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Darwin Settings for u.select Institutions


COM Table Set up

COM Table Set up

A COM table will need to be added in DARwin for u.select. The COM name should match the School ID (formerly UNIQ) value assigned to the school in u.select. If your School ID in u.select is longer than 5 characters, the COM table name should be the first five characters (Ex. If the School ID is TRANSFERCC in u.select, the COM table should be named TRANS).
Fields specifically used for u.select should be set in this COM table. This COM table will be used first in DARwin processing and then the ONL table will be used. Any fields set in both the u.select COM and ONL will keep the settings set in the u.select COM.

Fields to set in the u.select COM

INSTIDQ, INSTID, INSTCD: Should be set with the appropriate value to identify your school.

DEPTBGN, DEPTLNG, CRSBGN, CRSEND, CRSLNG: Set to identify how your courses look.

SINSTID/CD: Used for schools not specifically encoded in DARwin transfer articulation. The value entered indicated the Default DARwin TA used if the Source ID associated with an incoming course does not match any other TA tables. If the Source ID on the Default table is set to "Source," enter "Source" as the COM.SINSTID.

TOPLNECT: The "Top" file that will be displayed at the top of an audit. This is usually an HTML link to a disclaimer for students reviewing their Plans in u.select. The
TOPLNECT file will need to be set by a programmer. When set to -0000 the Top file will not be included. When set to -0001 the Top file will be included.

BOTLNECT: The "Bot" file is extra text displayed at the bottom of an audit. This is usually a link to a Legend for students reviewing their Plans in u.select. The BOTLNECT file will need to be set by a programmer. When set to -0000 the Bot file will not be included. When set to -0001 the Bot file will be included.

LASER: This field should be set to "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

EVALRUN: This should be set to "A" so that articulations occur in Plans sent to DARwin from u.select.

WEBOPTION: Should be set to "1" or "2" if you want a JSP audit with expandable and collapsible requirements. Schools using the DARwin XML interface for Plans in u.select should set this to 2.

GRADEKEY: Set to @GRA.

REVART: Should be set for running a Plan with equivalencies. Set to "R" or "S."

  • R: Shows all of the courses in the "Select From" list along with those that have articulated courses from the transfer school. If there are no equivalencies, it will display "No Equivalencies available."
  • S: Shows just the courses in the "Select From" list that have an equivalent course at the transfer school.

NLC: Number of lines per page

INITFLG: set to C for 1-column reports. If you're going to set up a separate DARwin or daemon to run audits from u.select, set this at the control file level.

NODEGDATE: Should be set to "Y" so that Graduation Date: UNKNOWN does not appear at the top of u.select Plans.

STUIDRPT, NAMERPT: These can replace the value reported by COM.STUID and COM.NAME for reporting the student ID and student name on the audit. The reporting of these fields is dependent on the value specified in COM.SECURE. The DARwin Help Files can be reviewed to understand the reporting. Optional

PREPTXT and PREPDT: These can be used to replace the value on the top of the audit reading "PREPARED: time and date." Optional

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Transfer Articulation Considerations

Valid Codes

DARwin needs to use one of four valid codes to identify schools in order for courses to articulate correctly.
You must use IPED, ATP, ACT, or FICE to identify your school and other schools in the Source ID field for the Institutional Reference (IREF) and Transfer Articulation (TA) tables. These values must match for the same school on the IREF and TA tables for the school.


Ex. Matching and valid codes on the IREF and TA tables
IPED is the recommended code for use with u.select. It is the most widely used code and is still updated by the Department of Education. ACT and ATP codes are ok for use, though not as many schools have these assigned. FICE codes are no longer recommended to use as they are no longer being assigned to schools. Newer schools will not have a FICE code assigned.
If you need to find a code for a school, please use our code finder: http://clients.redlanternu.com/icode
If you cannot find the code you need, please contact Help@redLanternU.com for additional assistance.

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Date Ranges

The First Year Term (FYT) and Last Year Term (LYT) must match on the IREF and TA tables. If you currently use one IREF table with a date range of 000000-999999 with multiple TA tables, this will not work with u.select. You will need to clone your IREF table change the dates to match each TA table. It is recommended that you use six digit dates in DARwin to be sure that it encompasses all possible dates. The date values need to match so that the tables are found to be displayed in the Equivalencies areas of u.select.


Ex. FYT and LYT matching on the IREF and TA tables for the same school

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"Super" Default

In order to accommodate courses from schools who you do not have IREF and TA tables set for, a "super" default and TA table should be set up. These will be used for courses that come in with a Source ID that has no match to your tables. You will need to set up the COM.SINSTID and COM.SINSTCD fields to accommodate these tables. This table should be hidden from displaying in the Course Equivalencies (see below).

Example of Institutional Reference table for Default Institution

Example of Transfer Articulation rule set for Default Institution

For more information about "Super" Default tables: click here


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Default Tables/Reference-Only Tables

While DARwin can use default master reference and transfer articulation tables, u.select needs matching IREF and TA tables and will not display default or reference-only tables. If you are using default tables, you will need to clone the tables so that matching tables are available. Please Note:  Version 4.4 of u.select is slated to have an enhancement (USEL-49) to accommodate reference only tables.  u.select 4.4 is scheduled to be released in July 2010.  If you are newly implementing u.select, please contact the u.select team to consider whether you want to clone your tables or wait for the enhancement to be available.

For more information about default/reference only tables, click here.


Institution Name

In the course equivalencies area for u.select, the Name field (INAME) in the Institutional Reference table is used to display to students. You should use something understandable to u.select users in this field. Also, if you have multiple tables for one school (i.e. one for quarters and one for semesters), you should indicate this in the field.


Ex. Cedarville University as it displays on the IREF table and in u.select

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Course Mask

The Course Mask, Department Begin/End, and Course Begin/End should be set on each Institutional Reference table (course tab). The Department Begin/End and Course Begin/End are used to display the appropriate departments for a school in the Course Equivalencies area.
When a course comes from u.select to be articulated in a Plan, the department begin/end and course begin/end are used to correctly use them for articulation.


Credit and Grade

Courses coming from u.select will have credit and a grade associated with them. Be sure to have the SPEEDE values associated with the school set on the IREF table.


TA Rule Considerations

Each TA table should contain a rule to accept any course that may not have an equivalency at this time. Identifying these courses on the audit will help students and advisors recognize courses that may not have a direct equivalency. Be sure to hide this equivalency from displaying in the Course Equivalencies (see Hiding Information section).


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Hiding Information

There are two ways to hide a school from displaying in the Course Equivalencies list:

  1. Set the Status field on the Institutional Reference table to "H-Hide all articulations from this Institution"
  2. Delete the State value on the address record for the school. (Note: if you need to add the State value on the address record to make sure a school displays, select Edit from the menu bar in DARwin, and then Add Address.)

    If you only want to hide certain articulation rules from displaying in the Course Equivalencies and the Plans with Equivalencies for u.select, you can also hide at the rule level. This is done by setting the status to "H" on the rule level or on the Target Course level.
    Ex. Hiding a rule with mostly the ANYC character from u.select
    You should hide any rules that could be confusing to students (for example, rules that are mostly the ANYC character) or rules that you don't want to advertise on the web to students.

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Rule Display in u.select Equivalencies

Several fields on the TA table will display in u.select:

  1. DP Mask: If a DP Mask is used in the Transfer Articulation table, it will display in the Equivalencies areas as "Limited To: DP Mask value" with the rule. A glossary message can be created in u.select to help explain this DP Mask meaning to students.
  2. Alternate IDs: Alternate IDs will display as "Alternate: Alternate ID value" with the target course. If you do not want the Alternate ID to display, you can set the Hide flag in DARwin. A glossary message can be created in u.select to help explain the Alternate ID to students.


  1. I Flags: I Flags associated with a rule will display as "Satisfies: IFLAG value" with the target course. If you do not want the I Flag to display, you can select the "Hide all I Flags" field in DARwin. A glossary message can be created in u.select to help explain the I Flag to students.


  1. Memos: The memo field on the DARwin TA table will display to a user. You will need to change any memos that you do not want students to see to Private Memos in DARwin.
  2. LimHrs and LimCt: LimHrs and LimCt will display under the appropriate course with the text "For a total of x hours" and "At least x transfer courses must be completed" respectively.

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DARwin Data Located in Different Locations

Set up the following

In DARwin

  1. Set up a COM table to use for u.select.
    • The u.select COM table will have the same value as the uniqID used in u.select.
  2. Clone the u.select COM for each InstCD to create a new u.select COM for each CD
    • name the cloned COM something logical to you
    • Within cloned COM set the following
      • USETADEF = Y
        • Must be set in order to use Reference Only tables.
      • USETARGET = B
        • Determines when to use the COM.TINSTID/TINSTCD values
          • TINSTID: When USETARGET = B this is the InstID of the TA tables to be used for articulation.
          • TINSTCD: When USETARGET = B this is the InstCD of the TA tables to be used for articulation.
      • USEMREF = Y
        • Determines when to use the COM.MINSTID/MINSTCD values
          • MINSTID: When USEMREF = Y this is the InstID of the IREF tables to be used for articulation.
          • MINSTCD: When USEMREF = Y this is the InstCD of the IREF tables to be used for articulation.

In u.select

  1. On each program (when in Manage Programs) set the COM override to the u.select COM where that program resides
  2. On the Manage School Settings page set the CEG School IDQ1, ID1 and CD1 (if needed) to the IDQ, ID and CD that you use when logging into DARwin to access the data you use on campus.

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Degree Audit Considerations

Conditional Requirements

If there are certain requirements or sub-requirements that you want to either show or hide based on if it's an audit being run for u.select, you can set a system condition code to hide or display these requirements. This can be helpful if you want to include a text requirement at the top of an audit for any Plans run through u.select.
To do this:
On the u.select COM table, add a line for CSRUN and set that to C.
Also on the u.select COM, add a line for CASSYSC and set it equal to a value, for example "C" (you'll likely want to use a value other than C, as this is a set system condition code).


Then on the requirement or sub-requirement level (using the alternate view), set the Conditional Req/Sub-Req area to either Accept or Reject the System Condition code set in the COM table (so in our example "C").   This will either turn on that requirement or sub-requirement (Accept) or turn it off (Reject) if the request comes from u.select.
Example of turning off a sub-requirement based on the System CC:


If there are requirements that you want to show or hide based on if a Plan with Equivalencies (Reference Articulation) is run for u.select, a system condition code can be set to display or hide these requirements.
To do this:
On the u.select COM table, add a line for BSYSCOND and set it to a condition code, for example "P."
On the requirement or sub-requirement that you want to display or hide, set the system condition code to the same condition code set on BSYSCOND (In our example "P"). This will display (accept CC) or hide (reject CC) when a Plan with Equivalencies is run.

Eliminating Equivalency Courses for Certain Sub-requirements

The "Exclude from Reference Articulation" (REVARTL) field in the Alternate view of a sub-requirement (General Tab) can hide equivalencies from being displayed in that sub-requirement when a Plan with Equivalencies is run. This will not eliminate the entire sub-requirement from being displayed on the audit, but it will stop the reporting of the Source courses that articulate to the courses in the Select From list.



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Interactive Audit Considerations


If you are planning on using the interactive audit with u.select, you will need to set up a few additional areas within DARwin. If you are already using this on your campus, you may have these areas previously set up.

COM Table

These should be added to your u.select COM table.

EXTOUT: Either value, X or Y, will produce extended output tables containing audit data required for the IA. For u.select, a value of X should be set.

WEBOPTION: The interactive audit requires COM.WEBOPTION be either a value of '1' or '2'. Value '2' provides for each course, in the SELECT/NOT FROM course lists of a sub-requirement, to have a link to other institutionally provided information - such as course descriptions, section availability and registration capabilities. An example of a course link was shown at the beginning of this document.

CMPREND: If using a WEBOPTION value of '2', COM.CMPREND should be set to a value that represents the longest length (department and number) of a real course - not a pseudo course - expected in a sub-requirement course list. Otherwise, a length up to the maximum of 15 is acceptable.

CRPCRSE: Field developed to support reporting bar graphs in the interactive audit. CRPCRSE represents Credit Per Course and will establish a default credit hour value for each course count reflected in the Required Course Count of a sub-requirement/requirement without Required Hours.

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Chart Categories

The Chart Categories table identifies when a special display or graph should be generated for the Requirement Category. Chart Categories should be set up in the Global Tables section of DARwin.
There are seven columns in the Chart Categories area. Category Name is display next to the area on the bar graph. The next five columns: Total Hours, Total GPA, Transcript, Hide GPA and Hide are encoded to define treatment of a graph or display. The last, Description, appears only in the Chart Categories table as a documentation text area.

Total Hours and GPA Chart Categories
These two categories are responsible for generating the pie chart and the vertical blue GPA bar seen at the highest level of the interactive audit under the Audit display. The Total Hours Chart Category column is expected to be marked only for the requirement that is encoded to check for total hours required for the degree program. The Total Hours Chart Category generates the Audit level pie chart and does not generate a Requirement Categories bar graph. The Total GPA Chart Category column is expected to be marked only for the requirement that is encoded to check for a minimum cumulative grade point average for the degree. The Total GPA Chart Category generates the vertical blue GPA bar and also a Requirement Categories bar graph.
Additional documentation for encoding for the Interactive Audit can be found [here].

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Technical Considerations

DARwin Daemon

For u.select Plan requests, a separate daemon is necessary. It must be identified in the daemon.cfg file. Examples and more information can be found in the u.select technical documentation.

Control File

The control file (CTLFILE.DAT) for DARwin audits must be modified for u.select Plans. Plans require: use of the information in the sysin file, a 1-column audit, and not saving evaluation results. Examples and more information can be found in the u.select technical documentation.

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Added by Melissa Brooks , last edited by Melissa Brooks on May 12, 2010 09:21

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