robk Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 I am aware that Serco`s offical line is that since fischer family trust changed to the new FFT live website automatic importing of data was not possible due to the lack of a unique id in the data. That said, I have been back and forth between our SMT,LA and Serco support to try to find a resolution to the issue, but seem to be getting absolutly nowhere! Does anyone know of a solution to this problem, which does not involve manually entering all the data? Help! Thanks RobK
Guest monkeyx Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 We import FFT data via excel to a custom assessment we setup in Facility. Does FFT live allow getting the data into Excel still? If so I am sure it would be possible to import still as long as UPN is still visible. Tim
robk Posted September 21, 2009 Author Posted September 21, 2009 If so I am sure it would be possible to import still as long as UPN is still visible. Tim And there is the issue, I don`t have a handy login for fftlive at the moment, but they seem to have removed UPN from the data, making any import process very painful. Robk
Guest monkeyx Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 It would appear that FFT Live will not support UPN until Autumn 2009. So hopefully not much longer. You should be able to make a good vlookup for studentid from surname, forename and Gender though? You would then be able to import using standard data transfer methods for Excel data, as we do now. Tim
GrumbleDook Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 (edited) A bit of fuzzy logic for matching name and gender against an export from [edit]CMIS[Yeah ... I know I put SIMS originally] containing the UPN? Can't remember whether DOB is available on FFTLive but that could be another handy match field. Edited September 21, 2009 by GrumbleDook Edited to put in the correct MIS!
vikpaw Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 A bit of fuzzy logic for matching name and gender against an export from SIMS containing the UPN? Serco ~ SIMS are they the same thing now?! With the old FFT data that was on an Excel spreadsheet, i'm sure we used to import to Assessment Manager in SIMS using forename, surname and DOB. I can't remember if it included UPN, the matching wasn't great but didn't involve much manual correction, maybe 5 in 100/150. Having the year helps. In fact once we did a full manual matching, listing the names out of the MIS alphabetically and then lining it up against the data from FFT and just whizzing down the list to make sure they matched, and inserting spaces or moving things around if needed. Still better than a full manual input. At least it might get you through until Autumn 09
michael2k6 Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 Hi, No, Facility and Sims are not the same - Facility is made by Serco Learning and SIMS by Capita - will just of been a very rare typo on Tony's part i'm sure :-) All i can think of is as suggested, get it into an excel spreadsheet and do a VLOOKUP on a string like forename and surname.
GrumbleDook Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 Don't worry Michael ... Vik is just pointing out that I am so used to typing SIMS when talking about an MIS that I did it again!
john Posted September 21, 2009 Posted September 21, 2009 Was going to say Tony, take the Sims and Serco being the same back I love my Serco but don't want Sims Our LEA Provided us with our FFT data on some whizzy CD with a MS Access DB, we select what we want I beleive and that makes a spreadsheet which is then imported into Serco ( I think that was the process the Data Manager told me about).
MattMitchell Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 All you need is a file with name, sob, gender and upn and you can match to the fft file to get the upns before import - access or excel can do it. Your la might help if you're stuck and ask em nicely!
robk Posted September 22, 2009 Author Posted September 22, 2009 @John That sounds like the older database format, which my la only distributed the xls exports from. Good to hear fft have not stopped doing it completly! Just need to see if I can convince our la of that fact. Robk
vikpaw Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 Don't worry Michael ... Vik is just pointing out that I am so used to typing SIMS when talking about an MIS that I did it again! __________________ Tony -- Dyslexia, not a condition but a way of loaf! My views, not my employer or any other group / project / agency I work with ... but feel free to thank me for them anyway SIMS MIS it's all the same really! What's the plural of an MIS? MISs? ... name, sob, gender ... you're right Matt, MIS and tears always go together!
john Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 @John That sounds like the older database format, which my la only distributed the xls exports from. Good to hear fft have not stopped doing it completly! Just need to see if I can convince our la of that fact. Robk Hope so, time to badger them I'd say then I know its defo an access database we get from the LEA but as I didn't do anything with it I avoided that bit.
MattMitchell Posted September 22, 2009 Posted September 22, 2009 SIMS MIS it's all the same really! What's the plural of an MIS? MISs? Misses, of course! No comment on the SOB bit... ;-)
robk Posted October 13, 2009 Author Posted October 13, 2009 Well it appears that FFT have now added a export with UPNS in it. Of course its nothing like the format that Facilty needs, so it looks like lots of manual cutting & pasting from pivot tables. Our LA tell me they can not provide the data in the old format...... So anyone whipped up a quick script to do this? RobK
MattMitchell Posted October 13, 2009 Posted October 13, 2009 Woo hoo! Upns, at last. I'll put something together tomorrow - what format do you want?
kealey Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Hi has anyone got any further with this. It is something we would like to do but what do you download to mimic the data that used to be provided? The amount of data available is boggling, where do you start
MattMitchell Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 I'd imagine someone's done this now, but if anyone knows what format "works" for CMIS, lemme know and I'll make an access converter script. To be honest, the export format is very much improved now from FFT Live and it's pretty close to what many people would like as an import format, I should imagine.
kealey Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Thanks for that. But I am still confused as to which report you go for, or do you have to export the lot? (That's a frightening thought!) As I understand it CMIS has a standard routine for importing FFT data which is why we used to get the specialy formatted CSV files but which file has this form evolved into and would you have to set up custom fields in CMIS to accommodate this data?
specs Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Hi, Your local authority should provide you with the FFT access database populated with data for your school. If you run the database then there is a menu which allows you to export your data into the appropriate files in a directory structure on a drive of your choice. The CMIS administration programme has a built in import,Assessments/Advanced/Read Fischer Datawhich allows you to specify which files you wish to import (making sure unlike me the first time I did this that you have noted carefully what you named the directory - never again). The process is then automated but a bit like watching paint dry. Be warned however, the latest version of FFT does not provide KS4 subject grades based on the probability, just the probabilities of 5A* to C etc. KS3 predictions for Maths, English and Science are given. I have attached (I think) a PDF file called FFT Export.pdf which I prepared for one of the other admin people at the school I am at which explains the process of exporting from the FFT access database which might helpFFT Export.pdf
robk Posted January 13, 2010 Author Posted January 13, 2010 @specs That PDF looks great but not all LAs provide the access file, hence the problem.
kealey Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 The access database convertor would work a treat but who has a copy that we could use? Is it commercially available or should our LA provide it. As far as I know our LA has never mentioned anything like this which is a shame as it would help us a lot.
specs Posted January 14, 2010 Posted January 14, 2010 Hi, as we have always had the data from the LA I have never had the problem of trying to get the data from FFT Live so I am not sure how it comes down. If you could let me know what the export from FFT live is like (Format, data headings etc. which is anonymised) then I might have something that could help.
kealey Posted January 14, 2010 Posted January 14, 2010 Hi I'm not sure of the format as it has changed but if you look at your last FFT filewe need data to match those headings. I will see if I can dig out an old (new) FFT file so that I can find the headings
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