cheeseslice

Hey, What I set up was a report that just pulled out the information that was required from SIMS and I wrote a macro that converted the data into the right format and created the csv file. The problem is that it requires someone to cut and paste from one excel spreadsheet to another. That can be a major task for some people!!!!!

Hey, I finally got it all done. I suppose part of my problem is that I don't have any manuals or documentation so everything was trial and error, and because the errors were causing it to crash it meant I had to log back in, delete the template and start again each time. Although I took the advice of vikpaw and started exporting versions every time I got something working. I found it very longwinded to do very simple things, an example: You owe us £500, could you please pay as soon as possible. This would be: =String.Concat('You owe us ' + Convert.ToChar(0163), Fields!total_net_statement.Value, ', could you please pay as soon as possible.') To get the date to display as 30 May 2013, I had to use this: =Day(Today()) + Month(Today()) + Year(Today()) I am only asked to look at these sorts of things when others get stuck so I have a very limited exposure to SIMS but I would have thought these were pretty common requirements in this sort of template.

Hi, I was wondering if someone can help me. I've just been asked to make another report, a CSV file, containing account information such as sort code, account number etc. This is going to be used to set up direct debits with our bank. The csv file needs to have roughly 30 columns per person, but only 4 or 5 of these are pieces of information from SIMS, the rest are constants that will not change. I can create the report and add in blank columns which will then allow me to export to excel and fill in the information but I was wondering if there is any way to do this within SIMS by setting a value for each blank column so that the accounts department can just upload the file without any manipulation of the data? Thanks in advance.

I've just discovered yet another fault! If you want to put a pound sign in a text string you have to use convert.tochar and use the ascii code. This is probably the most backward system I have ever used.

So do you have the same problem with it not saving changes properly to fix errors? I have been testing it to try an work out what is causing the problem but there doesn't seem to be any logic to it at all.

I'm answering myself now. For some reason this is really touchy but I have got it to work: In the text box: =String.Concant('you text goes here ',Fields!name.value,' more text can go here') If anyone has a better way to do this then I'm open to suggestions, this is trial and error for me at the minute. Thanks

Thanks. This is annoying me so much that I am actually looking at this from home. I have just discovered another issue. If I make a change to a text box that happens to have an error in it and I make a change to correct it, or even delete the text box completely, the changes will not save to the template properly and I have to delete the template and start again from scratch. This seems to be very temperamental.

Hi, Yes, I am using fees ( I think). I am creating a custom letter. Reports > Fees Billing > Design Templates From within this I click on the Design Template button to edit the letter. If I pull over a text box I then have an expression builder that allows me to pull data from tables within the SIMS database as well as use built in functions, like Date, Time etc. The SQL works perfectly if I have it in a text box of its own but when I try to combine it with text using & SIMS crashes. If however I use functions everything works perfectly so I am assuming the problem is with the syntax that I am using. Thanks for replying.

Hi, I am having a bit of a problem creating a custom report, I'm using the design template. What I would like to do is create a letter/statement that will be printed and posted alerting parents of outstanding fees. I would like to create one main text box that will then pull the certain information in from the database. I am using the design template option built into SIMS. My problem is that I can't work out how to concatenate field values with text, I have it working with functions. A working example would be: ="Today's date is: " & Today() But if I try to do this with a field value Sims will crash: ="you owe me: " & Fields!something.value What am I missing? I spoke to a woman at our local education board today who told me this was impossible but I can't believe there is no way to do this, especially when it works perfectly with the built in functions. She did tell me that the custom reports are based on crystal reports, so I tried using ="some text" & {Fields!something.value} but this didn't work either. If I simply put =Fields!something.value it works fine so the problem is only with the concatenation. Any help would be appreciated.

I have just been working on the server. I thought I would be smart, remove every role, install hyper-v then install a new virtual version of 2008r2 to get me up and running. Looks like even this is doomed, keep getting error messages about invalid credentials when i try to connect to the new virtual machine, think tomorrow I'll start wiping!

I have done work for this person before and when he is stuck with something I can fix quickly by remote I don't normally charge him anything but I was originally asked to look at a corrupt hard drive and ended up fixing a multitude of problems. Then i was informed the new admin department were on the network but that some of the drive mappings weren't working, profiles corrupt etc. This is why a price wasn't really discussed. So a 2008r2/windows 7 network working pefectly overnight turned into a mash up of xp/vista/apple/android/iOS devices. with them wondering why group policies wouldn't apply to xp machines or why new staff couldn't access specific folders. Fast forward to this new job. I was in the middle of repairing the corrupt desktop when I get introduced to someone, a 5 minute walk and I'm being shown the mess we have been talking about. In hindsight I should have given him a quote or estimate but it happened quite quickly. Normally my jobs are by word of mouth and I have a discussion with them before hand to talk about their requirements and budget.

Hi, They have no issue with who is responsible, they know that everything had already been messed up well before I got involved. I suppose I really wanted advice on wether I'm going down the right path just wiping the os and starting again from scratch? The other point about charging for this work. I haven't actually billed the first customer who recommended me and my intention was to be charging him for 7 hours work which may seem excessive to him. I find that people with small companies only really appreciate work that they can physically see. Tell them it took 4 hours to fix a corrupted profile, set up roaming profiles for the admin department and create some group policies and they think I'm sticking my arm in!

It was too early this morning. 7x£25 is obviously £175 not £150. Which makes it worse as I was thinking £150 sounded too expensive!

Thanks for all the replies. So am I right in thinking I should just format the os partition and start again? I have tried recreating the forest and domain using the same information as the original and as a completely new domain, no matter what I do the end result is errors about a corrupt AD and nothing working. I was actually considering recommending that they either install 2008r2 with hyper v or esxi and then run 2 virtual dc's to try and prevent this from happening again. They have the licences but there is no chance of an additional server being bought. Someone mentioned charging by the hour, I was actually going to ask about this in another post. Do you charge by the hour or by the job? I got this job by recommendation from another job I just completed. I had to wipe a windows 7 machine, reinstall the software, fix a corrupt vista profile and rewrite some group policies. This doesn't seem like a lot of work but I was On site for 3 hours doing the windows 7 machine(I was asked to try and repair the corrupt hard drive before wiping) the another 4 hours fixing the corrupt profile, rejoining the machine to the domain and setting up and testing the policies remotely. I don't know what the going rate is but at £25 p/h that's £150. Is that excessive?

Hi, They had a single DC, running active directory with integrated DNS and DHCP. The issue is that after they demoted and then promoted this server it broke everything. The DNS server will not run and they are constantly getting error messages from the file server role. When I demoted the server again the dns started to work. Logs show an error message 4000 mentioning the fate that the AD directory is corrupt/inaccessible. I need to get this machine working the way it has been before but the only way I can see to achieve this is by wiping and starting again.

Hi, I have been asked to look at a small network. 1 2008r2 server and about 60 workstations. Initially there was a problem that required them to demote the DC, I don't know what it was. When they then used dcpromo to promote the server again it worked but the dns server stopped working, giving errors about not being able to access the AD database. This is where I was called in. I had to use dcpromo with the force removal switch. I deleted all existing entries in the dns(it started working again) I then attempted to clean up the metadata data, though this failed too. There is no backup to restore to, I have scoured the forums and I can't find anyone with a similar problem so I'm kind of stuck now as I have never seen this before. The problem is obviously AD but I just can't seem to clean it up. Any advice would be appreciated.

there are training staff and young adults. the really want to block social media sites to stop all of the time wasting and they want to block adult sites. opendns seems like a very good option as it only requires me to change the dns forwarders on the server, does anyone know what the pricing is like if they weren't accepted for the free school option? ideally they would like to be able to have two policies, staff with full access and students being filtered but if opendns only offered the ability to have filtered access for all then I think they would still be happy with it.

Thanks for the replies. have you used opendns before? I see that they offer free access to establishments with less that 50 students, does this apply for UK based schools too? Thanks again

Hi, I have been asked to provide a solution for a small training facility who want their internet filtered and I am wondering if anyone can suggest a cheap and easily managed option, the network comprises of 20 computers in a 2008 r2 enviornment. There is no IT support on site so it would be best if this could be easily maintained by them. I have no real experience with with this so I am open to suggestions. Would it be possible to pick up a hardware firewall with decent filtering built in for a few hundred pounds or is that wishful thinking? I have been reading through the posts and I see a lot of people recommend dansguardian but by the time he paid me to set it up I think there would be cheaper options. Any help would be very much appreciated.

I just installed this wisesoft application on my test network and it seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Are there any issues running this with a non-admin account on a windows 7 workstation? I see that this allows the user to enable and disable accounts, is the ability to do this covered by delegating the basic password reset using the delegation of control wizard or do I need to customise permissions to allow the teacher to do this too? Thanks for your help.

Hi, I have a small network running 2008 r2 with windows 7 clients. I have been asked to give one of the teachers the ability to change passwords for students and I'm wondering what is the best way to go about this. I have already delegated control of the ou to his account, it is now just a matter of how he gains access to active directory users and computers to change the passwords. Is it best to install rsat on his workstation and just create a shortcut or is it best to create a custom mmc? As I don't normally deal with windows 7 and 2008 r2 I find UAC annoying because I keep forgetting about it. This user does not have any admin rights, is this going to cause me a problem? I can't find a definite answer on whether or not he has to be a local admin to run either mmc or any of the rsat tools. I am going to visit the site for a couple of hours and I would like to have a clear idea of what needs to be done, I got caught out by UAC a few weeks ago and no matter how much I tried I couldn't get a simple standalone flash application to run on anything but an admin account. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

Any suggestions on the best/most secure way to access a single dc over the internet? They have no budget to spend so buying a vpn gateway is out of the question. Their current isp router can do nothing more than forward the connection to the server. Forwarding a random port for a remote desktop connection to the server seems to be my only option. Any thoughts?

thanks for this. as a matter of interest, how long does it take for a user to log in?

users more than machines but help with either would be brilliant.

once I restarted the dhcp server and rebooted the other machines they picked up the right address. i checked the logs and cant see why this has happened so i'm just a bit worried that it will happen again. i am not on site and can't afford to be dealing with this regularly.