Barbara Baughman

Home page for Barbara Baughman

Systems Analyst at the University of Texas at Dallas

To send me email, click here.

To see my howto notes to setup a web application with Jakarta Tomcat and Velocity, click here.

Some other projects I'm working on are:

A web application that provides UTD users with a general user account management tool.

Valid UTD users may login and perform some changes to their computer accounts online at UTD. At present, these functions include:

Change their PEA (personalized e-mail address).
Change their password.
Renew computer accounts sponsored by the user.
Maintain their personal set of security questions and answers.
Get their UTD netid and PEA and set their password when first becoming a user. At this time, they also set their security questions and answers.

User must login. Depending on the files available for download, it checks against the database table to see if the user is authorized to download the set of files for this application.
Uses Log4J to keep records of what users downloaded what files. This is necessary in all the applications for legal purposes.
Status: up and working using Tomcat, Velocity, Log4J.

Web application that provides support tools for the Help Desk and Information Resources staff. These tools generally support the user account management tools available to users, so staff can change the database when necessary for common user problems.
- Allow Information Resources staff to review user requests to change their PEA (Personalized email address). It simply presents the pending name requests and allows the staff member to censor name requests as appropriate.
- Allows resetting the 'password set' flag or changing a user's birthdate. With a certain configuration of the flag and birthdate, a user may go online and set their password without knowing their current password or security questions.
- Allows selected individuals to update information about user's access to UTD's internet service.
- Status: up and working using Tomcat, Velocity, Log4J
Rewriting an application to allow selected users to read and update information in the user database. This will also coordinate updates between the Oracle database, LDAP server, and Active Directory server.

Generate mass e-mailings to users to remind them of actions that are necessary to maintain their accounts. Written in java using Velocity and log4j and javamail.

Sponsored accounts must be renewed at least annually, but the expiration date may be set by the sponsor to any date. Renewals can be done online. E-mail reminders are used to:

Tell the sponsor when accounts will be expiring.
Notify database administrators when expiring accounts are no longer sponsored by a valid sponsor.
Notify users that their sponsored account is expiring.
Notify database and server administrators when accounts expire.

All e-mail messages sent are logged. If the sponsor does not renew the account online, these logs are kept as proof that the sponsor was notified and by inaction chooses to allow the account to expire. This application, plus the online renewals, eliminates a lot of paperwork for sponsors.
A batch program regularly updates the database to "unsponsor" accounts that have not been removed, thus removing any computer service privileges associated with the particular sponsorship.
Status: up and working.

All passwords must be changed at least annually. Users are sent a reminder e-mail before the password expires. The password can be changed online at any time.
If passwords are not changed within a year, a new password is generated by an algorithm that selects characters at random. This effectively removes their use of computer services on campus. Users can go online and reset their password if they know the answers to their security questions.
Status: up and working

All accounts have a life span. When they reach a point where the service level will be lowered, warning emails are sent to the user.
A program regularly checks the aging date on the user's account record and reevaluates the appropriate service level. Changes are made automatically to the Oracle database and propogated to other systems on campus.