dhance

Hi, I've been playing around with the excel spreadsheet and macro that you've designed for generating templates. I'm quite sure it has the potential to save an enormous amount of time as I ran the macro against a small template and generated the code for one new template. If you don’t mind, there are a couple of things I’d like to clarify before I set out to generate templates for real. Some points are probably stating the obvious, but still worthwhile getting clarification I feel. • I assume that I will need to add each New Template manually in SIMS first so that it will have an ExternalId that I can reference from rows 4 onwards • When I paste the contents of OrigTemplate.txt into the OrigTemplate worksheet, the text overflows into adjacent cells and occupies 8 rows. Will this present a problem? • The simple template that I used as The Original Template produced an .xml file with nodes relating to Results Sets, Grades and Aspects. In the New Templates, some of the Aspects used would be the same as those used in the Original Template whereas others would be specific to the New Templates. ie. Subject specific o Do I list each ColumnHeading and AspectExternalId that will change?  Do I also replicate cells 1D 1E 2 D 2E across rows 1 & 2 for each of the aspects which are to be changed  Do I simply list each Aspect that will change and allow the find and replace to do the rest or do I have to show each occurrence of the Aspect each of which will obviously have unique column headings. o Some Columns / Aspects involve formulae. Does the find and replace in the macro take care of this as well. e.g. If I’m finding the value for EngGrade Aspect and replace those columns with MathsGrade, will the macro be clever enough to amend the formulae to use maths? • I’ve been trying to produce a report listing all of the Aspects used per Template. I seem unable to convince SIMS that I want to see every occurrence of where an Aspect is used. I assume that I need this information but only if I need to show each occurrence of where an Aspect is used.

Can you confirm that I've understood correctly. I believe I can export an existing Template to an xml file and then edit the Aspect and Template data to quickly create new Templates. Assuming that my assumption is correct, do I have to ensure that Aspects, Gradesets etc. that are referenced have been set up or will the import add those too? In fact, how does SIMS manage dealing withTemplates, Aspects etc. that defined in the xml? Does it add themif they don't exist and update them if they do?

What about the Result Sets and Grade Sets? Will I be able to amend the Templates, Aspects etc. that I import from the current school's database?

Many thanks for your advice. I will indeed join SupportNet. I realise there's a lot to set up initiially and I appreciate that it will take time. However, the timescales would be reduced if find and replace and other accepted editting practices were available in SIMS. I'm sure that using XML imports will help considerably.

Many many thanks - I wish I'd discovered this forum a few months ago . . . . . . .

Hi Again, I'm comfortable using XML and would like to have a go at programatically creating templates! However, I can't see how to export a template!! Where will I find this function?

Hi LosOjos, I takes arfound 6 hours because a lot of columns include formulae. I realise that I can add multiple columns if the column is data entry but I can't see a way of selecting multiple aspects at once and adding them all at the same time if the column is a calculation using a formula.

I've been hired by a local school to set up tracker marksheets using AM7. I'm a novice having had just one days training. As far as User Friendliness is concerned, it is by far the worst application I have ever used! I have 2 questions: 1 I am in ther process of creating templates. I've defined result sets for each half term period in each year. eg. Y9 Au1 I have defined Aspects for capturing the grades of each subject. eg. Eng Attainment. Having created a template for English Yr 9, I cloned it with a view of creating similar templates for the other subjects. However, it seems that I can amend each column and change the result set but I cannot amend the Aspect! Therefore each new template takes around a day to re-create. Should I have created oner Aspect and incorporated the subject in the result set eg. Y9 Au1 Eng? By doing so I could then amend each cloned Template in a short time. Or, can I run a SQL script against the database and simply change the name of the Aspect once I've cloned a new Template? If so, does anyone have an example script. A database schematic would also be handy. 2 The school for which I'm working will shortly change its status and in theory become a new school. I've been told that we'll have to export data from the current school's database to the new school's using CTF. Surely it's possible to back up the current school's database, restore it onto the new school's server and simply run a SQL script to change the identity (DCSF) of the records! Any help would be gratefully received.