Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cors-lau.vercel.app/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The Course Catalog defines every course that CORS knows about — its name, prerequisites, which study plans it belongs to, and its classification. You must upload the catalog before running recommendations or building a timetable, because both features depend on knowing what courses exist and how they relate to each other.

​
File format

The course catalog must be a JSON file (.json). CSV and XLSX are not accepted for this upload type.

​
Supported structures

CORS accepts two JSON shapes: a dictionary keyed by course code, or a flat list of course objects.
Use an object where each key is the course code and each value is the course metadata. This is the recommended format.
course-catalog.json
{
  "CSC201": {
    "course_name": "Computer Applications",
    "prerequisites": ["CSC101"],
    "study_plan": "both",
    "type": "core"
  },
  "CSC243": {
    "course_name": "Introduction to OOP",
    "prerequisites": ["CSC201"],
    "study_plan": "fall",
    "type": "core"
  }
}
CORS reads the dictionary key as the code field automatically. You do not need to include a separate code property inside each object.

​
Fields

​
Required fields

FieldTypeDescription
codestringUnique course identifier. Used as the dictionary key in dictionary format, or as an explicit field in list format.
course_namestringHuman-readable course title displayed throughout CORS.

​
Optional fields

FieldTypeAccepted valuesDescription
prerequisitesarray of stringsCourse codesList of course codes that must be completed before this course.
study_planstring"fall", "spring", "both"The semester(s) in which this course is planned to run.
typestring"core", "elective", "masters", "minor"Course classification used for filtering in the Recommendation Engine.

​
Course code format

A valid course code consists of a department prefix (letters) followed by a course number (digits), with no space between them. Examples: CSC201, BIF305, MTH101, STA210. CORS automatically parses the prefix and level from the code:
  • Prefix — the leading letters, e.g. CSC from CSC201
  • Level — the first digit of the number, e.g. 2 from CSC201 (used to classify the course as 200-level)
Codes with MTH or STA prefixes are automatically flagged as math-related courses, which influences how the Recommendation Engine models prerequisite chains.

​
Cross-listed courses

If a course is jointly offered by two departments, use slash notation to combine both codes: 
CSC401/BIF401
The prefix filter in the Offerings Ledger Preview matches cross-listed courses correctly — a filter on CSC will include CSC401/BIF401.

​
After upload

Once the upload succeeds, your courses are saved to the database and immediately available in:
  • The Recommendation Engine — courses appear in the offering results and can be individually overridden
  • The Timetable Scheduler — courses can be assigned to time slots, rooms, and faculty
  • The Prerequisite Graph — dependency edges are drawn based on the prerequisites field

​
Troubleshooting

If the upload returns “0 courses processed”, your JSON does not contain any valid course codes. Check that each entry has a non-empty code field (list format) or that your dictionary keys follow the PREFIX + NUMBER pattern (e.g., CSC201). Keys that are purely numeric or purely alphabetical will not be parsed as course codes.
If you maintain your course registry in a spreadsheet, export it as JSON before uploading. Online CSV-to-JSON converters or scripting tools can produce either the dictionary or list format CORS expects.