This is vital to improving the resilience of the service, as we’ve had several incidents over the past year with providers launching long-running queries in web-link. Long-running queries may be experienced when very few, or even no criteria are entered in the search fields, and the system is required to display significant amounts of data. The issue is further exacerbated when multiple users are signed in at the same time, using a generic set of credentials.
Search queries must now contain at least one of the following:
- a full Personal ID
- a full surname
- the first three characters of a surname followed by an asterisk (e.g. Smi*)
Applicants with outstanding decisions can be found on the Outstanding Decisions List (ODL), and those with different statuses are displayed in the management information view.
It’s appreciated that some providers previously used web-link to return all data relating to their university/college, or a specific course. However, the risk placed on the service in doing so is significant. The alternative options are to:
- use the ‘export data’ menu under the management information option. The ‘Applicant Data 5’ spreadsheet will provide details on applicant choices, courses, and replies. If you receive a warning message because you are processing large volumes of data, you must use odbc-link, xml-link, or define a Personal ID/surname in the web-link main search
- use odbc-link or xml-link, if you have access to these services