RogerCorrigan Posted March 5, 2014 Posted March 5, 2014 Hi All, Does anybody know the official release date of the spring release? Just want to let IT staff know. Thanks, Roger
IrritableTech Posted March 5, 2014 Posted March 5, 2014 'fraid not. Had a presentation from capita only yesterday. Early April seemed to be the closest to any commitment. Perhaps @PhilNeal might put his neck out and suggest a date?
Cache Posted March 5, 2014 Posted March 5, 2014 Supportnet Pre-Release note has planned to be made available before COB on Friday 28th March on it if that helps.
vikpaw Posted March 9, 2014 Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) Normally, we'd have the full release notes coming out soon after the pre-release, but i've not see them, so maybe there is still a lot of finalisation going on. Some of the highlights are on pre-release : Assessment We have added Additional Data Tags on an Individual Assessment Template, these include Legal surname, Parental Addressee, No of sessions late (over a given time period), Total Session Minutes Late and Year Group (Full Name). Profiles We have added additional Data Tags on a Profiles Template, these include Legal Surname, Parental Addressee, Staff initials (including middle initials), Total Session Minutes Late, Year Group (Full Name). this was at the bottom: Technical Support for Microsoft Office 2013 Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 And i read on SupportNet that they are planning on adding minutes late to the Attendance Letters, but this is part of their next project improvement so no date set yet. Spring is the big annual release, so hopefully there are some hidden fireworks. Edited March 9, 2014 by vikpaw layout 1
gazskeltz Posted March 11, 2014 Posted March 11, 2014 Hi, Check this out for Spring 2014... Regards Gaz The pivotal Performance Indicator functionality from Examinations Organiser has been moved into SIMS. This will enable us to maintain and improve the PI functions with more ease. The following menu routes have been removed from Examinations Organiser and are now accessible only from SIMS: - Tools | Examinations | Edit PI Data - Tools | Examinations | PI Reports - Tools | Examinations | PI Setup The following menu route has been moved from under the Statutory Returns menu route in SIMS: - Tools | Examinations | Import Qualification Data The PI Cohort button that was previously available from the Edit PI dialog in Examinations Organiser has not been replicated in SIMS. This functionality can still be accessed from within Examinations Organiser via Tools | Group Manager PI Cohort. A new permisisons Group called PI Setup has been provided to enable you to access the Exams PI menu routes in SIMS. Improvements to the Display of Grades in the Edit PI Area - Tools | Examinations | Edit PI Data o The order in which grade sets are displayed from the Grades drop-down list has been corrected to display in descending order of points values. Inclusion of Non EDI Results Achieved in a Previous Season - Tools | Examinations | Edit PI Data o Once the PI data has been collated, PI or non EDI results that were entered in a previous season are displayed in the PI Calculated Values page and are included in all calculations. Save Manual Discounting when Re-Collating - Tools | Examinations | Edit PI Data o Any manual Discounting can be saved so that when running the Collate routine again, the ticks (or unticks) are retained and included in subsequent calculations. This can be repeated multiple times. Produce Performance Indicator Reports in SIMS - Tools | Examinations | PI Reports o It is now possible to produce Performance Table reports in SIMS, enabling the output and analysis of the Performance Indicator results. Enter QAN in Edit PI using wrong case - Tools | Examinations | Edit PI Data o When entering a QAN in the Add PI Result dialog, if a letter forms an integral part of the QAN sequence, it is possible to enter this using the wrong case, e.g. 1004291x. Where this occurs, clicking the Save button changes the case of the letter automatically so that it matches the case of the QAN as it was imported from the Performance Measures file. o In addition, where results have previously been added against a QAN with a letter with the wrong case, this must be matched and corrected retrospectively. Changes to the Performance Measures File (For schools in Northern Ireland only) - Tools | Examinations | Import Qualification Data o Schools in Northern Ireland are no longer required to import the Performance Measures.XML file into SIMS. All the QANs approved for use in Northern Ireland are present in the NIEFQAN.XML file and this is the only file now required. Inclusion of AS Points in Residuals but not PI (For schools in Northern Ireland only) - Tools | Performance | Exams | Import Qualification Data o AS points have now been added to the NIEFQAN file. As a direct result, AS Residuals can now be calculated when generating the Certification Broadsheet report and the Group Performance Analysis report although they are still not included in PI Calculations. Editing and Deletion of External Results (For schools in Northern Ireland only) - Tools | External Results | Manual Entry o Only results entered manually through this route can be edited or deleted. This ensures that any changes made are correctly reflected in the PI Performance Calculations. Additional Columns for A*-C and A*-E in the Level 3 Detailed Report (For schools in Northern Ireland only) - Tools | Examinations | PI Reports o When producing the Performance Tables report based on Level Age 16-18, the Detailed output displays additional columns for the grade bands of A*-C and A*-E.
MrMat Posted March 28, 2014 Posted March 28, 2014 Just had an email saying that SIMS 2014 Spring has been released and is now available... Would have nice to have some prior notice of such release.
creese Posted March 28, 2014 Posted March 28, 2014 Just had an email saying that SIMS 2014 Spring has been released and is now available... Would have nice to have some prior notice of such release. From Capita? Don't run it if you don't want it yet. We won't release to schools for at least 2 weeks.
MrMat Posted March 28, 2014 Posted March 28, 2014 I won't be running it for a while! I know what these upgrades are like, will wait for some unfortunately soul to upgrade and find all the bugs for us. I've kept my eye on Supportnet for past few weeks and havent seen any news or updates saying that it was due. Don't they usually provide a rough idea of when it's due and release the Release Notes before they make it available?
creese Posted March 28, 2014 Posted March 28, 2014 I've kept my eye on Supportnet for past few weeks and havent seen any news or updates saying that it was due. Don't they usually provide a rough idea of when it's due and release the Release Notes before they make it available? I've known for a while that it was around today, but not sure if that was from SupportNet, or various meetings I attend.
vikpaw Posted March 30, 2014 Posted March 30, 2014 Just had an email saying that SIMS 2014 Spring has been released and is now available... Would have nice to have some prior notice of such release. This thread is your prior notice The full announcement is here with resource ids for the full release notes for anyone that wants: **** SIMS 2014 Spring Release Now Available **** I'm pleased to inform you that the SIMS 2014 Spring Release is now available for download by SOLUS. Overview The SIMS 2014 Spring Release contains enhancements to Assessment, AMPARK resources, Discover, InTouch, Partnership XChange, Personnel, Profiles, SIMS Learning Gateway, Staff Performance, Maintain Pupil Premium and Examinations Organiser. This release contains updates to Statutory Returns for School Census Summer 2014 Return (England), School Census Autumn 2014 (England), School Census Spring 2015 (England), Course Management Spring 2014 (England), CTF 13 Spring 2014 (England, Wales & NI) and Attendance Collection 2014 (Wales). The FMS release contains Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) 2013/14 (England only), Inland Revenue Section 16 2013/14, National Insurance 2014/15, support for Performance Related Pay (PRP) in Salary Projections, Individual Payments and Block Payments and Fees Billing contains a number of enhancements including introducing Month End Processing. This release is fully supported on Windows Server 2012 R2 for SIMS, FMS, Discover, SLG, Solus3.6 and InTouch. This release also supports Microsoft Office 2013. Full details of this release can be found in the SIMS and FMS 2014 Spring Release Notes: There are now different release notes containing information targeted to each different school type: SIMS Secondary (Welsh) – resource id 22334 SIMS Secondary (English and Northern Ireland) - resource id 22331 SIMS Primary (Welsh) – resource id 22333 SIMS Primary (English and Northern Ireland) - resource id 22330 SIMS Independent schools – resource id 22332 FMS Release note - resource id 22326 Content AMPARK Assessment Attendance Collection 2014 (Wales) Course Management Spring 2014 (England) CTF 13 (England and Wales) CTF NI 13 (Northern Ireland) Discover Examinations Organiser Fees Billing FMS InTouch Maintain Pupil Premium Partnership XChange Personnel Profiles School Census Summer 2014 (England) SIMS Core Suite SIMS Learning Gateway SOLUS Staff Performance Technical SIMS Version Support In line with the SIMS Version Support, the currently supported Platforms are: SIMS 2013 Autumn Release (v7.154) SIMS 2014 Spring Release (v7.156) SOLUS Details The SOLUS website for details of this Main Release, including all documentation, can be found by visiting Supportnet and accessing Support | SOLUS Schools that are supported directly from our Bedford office have been authorised to take this release via SOLUS 2 and SOLUS3 Discover An update to Discover has been made and is available on SOLUS3. Full details are in the Release Note uploaded to Supportnet as resource ID: 22325. Schools who want to take this release will need their Support teams to authorise it for them in SOLUS3 or send them a direct link to upgrade it. SIMS Learning Gateway 2 (SLG2) An update to SLG2 has been made available to ensure compatibility with the SIMS 2014 Spring Release. Customers on SLG2 should wait to apply the SIMS 2014 Spring Release until the SLG2 Spring Release has been applied to their system. Details on how to obtain this update will be distributed to you via email shortly. Partnership Xchange (PX) An update to PX has been made available to ensure compatibility with the SIMS 2014 Spring Release. PX customers should wait to apply the SIMS 2014 Spring Release until the PX Release has been applied to their system. Details on how to obtain this update will be distributed to you via email shortly. InTouch An update to InTouch has been made available to ensure compatibility with the SIMS 2014 Spring Release. Details on how to obtain and apply this update will be distributed to you via email shortly. InTouch customers should apply the SIMS 2014 Spring Release before applying the InTouch 2014 Spring Release. Regards, Jonathan Wood Product Manager Deployment and Technical
vikpaw Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Looking through the full release notes, i don't see any hidden gems. Aside from the stuff i mentioned earlier there are - new resources for Assessment and Discover - generating Individual Reports to PDF is excellent, and - storing photos for Contacts, which we've been doing in a separate DB, is really useful On the plus side - there's a lot less to go wrong - 1
xenonive Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Looking through the full release notes, i don't see any hidden gems. Aside from the stuff i mentioned earlier there are - new resources for Assessment and Discover - generating Individual Reports to PDF is excellent, and - storing photos for Contacts, which we've been doing in a separate DB, is really useful On the plus side - there's a lot less to go wrong - Shame no mention on increase in reporting performance or optimisation as I think everyone would be happy with that little fix
Homer Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Has anybody applied this and found show stopping problems yet? We're gonna apply it this evening...
jdoldridge Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 We deployed it last night and so far all is good apart from the usual incompatible database errors because staff keep cancelling the UAC prompt
Homer Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Hah! Please post if anybody phones up in a blind panic about something
jdoldridge Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Sure will. I have had one request saying that Moodle has the incompatible database error this morning. So According to our users it broke Moodle!
bossman Posted April 8, 2014 Posted April 8, 2014 Sims Spring 2014 Update went perfect as usual including our new Moodle agent which updates automatically using Solus 3 agent, thanks to WebAnyWhere for this and now our Moodle will always be up too date with our Sims.
silver_uk Posted April 11, 2014 Posted April 11, 2014 How do we fix the incompatible database issue ?
vikpaw Posted April 11, 2014 Posted April 11, 2014 That happens when the client isn't updated but the server has been. Simsload run as admin would upgrade the client in a SOLUS 2 environment.
silver_uk Posted April 11, 2014 Posted April 11, 2014 Broken by updating the Feb database and fixed by updating the March database and 2014 Spring release. I need a holiday...
bossman Posted April 11, 2014 Posted April 11, 2014 @silver_uk: Have you got a working client? If so then copy the Sims.net from that machine and overwrite the original which is on the machine with the incompatible database. Normally you would rename the Sims.net to Simsold.net on the workstation with the incompatible database error and then copy a working Sims.net from another working machine if you get my drift rather than mess around within Solus 3 that is if you ever need to. It is caused by a corrupted installation from Solus 3 in which either a network error or HDD error has occurred. Good Luck 1
CAM Posted April 11, 2014 Posted April 11, 2014 Update came through yesterday from the LA and just patched my client. Working well but then again my machine has been known to act a little different to everyone else's and nobody knows why! Example, my restricted user account password works for installing but other machines need the domain admin. :S
zag Posted April 29, 2014 Posted April 29, 2014 Just did the Sims update last night via Solus. No problems so far.
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