Any programs that can do this?

[mrbios]

This is becoming a major issue.... teachers are wanting folders which both they and the students can access, with the exception that they only want the specific student whos name (not username!) is on the folder and themselves to be able to save and view information in each folder.

Naturally one would think setACL or similar would be the fix for this, but the only way i know to do that is by having the folder as the kids username (which they don't want!)

Combined with that they only want the folder accessible during certain hours of the week, the rest of the time it has to be locked, even to the student who writes to it.

Is there any software that might solve this problem for me? free or otherwise, the last thing i want is to have to do them all one by one and then have a shed load of calender entries for when i need to open and close access to folders >_<

[SYNACK]

Its possible with a bunch of scripting, SetACL has a VBS component that can be used, you could ues VBS to pull out the full names and usernames from AD and then use these to create the folders and set the permissions. If you added a global security group to each batch and set deny permissions on that then you could move the per class groups into/out of that to block out or allow whole class lots at a time which could also be scripted and run on a schedule.

It could take 5-10 minutes to apply the group membership changes domain wide though so you would have this window.

If it is just all or none with regard to access to the folders you could put them on a VM and simple toggle the firewall exemption for File shareing.

[mrbios]

Any user older than Year 9 doesn't have their first and last names in AD as people before me didn't do there jobs properly when doing user imports every year

[webman]

Combined with what SYNACK suggested - one way to link usernames to named folders would be a hidden file in the folder which contains the actual username. To any script, this would just mean "This folder belongs to 07BondJ".

[plexer]

You can populate the missing information with an export from your mis a bit off excel and a tool like admodify though?

Ben

[SYNACK]

Gutted, well you'll need a database somewhere that can map from one to the other if you want to automate it sensibly, can you grab the completed set direct from your MIS and update them using one of the automated AD import tools or possibly just query the MIS right from VBS if it supports direct DB access.

I guess you could also make the script/tool itterate through an exported CSV from the MIS assuming the MIS keeps track of the usernames. If not then it could make for a time consuming job.

[mthomas08]

I got asked this, I turned around and said no. They wanted to created a folder for each student and again each student had read access to their own.

They buggered off after that. There is no point adding a huge work load to do something like this not unless a program is created just for this. Untill that time I am not doing endless amount of scripting which could slow down the system/logon times.

I personally would of thought thats the point of having VLE's?

[mrbios]

Hmmm thank you for all the replies, im going to think this one over as i may just jump onboard mthomas08s idea in not even bothering, it does seem like too much work when im already swamped. Will talk this over with my manager tomorrow and possibly take it up with SLT if people have an issue with the answer.

[Domino]

Wouldn't a VLE be a better solution?

I'm sure most can handle a 'drop box' style setup - also with access hours set up

plus there's all the other benefits....

[Galway]

Sounds like your making a rod for your own back here.

I got asked somthing similar, in that teachers needed to give feed back and files to students and they wanted to just dump them in one place and let the students get them.

I got asked if I could do it ..... and after I stopped laughing recomended email or putting the file in the students home folder themselves. They suprisingly said it was very time consuming ... and I hinted that less time looking on NEXT, holidays and personal email (yea ... all in 1 lesson and she knew i knew) then more time to teaching = result.

In the end i think I convinced her to manually place in the students homefolder ... which works .. is secure .. and doesnt bother me 1 bit.

[TimH]

This is becoming a major issue.... teachers are wanting folders which both they and the students can access, with the exception that they only want the specific student whos name (not username!) is on the folder and themselves to be able to save and view information in each folder.

Combined with that they only want the folder accessible during certain hours of the week, the rest of the time it has to be locked, even to the student who writes to it.

Look at using "Creator Owner" permissions on a shared folder combined with staff change permission. The student then creates the folder (using their real name, whatever), only they and staff will have access to the individual folder.

(Any spurious folders that appear can obviously be traced by ownership/permissions.)

Then run a schedule to do "net share" to share /unshare the parent folder at appropriate times.

tim

[Busybub]

.... teachers are wanting folders which both they and the students can access, with the exception that they only want the specific student whos name (not username!) is on the folder and themselves to be able to save and view information in each folder.

Combined with that they only want the folder accessible during certain hours of the week, the rest of the time it has to be locked, even to the student who writes to it.

A USB stick for each kid would be easier. Teacher just collects them all back when done.

[tom_newton]

Point out "what if 2 kids have the same name" problem. Resort to usernames. Inform staff that if they don't like using usernames (which are the only thing you can guarantee uniqueness on) they can foxtrot oscar.

[mrbios]

I've come to an agreement with staff now, we setup a folder for all of them to save to, the teacher then creates the kids folders within that folder and i have a script to turn on and off the student access to the root folder, that script i then stick in as a scheduled task to run at the specific lesson times of the week they require to use it.

Minimal work for me and everyones happy, they don't seem too bothered about the fact students could access other students folders during that lesson period.