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Forum thread: Another couple of questions
| Brendan Jones 25 February 2010 11:00 |
Component: (stearsoft.co.ukSTEARsoft web interfacePalm-device) STEARsoft version: 4.3.0 Support request: Hi Marcus, I have two listings of the same class appearing on the "My Classes" list on both the Palm and PC. The contents of each are identical, even up to the latest roll taken. My other issue make be related. From this class, I cannot remove a couple of students, even after following the "Purge Students" procedure. Not big issues, but annoying to try and resolve. Thanks agian for any help you can offer. Brendan Jones |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 25 February 2010 20:04 |
Dear Brendan, I don't have an instant reply this time. Instead, I have a question or two to help me identify the problems in more detail: 1) When you open the class from the two different links in your 'My Classes' list, does the web-address (URL) look identical? In particular, is the classId the same? The address in the address-bar should end ...register.html?classId=24 for example (24 is the class Id in this example) 2) When trying to remove the two students, do you get as far as seeing the Purge option towards the bottom of the Class details screen? Yours with kind regards, Marcus |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 01 March 2010 19:44 |
Dear Brendan, I have been thinking further and have wondered if possible causes for the situation you're seeing might be related to synchronisation... Do you synchronise STEARsoft from your Palm with more than one computer? Have you recently had to restore your data on your Palm? The other possibility is that this is an old problem that has been made visible by changing your class (removing a student). Did the multiple class thing happen after trying to remove a couple of students? If it's an old issue made visible recently it might require a manual tweak in the database files to get things looking smooth again. If you want to check this, you could have a look at db-class.csv in the data directory of STEARsoft (under program files). You will have duplicates for any given class, but they should have validity dates that do not overlap. If it looks dodgy, report back and I'll tell you how to safely 'tweak' things. It will need instruction... Yours, Marcus |
| Brendan Jones 11 March 2010 11:02 |
Hi Marcus, Finally got around to looking at the stuff you mentioned. 1. The web addresses for the classes are identical 2. I did see the Purge option and used it. It removed on student, but not another. I haven't had to restore data, and I only use one compute. I had a look at the data file, the class does have multiple entries, but I'm not sure what an overlapping validity date looks like :) |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 11 March 2010 20:36 |
Brendan, I'm thinking it is an old problem due to an incorrect duplicate in the database. Here's how to verify that is the situation and how to fix it: Easiest is to open db-class.csv in Excel. (but I suspect any spreadsheet that can open .csv files will do). The column "Class ID" is used to link rows together. Whenever students in a class change, a new row is created with the same "Class ID". The "Valid From" and "Valid Until" columns effectively say on what date one set of students stop being in the class and the next set take over. I suspect you have two rows that both have date ranges to include today. Note that dates in this file are in the format (dd mm yyyy) and must stay that way. such a problem example might be: ... 14 9P 1998 05-10-2007 05-10-2017 ... ... 14 9P 1998 18-04-2009 18-04-2019 ... dates between 18 April 2009 and 5 October 2017 are valid in both rows which would cause problems See the next posting to find out what to do... Marc |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 11 March 2010 20:52 |
oops I got truncated. Anyway... 1) In the web interface, do a backup (in case things muck up!) 2) Close any database file you might have open (without saving) 3) Stop the server (using the STEAR Administrator windows program) 4) THEN open db-class.csv 5) adjust one row's dates so they no longer overlap. In the example above, change row 1 to ... 14 9P 1998 05-10-2007 17-04-2009 ... 6) put a 1 in the "Changed" column for this row (so the change is detected) 7) save the file AS A .CSV FILE (click appropriately to confirm you want it to save as a .csv) 8) Start the server again. If the rows are almost complete duplicates, in step 4 you could delete one row instead by putting a 1 in the "Deleted" column and a 1 in the "Changed" column (don't actually delete the row in the normal sense). Let me know how you get on. I hope this will fix both problems you've noticed. Yours sincerely, Marcus |
| Sam Bruce 12 July 2013 18:01 |
Marcus, I'm trying to find out if the product will meet my needs and cannot find the answers or a place to ask on your website. I don't work for a school but do register attendance. Please can you contact me on (email: sam.bruce at goslingsports.co.uk) Kind regards, Sam |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 12 July 2013 22:31 |
Dear Sam, Thank you for your post and for your concern about not wanting to post questions under an incorrect heading. I'd prefer to communicate on the forum than privately by email, even if it doesn't quite fit the heading, so please ask right here on this thread. Other people with similar questions will then be able to search for and find answers that hopefully answer their questions too. If we start here and it becomes unwieldy, then we can always transfer to email later. To anticipate a little, please indicate if it is the iOS version or windows version of STEARsoft that your questions relate to. Also, have you found the free trial versions of both of these to test what they can do? Yours, Marcus |
| Sam Bruce 13 July 2013 13:44 |
Thanks Marcus, We would be looking to use the iOS version in combination with multiple iphones. We have squads of players that attend the Academy, and need to track attendance for billing purposes. As a tennis Academy rather than a school attendance is not compulsory so attendance is more about checking off those present from a long list of possibles for each squad. We would need to differentiate the following: morning squads Mon-Fri afternoon squads Mon-Fri Evening squads 1 Mon, Wed and Fri Evening squads 2 Tues, Wed and Thurs Total of probably 300 names (maximum) Also there will be the need for a variety of coaches to be able to access the one register on different days and enter attendance on their handset. Or you may tell me it is best to buy some designated handsets, although would rather not endure the cost of that. Thanks for your advice, Sam |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 13 July 2013 22:14 |
Dear Sam, You describe your situation well. It sounds well beyond STEARsoft at first glance, being quite a different kind of deployment to a school, but actually whilst there are a couple of potential major stumbling blocks, these may not apply to your situation, in which case it could actually work for you. So let me go through the key issues... First potential major issue: Any particular 'class' in STEARsoft iOS is limited to 36 people max. If your long list of possibles for any particular squad goes beyond 36 that's going to immediately be awkward enough to make for an unwieldy system that would seem inferior to paper (ie trying to split names across 2 classes or something). Actually, you might manage, provided no more than 36 were at any particular session, you could remove and add people to a 'class' on a session-by-session basis. Far from ideal though. The 36 limit is a limit at any one time in a class. If each squad falls within the 36 limit, you could set up the squads to then be mirrored on each iPhone and create sessions as you need them for any particular squad. You could then pull the data together on a PC running Windows provided each iPhone could connect to that PC on a local WiFi network at some point (it doesn't need to be 'live'). You would need a 'school' license to run STEARsoft on that PC to bring the data together and produce a combined report of attendance for each individual. The Windows system would also enable you to set up the 'classes' more efficiently and copy them amongst your different coaches' iPhones. I won't go further at this point. If such a Windows system isn't possible or your squads are more than 36, it probably means you'll be fighting some awkward limitations to try and make STEARsoft work. If these two things are not an issue, you may find STEARsoft can work quite well, and in that case let me know and I'll give you more specific info and guidance as to how this could work. Yours, Marcus |
| Sam Bruce 13 July 2013 23:51 |
Thanks Marcus, I'm afraid our class lists would be in excess of this by a distance. We have around 40 attending from the list of possibles, then split into subgroups with different coaches. I think that we will explore different alternatives. I wish you well with STEARsoft! Kind regards, Sam |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 14 July 2013 08:17 |
Thank you Sam, I hope you find something suitable, and good luck with the tennis and the weather! Best wishes, Marcus |
| Marcus Butler (STEARsoft) 12 May 2018 10:25 |
For anyone reading this thread, the full iPod/iPad version has been updated to support class sizes greater than 36. Available now in the App Store. You should synchronise with the new Cloud Server version of STEARsoft if using class sizes greater than 36. |
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