[sims] Home Page Groups

[Stuart_C]

Firstly yes @Sivadam I have psoted this on Capita's formum as well but you do tend to get a quicker response here..

 

Just to check form you own peace of mind, are the Home Page groups dynaic in any way, i.e. are they automatically populated from other information, or can I freely edit them with without any worries.

 

I'm asuing the former as mine are a little out of date and don't appear to reflect certain changes in the pastoral structure. But I wanted to ask.

 

Second is there a way to completely re-set the home pages of every user? Looking at the manual I think that user defined panels always stay but again I'm not sure.

[vikpaw]

Not sure in practise, as not used it, but i found that the info was out of date on my groups. There is a force reset or some such checkbox that may have an influence.

They should be dynamic, that is the design i believe.

 

To reset all, again, it's untested, but you can lock panels, there are two types of lock, one lets you change things or add your own. I think the full lock, forces you to have only the ones configured in groups. When forcing these, it will combine those that exist of a similar nature and merge them, so not sure if the results would be what you want.

 

Recently someone asked if it's possible to blank them all out, i replied in SupportNet you may find it, there were two duplicate requests in separate threads. Also recently it was a potential solution on a thread here for slow running of sims. You'd be best of, digging out the userguide for it, there is one somewhere, but it's not the basic one for how to use the panels.

 

Basically, i think, you can create a group and put all staff in it. Configure it to have no panels at all. Remove everyone from all other groups. Then lock it down, so they are all forced to blank it all out. I don't know if this would work, or even if the user has to log in for this change to take effect. Assuming you can get this to work, you could then reconfigure the other groups, and apply what you wanted.

 

Hope that helps, apologies for the delay, been in lots of ad hoc meetings today (FMS related - ARGH!)

[vikpaw]

There is a mini-guide built into the documentation centre on your SIMS homepage, this is pretty useful but is aimed at the user nonetheless has a good example, and there is a more detailed example in the main handbook for maintaining student information. I'm still looking at the summer 2010 manuals, so the newer ones may be better.

 

Haven't found a manual for sys admins yet which explains it in more detail. The ones above though do say that it should be automagic from pastoral structure, and lockdown should stop user from messing around.

[Sivadam]

Firstly yes @Sivadam I have posted this on Capita's formum as well but you do tend to get a quicker response here..

But is quickness better than accuracy ............???

 

Your other thread re. Attandence Codes may be a good example! And I ain't seen that question on the Attendance Forum of SupportNet or I would have answered there as, no doubt, so would, quite a few other users! Though I do admit that SupportNet tends to be quiet at weekends!

Edited March 26, 2011 by Sivadam

[Stuart_C]

Well yes. The main issue I had was over the dynamic nature of them. The instructions for sys admins is in one of the configuring and setup documents. I have found it and it implies he setup is based on the pastoral structure, which is fine but it clearly isn't as I'm missing some class teachers and one of my housemasters isn't current. Yet it is in the pastoral structure.

 

I just wondered what other people thought before I got bored and just went and manually corrected it.

[Stuart_C]

But is quickness better than accuracy ............???

Same with you on both sites

[vikpaw]

But is quickness better than accuracy ............???

 

Your other thread re. Attandence Codes may be a good example!

Please clarify what you are stating here, in your own words, so others don't mistake it for baseless accusations.

If there is an inaccuracy feel free to point it out...

 

And I ain't seen that question on the Attendance Forum of SupportNet or I would have answered there as, no doubt, so would, quite a few other users! Though I do admit that SupportNet tends to be quiet at weekends!

 

This question is still awaiting an answer on SupportNet, and you've offered no help here, so was there a point?

[superfletch]

say that it should be automagic from pastoral structure,

 

Was that typo deliberate? If so then I like it.

 

It should certainly be automatic (magic). Mine seem to be OK but I'm not doing anthing fancy, which widgets are you using? I assume the behaviour / achievement ones? What kind of groups are you using within the widget?

[vikpaw]

It was deliberate.

 

Doesn't matter which panels really. I had to manually update groups. Not sure what the force refresh check box does.

 

Looked at a clean installation that I'm testing sims spring on an found all groups completely empty despite a complete pastoral structure. Confusing.

[Sivadam]

Stuart,

Sorry I did not respond to this thread sooner either here or on SupportNet. It was posted after I left school on Friday and I wanted to check our system first.

 

All Groups in the Panels on our Homepages are accurate in terms of Pupil Membership. This is as I would expect as I take great care when editing the Group changes and always ensure that I upgrade memberships with every change that I make.

 

As for the actual panels on users' homepages. You can force and lock certain panels but, to my knowledge, you cannot prevent users adding other their own as well. We would not want to anyway as users find these extremely useful!

[Stuart_C]

It was deliberate.

 

Doesn't matter which panels really. I had to manually update groups. Not sure what the force refresh check box does.

 

Looked at a clean installation that I'm testing sims spring on an found all groups completely empty despite a complete pastoral structure. Confusing.

 

Great isn't it!

 

OK so it's probably the case that I need to manually correct them. Which is not an issue but I thought I'd ask the question as I didn't want to damage anything else.

[Stuart_C]

Stuart,

As for the actual panels on users' homepages. You can force and lock certain panels but, to my knowledge, you cannot prevent users adding other their own as well. We would not want to anyway as users find these extremely useful!

 

Again I wasn't convicned you can re-set the panels easilly. As the staff don't really use them or know what they are for I wanted to get rid what people had done during training sessions and reset everything to something sensible. Which would have the effect of reducing the server quereies for the panels when put on what I want them to have, instead of what I want them to have plus what they have added. Oh well at least I can provde some order

[Sivadam]

I have alluded to this on your SupportNet thread!

[vikpaw]

Stuart, I was going to test my method for clearing all panels and then locking down, which should stop people editing their own as described in the manuals, but the manuals don't always tell it like it is.

 

As the test system gave me no memberships, i'm now going to have to populate the groups which is a major PITA.

 

I've got lots of legacy groups that have been created by people in training, and after year end, a lot of people didn't realise they could edit their panels and tried to add new ones. I'm hoping clearing these will speed up sims a tad.