Sivadam

I do use ‘em, Sarconia! In the first 8 days of the Summer Term I had 4 different Timetables kicking in on different days, all sent to SQL before Easter. Some had the Year End as the end date but some had earlier end dates. You cannot do this effectively without using Maintenance Datasets in NovaT6!

It is a pity that you are so far away as I could then easily show you the merits of NT6. I appreciate that you have seen demos etc. but to dismiss it without actually seeing it in action in a school seems quite strange. As to the logic - in the dim and distant past I seem to remember being a Head of Science (and a Timetabler at the same time!). The logic was obviously there but so was the capacity to think outside the box, to solve the solutions to problems that surface in (all) Timetable construction. And, as to the control you have in using the NT6 software, then you can have as much as you want. I do not use automatic scheduling until the vast majority of my timetable has been scheduled - there are far too many variables in terms of offsite provision for vocational courses that have to match the times these are available with the external providers and with the various blocking patterns that different departments want. For these reasons much of my timetabling has to be manual (but in NT6)! I actually pre-date any computer Timetabling, in my case it was a magnetic A3 board technique (so I could see ALL the timetable in a single view). The appearance of Nova DOS was my first experience of PC Timetabling. I then no longer had to balance 3 timetables in my head at once - Staff, Pupils and Rooms (but I still actually have all this in mind when I am producing the curriculum plans in NT6). Whatever you choose to do I wish you all the best in your new venture. Should you have any difficulties then I am always available via SupportNet, as are many others who are experienced NT6 users! I know that this facility is very useful to NT6 users as those who pose problems can get a different opinions on the way to solve issues. There are often several ways of resolving a Timetable problem and the help of a variety of experienced timetablers is often invaluable in finding the solution that best suits your needs.

One wonders why this 'new' timetabler doesn't like the look of Nova-T. Is it because it looks complicated or what? Timetabling in itself is complicated art anyway............ I know that Timetabler has a good repututation - but then so does Nova. And as a Nova User for over a quarter of a century I can guarantee that it is a brilliant solution and, after all, is packaged as part of the SIMS Curriculum suite anyway. Why on earth would (s)he want to look elsewhere when you already have the ideal solution? I would at least suggest the new timetabler looks at a school using NT6, if (s)he has not already done so!

I had noticed this. maybe I will start to respond again if that is the case. I would not be contributing as much as I do on SupportNet though. If anybody does appreciate my advice then it is usually given there anyway. Thank you both for your support.

Being as my name has been mentioned I will break my self-imposed silence for this thread. It was the NT4 type Student Reporting in SIMS that I was referring to in the thread 'SIMS.net tabulated reg group report'. I will be attending the Workshop, next month, to test the second part of this product - the NT4 type Timetable Reporting in SIMS. This is due for delivery in the Summer Release!

Sorry Josh! My comments are in no way intended as an attack against you. I am merely emphasising to those users that do not understand SIMS what is and what is not possible. In the past there have been many, many allegations that SIMS will not deliver certain functionality and, if any such allegation is not correct, I am determined to counteract any such misunderstandings that arise here. This will also apply to any post that readers could possibly make inferrals from that may also be incorrect. I unreservedly apologise if you think I was personally attacking you as this was never my intention. I applaud the motives of your original post in this thread. (Please note that my help is now confined to SupportNet {or maybe even privately} because {as with you in this thread} I do not think that my contributions are well received by some users.)

And so does SIMS Reporting - apparantly by contributors who do not seem to know it's full capabilities or how to use it to this level!

Personally I prefer to run photo reports such as ID Cards directly from SIMS. Once the Template is prepared (and exported to protect it from the disappearing/breaking RTF Template phenonemon) then it is available for any SIMS User (with appropriate permissions) to use! (Yes! This does come under my self-imposed watching brief. Apologies to you Josh, but the post may cause some Users to think that SIMS cannot do this when, in fact, it can!)

It seems that the 'Watching Brief' I gave myself (as per thread: 'SIMS.net tabulated reg group report') has to be broken after a very short time in deed. Mind you - I did allude to responding to this sort of thread. Why are people basing their opinions of SLG on the 'demos' and second-hand conversations now that there are a goodly number of schools using SLG in a variety of different ways? We have been up and running for Staff & Parents via SLG virtually since SLG2 was released and I have no complaints about it whatsoever! Any issues that it may have origianlly had are being (or have been) addressed. The planned new look and feel for parents, coupled with the publishing of AM7 & Profiles Reports to .pdf format, together with the rest of the enhancements planned for the next few upgrades, will also greatly enhance the product. I advise anybody with doubts to: 'Get out there and see it in action at schools that are using it to it's full capacity.'. I had to introduce SLG without any specialised technical help in the school at the time, due to a long-term illness, and I ain't technically minded in any way, shape or form. There were few difficulties and Capita Support were extremely helpful with any that did occur - especially in getting our Broadband provider to open the correct ports for the correct IP Addresses etc. - something I failed in dismally! For me, the product is excellent and we now have many satisfied Staff and Parents using it. This satisfaction can only increase with the Upgrades due by Autumn 2010. I have had several schools visit us to see how SLG is setup - and I don't pretend that we are using it to it's full capacity. A couple of these schools have VLEs that also supposedly fulfill the Parental Engagement criteria, but are just not delivering what the VLEs promised. They saw from their visits here that SLG does meet these criteria right now and will be doing so to an even higher level by Autumn 2010! Last Friday we came out of Special Measures. I am not saying that this was due to SLG, but SLG has certainly played it's part - as have the many other procedures that we put into place, many of which were based on our SIMS procedures. (Having said my piece - back to my watching brief!)

Vic, I am not talking about the new Reporting Engine based on SQL Server 2008. I am talking about the new functionality that is coming in the Spring Release of NovaT type reports in SIMS - a totally different project. The first delivery of this functionality has exactly what Ross requires - he is, indeed, asking for an NT4 Report - precisely what Nova has been providing for decades. The second part of the project brings in the rest of NT4 Reporting. I did, after all, attend the initial meeting re. this and the testing of the first build. Unfortunately, I could not make the final testing as my EO colleague was on long term sick at the time and so I had to pick up her work at a very busy time. But I know it will work! Vic, One wonders why you want to find some fault with what seems to be each post that I put on here. Maybe it is time to stop contributing to Edugeek and just concentrate on SupportNet - unless of course these forums go back to what they were before - knocking SIMS for no good reason. For the time being I seem to have helped quell that! However, if it does return then I will intervene again. Otherwise - Goodbye folks and thanks for the support of many of you that I have had in the past. Mike Davis

Saundersmatt, There are a goodly number of rptdefs on SupportNet, in File Sharing, that you may want to use. Number 439 is one of mine but it was uploaded in September 2007 and so I cannot guarantee it still works in that format. Mine will have been edited many times since then. In any case these reports will probably be redundant in a couple of weeks so there is no real point in wasting time trying to get RTF reports to work now! Mind you - it'll take our staff an age to move away from using my reports to using those that the new reporting will bring - even though it will be easier to use!

If you wait a few days then you will find that the NT4 type reports being introduced in the Spring Upgrade will do exactly this in exactly the same way that NT4 does!

... and thank goodness for that ...

I am sure that Capita will resolve your issues in due course - as long as your Broadband provider has enabled the requried ports, IP Adresses etc! They are alsways very, very helpful.

Answers to questions:- 1 What sort of information do I need from other people before I start (dates etc?) Start of school Year ((if not 01/09/2010!) If you are an LA school then they may decide this!), Term Dates, Holiday Dates, Training Days. 2 If I cock it up, can I delete/undo what I’ve done, and start again (easily I mean). Yes you can edit it - but Timetable needs to be sent to it at some time in the future so it ought to be accurate by then. 3 And finally, if I cock things up, can it have re-percussions on the working of Sims on a whole? It can cock things up but only if it is not right by the time the timetable is sent.

Hey....... I've done that many a time! Usually on SupportNet tho' - not 'ere!

Look at one of my previous posts above!

Now I wonder where I saw that KB before .......................

I always put the Server into Single User Mode before running a SIMS Upgrade! From SupportNet see:- KB88695 - How to force Users out of Sims.net

There are people far more knowledgable on the Tecnical side than I am. From a Timetabling point of view there are no problems with the transfer of the dataset.

NT4 is now only supported for Reporting Purposes and that is scheduled to end once all the NT4 type reports are moved into SIMS. This process starts with the Spring Upgrade due for release by COB on 31/03/2010. Cover in NT4 has not been supported for a while now but I assume it still works. The problem is, as NT6 has become more and more functional the transfer from NT6 to NT4 can start to become problematic! There is no point in migrating data from NT4 to NT6 - just have a clean start with NT6 for next year's timetable. If the timetabler has already started this in NT4 then just run the Export to NT6 routine from NT4.

We are still on SIMS 7.124, due to a problem with running the upgrade, and Office 2007. My current Profiles reports generate without a problem. Those still on this version of SIMS (I can't comment on any issues since Autumn Upgrade) - are you sure that your the error is not within your Template? Or ... is it really using an Office 2007 Template or is the problem that you not have updated the default Template from Office 2003 to 2007?

The New Reporting based on SQL Server 2008 was originally scheduled for this March but it appears to have now disappeared off the Roadmap! So now I do not know the timescale.

Personally, I do not want Capita to waste resources on sorting this now being as a new Reporting Engine is on the horizon. As long as the guidelines above are followed then we can get round the issues!

Some time ago I worked very closely with one of the Capita staff to replicate this scenario and did demonstrate that it exists. If one of the fields in the Report is modified by an Upgrade then you can get the problem. A further issue comes when somebody edits an RTF Template when duplicating/cloning a Report i.e. they are using your report to produce another similar one. The trick is to export the original Report to Backup Folder. Then do the editing of the original Report and a 'Save As'. The original report will then have lost it's original Template. You then just re-import it back in again from your Backup Folder and then do another 'Save As' to convert it back from an imported Report to your own. Then fianlly delete the imported report. I always keep duplicate reports as private because there are a number of staff who do edit reports and break them as a result of the issue. I can then easily re-instate them. When I am experimenting with an RTF Report I always 'Save As' with the result that there are many variations of the same report, which I then delete off when I have got the report to my satisfaction.