Higher Logic Communities Integration

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT | Recorded: 2022-01-27 | Verify against current system state

Abstract¶

Technical overview of the Higher Logic Communities integration with Aptify for managing discussion forums and specialty practice groups. Covers the web service endpoint architecture, stored procedure customizations to control data sync, committee term mapping, member refresh workflows, and the Higher Logic admin interface for managing communities and troubleshooting member data.

Key Procedures¶

• Create committees in Aptify with proper terms and start/end dates
• Add members to committee terms with titles (state, role type)
• Customize HL stored procedures to filter which committees sync
• Create database objects in Aptify Smart Client before modifying in SSMS
• Set up cached changed persons via SQL job for performance
• Use Higher Logic admin to refresh specific members or groups
• Debug member data using Connected Community user data display
• Add new communities by modifying stored procedures with UNION statements
• Test changes in QA Aptify before promoting to production
• Update community names in Higher Logic admin (doesn't sync from Aptify)

Notable Statements¶

• 0:00:20 "Specialty practice groups are groups that members can pay $20 and then they have access to a discussion forum."
• 0:00:50 "It previously was an Aptify discussion forum, but the UI was pretty bad. We decided to switch over to Higher Logic."
• 0:01:37 "We actually customize it just a little bit to only return specific committees that we're interested in."
• 0:04:20 "This is just an endpoint that Higher Logic can call and return the information."
• 0:05:09 "Almost all of their endpoints are just calling a stored procedure and then returning the results."
• 0:06:00 "The stored procedures have to live or first be created in Aptify under database objects."
• 0:07:42 "If someone happens to come into this database object and recompile, now the changes I made through SSMS are gone."
• 0:10:04 "In general, Keith, we stay out of the Aptify database at all costs, production at all costs."
• 0:14:52 "We found that the code they wrote was taking a really long time to run... so instead we set up a SQL job that creates a cache."
• 0:19:04 "Don't really mess with the endpoints we created for eBusiness. Let it run. Don't change any of the fields or everything will crash."
• 0:23:27 "The first time a committee term gets pulled in, it pulls the title. But then if you change it in Aptify, it doesn't change in Higher Logic."

Systems & Configurations¶

Systems Mentioned¶

• Higher Logic Communities (discussion forums)
• Aptify (AMS, committees, subscriptions)
• eBusiness (web service host)
• SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio)
• AAMPDB (legacy database for meetings)

Specific Configurations¶

Credentials/Access Mentioned¶

• Aptify Smart Client for database objects
• Higher Logic admin for community management
• eBusiness server for web service endpoint

Errors & Troubleshooting¶

• Issue: Stored procedure timeouts during sync
• Cause: Original Higher Logic code too slow for large datasets
• Resolution: Created cached changed persons via SQL job

• Timestamp: 0:14:52

• Issue: Database object changes lost

• Cause: Editing in SSMS then someone recompiles in Aptify
• Resolution: Always edit database objects through Aptify Smart Client

• Timestamp: 0:07:42

• Issue: Member not appearing in forum

• Cause: Person record not flagged as changed
• Resolution: Manual refresh in Higher Logic admin or refresh by group
• Timestamp: 0:21:52

Transcript Gaps & Quality Notes¶

• Multiple speakers including Matt (developer) discussing student forum implementation
• Training session for Keith (new team member)
• References to Teamwork ticket with detailed documentation
• Discussion of topic codes and subscriptions as alternative grouping methods
• Caution emphasized about making changes in production Aptify database