Astra Schedule Release Notes

8.1.0

8.1.0

Previous topic Next topic  

8.1.0

Previous topic Next topic JavaScript is required for the print function  

Release Notes

 

Release 8.1.0

8/30/17

 

 

What's New in the AS8 Release?

Updated User Interface

Astra Schedule 8.1.0 represents a complete overhaul of the look of the application, and many enhancements to overall usability.

 

Changes include:

 

Updated Navigation - the navigation bar is all new, and simplified. Options are consolidated and the old "landing" pages are a thing of the past.
 

Updated Filtering - list filters have a few new features, including:

Clear - one-click removal of a single filter

Clear All - one-click removal of ALL filters

Show Current Filter - one-click undo of uncommitted filter changes

Next 31 Days – rolling default filter for the event list

Show Available Rooms - new room scheduler filter to show only available rooms by default
 

Recents - your last 10 visited application pages are saved in an easy-access list on the Home menu
 

Edit Mode - If you have edit permission, you are always in edit mode when viewing a record. It is no longer required to click "edit".
 

Save and Close - A new "save and close" option is provided on editable records as a one-click option to commit changes and return to the previous page.
 

Updated Role form - The user role (permissions) form is updated to be easier to view and navigate.
 

Updated Available Room and Resource Tool - The Available Rooms option on the Calendars tab is updated to be easier to use.

 

System "About"  - An "about" option is provided that includes key system information, including your current version, release and support dates, and links to other resources.

 

Color Branding

System administrators now have the ability to select the color scheme of the application to reflect school branding.

 

New and Improved Homepage

Homepage Templates - Easy to use, predefined homepage templates to help build a homepage layout
 

Widgets - Widgets are added to your homepage template to create content on your homepage. A filterable Activity List widget is available now. More widgets to come!

 

Event Management Updates

All New Event Creation Process - A new, streamlined event creation process was created as the single new event creation method regardless of access point.
 

Find Available Time - If you have a certain room in mind, you can now search for an alternate time in that room during the event creation process.
 

Refreshed Event Form - The event form is updated to include more tabs for easy access to common features.
 

Featured Image - You can now upload a "featured" image for display on the Homepage activity description.
 

Attendee Management Update - Attendees can now be recorded at both the event and meeting simultaneously - no need to choose one or the other for simple recording purposes.
 

Event Reminders - Create a to-do list with optional email reminders to be sent on a certain date and specify due dates.
 

Event Request -

The "meeting creator" is redesigned to be more configurable and easier to use when making it available on event request forms.

Rich text instructions and general information can now be added to event request forms.
 

Data Entry Useability Enhancements -

Customer/Contact - You may now enter either customer or contact first when filling out the event record, depending on which is known. The other field will be filtered based on the one entered.

Drop-down lists now have type-ahead functionality

The "event meeting type" field on meetings within an event is now optional

 

Platinum Analytics Updates

Program of Study and Pathway structures added to the system -

Programs of Study represent the unique combinations of program, major, minor, and concentration (and student attributes related to degree path if applicable) being pursued by students at your institution.

 

Pathways represent a specific, recommended sequence of courses that can be taken to complete a Program of Study. The goal of a Pathway is to simplify as much as possible the complexity that exists within a set of degree requirements. Pathways are used to help determine demand for courses during Planner Analysis and Simulated Registration.
 

Student Planner Analysis - A new course demand analysis type that folds in imported student planned courses and is displayed as a separate demand data point.

 

Rule Simplification - A reworked, simplified rule structure for imported degree rules to help reduce complexity when interpreting degree audit rules.
 

Student Progress Analysis - A new, centralized process used to generate a list of planned courses for students for the purpose of calculating demand, either from Pathway data or Simplified Rules.
 

Import Performance Improvement - A new import type is now used for historically long-running imports of large amounts of data.

 

Shibboleth Integration

Astra Schedule now supports single sign-on (SSO) using Shibboleth.

 

 

Other Enhancements

Area

Case Numbers

Event Request Forms: Ability to remove the "Max Attendance", "Private", "Featured" and "Requires Room" options from the form

Event Request

41846, 42889, 44252, 44686, 45104, 45464, 45562, 46841, 47167, 51254, 52012, 52047, 52563, 52643, 54546, 55712, 55858, 55964, 56631, 59888, 60462, 60813, 60992, 61226, 64434, 64850, 67153, 61411, 54642

Section Form: Ability to view only available rooms in the ad hoc scheduler

Section Edit/Schedule

39198, 40380, 43268, 45990, 46415, 46714, 48396, 49257, 49593, 49594, 51154, 51670, 54820, 55407, 55575, 58087, 58150

 

Key Resolved Issues

Area

Case Numbers

Custom Keyword filter is not saved into the Custom Calendar Search Tool

Calendars

61229, 69779, 69747

Section List: Export to excel fails when there's a bad date value.

Calendars

64557

Calendars: Setting up new activity calender: Item has already been added. Key in dictionary

Calendars

70096

Resources: Room details are not available at hover over

Campus/Building/Room Configuration

61501

Event List: When narrowing scheduler search filter to single user, events are appearing of which they are not the owner

Event Configuration

46324

Event Request Template: Keyword search in event type on event filter gets stuck

Event Request

67430, 69128, 69533, 69864, 69532, 71417

All exams not showing on the academics/sections list filtered by exams

Exam Scheduling

68474, 69037

Holidays and Announcements List: Deleted holidays/announcements can still be found through the search. Error occurs when attempting to open or edit the deleted holiday/announcement

Holidays/Announcements

42832, 56534

Sections List: When showing 200 results, at some point the details of the sections (dates, times etc) do not display on the list

Import/Export

61802

People List: Cannot use the enter key to get search results

People

40335, 44070

Duplicate People List: Receive error if searching by last name with apostrophe

People

33277, 49635

System-wide Performance: Weekly room grid report takes 2 minutes to load.

Performance

43993

Sandbox List: Attempting to filter by user does not return any results in the list.

Room Optimization/Preferences

48486

Effective dated rooms not being picked up correctly as scheduling preferences

Room Optimization/Preferences

66206

Section Form: Preference of exclude is still a choice in the ad hoc scheduler

Section Edit/Schedule

37642, 41457, 41629, 47190, 48168, 48182, 48184, 48186, 48185, 49301, 49844, 49134, 54605, 58021, 58032

Section List: Sort room column on list page doesn't work in Firefox 14 when filtering by term

Section Edit/Schedule

40313

Section Form: Meeting level preferences not appearing in ad hoc scheduler

Section Edit/Schedule

41468, 43256, 45749

Section Form: SISKey disappears when editing meeting, save and clicking back to section info tab

Section Edit/Schedule

48901

Role List: Keyword search not finding results

Security

34207

Section Form: Section form title bar does not handle the ampersand character correctly

User Interface

48318, 55726

Event Request Form: Cannot use the highlight or font color, bold and italic in the introductory or confirmation text boxes (IE) only

User Interface

40095, 40692

Role Search Filter: Role Keyword Filter doesn't work

User Interface

56407, 61733, 69740

Notification List: If you save a filter when tied to an approver group and are removed from the group later items still appear on notification list

Workflows/Notifications/Approvals

51606

 

Known Limitations

The prescriptive scheduling feature set (sectioning, timetabling, and related functionality) is not verified for this AS8 release.

 

This includes:

Program Version, Rule, and Template configuration, Sectioning, Timetabling, Instructor Optimization, and the Planned Course sandbox.

Invoicing functionality is not available in the Aug 30 release and will be available in a maintenance release soon.

Start time and end time are not available columns on the event list page. This is a limitation that will be addressed in an upcoming maintenance release.

The Weekly Room Scheduling Grid will not print all columns at this time.

 

What Else?

The browser feature to right-click to open a new tab from within the navigation menu is not supported by the new user interface framework. However, control-click can be used to achieve the same result.

A slight design change was made to the room scheduler (the assign room utility displayed when manually assigning a room to a section or event). The additional room information columns are no longer controlled with an expand/collapse button. Instead, you may add or remove columns manually to control which information is shown, just like many of the lists in the application.

As a side note, there is a user interface framework limitation in this area that prevents resizing of this panel ONLY during the your first attempt. If you revisit this form after your initial attempt, you can resize the panel as desired.

In order to position a move to a mobile-friendly user experience, some hover functionality within the application has been removed.

Previously configured Portal pages do not upgrade to AS8. The Portal infrastructure was replaced with the new Homepage. New Homepages must be configured from scratch.