a2c Exchange (the new exam board exchange)

[john]

We have been on it since Christmas time and the A2C migration app is a doddle, unlike a number of you having to tweak your Smoothie mine just worked out of the box and its been great for us and the A2C, after the Edexcel mess up of not having us approved when we were, its been great and no issues from the Exam Officer or me.

 

(Maybe I should add that we have been using the AVCO Exam Centre software for many years for transferring EDI files to EBs!)

 

Thats just like us

[Sivadam]

.... Thats just like us ....

Then you must be good too John!

 

We enquired earlier in the academic year but, apparantly, they were not ready to 'invite' us then!

And I find that a strange phenomenum - we often get invites to trial things early!

 

(Wow - another Mod that I agree with! I must be mellowing in my old age!)

[Sivadam]

.... and now another (Stuart) is following me on Twitter!

 

Am I being spied on ................ ???? http://hgs.sheffield.digitalbrain.com/site/util/custom/editor/default/editor/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif

[GeeHubb]

.... and now another (Stuart) is following me on Twitter!

 

Am I being spied on ................ ???? http://hgs.sheffield.digitalbrain.com/site/util/custom/editor/default/editor/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif

 

Don't let it go to your head will you. They probably just want to keep up with your Sheffield Wednesday tweets!

[Sivadam]

Don't let it go to your head will you. They probably just want to keep up with your Sheffield Wednesday tweets!

Of course Gill! @SWFC #Massive

A couple of times in the past week or so our Trends have made the global top twenty!

 

Incidently, @HGCSC has now officially gone live! http://statica.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/smile.png

Edited February 8, 2012 by Sivadam

[Quatermass]

Just to return to the A2C software itself (as TechMonkey's colleague) it does need proxy settings, but the interface is so poorly designed it asks you for a domain rather than (like Sophos, for example) a server URL and port, and a mandatory username and password rather than an optional one. It also scales horribly on different res screens. Cobbled together in an afternoon by the look of it.

[GeeHubb]

Of course Gill! @SWFC #Massive

A couple of times in the past week or so our Trends have made the global top twenty!

 

Incidently, @HGCSC has now officially gone live! http://statica.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/smile.png

 

 

Just don't mention Blackpool then

 

@elmwoodprimary is up there on twitter as well.... only one tweet so far though. Have had a look at yours for ideas, but I have yet to work out how to put links to other things in!

Edited February 8, 2012 by GeeHubb

[Sivadam]

Just don't mention Blackpool then

 

I think that 'Tower' and 'Posterior' come to mind .................

 

As for the Settings for A2C - ours must have already been configured to match. Probably because we have been communication with the exam boards in a similar way for years - and via AVCO as well!

Edited February 8, 2012 by Sivadam

[dave.81]

Our Exams Officer brought me a letter about this yesterday and asked what it was. If she doesn't know how the hell am I?!?!?!

 

Am putting it off until after she has done the bulk of summer entries.

[cf23]

Installed a2c a few weeks ago all appeared ok, got connections with little or no probs - amazing! However, the pc over this past week has started to complain....dropping off network, user can't open certain docs PDFs/excel...done all the usual basics, thought we had resolved it with a dodgy cable but noooo....anyone else experiencing similar?

[Cache]

Just installed and set it up today and was suprised how easy it went.

 

Had an issue with the installer trying to put the application data onto the network drive, however a quick phone call to them and a work arround instantly provided.

 

We did panic when AQA sent us a results file through it straight away though! (A bit of investigating showed it was from January)

[sonofsanta]

FWIW, put it in before half term, and once I knew where the relevant in/out/archive folders were intended to be, it was very easy to install, worked straight away and our exams officer is delighted with it as it's a much quicker and easier system than what was used before. So despite the general lack of information, the application itself is good.

[andyrite]

Just installed and set it up today and was suprised how easy it went.

 

Had an issue with the installer trying to put the application data onto the network drive, however a quick phone call to them and a work arround instantly provided.

 

We did panic when AQA sent us a results file through it straight away though! (A bit of investigating showed it was from January)

 

What was the work around? I edited the settings file to get it to work.

[Cache]

What was the work around? I edited the settings file to get it to work.

 

I installed it configured with the Appdata as c:\appdata and then editted the config file in the a2c directory to the network drive and path it should use and added System and Everyone with full control to the folder.

[Sylv3r]

Does anybody know whether you can install this on multiple machines or if you are able to schedule a task for it to reguarly send / receive files without having to do it manually.

 

I installed it on our server, and now feel it probably would have been better on the exam officers PC. I tried to map a drive, but it doesn't want to work probably due to missing .dll's etc.

[Sivadam]

It ought to be on the Exam Officers workstation.

As a backup you could have it on another workstation but the InBoxes and OutBoxes would be duplicated on the different workstations so there is the potential for the files to be split between two machines.

We had the same with AVCO's Exams Centre. This was installed on our Exams Officer's PC and on mine. When the Exams Officer was off for a couple of months - I picked up her work but ran EO from her workstation rather than my own so that all uploaded and downloaded files were in the same place.

We have it installed in two places just in case we get a major crash on one machine! We could then still carry on on the second!

(In our case we do not up/download directly into EO - we manually copy and paste from the A2C {and previously Exam Centre!} Boxes into the EO ones and vice versa. This means you always have an original copy of the files in case there is any problem with them during processing!)

[GazN]

I've recently installed this on on a few PC's in different schools without any major headaches. I've also imported keys which was a very simple process. Overall it was easier than I thought it would be.

[Oaktech]

The only thing we had to do was to promote our exams officer to local admin on his pc (from a power user) which is not a problem. We also rejigged the sent folder in the app and in cmis for no good reason other than sensible housekeeping. Everything worked first time except the key from the welsh board which needed a phone call to rectify.

 

The only operational query we've had is how to read the sent files. The answer to which is to open them in excel!

[Achandler]

We have Edexcel reporting a SSL Error, not the usual "Server Error"

 

I've just done some digging and using IE9 and visiting https://a2c.pearson.com results in the problem with this certificate error.

Edited March 1, 2012 by Achandler

[Kanin]

I have it working here on smoothwall. You need to allow the following sites.

https://a2c.cambridgeassessment.org.uk

https://a2c.pearson.com/A2CEbXmlService

https://a2c.wjec.co.uk

https://a2c.aqa.org.uk

https://a2c.ccea.org.uk

https://a2cssl.cityandguilds.com

 

They also need to be in Authentication exceptions as well (If you are using NTLM)

 

Hi - I am trying to get this to work and so far I have AQA and WJEC functioning using your advice. Thanks!

 

How did you get hold of these addresses? I need addresses for OCR and EDEXCEL which do not appear in your list and are so far stubbornly refusing to connect.

[andyrite]

A2C sent me them. OCR and Edexcel are in the list.

[Kanin]

A2C sent me them. OCR and Edexcel are in the list.

 

Indeed they are! I was trying to be too clever thinking the URLs followed a logical pattern and left some out. I have added all the URLs now and everything is rosy. Thanks!

[ralpha]

Just jumping onto this post to see if anybody can assist. I'm the Exams Officer in school and recently the A2C software has dropped all connections to the various exam boards. Previously it had been working fine. My Network Manager is able to successfully connect to the software on his machine. The software was originally installed on the server and he created a shortcut to the software and placed it into one of our shared folders. All of the allowed sites are still the same within the setup. Does anybody have any suggestions/thoughts as to why the connection has suddenly dropped? AVCO are no longer providing support so I was hoping to pick something up from on here!

[john]

Have you imported the A2C keys (thats not the right name but basically the special files you need from the exam boards secure areas to authorise the A2C application). I have just upgraded our Exams Officers machine and it didnt carry them over so need to re-download them on Monday morning when she's back in.

[ralpha]

Got this sorted today, apparently it was something to do with the smoothwall settings that needed tweaking.