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Spreadsheet File Formats

A minimum of two sets of data should be provided in these formats: the staff account list and the student list. Ideally the Groups, Locations, and Messages spreadsheet will also be created; if this information is not in the spreadsheet it may be entered individually at the school directly into Silent Dismissal.

For most schools the Bus Stops spreadsheet will not be used but this feature is available for use at a later date if desired.

Accounts

Types

User accounts are the first step to creating your school's database. These accounts should be accessible by faculty and staff. There are currently four types of accounts: administrative, classroom, dismissal, and extended care. Each account type reflects their function and serve different purposes.

  • Administrative accounts (denoted by letter “a”) can access and edit the information within the database, which you will be creating.
  • Classroom accounts (denoted by letter “c”) are to be used by teachers, and they allow for students to be registered to their predetermined classrooms. With this account, one can view their classroom roster and more.
  • Dismissal accounts (denoted by letter “d”) are to be used by staff conducting dismissal during the day. Persons using this account can retrieve information about a student's pick up status, like the location of their pick up or if they have left early.
  • Extended care accounts (denoted by letter “e”) are used for after school activities.

Syntax (Format)

A minimum of five columns of information is required to create user accounts. Some of the columns are optional. The information should be either in Title Case or lower case, but not in all capital letters.

  1. Last Name - [required] It is the real world last name of the user of the account in Title Case
  2. First Name - [optional If omitted the column must be maintained with no data in it] The real world first name of the user in Title Case
  3. User ID [optional and usually left blank, but must be unique across all new and current accounts] By default Silent Dismissal will create accounts with user IDs comprised of the first initial and the last name. If there is a special format desired for the user IDs such as last.first@email.com then include this value. Also, if more than one person exists with the same first initial and the same last name, then one of those persons must be explicitly given an alternate user ID
  4. Grade [optional but strongly recommended for classroom accounts] Use a numeric value corresponding to the grade level, zero for kindergarten, -1 for 4 year old pre-K, -2 for 3 year old pre-K, and -3 for Other such as mixed grade special education classroom teachers
  5. Account Type [optionally defaults to classroom] Use values of a, c, and d for this column for Administrators (usually including front office staff), Classroom Teachers, and Dismissal staff, respectively
  6. Password [optional and rarely included] Defaults to the user's last name in lower case if omitted. May optionally be specified with the same value for all staff during initial configuration

Creation

Once this data has been collected and input into a spreadsheet, it is transferable to our system. If you have previously created a spreadsheet, you may refer to it to gather the necessary data. To enter the information your spreadsheet to our system, do the following:

  1. From an administrator account, click on ACCOUNTS at the top of the page. You should see a dropdown menu. Click on BULK LOAD. This will direct you to a webpage with an empty textbox.
  2. Using your spreadsheet containing account data, select the columns & rows for each account that must be created, including columns that were left blank during data input as they will serve as a placeholder.
  3. Copy & paste your selection from the spreadsheet into the textbox on the page. Remember to review your entry to avoid errors in transfer.
  4. After verifying this data is correct, click on the “Submit” button below the textbox.

Groups, Locations, and Messages

From an administrator account, click on GROUPS / BULK LOAD from drop down on the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Groups, locations, and messages require two columns of data to be bulk loaded.

  1. Group Type Code
  2. Group Name

Group Type Codes

The following list describes the letter to be entered into the first column of the spreadsheet to define what type of entity is being loaded, followed by the name of the entity in the second column:

  • p - Carpool
  • c - Club
  • d - Date
  • i - Immediate
  • b - Bus
  • v - Daycare Van
  • w - Walking
  • t - Tutoring
  • o - Other
  • m - Message
  • l - Location
  • z - Zone Location

Students

From an administrator account see STUDENTS / BULK LOAD

Student accounts are comprised of up to 5 fields of information. More details on how to generate carpool IDs and the class codes are described on another page.

  1. Last Name [required] Student last name in Title Case
  2. First Name [Optional but strongly recommended] Student first name in Title Case
  3. Pick Up ID Number [Optional but strongly recommended that all students be assigned a carpool ID] Numeric value from 1 to 4999
  4. Grade [Optional but recommended to assist with choosing rosters] Numeric value from -3 to 12
  5. Class Code [Optional but allows students to be directly loaded into classroom rosters] More details
  6. Student ID [Optional but will allow in the future to update existing student records]

If you don't have carpool pick up ID numbers assigned, then use your student information system to export the street address in place of the class code listed above.

Bus Stops

From an administrator account see GROUPS / BUS, then click on the number Stops column

Normal default bus stops may be set by parents if desired by the school. To load the bus stops up to two pieces of information are required:

  1. Bus Stop Name
  2. Bus Stop Order [optional] Generally not used when setting up a bus route for the first time. Each stop is offset in increments of 10 to allow for additional stops to be added interstitially at a later time

Each bus stop list must be loaded individual for each bus and the ordering of the bus stops is predicated on the order of the list.

admin/spreadsheet_file_format.1560884972.txt.gz · Last modified: 2024/03/05 12:57 (external edit)