We hope you have had another successful year using Administrator’s Plus. It is truly amazing that some of our early adopters are currently finishing their 37th year of using AP!
In the coming years, you will experience big changes as AP moves to the cloud alongside TeacherPlus and the PlusPortals. However, our commitment to you is to retain the functionality and ease-of-use that schools have enjoyed for the past 37 years as we adopt next generation programming technologies.
We are pleased to announce a small update to AP that includes auto-updating to TeacherPlus and the PlusPortals!
How To Get Your Update
Hosted schools were updated to AdminPlus version 6.1.10.01 on May 6th, 2017. Non-hosted schools can download this new version from our website.
For non-hosted schools: If using Internet Explorer to download the new version, you may see a warning message stating that the signature of the installation is corrupt or invalid. While this is an issue with Internet Explorer and not with the installer package, the version may need to be downloaded with another browser.
Auto Update To TeacherPlus and PlusPortals Top New Feature
When updating certain information in AP, you can choose to automatically send those changes to TeacherPlus and the PlusPortals. It is no longer necessary to manually send the changes or to wait for the next scheduled update (Scheduled updates are currently only available for non-hosted schools).
When does auto-updating occur? TeacherPlus and PlusPortals are automatically updated when the user exits from the screen used to enter or edit information:
- Student Demographics (ADDRESS program)
- Staff Demographics (ADDRESS program)
- Contact Database (Access from HOME SCREEN)
- Schedule Changes (VIEW/CHANGE/ADD/DROP; ENTER GRADES programs)
- Incidents (INCIDENTS program)
How do I turn auto-updating on? This option is in the Database module under CUSTOMIZE> SET SOS INTERFACE OPTIONS. To access this option, right click anywhere on the dashboard.
Gradebook Sync version 1.0.98.0 included in this new AdminPlus service pack is required for this function to work.
Database New Features
Database History Log
The database history log now records edits made to the database using the following methods:
- Importing from ASCII files in the ADDRESS program.
- Using the TRANSFER programs in the DATA BASE or REPORT CARD modules to copy data in specific fields from one year to another year.
Right clicking on any field name shows all of the edits to that field, when they were made, who made them, and what the old data used to be.
New Files
When a student is inactivated in the current year, users have the option to simultaneously inactivate them in the scheduling year.
Arabic Characters
Arabic characters are now displayed in the following screens:
- Database field history when right clicking on the field name
- Database field properties screen in the ADDRESS program
- The dropdown list for validated database fields
- School Information fields (Customize Database > Enter school information)
Contact Database
The “Send to Excel” option is now available in additional student contact screens:
Student with No Contacts: When searching for students without any contacts, the results can be sent to Excel.
- Linked Students: When searching for the students linked to a given contact, the results can similarly be sent to Excel.
- The Master Contacts list: Non-linked contacts and linked students can be sent to Excel.
Report Card New Features
Enter Courses
The optional “Cost and Fee” field can now accept values as high as 999,999 (For those schools with really expensive books!). The previous maximum value was 999.
Receive from TeacherPlus
Receiving grades from the holding bin is faster.
Report Writer
A new parameter, “PrintCredit” has been added to the Course Table code, allowing users to print column credits with or without the total credits at the bottom. The possible choices are:
PrintCredit = ColumnOnlyOr
PrintCredit = ColumnAndTotalThe following table shows Column Credits and the Total Column Credits at the bottom.
“Column Credits” are the credits awarded based on the grades in a designated report card column.
In this example the Column Credits (CRDT) correspond to the Final Grade column (FINAL). Any column containing classes that have a credit value is followed by the Column Credits (CRDT). For example, a school with SEM 1 and SEM 2 columns has 2 CRDT columns, one after SEM 1 and the other after SEM 2.
The above new parameter is only valid if the parameter “PrintColumnAveragesAndFont” is set to “NO”.
Discipline New Features
Report Writer
Two new report writing codes are available to print selected information from a User Defined Discipline Table. For detailed information on user defined discipline tables and how to use these new codes, see Appendix I at the end of this document.
The two new codes are:
~ZTAB4<table shortcut>(<field name>:<occurrence number>)~And
~UserDefinedDisciplineTable~Previously, information stored in user defined tables could only be printed with the associated incident. Now, users can use these new codes to print all or selected information in a user defined discipline table without printing the full incident.
Other New Features
New Year Process
After creating a new year, users have the option to automatically set the newly created year as Scheduling Year. Previously, it had to be set in another step.
- The “Create New Year” process now copies all files related to the Student Evaluator (IB) module, such as images and text box templates, to the newly created year.
- The “Create New Year” process should be faster, especially for schools with large household files. A message is displayed to inform the user that the process is still running.
Apple ASM Export
We’ve implemented an export utility that helps schools prepare student, staff, and class data for Apple School Manager. This utility uploads data in a zipped file using SFTP. The six files created by the export utility are:
Export Utility Files
| Export Information | Created File |
|---|---|
| School Level Information | locations.csv |
| Student Information | students.csv |
| Staff Information | staff.csv |
| Section Information | classes.csv |
| Course Information | courses.csv |
| Student Roster Information | rosters.csv |
Each export generates a log file which you can access using the View Log button in Tools > Custom > Apple ASM Export.
Database Fixes
Household ID
We’ve fixed the error that occurred when a user assigned an existing household ID to a new student.
Online Forms Holding Bin
Administrator’s Plus can now receive data from a form that has multiple questions linked to the same database field.
Supervisor Validated Fields
Supervisor validated fields can be left blank. Previously, these fields could be edited but not left blank.
A Supervisor Validated Field is one in which the AP supervisor creates a list of valid entries for the field. Users must pick one of these entries and cannot add one of their own to the list.
Report Card Fixes
Report Writer
- Report cards print faster, especially for schools who use the Extended Section table.
- We fixed the issue of a vertical line printing on the right edge of the report even when the PrintBorder parameter in the advanced box table is set to NO.
Receive from APWeb
- The “RECEIVE FROM APWeb” log no longer shows a message that skills are invalid when in fact, there are no problems.
- All grades submitted by teachers to the holding bin are now properly received by AP.
Receive from File
AdminPlus only receives grades that are mapped and checked to be received. In an earlier version, it ignored the check boxes and received any mapped grades.
Skills Grade Pools
Users can now view and print grade pools that are linked to skills even if the grade pools are locked by District/Diocesan Manager.
Scheduling Fixes
Study Hall Rosters
Printing study hall rosters with gender count information no longer returns any error.
Request Forms
When printing request forms with prior credits, a false error is no longer generated.
View/Change/Add/Drop
AP has an optional feature that requires users to enter a password before they can exceed the optimum number of students in a section. If you are using this feature, that password is no longer deleted when the specifications screen is opened and closed.
Appendix I
New Discipline Report Writer Codes
Two new report writing codes are available to print selected information from a User Defined Discipline Table.
Why Use a User Defined Discipline Table?
A user defined discipline table allows many additional fields of information to be stored about an incident in addition to the default fields of Infraction, Action, Teacher, Place, Follow-Up, Date, Comments etc.
This is a sample user defined table, called “MISC. INFORMATION:"
The table is accessed by highlighting its shortcut on the left which in this case is an “M”. The fields in the table appear on the right, and include information that may be required for state discipline reports. The new codes described below will help in customizing these reports.
How to Use These New Codes
The ~ZTAB4~ Code
Purpose:
~ZTAB4<table shortcut>(<field name>:<occurrence number>)~This code prints information from selected field(s) for each of a student’s incidents.
“M” is the shortcut code for the “Misc Information” user defined table.
Example 1:
~ZTAB4M(Incident Time:1)~This code prints the first incident time for all found incidents. There are multiple fields in the sample table below, eg: “Incident Time”, “Incident Time (Type)”, “Location Type”, “Incident Cost”, and “Offender-Injury”. In this example, it is the data in the “Incident Time” field that will be printed.
Sample from a report using this code:
Example 2:
~ZTAB4M(Incident Time)~This code prints all incident times for the found incidents.
If there is no occurrence number, then all incident times are printed.
Sample from a report using this code:
User Defined DS (Discipline) Table
Purpose:
This block of code prints selected information from the table in grid format. Users have the option to not print borders. To access these codes, select “User Defined DS Table” from the Report Key Words menu option.
Example:
Sample from a report using this code:
Previously, information stored in this table could only be printed with the associated incident. Now, users can print all or selected information in the User Defined Discipline table without printing the full incident.