Bullseye: Help and Information

Login Screen

Please login using your universal username and password. Enter just your username without the @wwu.edu suffix. If you have questions regarding your login please contact the ATUS help desk (x3333).

By logging in you agree to the WWU Policy For Responsible Computing and the policy on Using University Resources.

A note on availability:  BullsEye is available following the Banner/Hydra uptime schedule.  Because of the close relationship BullsEye maintains to Banner data this is unavoidable.  While you may be able to log in to BullsEye when Banner is unavailable, you will be unable to locate sent messages or create new messages.  If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact the ADMCS help desk (x4444).


Upload a File
* Available to user's with access to this resource

With a properly formatted target list generated from the Job Submission, WWU Data warehouse, or other process , users can target a message to the users (faculty, staff, or students) on that list.   This list can be generated by any process that will produce a list of Western ID numbers, such as job submission, BI Query, or a custom report.  The Western ID numbers provided are matched with account information in Banner to retrieve the correct email address or MyWWU or MyWestern account. 

Format Requirements:

For the target or uploaded file to be processed it must be in PLAIN TEXT (.txt, .lis, etc...) format, with one record on each line of the file. Each record must have Western ID's in the first column of the file.   A file should appear similar to the following example:

W012345678, other data here
W876543210, other data here

There is a limit of 1mb on the size of the file.  Also, files containing more than 5000 lines will only process the first 5000 records.  If your communication is targeted to more than 5000 individuals, consider using a different means of delivery (such as an all-campus email distribution list).  Contact the university communications office for more information.

Select a List:

A user can choose to send a message to all of the students enrolled in a particular course by:

1. entering the CRN
2. selecting the Subject and Course from the drop down lists

A user can also choose to send a message to all of the students with a particular major as listed in Banner by selecting the major from the drop down list. 

These target lists are accurate according the Banner data at the time the selection is made.  

Note:  while the Term selection is required for CRN, course list, and major selection it is only used to determine the correct CRN and course, it is not used in the major selection.  For example; if a user selects a future term and a major the resulting list is not for the majors in the future term but rather for the current point in time.  This holds true for past terms as well.  The Term selection is used for tracking and context purposes in the case of major selection.  That is, the user may be sending an announcement to the current set of majors but the message relates to a future term (i.e., graduation, etc...) so the user would select the future term that the message pertains to.  This allows for a context beyond the subject of the message.

Post an Announcement to All Users:
* Available to user's with access to this resource

Users can post announcements to all users of MyWestern and/or MyWWU.  These announcements are posted very soon after (typically 2-5 minutes) the message is successfully submitted.  Announcements posted using this option will appear in the WWU University Announcements channel in MyWestern and MyWWU


File to Upload:

Users the Browse button to browse to a properly formatted target list located on your PC.   (see above)

File Description:

Used to specify a meaningful name to associate with a  target list for logging purposes.  It may be helpful to describe the file by the date and criteria it corresponds to. 
(i.e.,  "9302004-CBE-STUDENTS")


Select Term:

Select the term that corresponds with the course to which you intend to target your message.

Note: When creating a group message based on Department and/or Employee Type the Term is strictly used for tracking purposes. For all other group messages (CRN, course list, and major) the Term is part of the selection criteria.

Select a Course by Subject:

Target the students of a particular course by locating the course via subject and course name.

Select a Major:

Target students with a particular major as according to Banner data.

Enter a CRN:

Target the students of a particular course by entering a particular CRN .

Select a Department and/or Employee Type:

Target the employees of a particular department and/or employee classification.


Select messaging vehicles:

Here the user can select to send his or her message via email and/or post an announcement to either MyWestern and/or MyWWU. The message will only be received via email or viewed via the web to users on the selected target list.

Announcements posted using this option will appear in the WWU Personal Announcements channel in MyWestern and MyWWU

From:

For email messages:
This must be a valid WWU e-mail address as listed in the Global Address List.

If you have questions regarding the validity of an e-mail address or are experiencing an expected error, please contact ATUS Accounts.

For MyWestern and MyWWU  announcements:
This can be a descriptive name such as "President Morse" or "Admissions Office."

If the user is selecting both email and announcements, a valid email address is required.

Reply To:

This must be a valid WWU email address as listed in the Global Address List.  For announcements the recipient cannot see this address but it is used by BullsEye administrators if there is a problem with the announcement. 

For email messages the recipient will be able to reply to this address.  For this reason, the user may prefer to give this address as the shared or group mailbox for his or her department rather than an individual address.

If you have questions regarding the validity of an e-mail address or are experiencing an expected error, please contact ATUS Accounts.

Note:  for email messages it is reasonable to expect some number of sent messages to be rejected ("bounced" in email terms).  With this in mind, especially when sending a large number of messages, it is prudent to plan on these returned email messages - either by making sure there is sufficient mailbox space in the supplied "Reply To" mailbox or specifying an address with no limit on the mailbox space.  In addition, these returned messages may be a valuable tool in keeping your (Banner) records current as they indicate invalid email addresses.

Subject:

The subject can be a maximum of 255 characters in length and cannot include any HTML or formatting.  However, the maximum readable length of ths subject for both email and announcements is approximately 40 characters. 

Official Communication:

Per the university communication guidelines.  This can only be used if the vehicle you have selected is email and the targets are students. By checking this box, users will prepend the subject with the words "WWU Official Communication -".

Post Date:

The data on which the message was sent/posted.   Currently this is always set to the current date and cannot be modified.

Expiry Date:

Applies to MyWestern and MyWWU announcements only. Your announcement will expire at 12:01 a.m. on the date entered in this field.

Message:

The message must be plain text with no mark-up.  Formatting (other than line-breaks) will be removed. HTML is not valid and will generate an error. The message cannot be greater than 175 characters.

Note:  if HTML or mark-up is submitted BullsEye will remove all of the information relating to the the current message and display an error.  The user will have to re-enter all of the information.  This is done as a security precaution in preventing unwanted or malicious code from being distributed.

URL Attachment:

The URL will appear as a link in an email message or linked by the terms "View Link" in an announcement.

Department:

For logging purposes, this is the department from which the announcement is being sent.  The user may select a department other than his or her own if the message pertains to that department.

Group (Optional):

For logging purposes, if department is insufficient in describing the source of the message, the user can enter the name of a group.  This name should correspond to the Banner defined group but can be any text up to 24 characters.


Log this message in GURMAIL?
* Available to user's with access to this resource

This is specialized functionality that will create an entry in the Banner GURMAIL table.  It is intended for users already familier with the use of GURMAIL who may be using BullsEye as a means of extending his or her communication plan.  If you have any questions concerning this functionality please contact the ADMCS help desk (x2853).

Letter Code:

This must be a valid letter code as defined in the Banner GTVLETR table and correspond to an active communication plan as defined in Banner. 

System Indicator:

This must be a valid Banner system indicator code.

Module Code (optional):

This must be a valid Banner module code.

Aid Year Code(optional):

This is for use only by Student Financial Services.

 


Invalid Characters in Message Body 

Faculty frequently prepare their written documents in Word before adding them to Bullseye. For shorter documents, announcements, and information this frequently means copying from MS Word and pasting into Bullseye. Unfortunately, unless you tell it otherwise, as you type, Word substitutes "fancy" characters for the standard typewriter-like character set that Bullseye expects. The safest thing to do is to prepare your document in Notepad or other straight-text applications or to upload the document to Bullseye rather than cutting and pasting.

If you really want to use Word instead of Notepad, there is a way to prevent Word from making the substitutions that cause problems in Bullseye. Note that this will change all documents you prepare, so don't do the following unless you are prepared to lose bullets, smart quotes and other attractive characters.

To prevent substitutions as you type, perform the following settings update within your Microsoft Word program BEFORE you type the document you plan to paste into Bullseye:

Go to "Tools" > "AutoCorrect Options..."

Under the "AutoCorrect" tab scroll to the ellipses "..." and delete line of ellipses then Scroll through the replacement selections for any other characters that you use (such as →) and delete these lines as well

Go to the tab "AutoFormat As You Type", Under "Replace as You Type": Deselect all options here, particularly: "Straight Quotes" with "Smart Quotes", and "Hyphens (--) with Dash (-) and any other characters that you frequently use.

Note that making these selections does not change what you've already typed, it simply ensures that the next things you type will not be changed by MS Word. Also note that if it is other characters besides ellipses, quotes or hyphens that Blackboard is displaying improperly, you will have to prevent AutoCorrect on these characters as well by selecting them in the appropriate places in the AutoCorrect Options dialog.