XML file is used to generate a Document PESC XML, for delivery via ApplyAlberta. See PESC Transcript XML for more information.
Note: The actual content of the footnotes come from the code table Document Footnote. This code table holds the English and French descriptions.
PESC XML Generation
See PESC XML Generation in PESC Transcript XML for details on how the xml is generated from the PASI Transcript XML.
Large Document Management
When the transcript processing agent processes a document order item, the number of pages is calculated as the agent builds the transcript PDF. When the Document Delivery Method is “AutomatedMail (Document Delivery Method)”, the transcript will be transmitted to Service Alberta, as part of a print job, for printing and subsequent automated envelope stuffing. If the document has too many pages to physically fit within the envelope that the automated envelope stuffer uses, the stuffing operation will fail. The transcript processing agent must complete the following:
- Recognize when the number of pages it has produced for the transcript PDF exceeds the stuffing machines limit
- Set the newly processed order item’s Document Order Item Delivery Method to “Manual Insert”.
This will allow the printing processes to segregate these order items, in a separate print job, from the “Automated Mail”, and Service Alberta will be tasked with manually stuffing that transcript into a different, larger envelope. The stuffing limit is maintained in a configuration file along with other adjustable parameters for printing. The configuration technical document, Printing Implementation, is located here.
Special Handling
As part of the processing, the transcript processor will set the Special Handling Status to “Outstanding” based on the Document Order Item Delivery Method as follows:
All other delivery methods will have the Special Handling set to “Not Required”.
Document Number Generation
The Document Order Item Document Number uniquely represents the Transcript that was produced and stored. It is initially generated based on the ASN, Order Item and an algorithm.
In order to uniquely identify documents resulting from reprocessing (due to errors) we introduced the idea of a Document Number Sequence. This way, for each successive generation of the document (for a specific Document Order ID) we increase this Document Number Sequence by 1. These two numbers (Document Order Item Document Number and Document Number Sequence) are then be concatenated together to produce the final publicly visible Document ID that is printed on Transcripts and Credentials to uniquely identify them
Update Order Item Status and Processed On Date
As a final stage in the production of the PDF and XML, the Order Item Status of the transcript order item will be updated to “Ready for Delivery” upon successful processing. The Processed on Date is set based on the system date and time at the time of processing, whether successful or when errors occurred.