Users

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

Create/Edit/Delete users

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

  • Create User: The 'Add a user' icon creates a user one by one by filling in all the fields.
  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.
  • Edit User: The 'Edit a user' icon allows changes to be made about a user or changes regarding students associated with the user.
  • 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.


Synch - 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

  • 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 informtion about this setting is below and you should configure these rules in 'User creation' Preferences before Synchronising users.)
  • Additionally, you must provide a role for new users to be added into.


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
  • 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 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 who live with the student.
  • Deactivate a users 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, links between users and students which were created using rules which are no longer in force, (that is, the rules have been changed since the previous synchronisation) will be persisted for following synchronisations. Even if the link would not have been created had it not already existed, the link will remain.

If you choose to invalidate student links, those links which are not supported under the rules used in this synchronisation will be deleted. You can think of invalidating student links as clearing a protection that would normally have been afforded previously created links.


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


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.
  • Whether to only provision users who do have a SIMS account.
  • Whether to consider Teaching staff for provisioning.
  • Whether to consider Non-Teaching staff for provisioning.


Once users have been added, randomly generated passwords may be exposed via Generated passwords, or where a SIMS account has been used, the users' own SIMS credentials.


Troubleshooting Synchronisation

  • If after synchronisation you find you are unable to find a user have a look at the SIMS Synchronisation report in Reports -> SIMS Synchronisation, select the date of the run and search for the name in the report to findout 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.