e-track Online Release Notes

Technical specification

The latest Maytas and e-track technical specification can be found here.

e-track Online Release Notes – Version 5.19.7360.4

Automatically Link Employer to Learner Visit

A new configuration option is available which will automatically link a learner's employer to a visit when a visit is created for the learner. If a learner has multiple active employer records associated with them, the earliest associated employer will be used.

To enable this:

Go to Settings on the sidebar and click System configuration.
Go to Assessor Login on the left.
Tick the box for the Automatically link employer to trainee visit config (in the Visits section) and ensure the toggle box is set to ON.
Click Save.

e-track Online Release Notes – Version 5.19.7360.3

Timeline

e-track now shows a timeline of key events for learners such as visits, learning plan due dates, important module dates, etc, including both past and upcoming events. The timeline appears for learner users on the home page and for assessor users when viewing learner records.

The timeline can be viewed and controlled as follows:

Mouse controls

Click and drag left and right to move along the timeline.
Scroll the mousewheel to zoom in and out of the timeline. The timeline starts zoomed out to show all of a learner's events, but it can be zoomed in to individual days (or even hours and minutes if required).
Hover over items to view their basic details, which appear at the top-right of the timeline area.
Visits, community tasks and data collection forms can be clicked, which will prompt you to open the relevant visit, community or form.
Click the button to view the legend and configure which types of item appear on the timeline.

Mobile / touchscreen controls

Drag left and right to move along the timeline.
Pinch to zoom in and out of the timeline. The timeline starts zoomed out to show all of a learner's events, but it can be zoomed in to individual days (or even hours and minutes if required).
Tap items to view their basic details in a pop-up window. Visits, community tasks and data collection forms have a button to open the relevant visit, community or form.
Tap the button to view the legend and configure which types of item appear on the timeline.

If the timeline is zoomed out far enough so that not all events can appear in the appropriate area, they will be grouped under a grey box showing the number of events. Zooming in will un-group the events so that you can view their details.

Configuring the timeline

Click the button to view the legend.

If you don't want a particular event type to appear on the timeline, untick its box and click Update Timeline. This will only apply to the current user.

You can also set event type visibility for everyone in the system settings, as well as configuring the colour used for each event type:

Go to Settings on the sidebar.
Scroll down to the Learner Timeline Event Configuration section.
Un-tick the checkbox for any event type you wish to hide on all timelines. This will also hide the event type on user-specific legends.
If you wish to use a custom colour for an event type, click the box to the right of the event type and choose the colour from the palette which appears.

You can also enter a HTML colour code (with or without the hashtag) instead of picking a colour.
Click Save.
At the top of the settings screen, click Reload.

If you wish to revert to the default colour for an event type, simply delete the colour code from the relevant box, save and reload the settings.

Disable timeline

To hide the timeline on the homepage for all learner users:

Go to Settings on the sidebar and click System configuration.
Go to Learner Login on the left.
Tick the box for the Disable timeline on learner login homepage config (in the General section) and ensure the toggle box is set to ON.
Click Save.

To hide the timeline on the learner summary page for all assessor users:

Go to Settings on the sidebar and click System configuration.
Go to Assessor Login on the left.
Tick the box for the Disable timeline on learner summary page config (in the General section) and ensure the toggle box is set to ON.
Click Save.

PCR - Ordering of Custom Tabs

e-track trainee tabs created in the screen designer can now be manually ordered using an index field.

To set the index on a tab in the Maytas screen designer:

Go to Tools on the toolbar.
Click New / Load on the Screens panel of the ribbon.
Select Trainee on the left and open the tab that requires the index.
Enter the e-track Display Index, which should be a number that will determine the order of custom tabs in e-track. The index field is only visible when the Trainee box is ticked in the e-track Publish section.
Click Apply.
Repeat for additional e-track trainee tabs as required so that each has an index number.
Go to Home on the toolbar and click Sync.

PCR - Team Caseload Date Fields

POT Start Date and Expected Completion Date (or Funding End Date) can now be included on the Team Caseload screen. To add them to the screen:

Go to Settings on the sidebar and click System configuration.
Click Assessor Login on the left and scroll down to the General section.
There are two available configs, and only one of them should be used:
- Use POT start date and ILR planned end date in the assessor caseload grid - This will use TRAINEEPOT.FUNDINGEXPIRYDATE04 for the Funding End Date if present, or TRAINEEPOT.EXPCOMPLETIONDATE if not.
- Use POT start and expected completion dates in the assessor caseload grid - This will use TRAINEEPOT.EXPCOMPLETIONDATE for the expected completion date.
Tick the box next to the config you wish to use and ensure the toggle box is set to ON.
Click Save.

To view the fields, go to Browse Team on the sidebar and select a team member. The POT Start Date and Funding End Date (or Exp. Completion Date) fields will now appear.

If you also have the Start Date field enabled, this shows the date when a learner started with the assessor, whereas the POT Start Date shows the date when a learner started their learning.

Communities Improvements

Edit community resources directly

Community admins can now directly edit resources in a community, rather than going to the community home page first. Clicking the Edit button on a resource will take you to the edit resource window.

Click Save once finished. This will take you to the Edit Community screen. Click the Return button to return to the resource page.

Employer community groups

Community groups can now be created so that they are only accessible by employer users and community admins. To create an employer group:

Go to Communities on the sidebar and open a community.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Groups tab.
Click Add Group.
Enter a name for the group and set the forum and moderation options as required.
Select Employer from the Membership Type dropdown box.
In the Add Users section, search for and add employer users as required.
Click Save.

There is a second new membership type: Employers and Trainees. This option lets you choose an employer, and then all employer and trainee user accounts associated with that employer and its branches will be automatically included in the group. The Employers and Trainees membership type is only available on a group if it is the only group in a community.

To create an Employers and Trainees group:

Go to Communities on the sidebar and open a community.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Groups tab.
Click Add Group.
Enter a name for the group and set the forum and moderation options as required.
Select Employers and Trainees from the Membership Type dropdown box.
Search for the employer to base the group on. Double-click an employer from the results to select them.
The selected employer will appear above the search area. Click the red cross button to remove the employer and choose a different one if required.
Click Save.

Module Register Improvements

Module registers have been improved so that registers can be created in advance (see the Maytas release notes for details on how to do this). These registers can then be accessed and completed in e-track, rather than having to create an ad-hoc register each time.

This feature requires a licence for Module Registers. Please contact your account manager for more information.

Create registers for a module in Maytas using the wizard, as per the instructions in the Maytas release notes .
Go to Registers on the sidebar.
Click Select from existing.
You will be prompted to choose the register to complete. Select the module and occurrence code, then choose the register from the dropdown box at the bottom. You can also filter the registers for that occurrence code using the date parameters.
Click Select.
The register can then be completed as normal. Click Save when finished.

Assessor Data Collection Queue

e-track now allows you to send multiple data collection forms to an assessor for completion, which works in the same way as the learner and employer data collection queues. This is done on the Data Queue tab on the relevant user's record in Maytas, where a row can be added to the grid and configured for each form that needs to be completed.

Requirements

On-line applications, data collection and data authentication require licences for e-track screen design and online applications, as well as licences for learners and employers. Please contact your account manager for the required licences, and consultancy will be required.

Import Data Queue Tabs

In Maytas, go to Tools on the toolbar and click Import on the Screens panel of the ribbon.
Click Browse.
Browse to the Maytas 5\Extras\Tabs folder of the upgrade, select the Data Queue tabs.m5rep package and click Open.
Click Next, then click Finish.
Go to Home on the toolbar and click Sync.

Form Setup

First, data collection forms should be created for an assessor as required (in the Personnel entity of the Maytas screen designer). The important points for a screen to work as a data collection form are on the screen designer Overview tab:

Published - This should be ticked.
e-track Publish - Application Form should be ticked.
App Form ID - This should be a single-digit integer (i.e. 0 to 9) which is used to identify the form. Each learner form should have a different number, as should each employer form, but learner and employer forms can share a number. e.g. You could have a learner and an employer form both with an ID of 1, but not two learner forms with an ID of 1.
Position - This essentially the page number of a form. For example, if you wanted a four page form, you would create a separate screen for each page, give them all the same App Form ID and then enter 1 to 4 for the position (i.e. 1 for page 1, 2 for page 2, etc).

Once you have created a form, a lookup should be added for it so that it is available in the Data Queue grid:

In Maytas, go to Tools | DB Schema.
Expand Tables on the left to show a list of tables in the database.
Expand ASSESSOR_DATACOLLECTIONQUEUE and select FORMID.
If the Set button appears on the right, click it.
Select the Look-ups tab.
Click the button to add a new lookup.
The Short string should be two-characters:
- The first character is C for an assessor form. Note that for a learner form being completed by an assessor on the learner's behalf, this should be A.
- The second character is the App Form ID of the form.
  e.g. For an assessor form with an ID of 3, the short string would be C3.
The Long string should be the name or title of the form which will be displayed on the Data Queue grid.
Click Apply and add additional lookups for forms as required.
Go to Home on the toolbar and click Sync, then restart Maytas.

Assessor Data Queue

To add a form to an assessor's queue:

In Maytas, open the assessor's record and go to the Data Queue tab.
Click the button on the top grid to add a new row.
In the pop-up window which appears, select a Form (this is populated by the lookups set above) and enter a Due Date.
Click OK.
Click Apply.

The row will be added to the grid. The Date Created field will be populated with the current date (the assessor record may need to be closed and re-opened for this to show) and the Status will be set to Outstanding, which means the assessor has not yet started the form.

The next time the assessor logs into e-track, they will be given a prompt to choose which form to complete (they will be given the option of all outstanding or in-progress forms currently in their queue).

When an assessor clicks Save on a form, the status in the queue for that form will change to In Progress. If a learner closes their browser and then returns to the form later on, they will be able to continue from where they left off.

When an assessor clicks Submit, providing any and all form validation has been met, the form status will change to Completed and they will not be prompted to complete the form again.

Forms Completed by an Assessor on behalf of a Learner

An assessor can be sent a form to complete on behalf of a learner. To do this:

In Maytas, open the assessor's record and go to the Data Queue tab.
Click the button on the grid to add a new row.
In the pop-up window which appears, complete the following fields:
- Trainee ID - Use the button to search for an select the learner for whom the assessor will be completing the form.
- Form - Select the form to complete (this is populated by the lookups set above).
- Form Type - Select Assessor on behalf of trainee.
- Due Date - Enter the date by which the form should be completed.
Click OK.
Click Apply.

A row will also be added to the bottom grid on the learner's Data Queue tab to indicate their assessor has an outstanding form to complete on their behalf.

When an assessor clicks Save on a form, the status in the queue for that form will change to In Progress. If an assessor closes their browser and then returns to the form later on, they will be able to continue from where they left off.

When an assessor clicks Submit, providing any and all form validation has been met, the form status will change to Completed and they will not be prompted to complete the form again.

Data Collection Forms - Report PDF in Sub-folder

When a data collection form with a report associated with it is completed, the PDF generated from the report will now be placed in its own folder with the same name as the report. Previously, generated PDFs would be placed in the root of the file store.

If a report is run for a user more than once in this way, old versions of the PDF will be placed in an Archive folder within that report's folder, and the latest PDF will appear outside of the Archive folder.

Instructions for configuring a report with a data collection form can be found here .

Return to Homepage after Form Completion

After completing a data collection form, users are now returned to the e-track homepage rather than being logged out (unless the config to lock a user account is enabled, in which case they will still be logged out after completing the form).

Pop-up Tabs on Grids

Custom tabs with grids can now use multiple pop-up tabs when adding or editing a grid row, similar to how this works in Maytas. The following example details creating a custom trainee tab called Grid Example, with two pop-up tabs called Grid Pop-up 1 and 2, based on the ILR Subsidiary Aims grid:

In Maytas, go to Tools on the toolbar.
Click New / Load on the Screens panel of the ribbon.
Select Trainee on the left and create a new tab.
Enter Grid Example in the Name field.
Tick the Published box, and in the e-track Publish section, tick the Trainee box.
Go to the Controls tab at the bottom-left of the screen.
Drag a Grid control into the design area.
The Edit Grid window will appear. Choose ILR Subsidiary Aims from the Entity dropdown box.
Choose columns to display on the grid and click OK (the specific columns chosen are unimportant for this example).
Click Apply.
Go to Tools | New / Load.
Select ILR Subsidiary Aims on the left and create a new tab.
Enter Grid Pop-up 1 in the Name field.
Tick the Published and Trainee boxes.
Go to the Fields tab at the bottom-left of the screen.
Drag some fields onto the design area (the fields chosen are unimportant for this example).
Click Apply.
Repeat steps 11 to 17 to create Grid Pop-up 2.
Go to Home on the toolbar and click Sync.
In e-track, open a trainee record and go to the Grid Example tab.
Click Add Row.
The pop-up window will appear. Click the tab headers to move between the tabs.
Complete details as required and click Save to add the row to the grid.

If no tabs on the grid's entity are published to e-track, the grid will allow you to edit fields on a row directly (as before).

Employment Type on View Details

The View Details section on a learner record now includes the employment type in the employer details. This is available on all e-track logins.

Employer Postcode Search

When searching for an employer in the employer editor, it is now possible to search by employer postcode.

Advanced Search by Expected Completion Date

On the Find Trainees screen advanced search, it is now possible to filter by expected completion date.

Go to Trainees on the sidebar.
Go to the Find Trainees tab.
Click the Advanced button.
The Expected Completion Date filter appears at the bottom of the search options. Choose from the dropdown box whether to search for trainees with an expected completion date earlier than, later than or equal to a specified date.
Choose the date to search on from the box to the right.
Complete other search options as required and click Search.

Permissions - Restrict Adding Visits and Modules

New permissions are available which prevent an assessor user from being able to add visits and modules throughout e-track. To set the permissions.

Go to Web User Editor on the sidebar.
Search for and open the user or group to give the permissions.
Click Permissions to expand the list of permissions.
In the Assessor section, tick the Restrict Adding Visits and Restrict Adding TRModule permissions as required.
Click Save.

The permissions will take effect the next time the user logs in. Note that the modules permission prevents an assessor from being able to add modules to a learner, not from creating new modules in the module editor.