WebRAT
WebRAT stands for Web-based Role Assignment Tool. A Role is a group defined by specific attributes. WebRAT is a tool used to manage the membership of these groups. Both a Role and the Attributes used to describe that role are kept in our Penn State Enterprise Directory Service (sometimes known as LDAP). Those Roles, these special groups with specifically defined attributes, can be populated with members which can be anyone having a Penn State Access Account userid.
What is WebRAT for?
WebRAT provides a Web-based mechanism for managing authorization to various applications. It uses roles to group University faculty and/or staff together and specifies access restrictions via attributes. WebRAT supports the Penn State Workflow Project's requirement for role-based authorizations, assignment, and management and other role-based applications at Penn State.
Though WebRAT has been designed to accommodate Penn State's Workflow Project, its design is also flexible so that any role may be assigned through its interface. The Workflow Project is overseen by AIS, while WebRAT is overseen by AIT. Currently WebRAT has an ongoing pilot for eBuy notification. This pilot is a joint effort between Penn State Housing, Food Services, and Residence Life, Administrative Information Services (AIS), and AIT. There are plans for future applications to leverage WebRAT as well.
The primary goal for this tool is to better support the University's overall business, academic, administrative, and research transactions. WebRAT provides the interface to support this mission as well as the policies that support Penn State's operational infrastructure. In the future, roles may be used to represent users' multiple affiliations within the University and WebRAT will eventually be used for all University academic, research, and administrative areas.
Where can I find additional information about WebRAT?
- Training Materials
- WebRAT User Guide
- Development RoadMap
- Development RoadMap and Timeline are located in the Penn State wikispaces for WebRAT.
- Even more details...
- Further details about this service are available to Penn State Faculty and Staff in https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/WEBRAT/ including: Development Planning; Software Release cycles; and Functional Testing information.
