E10 - Edval Staff: Introduction and set up

E10 - Edval Staff: Introduction and set up

Preamble

This document is designed to provide an overview of the purpose, set up and use of Edval Staff. It will refer users to other Knowledge Base documentation for detailed guides.

Edval Staff is an excellent multi-user collaborative desktop application. It is specifically designed to be the primary tool for class list management by school users and general timetable display. Usually, this application will only show the current year's information and allow class list management within the current year only.
Towards the end of the year, school users may wish to make class list changes or publish draft timetables to the following year's database in addition to the current year.

Functions

Edval Staff allows users to:
  • View cyclical timetable for all teachers, classes, students and rooms.
  • View and change class lists 
  • Add or remove students from the file
With the correct files set up, data will seamlessly flow from the Edval .etz timetable file into Edval Staff, and changes made in Edval Staff automatically flow back into the Edval .etz file. For schools using Edval Daily, student information will also automatically flow to the Edval webserver.


Step 1: Download the Edval Staff application

Use the Edval10 Dashboard function > Get Help! to contact Edval if access to the application is required.
It is very important that only one instance of the Edval Staff application exists on the school's network in a location accessible to all those who require access. Multiple copies of the application will likely cause confusion and improper file management.
Note that the application is not able to be stored in a cloud-based location.
The timetabler will keep this software updated from within the Edval timetable software.

Step 2:  Register the current .etz timetable file to Edval Staff application 

The connection must be established between the up to date .etz timetable file and the Edval Staff application so that information flows correctly and seamlessly from one program to the other.
Refer to other  Edval Staff Knowledge Base documentation for further options and information.

Step 3: Provide Edval Staff access to the relevant staff

This is done either by:
  1. Communicating the location of the Edval Staff application to relevant staff
  2. Providing a shortcut of the Edval Staff application to relevant staff, usually placed on their computer desktop.
It is very important that copies of the application itself are not provided to staff, but rather shortcuts to the application are provided. The timetable can only be registered to a single Edval Staff application, so all staff must be accessing the same Edval Staff application or data will not be transferred to the correct file.


Step 4: Synchronise the .etz file to Edval Daily

(Only relevant for schools using Edval Daily) 
Configure and sync the .etz file to Edval Daily ( File > Synchronise).
Refer to other detailed  Knowledge Base documentation that outlines the synchronisation options.

Step 5: Provide class list managers with their individual WebCodes 

(Only relevant for schools using Edval Daily) 
Users will be prompted for a WebCode when attempting to make changes to student data.
Refer to other  Knowledge Base documentation for detailed information about User WebCodes.
Once the WebCode is entered, student data changes will automatically flow through to Edval Daily.



If school has set the multi-user password in timetable file then the password need to be shared with the user to be able to make class list changes in EdvalStaff. Refer here for more information on Password access to Edval Staff for class list management. 

Note that users may choose ' Cancel' at this point, and student data changes will flow through to the Edval .etz file; the data will simply not be sent to the Edval webserver. However, the Daily Organiser should have up to date student data and class list information, as events and class cancellations etc are occurring which requires up to date student data and class lists.

 Step 6: Proceed with class list management

As student enrolments, exits and class list changes occur, the data flows automatically to two places:
  1. The registered .etz timetable file
  2. Edval webserver, allowing the Daily Organiser access to the latest student information (for Edval Daily schools)
To enable users to make changes to Daily through Edval Staff, they must have the user permission 'Upload data from Desktop applications. Users can have multiple roles and having a role named 'Class List Manager' with this permission for example would make it very readable at a glance who is allowed to do this. We would prefer schools make a new role for this to make it clear and manageable, however you can choose to instead add this permission to an existing role such as 'permanent teacher' which is the default role for all timetabled staff. You will need to grant users, through one of these methods, the permission 'Upload data from desktop applications'. 
Refer to the Daily user management guide for instructions on how to complete this

There is no function in Edval Staff to 'sync' or 'save' the data, as registering the correct .etz file and entering a WebCode (for Edval Daily schools) allows this to occur seamlessly.

Step 7: Check that data is flowing from one program to the others successfully

It is good practice to always test that the registration and connections have been done correctly. This can be done by either:
  1. Make a student change in Edval Staff, open the .etz timetable file and save, then check to see if the student is showing the same change in the .etz file.
  2. Add a dummy student in Edval Staff, open the .etz timetable file and save, then check to see if the dummy student appears in the .etz file.
  3. Check a student's timetable in Edval Daily to ensure the correct classes and timetable are displaying.

Other synchronisations

Schools may have multiple synchronisation configurations set up to send data to other parties, such as Sentral, Compass etc. Once these systems have been configured and sync'd for the school year, further syncs will be required whenever changes to the timetable are made or when class list changes occur. Data can be sent to these external systems in a number of ways which best suit the school:
  1. Sync from the .etz file to other systems.
Refer to other  Knowledge Base documentation for sync options for your particular system.
  1. Perform a basic or advanced sync from Edval Daily to other systems.
Refer to Edval Daily  Knowledge Base documentation for sync options for your particular system.

FAQ

'Users still have this application in use' message appearing abnormally

This error message will appear when the already registered instance of staff is open anywhere else and you attempt to register or update the application from Edval 10.

It may be the case that you've closed the window but it's still running somewhere else. If you understand how to use task manager in windows then you can check if the process has ended there. Alternatively, please contact your IT department and have them follow this guide and the instructions below.

'You need to have web.edval administrator privileges to update student.' message:


If you receive this message then it indicates that the user webcode you provided does not have the correct permission to upload data to Daily. To correct this, please review Step 6 above for further instructions.


For IT staff:

There are a few options available to circumvent this error message. If the Edval Staff executable is accessed via a server then it may simply be restarted when possible. Alternatively, on the users machine you can temporarily disconnect all open files from shared folders in Windows' computer management. Failing those methods you can locate the Staff application and copy it to a new location (ideally local) and register to that location instead.


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