13 reasons why Groupcall Xporter is terrible

[mavhc]

1. The instructions say "Once all the requirements are met, download the Xporter Client and follow our step by step guide to complete the installation."

https://www.groupcall.co.uk/clients/emerge/xod/GroupcallXporter_Setup.exe

 

The instructions then say

https://support.communitybrands.uk/s/article/Xporter-How-to-install-Xporter-SIMS

 

"Once all the requirements are met, download the Xporter Client and follow the instructions below to complete the installation. "

 

That link is to a different installer https://www.groupcall.co.uk/clients/Emerge/XoD/XporterOnDemand_Setup.exe

 

Which do I run? Both? Who knows.

 

2. Both installers are broken in different ways. One tries to download another update, then crashes

 

They both complain that SIMS permissions are not correct when they are

Both of them skipped the final screen where it asked for your web login credentials

 

3. The requirements do not specify SIMS has to be installed on the same machine

 

4. They require your web credentials instead of using an API key

 

5. Updates occur via http even though https is available

 

6. It fails to work with proxies

 

7. It installs an http web server without asking, that does not just listen on localhost, and has no authentication. And it's on port 80

 

8. Support insists on using logmein, which appears to not work with proxies either

 

9. Support has no clue and spends 4 hours blaming filtering, while not actually being on the phone for a conversation

 

10. Program fails to find the log4net dll it installed, and then why I copy it to the same folder fails to find more dlls, copy all of them and then it fails to find a dll that doesn't exist

 

11. SQL errors

12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Using Substitute file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Groupcall\Xporter\Emerge\Xod\Gcx\All\Sql\EmergeUpdate.sqlenc
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Substitute: &EmergeUpdate = " &UpdateData  -- 12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:         Warning! Undefined Substitution Var (&UpdateData)
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Substitute: &UpdateData = "undefsub"
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:         Warning! Undefined Substitution Var (&DatabaseName)
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Substitute: &DatabaseName = "undefsub"
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Sql Script, Syntax Errors Detected
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          Found: undefsub, Message: Error when tokenlize
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          In the following statement
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:              -->undefsub
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          ----
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          Found: undefsub, Message: Error when tokenlize
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          In the following statement
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:          ----
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       End of Errors
12-Jul-23 13:02:49: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Found OnFinalize
12-Jul-23 13:02:50: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Completed OnFinalize
12-Jul-23 13:02:50: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       EGCSqlException: Sql Script, Syntax Errors detected
12-Jul-23 13:02:50: EmergeXod8917012-Update:       Report Failed

 

12. It's decided to import students who've left the school.

 

13. It's installed 3 different things all with stupid names, xporter, emerge, xod

[mavhc]

14. log4net is an old version with known vulnerabilities. Probably true of the rest of the libraries

[bobsmith]

groupcall's user experience is very much dependent on who you get on the phone.

 

I've been lucky and keep getting the guys who know what they are on about and listen to what I'm saying.

 

thankfully almost everything has shifted to XoD (Xporter on Demand) which handles it all through the web.

[mavhc]

You can get people on the phone?

 

Still need to install something for XoD though, for SIMS at least

[PotNoodleTech]

Moved from Groupcall to Wonde now - so much better, easier and more reliable. Now the first question I asked of any random overprice educational software is "does it use Wonde?"

[mavhc]

15. No MFA on login, to the website will all the data from your MIS

16. Website is broken: Refused to connect to 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/mapsjs/gen_204?csp_test=true' because it violates the following Content Security Policy directive: "connect-src 'self' *.groupcall.com *.google-analytics.com https://cdn.wootric.com/ https://eligibility.wootric.com/ https://production.wootric.com/".

GET https://manage.groupcall.com/api/SiteUser/GetUser 500 (Internal Server Error)