TLARWise Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I am aware Nova T4 is now discontinued and we are currently looking at upgrading however this is not likely to be sorted by the start of the new term. Due to this we have created our timetable for next year in Nova T4 v4.99 but have come across an issue with cover I am hoping someone can help us with (SIMS Support won't have anything to do with me as we don't have a current support contract with them). The timetable has been created and looks OK however when we go to Cover>Edit Rota and select one of the days/periods not all teachers who are listed as FREE on their timetable are showing in the Free Teachers list on the right of the Enter Cover Rota window. We are using NovaT4 as a standalone product, we don't have any other SIMS products on our network. The timetable will be imported in to Integrsi S2 however currently we still use NovaT4 for timetable creation and cover. The timetable was completed from scratch and is set as being Current. Does anyone know why this is happening and how we can resolve the issue. Thanks
matt40k Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 Can't teachers be exclused from cover? It's not protected time or anything?
TLARWise Posted July 24, 2012 Author Posted July 24, 2012 Can't teachers be exclused from cover? It's not protected time or anything? There is but I believe this is done in the same window, you just change the On Call Option to Off Call, however nothing is setup here. I am not aware of anywhere else this can be setup, if there is please let me know where and I will check.
matt40k Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 Would have to ask @Sivadam. Can't even open Nova-T4 so I can't have play to see if I could finger it out and like you said, no one supports it anymore.
Sivadam Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) NovaT4 is/was a Capita product and, although it is no longer supported, surely you have to be a customer or ex-customer to be able to use it? (Unless you have been given it as part of the Africa initiative!) All I can say is that I still maintain NT4 from NT6 for my own very specialised use. I don't advise others to do so! Hence, if I did still want to use NT4 Cover (which I don't!) then I could do so. The free staff are all available automatically from the timetable! It does still work ok. The only reason I could suggest that the staff are not available to assign to either rota, is that they have been assigned a NCC which closely resembles the 'free' token and you are mistaking that for a free lesson! Edited July 24, 2012 by Sivadam
synaesthesia Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 The question has to be asked. It's July 2012. Why are you still using/trying to use T4?
Sivadam Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) Good question! For most people there is no reason. As for me ................. NT4 still does the odd thing better than either NT6 or SIMS. And No! I ain't going to explain wot! That's just for me and whoever I might discuss it with at Capita. I have already given them many pointers, over the past couple of years, as to what still needs to be replicated in NT6 or SIMS. I haven't yet tested the Summer Upgrade improvements as we have not been able to upgrade to v7.146, for a couple of reasons related to migration to LA Managed service. Edited July 24, 2012 by Sivadam
matt40k Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 And No! I ain't going to explain wot! You like Win98SE too much
TLARWise Posted July 25, 2012 Author Posted July 25, 2012 The question has to be asked. It's July 2012. Why are you still using/trying to use T4? It is a case of forgetting about doing anything with it during the middle of the school year and when it comes to the time they want to create the timetable the member of leadership who does the timetabling doesn't have the time to familiarise themselves with a new system so would prefer to muddle on with NovaT4. Now that I am on the case I am working on getting them to trial Keith Johnsons Timetabler as an alternative during this year so hopefully this should be the last time we need to use NovaT4. The only reason I could suggest that the staff are not available to assign to either rota, is that they have been assigned a NCC which closely resembles the 'free' token and you are mistaking that for a free lesson! The staff have not been assigned an NCC for the affected periods. The timetable side looks fine as when you look at the free teachers report all the staff are listed, it is only when we look at the cover side that we have the problem
Greg Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Your users have had plenty of time to familirise themselves with the new system, T6 has been here for a long time and support for the construction of timetables in Nova-T4 ceased at the end of August 2008 Have you had no advise on whoever has your SIMS SLA on migrating to T6? Info from Capita on Nova - KB56064 - Nova-T4. When will support end? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Created 20/04/2006 Last Updated 03/07/2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Affected Products NOVA-T4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes When will support for Nova-T4 cease? How long will support for Nova-T4 continue? What is the future of Nova-T4? Nova-T4 retirement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Notes Historical Notes: From May 2008 Local Authorities have been able to obtain a patch which, after installation, prevents Nova-T4 from sending the Curriculum and Timetable to SQL. Two patches are available, one to prevent the submission for academic year 2008-9 onwards and one to prevent submission for academic year 2009-10 onwards. This patch was included in the March 2009 release -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advice Support for the construction of the timetable in Nova-T4 ceased at the end of August 2008. Maintenance of the timetable ceased in August 2009. Schools have now moved to Nova-T6 for timetable construction and Maintenance. Support for Nova-T4 Cover ended in May 2009. The use of Cover 7 in SIMS .net is now recommended. Curriculum Reporting is available in SIMS .net under Reports | Student Analysis Reports and Reports | Timetables (from Summer 2010). The course Curriculum Management Analysis and Printing covers this. Nova -T4 will cease to be supported from the Spring 2012 release, and will be removed from the Focus menu in SIMS .net in the Summer 2012 release. There is no patch to place the Nova-T4 link back into the Focus menu. (The NovaT.exe still exists in the \SIMS .net folder and the module can still be run on 32 bit workstations from a shortcut on the desktop or the Launcher area in SIMS .net. Users should consult their System Manager for advice on this.) The information below outlines the plans for dealing with legacy functionality. 1. Features for Autumn 2011 Nova -T6 export of timetable/curriculum data to replace the third party export routine originally in Nova-T4. This will allow users of other MIS systems that use Nova for timetabling to export data in a choice of formats. The Year/Band timetable report will be introduced into the SIMS reporting area. Introduction of the Combing Chart. 2. Features for Spring 2012 Ability in Nova -T6 to import valid student numbers. This will ensure the student numbers data is accurate and allow the curriculum diagram and other planning routines to report correct figures and not use estimates. Introduction of the Clash Table. 3. Features in Nova-T4 not in Nova-T6 (or elsewhere in SIMS 7) for Spring 2012 There will still be some features that will not be in Nova-T6 or SIMS 7 when Nova -T4 is retired. Staff Meetings organiser - feature to search for common free time between selected teachers Certain curriculum analysis and other reports. For example: Contact Ratio (T6 - Autumn 2012) The ability to show Cover Rota periods (Summer 2012) and Non Class Codes (Summer 2012) on a teacher’s timetable and the Homepage timeline in SIMS 7 The ability to assign teachers to room closures. The cover notice board summary - certain print options are not available. Nova-T4 will not work on 64 bit workstations.
Sivadam Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) They have no support contract from Capita so I guess they are no longer SIMS users either. So they won't have been able to upgrade from NT4 to NT6. If they had SIMS then surely they would be looking at moving to NT6 and not to Timetabler (and that is not a slur on Timetabler because I know that it is a good program!) The OP does ay that they import the timetable to Integris! They don't want SIMS but have clung on to NT4! Strange ................!! As for NT4 Cover not working correctly then the last thing I can think of is that the Access rights within NT4 itself are incorrect for the user trying to do this. The Cover system itself actually still works perfectly! Edited July 25, 2012 by Sivadam
Greg Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Thanks Sivadam, I missed the no support bit. If they have no support contract then is this post asking for help on using unlicensed software?
Sivadam Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 That is what I questioned in my first response. However, if they did buy a Nova Licence in the past then I guess that they could still use it - especially as NT4 is now no longer supported by Capita.
matt40k Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 If they have no support contract then is this post asking for help on using unlicensed software? They have a license, just no support. To be fair to them, Capita doesn't offer a good deal on the standalone Nova package unless you bundle it with SIMS as far as I am aware, and why would they!
TLARWise Posted July 25, 2012 Author Posted July 25, 2012 Thanks for your help/advice. I have located the issue and everything seems to be fine now. There is a section under cover called Planning Preperation and Assessment which has a column called Block. Most of the teachers had this option set as '---' I changed them all to 'No' and everyone is now showing up in Edit Rota.
CAM Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 The question has to be asked. It's July 2012. Why are you still using/trying to use T4? When SMT members are amongst the users refusing to budge from T4, it becomes harder to gently nudge them towards the Reports menu routes!
synaesthesia Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 It's easy when the reason is "It's not going to work - there's nothing I can do about it unless you want horrible unsecure systems on your hands - because I won't support them"
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now