FAQ

  1. What is ATLAS?
  2. What happened to DARIN?
  3. How do I access ATLAS?
  4. How do I access Research Profiles?
  5. How do I access President's Letters?
  6. Where is the contact information for the Advancement staff?
  7. How do I sign in to ATLAS?
  8. I keep getting the Security Information text as I move about within ATLAS. How can I get rid of it?
  9. How do I return to the home page?
10. Whom do I contact for help in using ATLAS?
11. How do I change my email address?
12. How does content get into ATLAS?
13. Why is incorrect information displayed when I click on a link in ATLAS?
14. If I've already signed in to the Portal, why do I keep have to sign in to DARIN, too?

ATLAS is the name for our password-protected gateway to Advancement tools and information. This kind of gateway, which opens in your web browser and works like a website, is often called a 'portal.' Two examples of portals already in use at Penn are Penn Portal (for students) and U@Penn Portal (for staff).

The idea behind a portal is that it opens (with your PennKey) onto a single integrated workspace where you arrange and use all the specialized web tools and online information you need. The beauty of a portal is that it opens from any computer, whether you're at work or on the road. ATLAS is being released in stages, but when it becomes fully operational you'll be able to do all the same tasks you could with DARIN and IDB -- like searching, browsing, gift processing, and reporting -- as easily as surfing the web. ATLAS's first release focuses on specific content like research profiles and presidential letters. Later releases will add the functions that replace our current IDB and the Gifts system, and more.

ATLAS is built with modular parts designed to work in tandem. Along the top are toolbars -- for searching, building your own list of bookmarks, or customizing how you want ATLAS to appear. Below these toolbars are 'pagelets' -- mini webpages of tools and information which you can display or not according to your needs.

The best way to get to know ATLAS is by using it. To get started, try browsing ATLAS using its Main Menu pagelet, located on the upper left.

You'll be using the new ATLAS interface to access the links that you accessed previously through DARIN. For example:

• Fundraising Schedules on DARIN is now included in the Metrics pagelet
• Email Distribution List is now part of the Penn Advancement Links pagelet
• the DAR staff directory is now accessible using the Advancement Directory pagelet

We're continuing to build content for pagelets, so if you notice a DARIN link that isn't available through ATLAS, please email atlashelp@dev.upenn.edu

Some content will be stored on DARIN in the short term, so you may find yourself being prompted for your DARIN username and password after clicking on links to this content. Ultimately, DARIN will be retired.

ATLAS is located at www.atlas.upenn.edu. Its features are best supported by Internet Explorer 6.0 running under Microsoft Windows -- in fact, IE 6.0 is the only University-supported browser that is also supported by the PeopleSoft products on which ATLAS is based. Other browsers do work, more-or-less, but if you run into problems with these, our ability to resolve them are extremely limited. If you are not using IE 6.0 to access the internet, please contact your Local Support Provider to discuss options.

There are two ways to find a research profile -- you can search or you can browse.

To search for a research profile:
Enter a prospect's name or ID in the search box at the top of the page, then click go. (The ID is the prospect ID that can be found on screen B14 of IDB for individuals or B29 for organizations, not the SSN.) You will then see a list of results. If you want to refine your search further, type in more search terms, click on Search Within Results, and click go. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wild card if you're not sure how to spell the prospect's name. For example, entering alber* as your search term will yield results that contain the names Alber, Albert, Alberts, and Albertson, among others.

When you search ATLAS, you are performing a full-text search of all documents. So you may get results that do not focus on your prospect, but contain that name somewhere in the file. The advantage of this is that you will find all mentions of your prospects, in their own profiles as well as those of family and business partners. Please note that the search is not case-sensitive; that is, you can use upper- or lower-case letters in the search box.

To refine your search further, you may want to perform the function using a specific term for the type of profile you desire. You can use the following terms to narrow research profiles down to the type you want: ratingmemo; leadershipprofile; fullreport.

Another way to narrow your search is by combining terms with the word and in the search box. Suppose you want to find a full report on James Riepe, and you aren't interested in any of the other types of profiles that might exist for him. You would type riepe and fullreport in the search box, then click go.

5. How do I access President's Letters?

There are two ways to find president's letters -- you can search or you can browse.

To search for a president's letter:
Enter any term in the search box at the top of the page, then click go. You can enter a donor's name or prospect ID number, or you can enter a subject term, like scholarship or WHA. You will then see a list of results. If you want to refine your search further, type in more search terms, click on Search Within Results, and click go. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wild card. For example, entering alber* as your search term will yield results that contain the names Alber, Albert, Alberts, and Albertson, among others.

When you search ATLAS, you are performing a full-text search of all documents. In order to ensure that your search yields only president's letters, you can add one of these terms to your search -- DARCOMM or PRESLET.

You can also narrow your search by combining terms with the word and in the search box. Suppose you want to find a letter to David Pottruck that acknowledges a gift to Athletics, but you aren't interested in letters that have gone out to him on different topics. You would type pottruck and ATH and preslet in the search box, then click go. (Another way to do this would be to type one or two of the terms in the initial search box, then use another term to Search Within Results.)

You can use the word or to expand your search. For example, if you entered riepe or vagelos in the search box, your search would yield results that pertain to James Riepe, Gail Riepe, Roy Vagelos, and Diana Vagelos. Please note that the search is not case-sensitive; that is, you can use upper- or lower-case letters in the search box.

To browse for president's letters:
To browse the letters on file, in the Main Menu, click on Browse Content; Presidential Correspondence; then choose the fiscal year that you're interested in; then the School/Center or subject that applies. You'll see all of the letters that have gone out on that topic.

6. Where is the contact information for the Advancement staff?

The Advancement Staff Directory contains contact information for Advancement staff University-wide who have access to ATLAS. You can search this directory in two places:

1. From the pagelet labeled Advancement Staff Directory

2. From the Advanced Search page: Enter as much of the following information as you can in the following searchable fields:

name
title
department
address
phone
email
contains words (for example, consider any words that may be associated with the person you seek.)

After entering your search criteria, click the Look up button.

Note: To obtain the most from your search, click the Search Tips link, then follow the search tips provided.

7. How do I sign in to ATLAS?

The ATLAS url is: http://www.atlas.upenn.edu

Once you arrive at the ATLAS website you will be asked to authenticate yourself using PENN's PennKey authentication system. Within the PennKey authentication system, an individual's username is known as a PennKey. Paired with an associated password, a PennKey is required to authenticate an individual's identity to many of Penn's networked systems and services. Note that PennKeys are all lower-case; i.e., if a person whose PennKey is smith enters Smith or SMITH, authentication will fail.

How do I obtain a PennKey? If you do not already have a PennKey and password, please visit this website to find the PennKey registration station near you: http://www.upenn.edu/computing/pennkey/help/admin.html

Who can obtain a PennKey? Faculty, staff, and students of the University of Pennsylvania; employees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS); and sponsored guests who have an official business need for accessing restricted Penn resources are eligible for a PennKey.

Why PennKey? The PennKey system is based on Kerberos, a security technology developed at MIT. The Kerberos protocol enables individuals to demonstrate that they are who they claim to be without ever transmitting passwords over the network, even in encrypted form. Thus there are fewer opportunities for password theft or unauthorized access to Penn's network, systems, and confidential or personal data. Kerberos also lays the foundation for the evolution towards a "single sign-on" environment over time -- one in which a user would enter a unique ID and password only once a day in order to access several different online services.

More PennKey Information can be found at the PennKey website: http://www.upenn.edu/computing/pennkey/

8. I keep getting the Security Information text as I move about within ATLAS. How can I get rid of it?

9. How do I return to the home page?

ATLAS is a collection of services and content rather than a single, monolithic system. Consequently, you may need to contact the "owner" of specific content or services if you have questions. Also, since ATLAS content is dynamic, the contact points will be added to over time. An up-to-date contact list is available from the Help link located at the upper left of the ATLAS homepage. Here you will find contact information for content and system owners. Included as well is the all-important "I have a question but I'm not sure who to ask" contact point to help you get to the right place.

12. How does content get into ATLAS?

ATLAS uses a technology that allows distribution of the responsibility for publishing content across the organization. Suitably trained and authorized content providers can generate and publish material in their respective areas of expertise and responsibility, using familiar tools like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. Once generated, ATLAS provides tools for loading and approving this content and controlling access to it via role-based permissions. Indexing is performed automatically so that the content of interest can be located using ATLAS's full-text search capabilities.