Frog Update is it me or does it always break things

[eejit]

Bit confused by this, as it says on the vacancies page:

 

lol - this has the makings of a GREAT thread!

 

*gets popcorn*

[round2it]

have i opened a can of worms

[Markkeogh]

Thank you for your reply Mark

Could I ask what incentive you might be able to give schools to become beta testers,as currently I feel like a beta tester when it comes to update time. I'm sorry to sound negative but it's the same old story something breaks every update.

 

Also the basic things in the system like the room controls they have not seen much improvement since our system was installed, you are missing the boat with this as you could maybe remove the need for other filtering software/hardware cost to smaller schools it would be a selling point.

 

I understand things can get messes up from time to time and the frog system is a very complicated thing but it is the number of times it happens that really gets us down.

 

Re Incentives: we are looking at a number of options and would be interested to hear from you if you would like to be included. The Beta Test Program is being managed by Frog's UK Product Manager (Karl Bolland) so I would happily put you in contact with him to discuss this in more detail. PM me your details and I will pass them on.

 

Also, in relation to basic functionality - Karl is also looking at various areas of the product based on feedback from customers with a view to developing the core product. Again, PM me your details so I can pass this onto him so he has someone to go back to.

 

In relation to patches being released with new bugs - the additional improvements made to the bug fix and release process will reduce this and getting schools involved will also assist further. It's not possible to guarantee 100% bug-free software, but I do understand your frustration.

 

Regards

 

Mark

[round2it]

Thankyou again for your reply, Sometimes companys run and hide but you are stepping up and seeing what the community think.

 

I will get a list of ideas that might be of use to schools in general.

 

If anyone else whats to add an idea to a list just post on here

If we can get a better communication with the staff at frog it has to be a good thing

 

Thanks Again mark

[Markkeogh]

Bit confused by this, as it says on the vacancies page:

 

Hi Adam, I've just had a word with our Marketing team and they are putting the Support and Development roles on the site today.. Sorry for the confusion..

[mthomas08]

Sadly I work in a School, after spending far too many years on other VLE options (I wont start a bashing) I cant help but prefer Frog. Plus in IT Support here I can't complain at others for not producing 100% Perfect systems when ours here and I know many other Schools are no where near the 80% mark let alone 100% working. Just didnt want to start a Lets Bash Frog arguement because Frog do have technical support

 

Plus having people here complain to each other over the years instead of actually telling us is not the best thing to do either and although we too are guilty for saying "Problem lies between keyboard and Chair" some times it is actually the case even when Staff Swear to god its not.

Edited February 8, 2012 by mthomas08

[Jay_Jay]

Has anyone expereinced not being able to open any microsoft documents in frog since the last update ?

[Dins]

Sadly I work in a School, after spending far too many years on other VLE options (I wont start a bashing) I cant help but prefer Frog. Plus in IT Support here I can't complain at others for not producing 100% Perfect systems when ours here and I know many other Schools are no where near the 100% mark let alone 90% working. Just didnt want to start a Lets Bash Frog arguement because Frog do have technical support

 

Anyone who expects any system to be 100% perfect is quite frankly naive. The issue is the fact that frequently when Frog release what should be a simple 'bug-fix' update, other stuff ends up broken in some way. I don't think its unreasonable to point out this fact, and i don't think complaining in such a way is "bashing" Frog, either. If we didn't complain in such a way, how would they know there was issues?

[mthomas08]

If we didn't complain in such a way, how would they know there was issues?

 

Ask that again

[Dins]

Ask that again

 

Sorry, I'm not quite following?

[mthomas08]

You say complain so Frog know, but surely thats what their Support is for not an Edugeek forum? Unless its the Red Door. We are actually lucky to have some one Frog actually here, otherwise they have zero obligation to check here. Be the same if Staff here were complaining about our system and doing on a forum instead

[Dins]

Has anyone expereinced not being able to open any microsoft documents in frog since the last update ?

 

Yeah its a known issue. You can set permissions so everyone has read only over the individual file which works, but if you have a lot of docs...

[Dins]

You say complain so Frog know, but surely thats what their Support is for not an Edugeek forum? Unless its the Red Door. We are actually lucky to have some one Frog actually here, otherwise they have zero obligation to check here. Be the same if Staff here were complaining about our system and doing on a forum instead

 

I always do ring their support when we find an issue. Doesnt mean i cant come to a public forum to voice an opinion, or to complain to others, does it?

[Green_Goblin]

I'm not sure where the assumption that because we are airing our frustration here, we are not directly reporting our issues to Frog comes from?

[round2it]

I hope this does not become a slanging match, and this thread works to our advantage by opening up communication between techs and supplier, can we now focus the thread on what features you might like adding changing so we can have a better system.

 

Personally I would like better room/resource booking facilities Internet filtering logging to be more advanced like a mini smoothie box how much would that save your school if an all singing dancing filtering system was available for free.

 

Diarys could be made more user friendly. Maybe a tech support system ticket reporting, these are the features I would like

I understand that these features could probably be built by the user but it would be nice to see them as standard.

But it is a work in progress

 

Let's get something out of this more positive than negative, this thread was about seeing if we were a single case of things going wrong on updates but after 5 pages of replies I now know it is wide spread.

 

Can we get a list of ideas together and push this in the right direction.

[Dins]

I hope this does not become a slanging match, and this thread works to our advantage by opening up communication between techs and supplier, can we now focus the thread on what features you might like adding changing so we can have a better system.

 

Personally I would like better room/resource booking facilities Internet filtering logging to be more advanced like a mini smoothie box how much would that save your school if an all singing dancing filtering system was available for free.

 

Diarys could be made more user friendly. Maybe a tech support system ticket reporting, these are the features I would like

I understand that these features could probably be built by the user but it would be nice to see them as standard.

But it is a work in progress

 

Let's get something out of this more positive than negative, this thread was about seeing if we were a single case of things going wrong on updates but after 5 pages of replies I now know it is wide spread.

 

Can we get a list of ideas together and push this in the right direction.

 

Firstly I apologise if that's how it seems. It wasn't my intention to go down that road.

 

To add to the list: -

 

The E-Mail system could do with an overhaul. Its pretty dated now and has a few bugs with it, ie; when sending links, they get pushed underneath signatures. When forwarding emails on, sometimes the content disappears.

 

A resource booking system, ie to book rooms, laptops etc out. I thought one was coming, but that was around 12 months ago, and ive heard nothing since...

 

Single Sign On would be good also, i believe development has begun on this, but an update on progress would always be appreciated!

 

Forums need bringing up to date. There isnt much functionality at all in them at the moment.

 

This is just a few things, most, if not all of them have been on the ideapad on the frog community site already.

 

Perhaps Frog could sponsor a support forum here on edugeek, in the same way smoothwall etc do. I could see it being quite beneficial.

[round2it]

Thankyou for your ideas, I totally agree with the points of your post.

 

Anyone else

 

I will compile these and contact Mark at Frog so he can push the ideas/comments to the correct department.

[Markkeogh]

Thank you all - I really appreciate your frank and honest comments.

 

Once I receive your feedback I will talk through them internally and feedback to you....

 

Regards

 

Mark

[round2it]

Mark

 

I will compile a list and get them to you once the thread dies down a bit.

[Green_Goblin]

An overhaul of the backup system is long overdue IMHO The ability to restore individual files, rather than an all or nothing restoration approach would be nice. This applies to emails as well as regular files and pages. There have been several cases over the years where emails/files have needed to be recovered and I've been told the only way to restore them would be to restore the entire partition from backup; obviously not ideal...

 

Incremental backups and the ability to backup direct from Frog (to an NFS share for example) rather than having to use a Windows machine in a "man in the middle" approach. Or possibly, to be able to use common proprietary backup tools that we may already be licenced for to do the same.

 

The email attachment limit of 10MB is a common complaint of our users and a configurable attachment size would be preferable.

 

Email quota limits would be handy

 

That's all I can think of ATM

[themightymrp]

An overhaul of the backup system is long overdue IMHO The ability to restore individual files, rather than an all or nothing restoration approach would be nice. This applies to emails as well as regular files and pages. There have been several cases over the years where emails/files have needed to be recovered and I've been told the only way to restore them would be to restore the entire partition from backup; obviously not ideal...

 

Incremental backups and the ability to backup direct from Frog (to an NFS share for example) rather than having to use a Windows machine in a "man in the middle" approach. Or possibly, to be able to use common proprietary backup tools that we may already be licenced for to do the same.

 

The email attachment limit of 10MB is a common complaint of our users and a configurable attachment size would be preferable.

 

Email quota limits would be handy

 

That's all I can think of ATM

 

+1 for the backup overhaul!

[round2it]

Thanks Green_Goblin

 

Great Point that I have Over Looked.

 

Does Frog Actually Do any type of backup service as you can access our frog boxes

 

Must admit the backup feature is what I would Say Basic as we are loading all our teaching material onto our box and shudder at the thought of using the current backup system.

[round2it]

Also as for email some of our couses require a Signature to be included in an Email the last time I looked this was not possible. (dont flame if it has ben fixed ) so we have used an online service bypassing The frog feature.

[round2it]

The staff timetables are now working as they should after the update last night.

 

Can anyone else confirm that your issues have been fixed.

[round2it]

the issues fixed in the latest patch are

Frog Bricks

 

 

 

 

 

An issue has been resolved that prevented Staff Timetable information displaying within the Timetable Brick

 

 

 

Miscellaneous fixes

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Schemes can now be correctly edited through the Toolkit.

 

A fix has been applied to allow the Form Database to show all data correctly.