Users

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Users can be created, edited and deleted one by one or created and deleted in bulk (synch).

The User page

Insightusers.jpg

  1. Activated - This means the account is enabled, and can be used. The owner of the account can login using this account provided they know their login details.
  2. Used - This tells you whether or not anybody has logged into the account.
  3. Gen Pwd - This will be ticked if the account has a system-generated password, which is created automatically at the same time as the account. This will not be ticked if the user has logged on and changed the system-generated password to their own password.
  4. Notified - This tells you whether or not the account has been sent a system-generated password. This box will stay ticked once the account user has been informed of their password, even if they login and change that password later.

Create/Edit/Delete users

User can be created, edited and deleted from the Manage Users Screen.

  • Create User: The 'Add a user' icon allows you to manually create users one-by-one by entering their details.
  1. Enter the Forename and Surname
  2. Enter the email address which must be unique
  3. Enter the mobile phone number
  4. Enter the username, for example, the username for Jane Smith could be smithj
  5. Select the Role for the user, for example, "Standard" if you are setting up an account for a parent
  6. Click 'Activate' if you are going to activate the user on creation
  7. Click 'Next'
  8. If applicable to the role type, you will be given the option to select the students associated with this user.
  9. Click 'Next'
  10. The randomly generated password for the new user will be displayed and will have been assigned. (The user will be asked to change the password when they first log-in to Insight unless you selected the option not to do this when you created the role)
  • Edit User: The 'Edit a user' icon allows changes to be made about a user, changes regarding students associated with the user or changes to the role type provided it is of the same role type
  • Delete User: The 'Delete selected users' icon will delete the currently selected user. Multiple users can be deleted at once by selecting the tick boxes by the user’s names and selecting 'Delete selected users'
  • Users 'Activated' status can be changed by selecting the users (ticking the tick boxes next to their names or using shift- and control-clicks) and selecting the 'Activate selected users' or 'Deactivate selected users' buttons.
  • Change Role: The 'Change Role' icon allows the role (set of permissions) of the user to be changed to another role, provided the new roles is of the same type; for example, a parent can be amended to a different Parent Role as it is of the same role type but cannot be amended to an Administrator or Staff type role. (This can also be actioned through the Edit icon)

Sync - Create/Delete users in bulk

Synchronising is the process which updates the user data held in Insight from either the contacts held within SIMS or from staff.

To reduce the possibility of not being able to find contacts once the synchronisation is complete you can carryout some housekeeping in SIMS for the non-cohabiting contacts. In SIMS Go to -> Tools -> Housekeeping -> Bulk Address Tools -> Tidy and Merge Addresses

When creating Insight users in bulk, Insight will look at all students, and consider each of their contacts for creation as users according to rules. You should configure these rules in 'User creation' Preferences before Synchronising users, as any unwanted users will have to be deleted individually.

  • To begin a synchronisation run, Go to Accounts -> Users and begin the user creation process by clicking on the Synch button in the top right. You will be asked to confirm this process before being asked to make some choices about the type of synchronisation to be performed.
  • When new users are created, they can be activate, which means they are ready to use, or inactive which means activation will be required subsequently before the account may be used. This status can be changed manually later via the 'Activate/Deactivate selected users' buttons. (In the Manage Users screen a tick will appear in the activated column).
  • Select the type of synchronisation to perform, parents or staff. (Further information about this setting is below and you should configure these rules in 'User creation' preferences before synchronising users.)
  • Provide a role for new users to be added into, the default role is called Standard.
  • Select the 'Invalidate existing student links' box if you want student links not supported by the current user creation rules removed.
  • Select the 'Purge AD accounts' box if you want to clear down all parental, student and staff AD-based shadow accounts.
  • Click the Synchronise button on the dialog box to start the process.
When the process has completed, new users will have been assigned a randomly generated password, which they will be asked to change when they first log-in to Insight.

NOTE: The sync process will also de-activate parents of leavers who have no other siblings at school, so you may see more students being processed than you have on roll.


Parents

When performing a Parental synchronisation, from all the available contacts a student may have recorded against them, Insight will use only those that match the User Creation options in Preferences. Go to Manage -> Preferences -> User creation to see the fields you may need to set, by moving the switch between ON and OFF:

  • Never use email addresses for usernames when synchronising parents
Email addresses can change, which could cause confusion, and additionally email addresses for external domains are not valid usernames for Active Directory purposes, so you may want to use this option to ensure everyone has similarly styled usernames. (If you do opt to use email addresses for usernames you will be given an extra option called 'Match' within the Users menu option which will allow you to update the username with any new/amended email address.)
  • Only create users for contacts with parental responsibility
Checking this option means that users will not be created for contacts without parental responsibility (as taken from SIMS)
  • Only create users for contacts with Priority 1
It is possible but unusual to have more than one Priority 1 contact; checking this option means that only Priority 1 contacts (as set in SIMS) will be made into users.
  • When considering contacts with Priority 2 or lower, only create users for non-cohabitees of the student
If you are not only creating users for Priority 1 contacts, but are allowing Insight to consider lower priorities, this setting will only create a user account if the lower priority contacts do not co-habit with the student being considered. Put another way, if this setting is ON, Insight will not create accounts for contacts that live with the student.
  • Deactivate a user's links when the contact has no email in SIMS, and previously an email was found
If you use the email fields for contacts in SIMS to indicate 'IT active' this setting can help you to create user accounts based on the email field having something in.
  • Create users for contacts with court orders
By default users will not be created for contacts with court orders, but this can be achieved if required by checking this option
  • You will also have the option to invalidate student links before synchronising.
If you choose not to invalidate student links, then users previously created by syncronising will not be overwritten/removed.
If you choose to invalidate student links, then existing user accounts will be tested against your user creation rules, and overwritten/deleted if they do not comply with the rules.

Example
You previously syncronised parental accounts for contacts of any priority. You have now changed your user creation rules so that only contacts with priority 1 will have accounts created.

- Do not invalidate existing links: priority 2 or lower contacts will not have their accounts removed when you syncronise again. Any new priority 1 contacts in SIMS will have accounts created. Existing priority 1 contacts whose details in SIMS have changed will be amended.
- Do invalidate existing links: Any priority 2 or lower contacts will have their accounts removed. New priority 1 contacts will have accounts created. Existing priority 1 contacts whose details in SIMS have changed will be amended.


Once users have been added, randomly generated passwords may be exposed via Password Notification.

Staff

When performing a Staff based synchronisation, current staff may have Insight accounts created.

You will also have to select from these options:

  • Whether to use SIMS credentials where possible for Staff users.
If this is checked then staff members' Insight accounts will use their SIMS login details (where possible)
  • Whether to only provision users who do have a SIMS account.
If this is checked then only staff with active user accounts in SIMS will have Insight accounts created. (To check this in SIMS, go to Focus > System Manager > Manage Users)
  • Whether to consider Teaching staff for provisioning.
If this is checked then Insight accounts will be added for Teaching Staff (as set in SIMS)
  • Whether to consider Non-Teaching staff for provisioning.
If this is checked then Insight accounts will be added for Non-Teaching Staff (as set in SIMS)


If you opted to use SIMS credentials where possible, then staff can log on using their SIMS login details. If you did not check this option, or if some staff do not have SIMS logins, then they will be given randomly generated passwords. These can be viewed or reset by highlighting the staff member and clicking "View selected user details". Randomly generated passwords can also be sent out via Password notification.

Troubleshooting Synchronisation

  • If after synchronisation you find you are unable to find a user have a look at the SIMS Synchronisation report in SIMS Synchronisation, select the date of the run and search for the name in the report to find out the warning messages received. You can then check and amend, if necessary, this information in the SIMS database.

Tools to help find the information you actually want

For information on selecting, paging, sorting, filtering and grouping go to Grid usage.