[bromcom] Names redacted in Power BI

[Bezingatron]

We have been using Power BI alongside Bromcom for years now. For the first time ever, this morning, names of all students and staff are redacted in all Power BI reports, with asterisks instead of the names. There are various reports used by teachers and attendance leads that can't be used at present because of this.

 

We are exploring using certain areas of Bromcom that we haven't done previously. Yesterday, I used 2 features that none of our schools have used before, so it seems likely this is linked to names being redacted. Those areas are:

• Adding staff absences
  
• Adding a user defined field in the attendance section for pupils.
  

I've checked the user defined field, and the roles assigned for Read Only and Read & Edit only includes Administrator at present (photo attached). Could this be what's causing the issue when the data is pulled through the API? If so, what role needs to be added? Would it be Third Party?

 

Thanks

[Bromcom_John]

Hi Bezingatron,

There was a release on Friday evening to address an issue with visibility of data, especially with Vision users.

Can you confirm if the problem still persists this morning?

[Marci]

@Bezingatron - Stop. This is nothing you as a user has done. Bromcom have broken something. The same is happening for everyone.

@Bromcom_John - your guys have thoroughly broken something, causing a bigger issue called LACK of visibility of data, via a Vision Students table loaded with asterisks. CAS-376972-K1R9Z3

I can imagine a pile of MAT Directors being rather miffed about the interruption to their half-term holiday on the first day.

 

Edited October 28, 2024 by Marci

[Bromcom_John]

Thanks for the update @Marci, I am pursuing the team on that case reference.

[Marci]

Edit Role of the vision user you're authing as over in Vision - https://vision.bromcom.com/Administration/Roles

If Student Personal ID is red in the drilldown tier, click it to enable it, switches to green. Data immediately returns to Vision table.

 

 

Cannot then switch it back to red again. Toggle only works one way.

CORRECTION: UI/UX elements... to deselect Student Personal ID (ie: to make drilldown tier stop at Student Anonymous), click Student Anonymous.

 

From 2018 til now, this drilldown tier has only impacted what happens in the Vision UI, not what you see via oData.

Now it impacts oData too. A silent fix to a years old problem. It should NOT have been a silent fix.

It should have been a confession of "we've discovered and we're fixing on xx/xx/xx at xx:xx - here's what you need to be aware of and account for by that date to stop your reports from breaking once we make the change" via one form of communication or another, with links to screenshots and relevant areas impacted.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2024 by Marci

[Ditto]

Completely not on a school MIS, Bromcom or otherwise, but on a Impact/Case management system we use.

 

Following a sizeable hack on our cloud solution, the provider upped the level of data encryption, to move towards what they had previously indicated was in place. First implementation had exactly this problem - garbage in many the the fields they encrypted. The issue was for every report/screen that used the encrypted fields, an update was required to ensure the data was unencrypted before being displayed. This feels exactly the same issue. What surprised me was that there wasn't a 100% database level encryption. Encryption is of course a very complex subject, but at least encryption at rest, in use and in transit needs to be considered. I'd be looking for reassurance that your MIS meets all those requirements at the very least. Worth remembering the data is at most risk when it's on your screen or printed on paper!

 

As an ex software development manager, it real annoys me when software releases go bad, but this isn't some obscure edge case, it's fundamental stuff. Why didn't this get thrown up in one of your business acceptance, end user or regression tests (other test strategies are available). You do some of those right?

[Bezingatron]

Hi, John.

 

As per Marci's reply, I'm still seeing the asterisks today. It must have been the Friday evening release that caused this - the tables functioned fine on Friday, then were in the current state Saturday morning.

[Bromcom_Darren]

Hi, John.

 

As per Marci's reply, I'm still seeing the asterisks today. It must have been the Friday evening release that caused this - the tables functioned fine on Friday, then were in the current state Saturday morning.

 

The team are looking into this case for you as a matter of urgency.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

[Marci]

Hi, John.As per Marci's reply, I'm still seeing the asterisks today. It must have been the Friday evening release that caused this - the tables functioned fine on Friday, then were in the current state Saturday morning.

 

Head to Vision, find the account your PowerBI reports use the odata credentials of. Find what Role within Vision it's using. Make a new role giving full drilldown tier access and assign to that, or amend the existing role. Save.

Refresh PowerBI report. Problem should go away.

 

 

This only looks like the start of sorting out application of permissions to oData...

 

EG: Setting Staff and Student Personal to disabled on the Vision role, names get asterisked in Staff and Students tables.

But... LastPreviousName, NINumber & WorkEmail still viewable in Staff.

Setting everything to School Level only... can still see BankAccountNames in StaffBankingDetails, full StaffDataAudit table

Edited October 28, 2024 by Marci

[Bezingatron]

Thanks very much for your help, Marci. Everything is working fine again now after following your instructions.