Sarconia

Both the dancer and the cat seem to switch around randomly for me...

This student must be somewhere in the system, it's just not always easy to find them. I have a very handy script for this though - you can search for anyone in the SIMS.net database and it will bring up anyone who they are somehow linked to in the SIMS system and it will also tell you their relationship to the person who you searched for. Once the link has been identified, you can usually find them in the front end and amend the problem.

When I say add them into Personnel I mean, do they have a record in SIMS.net under the route Focus | Person | Staff ?

Hmm, there are a few things to watch out for when it comes to this. Firstly, have the teachers been entered into Personnel? and secondly do the teachers have their own login to SIMS.net? They need to have been added into Personnel and then given their own login using the "Add Existing Person as a User" option in System Manager. If this method was followed then they should appear in the staff message browse screen.

Whilst we're on this subject of revamping change requests (which I do agree with). I really think that the whole of SupportNet should be revamped - I mean, come on, the site looks like something I created using Angelfire (if you remember that, you'll know how "lol" it was) back in 1999... The thing which annoys me most is the amount of errors I receive on an almost daily basis, I can't vote for that change request today as "the application encountered an error". This also happens frequently when trying to log and view existing cases and no matter what you do (use a different browser, log in/out, clear cookies) it does not resolve itself. Change requests need to be categorised in a better and clearer way and maybe have some indication to us (customers) if they are being worked on or not. Solution auditing... a lot of the solutions published are poorly written and often don't really make any sense. Old solutions are generally not updated either. Still whilst these are all great ideas, I seriously doubt that they will ever come to fruition as they simply don't make any money.

This happened at a few of the schools I migrated SIMS & FMS to SQL2008 on. When using the tool, the drop down list for FMS databases to select is blank. It's a bit weird and I'm not sure why it occurs, however if you detatch the FMS database using DBattach, re-attach it and then run the migration tool, your FMS database will then appear in the drop down list to select and you can continue on with the migration.

As I just said out loud at work "that totally sucks"... It seems to me like they're putting the cost of a lot of items up (yes, a few items are VAT free) but making cuts at every possible point. Only thing I like so far is the levy on banks...

We're all shafted... may as well just accept that fact now.

I've seen this before.... *searches memory* I've got a feeling that it's something in your FMSconnect.ini...

Hmm, this one is a bit odd indeed. It sounds like Capita may have changed the permissions requirements (deliberately or by accident who knows) to access that particular area of FMS. The only thing which I can possibly think of to suggest is to try giving the other staff members full access just to that one .DLL

64bit Win2003 R2 is fine and it does work with SIMS.net. As far as I am aware, SIMS.net does work with Citrix/Terminal Services - a few schools I know have been happily using it for quite a while now (only the odd occasional AM7/Profiles issue pops up). It sounds really odd that it has just stopped working though, surely something must have changed? Has SIMS been updated? Have there been any Windows updates applied? I'd also check what .net framework is currently installed.

Yeah, I did - it was hillarious! I'm definitely going to have to try and attend the next BETT... I'm not sure where all of these other MIS companies have come from actually, there are loads floating around nowadays. Hopefully we'll have some more diversity in the market, SIMS at the moment is a bit like Microsoft a few years ago - it has the majority share and is stagnating a bit. I mean, how much better are MS now that they've got some competition? Having one portal like you've mentioned for everything sounds like a great idea, I'm just not sure if all the companies involved could work together to achieve it. For example, RM's Kaleidos portal when linked with SIMS works fine but it gathers all of it's information from SIMS reports, so if the reporting engine breaks or report fields change slightly then it's time. Aha, I just remembered, the Bromcom solution was MyChildAtSchool.

I'd have to agree with Bossman on this one although I'd also give your LEA a prod and ask them when they're migrating you, it's most likely they'll be doing it over the summer but they could just as easily do it in the evening after everyone has logged out of SIMS.net.

Now that I think about it, I've definitely got a few SIMS branded folders floating around somewhere too. T-shirts would be handy, although for some reason my mind instantly thought something along the lines of "you'd end up with booth babes wearing those branded T-shirts on the SIMS stand @ BETT". @vikpaw; Yes, I am part of a Support Unit - I currently support all modules of SIMS.net, FMS and pretty much any piece of software which somehow interacts with SIMS or FMS... oh and if someone rings up about a technical query, they'll usually want some sort of answer to that too! Big changes will be occurring within the next 5 years although I think a lot of it will come down to pure cost cutting and general beancountering rather than planning for the future and spending money tactfully. I think that some emphasis should be placed on embracing a few pieces of open-source software - at least trying them out, I mean... OpenOffice for one, I'd never used it up until recently but it's virtually the same as MS Office 2007, I know it doesn't work with SIMS but it could be used elsewhere within an establishment. I also know that in general a lot of people are luddites and don't like change but change is the future and something that we need to embrace. I also think there will be a big focus on online reporting but it's something that I've personally never been too sure about... we can spend ages implementing all of these solutions, SLG, Fronter, Moodle, OpenHive, the Bromcom solution (I forget the name of it even though it looks rather nice!) to enable parents to view their childrens details/assessments/timetable but will it actually be used? If I were 10yrs younger and so were my parents would they use it? Most likely they wouldn't... not because they didn't care about my education but simply because they can't really use a PC! I've gone off on a bit of a tangent here - there are so many issues which could be discussed.

Thanks for that I think these two smilies sum this situation up, I'm doing both of them right now at the same time! It seems like nobody knows exactly what is going on with this, Capita probably won't have a clue about CASPA and CASPA probably won't have a clue about any problems with SIMS.net reports. I'm just going to try and tackle it one issue at a time, I'll install CASPA and see if I've any problems with the reports, if so then I'll contact Capita and tell them the report doesn't work. Patch 11799 does ring a bell though... I can't remember quite what for off the top of my head and in typical fashion, SupportNet gives me an error each time I click on 'solution search' again.

That'd go great with the "I mean business" long sleeved shirt I'm wearing today I've got loads of SIMS pens floating round, a mug and even a cap somewhere I think... The topic for the conference is fairly relevant, the next 5 years but I'm not sure whether I'd class sessions from BECTA and MS as exciting!

I'll just be honest and say that I.T Tech pay in schools is complete crap, virtually everyone seems to be vastly underpaid, my advice would be to get another job and move on. Make yourself an excellent CV and fire it off into another industry.

I've just had a call about this from one of the schools I support. They were convinced it was a patch too... however, on further inspection.... I've found this website along with the followingCASPA documentation. It seems that it doesn't require a SIMS activation patch, just to install the software, import the report for CASPA and then export the results.

I've migrated numerous schools to SQL2008 and none have complained about the speed (there are a few schools who definitely would complain so if there were issues, I'd know about it!). I'd try what I normally do when SIMS.net is running slow, restart the SQL service, apply the re-index patch (6635), run Validate Memberships + Database Diagnostics, check the database for corruption (DBCC CHECKDB WITH NO_INFOMSGS in SQL Management Studio), check the spec of the server vs concurrent users of SIMS.net, check event logs to see if there are any SQL errors. Other than that, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head which might cause slowdown.

The school I went to must have had camera's in it... and this was about 10yrs ago. We didn't ever get up to anything particularly bad in them, just the usual stuff (I mean actually going to the loo) and a bit of writing messages on the walls, they smelt vile but I swear that nobody ever cleaned them. Anyway, I noticed that there was a visible line where half the writing had been smudged off, I figured that this was because the cleaner wasn't that tall and simply couldn't reach that high so above that I wrote a note which said "haha, can't reach?". A few days later a teacher pulled me into his office and asked me if I'd been writing funny notes in the toilet, I denied it of course but he seemed absolutely convinced that it was me -it must have been a camera as I virtually never wrote anything on the walls in there.

I don't know anything about CASPA but it sounds to me like the LA will release the patch to you via SOLUS. In this case, all you need to do is log into SOLUS (found under Start -> SIMS Applications route) as either SA or a user who has system manager rights and then it's pretty much an automated "click next" 5x wizard from there on out. You'll see the patch which is going to be applied and then just click next a few times. Just ensure that you've kicked everyone out of the SIMS system (preferably by terminating external SQL connections and setting it to local only) before running SOLUS - I hope that helps.

It's not really about trust for me, yes I would trust the person who I was getting married to if I ever happened to do so, they can go out, see friends, do whatever the heck they want as long as long as they're not in a romantic relationship with anyone else. It's more of a piece of mind/just in case(although I hope not)/all bases covered/contingency plan - I wouldn't want to be left up the Khyber Pass without an AK47.

I'm not sure it should be classed as a disgrace to have children and not be married as crap does occasionally happen but there do seem to be too many single parents out there. I'm fairly sure that in order for any kids to grow up and prosper to the best of their ability they do need two parents and a stable home. Saying that though, I'm not getting married until pre-nuptual agreements are recognised as law (saves all of the faffing around if things do happen to go wrong). Indeed we do but I can't see it happening. The primary thing which I can see though is that we also need motivation... without motivation, nothing happens. I had an argument with someone recently about this and eventually ended up falling out with them over it. I was trying to motivate them into doing something with their life as having left school, they didn't do anything for a good year or so.... eventually they got a part time job (2 1/2hrs a day) and then proceeded to do that for the next 5 years. I couldn't believe that they'd never had any aspirations in life which drove them to do anything and they got rather annoyed when I told them that they needed improvement. I said "how about having more money?" "moving out of your parents house?" "actually getting a girlfriend?" "becoming fitter?" and loads of other general self improvement quotes. Their response was simply "meh" to all of the above, they simply couldn't care less and had no motivation to do anything other than sit at their PC all day. I couldn't really believe it as I'm the complete opposite, I'm always trying out new things and have to have some sort of mental/physical stimulation (err...!) otherwise I get bored. I couldn't just sit at my PC and exist, it's time to live and experience... everything.

/sigh... men! We should all meet up and have a round of hmm... say go karting, then we'll see who can drive or not!

Yeah, I added that into my post as I thought the same thing a few minutes later! Have to agree there as well, I honestly don't know why people vote that way... it's like they are deliberately screwing themselves. If you're an average person on an average wage... why vote for a party full of rich people who are only going to protect their own interests? (and make themselves richer). Why else would so many rich people donate so much money to said party?