SIMS: Room deletion.

[Stuart_C]

I realise I may be about to massivly display my ignorance but I'm going to press on.

 

Just been talking to Capita as I want to remove some classrooms from SIMS (the rooms have either been removed or renamed and our timetabler has created new rooms rather than rename them ).

 

Apparently you can't because;

The reason for not being able to delete rooms from SIMS.net relates to issues within the Data Protection Act.

 

What reason in the DPA prevents me removing rooms? I was expecting some kind of issue with SIMS needing to know all rooms that ever existed because of past timetables but not blaming it on the DPA... any ideas?

[wesleyw]

You can delete the room from within SIMS .net and then the equipment register will update automatically.

 

 

Wes

[Sylv3r]

We have several old rooms appearing on our SIMS due to a whole school renaming of the rooms which is annoying you can't get rid of them.

[PhilNeal]

I don't think that DPA is the reason for this - I'd appreciate you emailing me the case number so I can follow it up.

[Stuart_C]

PM'd you. Thanks for having a look.

 

It seems odd that there is no way to delete the rooms (or no an easy one) or at least render the room inactive, much in the same way you can with UDF's.

 

It does seem that we, like Sylv3r are storing obsolete and incorrect data which is surely one of the MAJOR "no no's" of databases.

[kmount]

Suffered from this in the past, ended up renaming the room to start with a Z to put it out of the way.

[Sylv3r]

I think its probably got something to do with the history - if you delete the room it may be linked somewhere down the line.

[Stuart_C]

Yes, well I kind of thought that might be the case but:

1: Why have a delete button

2: Would have hoped that there was a "deactivate" much like the UDF's

3: Why have Capita told me it's to do with the DPA?

 

And given that I suggested the answer about being linked to history and they didn't even reference it, just blamed the DPA I got curious.

[Sivadam]

You only have the Exclusion from Cover Routine because I spotted it during the Cover7 Field Trial (others probably did too!).

 

We have about 30 Offices setup in there as Rooms - because if PC equipment etc allocated in Equipment Register. So I easily spotted it as an issue for Cover7!

[PhilNeal]

I can confirm that you can't delete rooms that have been used within a timetable and that is to protect historical information. The DPA reference is probably to do with preserving history so that you can look back at the data. There are some potential legal issues; the room is linked to where children are and have been. If you deleted the room that intersection would become invalid.

 

You can delete a room that hasn't been used; this is to allow you to correct mistakes at set-up.

 

There is a flag to indicate that the room is no longer in use and that applies in Cover. I suspect that there is a not used flag in Nova but am not sure.

[Sivadam]

That is right Phil.

You can 'Delete' them and then Hide them in NT4 (It doesn't really delete) and you can delete them from NT6 because that is a remote Dataset.

[Stuart_C]

But then they still exist in SIMS (and Cover 7????). So renaming them might be the best thing to do to stop confusing the hard of thinking...?

[Sivadam]

But then they still exist in SIMS (and Cover 7????). So renaming them might be the best thing to do to stop confusing the hard of thinking...?

 

I disagree.

If you re-name then then how can future colleagues keep a check on who was were at what time, 3 or 4 years down the line?

If they are no longer used then they just sit there - I can't think of any reason why they are causing a problem - except maybe in Equipment Register. It is this that needs addressing - not the fact that you cannot delete them.

Now do I feel yet another CR coming on?

Edited August 28, 2009 by Sivadam

[PhilNeal]

... contribution deleted as an expert gave a better answer!