Schools Financial Benchmarking

⚠️ This service is no longer being actively maintained and will be superseded by DFE-Digital/education-benchmarking-and-insights in due course.

Introduction

This application is build using ASP.NET MVC with .Net Framework v4.7 referencing a CosmosDB database NoSQL management system hosted on Microsoft Azure.

Database Dependencies

Data Migration Docs

Disaster Recovery Docs

Dev setup (Front end assets)

Prerequisites

The following tools may be installed directly on Windows, or via Chocolatey. Chocolatey is advised when installing Node via the latest downloaded binaries and will install the VS and Python dependencies below automatically.

NOTE: This solution will not build on non-Windows boxes due to the dependency on C++ binaries used by node-gyp

1. nvm for Windows
2. Visual Studio 2019 Build Tools
3. Python 3.7

Developers may also find it useful to exclude certain paths from Windows Defender in the case of local performance issues.

Steps

1. Open web folder: cd .\Web\SFB.Web.UI\
2. Install correct node version: nvm install 18.12.0
3. Set node version: nvm use 18.12.0
4. Install grunt globally: npm i grunt -g
5. Install node-gyp globally: npm i node-gyp -g
6. Install sass globally: npm i sass -g
7. Install deps: npm i
8. Build assets: npm run build:newAndLegacyDev

NOTE: The webpack build is slow and as at 2024 there will be a large number of warnings about deprecated packages. As long as ./public/assets/scripts/application.js has been generated then build has been successful.

Dev setup (.NET)

When restoring packages in the .NET Framework solution, the private package feed in DevOps will need to be authenticated with. If the built-in credential manager does not work (with 401 Unauthoized errors from NuGet), then try a PAT instead and use Rider to add to the private package feed configuration. Alternatively, register the PAT in the roaming config file at %AppData%\NuGet\NuGet.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
    <add key="SFB.Artifacts" value="https://agilefactory.pkgs.visualstudio.com/fc33e3f0-e73b-466d-837a-10cad68c664e/_packaging/SFB.Artifacts/nuget/v3/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <SFB.Artifacts>
      <add key="Username" value="<USERNAME>" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="<PAT>" />
    </SFB.Artifacts>
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

The following appSettings.config file is needed in the root of .\Web\SFB.Web.UI before the application will be able to run locally:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<appSettings>
  <add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />
  <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
  <add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
  <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
  <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
  <add key="SessionExpireTimeSpan" value="00:05:00" />
  <add key="database" value="sfb-dev" />
  <add key="endpoint" value="https://cm-t1dv-sfb.documents.azure.com:443/" />
  <add key="authKey" value="•••" />
  <add key="SearchInstance" value="ss-t1dv-sfb" />
  <add key="SearchKey" value="•••" />
  <add key="SearchIndex" value="search" />
  <add key="SearchIndexTrust" value="search-trust" />
  <add key="GoogleAnalyticsId" value="UA-123353106-1" />
  <add key="GoogleAPIKey" value="•••" />
  <add key="GoogleTagManagerId" value="GTM-TTHL2RR" />
  <add key="DynamicHeaderContent" value="If you would like to help us improve the usability of the beta site through a testing session, please email &#x3C;a href=&#x22;mailto:[email protected]&#x22; target=&#x22;_top&#x22;&#x3E;[email protected]&#x3C;span class=&#x22;visuallyhidden&#x22;&#x3E; Email link&#x3C;/span&#x3E;&#x3C;/a&#x3E;" />
  <add key="EnableAITelemetry" value="false"/>
  <add key="EnableElmahLogs" value="false"/>
  <add key="SptApiUrl" value="https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk" />
  <add key="GiasApiUrl" value="https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk" />
  <add key="ExternalServiceCacheHours" value="0.5"/>
  <add key="SptApiUserName" value="internal" />
  <add key="SptApiPassword" value="hansgruber1988" />
  <add key="AuthenticationEnabled" value="false" />
  <add key="TestUserName" value="internal" />
  <add key="TestPassword" value="•••" />
  <add key="AzureMapsAPIKey" value="•••"/>
  <add key="RedisConnectionString" value="sfb-dev.redis.cache.windows.net:6380,password=•••,ssl=True,abortConnect=False,sslprotocols=tls12"/>
  <add key="NotifyAPIKey" value="•••"/>
  <add key="UserEmailTemplateId" value="•••"/>
  <add key="DfEEmailTemplateId" value="•••"/>
  <add key="ContactUsUserEmailTemplateId" value="•••"/>
  <add key="ContactUsDfEEmailTemplateId" value="•••"/>
  <add key="RecruitmentEmailTemplateId" value="•••"/>
  <add key="BetaSurveyUrl" value="https://dferesearch.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cUt5o7hpEyXBUOh"/>
  <add key="BMSurveyUrl" value="https://dferesearch.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1ZV7aparOQ145OR"/>
  <add key="SRMEmailAddress" value="[email protected]"/>
  <add key="EfficiencyMetricsUrl" value="http://localhost:4201/efficiency-metric"/>
  <add key="SelfAssessmentUrl" value="http://localhost:4200/self-assessment"/>
  <add key="cookieDomain" value="localhost"/>
  <add key="emCollection" value="20210318000000-EM-2021-2022"/>
  <add key="trustHistoryCollection" value="TrustHistory-20230831"/>
  <add key="SfbApiUrl" value="localhost:44383"/>
  <add key="Feature-RevisedSchoolPage-enabled" value="True"/>
  <add key="UnderReviewSchools" value="138492"/>
  <add key="UnderReviewTrusts" value="8850163"/>
  <add key="UnderReviewMessageForSchools" value="This school's finances are currently under review and may be amended."/>
  <add key="UnderReviewMessageForTrusts" value="This trust's finances are currently under review and may be amended."/>
  <add key="CosmosConnectionMode" value="Gateway" />
</appSettings>

DeprecationInformation feature

Additional configuration may also be included in appSettings.config to manage the service deprecation content. These should also be set as required on deployed app services.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<appSettings>
  <!-- ... -->
  <add key="DeprecationInformation:Enabled" value="true" />
  <add key="DeprecationInformation:Title" value="Schools financial benchmarking will no longer be updated with new data" />
  <add key="DeprecationInformation:Body" value="Find the latest data on the new [Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool](https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/){.govuk-notification-banner__link}.\nThis will include 2023-24 data for maintained schools.\n\nThis service will include all previous financial data available too." />
  <add key="DeprecationInformation:NewServiceUrl" value="https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/" />
  <add key="DeprecationInformation:OldServiceLinkText" value="Continue to schools financial benchmarking (legacy service)" />
</appSettings>

💡 The DeprecationInformation:Body value is CommonMark markdown with the addition of GenericAttributes to help manage GDS styles.