WIU's Blackboard 8 CAS Custom Auth Module, Available, free and open source

Just Released: Blackboard 8+ CAS SSO Custom Authentication Module, from Western Illinois University.

http://www.codepin.org/project/cassso/

This CAS SSO Module for Blackboard 8+ is intended to replace the previous CAS SSO authentication module for WebCT Vista 4+ once made available at http://devnet.webct.com, and later moved in 2007 to the project space on Oscelot GForge at http://projects.oscelot.org/gf/project/wct-cas/.

This module is a complete rewrite of its predecessor. It is a complete Maven 2 project with the following features:

1. Supports CAS 2.0 and CAS 1.0 protocols. This is configurable via the module's configuration page in Blackboard.
2. Supports a Nulled Trust Manager configuration. This is, SSL Cert CA Trust can be turned off or on via the module's configuration page in Blackboard.
3. Provides for an audit log via Blackboard's Log4j configuration. Every user-attempted authentication via the module can be logged. Since it is implemented via Log4j, the audit messages can be logged to a database, or remote logging server.
4. The cas-client subproject, used by the module, is a minimal CAS client library that can be used in any Java application to help with managing validation with a CAS server. It does not require any 3rd-party library dependencies.
5. Though not tested, the module should also work in WebCT 4.2.1

Source code and compiled binaries are available for download from the project's web site. A complete installation guide is also available online.

This Blackboard 8.0 CAS SSO Custom Authentication Module is created, distributed, and supported by Western Illinois University.

Module XML::TreePP::XMLPath verison 0.63 released

Version 0.63 of the XML::TreePP::XMLPath PERL module is released on CPAN.

It can be downloaded from the project web site, http://www.codepin.org/project/perlmod/XML-TreePP-XMLPath/ , or from CPAN, http://search.cpan.org/~rglaue/XML-TreePP-XMLPath-0.63/ .

This release fixes a bug exposed in PERL 5.13.1 and higher regarding the sharing of local variables with a sub reference. Replaces the Data::Dump module with Data::Dumper for cloning XML Structures. Data::Dumper quotes hash keys, which is less problimatic in Perl 5.13.1 and higher.

Module XML::TreePP::Editor verison 0.12 released

Version 0.12 of the XML::TreePP::Editor PERL module is released on CPAN.

It can be downloaded from the project web site, http://www.codepin.org/project/perlmod/XML-TreePP-Editor/ , or from CPAN, http://search.cpan.org/~rglaue/XML-TreePP-Editor-0.12/ .

This module is used to edit an XML::TreePP parsed XML Document, using XML::TreePP::XMLPath .


This version replaces the use of the Data::Dump module with Data::Dumper.
In the latest version of PERL (5.12.2 tested) the eval function does not like unquoted HASH keys which begin with the dash "-". Thus, the test cases broke with this version of PERL. Data::Dump does not quote the hash key, so its use was replaced with Data::Dumper which does quote the hash key. It is used to clone XML structures.
The XML::TreePP module uses the dash "-" as default (configurable to optionally use "@" instead of "-") to indicate attributes of XML elements. So the XML string "is represented in PERL structure as "{ element => { -attribute => 'value' } }" with Data::Dump, and as "{ element => { '-attribute' => 'value' } }" with Data::Dumper .

A word of advice for job-seekers

This is a response I wrote (their edited version of it) regarding an article Zeichick’s Take: Developer jobs and the market, on how do job-seekers find jobs in today's economy. It was posted in Letters To The Editor, Software Development Times, October 1, 2010

Alan Zeichick, regarding your question, in your Aug. 30 take (www.sdtimes.com/link/34587), “What do you tell job hunters in this economy?” The answer is simple... Move!

The answer sounds ridiculous. Why move without a job first? But when I say move, I don’t necessarily mean move physical locations (though that will eventually require a physical move). I mean move your job search to a different, low population area of living.

For these last 10+ years, I’ve worked at the Center for the Application of Information Technologies, Western Illinois University. The Center is located in the rural town of Macomb Ill., past corn fields 70 miles from several major surrounding cities (Quad Cities, Peoria, Springfield, Quincy), and other mid-size cities. It’s also a four-hour drive south from Chicago.

One of the most challenging things our Center faces is finding, and wooing, potential employees. We are not able to attract and hire individuals that work in bigger areas for the following reasons, as has been told to us by actual candidates:

1. “Your review process took too long!” (The government requires a certain length of time to keep a search open and review candidates, and it takes longer than a corporation that can close the search when it finds the right candidate.)
2. “You do not pay as much as the corporate equivalent.”
3. “I don’t want to work at a government job.”
4. “You pay taxes out of your paycheck! And you won’t pay me more to compensate?”
5. “You need to offer me as much as I would get for the same job in Chicago.”
6. “Macomb is too small of a town.” (The candidate preferred to work in a large suburb of Chicago where the commute is more than an hour away every day.)

There are lots of jobs in small communities across the United States that require the expertise of people described in the article. But many of these people confine their job searching to these types:

1. Jobs only located in their preferred area (usually excluding small towns where they never expect to find a job).
2. Jobs only located in major cities.
3. Jobs advertised in only major media (Monster, major newspapers).
4. Jobs that pay a preferred minimum salary. The cost of living and quality of life of the area are never considered.

But there are benefits beyond the salary. Some of these are specific to the Center as an employer:

1. Once you get a job by an employer like us, it is typically more secure than the corporate equivalent.
2. Government benefits are guaranteed by the state constitution, and will remain even if the employer closes.
3. Being a government agency, employees have non-taxed investment options.
4. The non-financial benefits are better than the corporate equivalent. For our university, a few of these are:

a. Six weeks paid paternity or maternity leave.
b. Holidays are mandatory vacations not subtracted from your benefits.
c. You earn two vacation days a month, and 12 sick days a year.
d. You can save up to 48 vacation days, and you don’t have to earn seniority first.

5. The working day is 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., five days a week. Corporations typically require more time per day, plus required overtime.
6. The typical one-way drive to work for an employee is five minutes.
7. The local school system is above par.
8. There is a highway from Macomb to two major cities, and two more highways are being built.
9. The cost of living is more than 30% lower than the Chicago suburbs.

I can go on about the benefits of working at small business, government and higher-education jobs. But employers like us are routinely overlooked because job-seekers draw a line in the sand: The financial compensation and location must meet their expectations, or forget it.

So I say to job-seekers who cannot find a job: Get out of your comfort zone! Move your job-seeking to a low-population area, don’t limit your search to what is given on major advertising channels.

If you stay in a crowded area, you become a dime-a-dozen and can be over looked for opportunity. But in our less dense areas, you are the big fish we have been hoping to catch... and you have more room to continue growing in your field of work than you think.

Russell E Glaue
Western Illinois University

Since the publication of this letter, I been asked via e-mail from readers a question like, "I have been using major job boards like Dice and Monster. Which job board sites do you suggest using to look for job opportunities in smaller communities?" My response to this question follows.

http://www.higheredjobs.com/
Searching for "Western Illinois University" will show you all of our available jobs.

http://www.usajobs.gov/
The Federal Government's Official Jobs Site

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Work_for_the_Government.shtml
Use this page to help you begin the process of applying for federal, state, or local government jobs.

To find other resources, search Google for "jobs government", "jobs local government", "jobs higher education", etc...

Avoid using major job boards like Monster.com, and Dice.com to look these kinds of jobs. The reason is because government agencies, non-private Colleges and Universities, small businesses, and non-profits will usually not post there due to the very high cost they cannot afford (unless they get desperate trying to find someone to fill a position). Those job boards were built and priced with commercial organizations in mind.

With the major job boards like Monster and Dice, it cost from $500 to $1000 to put up a single job posting. Major news papers are worse, as you only get into a single weekend news paper for $600, with a very tiny ad. A nice big ad will cost $1000+. Non-commercial entities just cannot throw away money like this when trying to hire the lower-totem-pole positions like Systems Administrator, Application Programmer, Quality Assurance/Life Cycle Analyst, etc. The money is just not there, and many times a government or higher-ed organization is restricted by rules and regulations from spending over a certain dollar amount. So one monster.com ad posting can use up a lot of the allocated dollars they have for hiring - and the Search Committee won't do that. Instead, the Search Committee will elect to post the job announcement in the job boards I listed above.

Module Getopt::LongUsage version 0.10 released

Version 0.10 of the Getopt::LongUsage PERL module is released on CPAN.

It can be downloaded from the project web site, http://www.codepin.org/project/perlmod/Getopt-LongUsage/ , or from CPAN, http://search.cpan.org/~rglaue/Getopt-LongUsage-0.10/ .

This is the module's initial release. Getopt::LongUsage is a pure perl module that describes the usage of Getopt::Long options in human readable format.

Module XML::TreePP::XMLPath verison 0.62 released

Version 0.62 of the XML::TreePP::XMLPath PERL module is released on CPAN.

It can be downloaded from the project web site, http://www.codepin.org/project/perlmod/XML-TreePP-XMLPath/ , or from CPAN, http://search.cpan.org/~rglaue/XML-TreePP-XMLPath-0.62/ .

This fixes a bug for getValues() method. This method would not return the value of an attribute if the value was "0" (zero).

Module XML::TreePP::Editor verison 0.11 released

Version 0.11 of the XML::TreePP::Editor PERL module is released on CPAN.

It can be downloaded from the project web site, http://www.codepin.org/project/perlmod/XML-TreePP-Editor/ , or from CPAN, http://search.cpan.org/~rglaue/XML-TreePP-Editor-0.11/ .

This is the first public release of a new module.

This module is used to edit an XML::TreePP parsed XML Document, using XML::TreePP::XMLPath .