Webinar Walkthrough
Introduction
After 12 months of development, Alaress is proud to announce the latest release of Schoolbox. With mobile devices and touch screens becoming the predominant devices, we believe it is now time to deliver an interface that recognises these trends and puts them at the forefront of the Schoolbox experience.
With this release we completely went back to the drawing board to reassess our interface and how it was used on a range of different devices. This was done over a 3 stage process the covered design, framework and then implementation. The process required every page in Schoolbox, some 400+ pages to be rebuilt. This massive undertaking is in line with our commitment to maintain Schoolbox and the forefront of the latest technology and usability.
Major Features
Mobile First
In previous versions of Schoolbox a separate mobile interface that contained a subset of functionality existed. This reduced functionality and duplicated interface limited our mobile users and created additional overhead for our development team. For 15.5 we wanted to combine mobile and desktop into a single interface so we could share all the great Schoolbox functionality no matter what your device.
This required a mobile first mentality where all interfaces must first be designed to work on mobile and then expanded to work on desktop. This focus on mobile first also provided the opportunity to streamline interfaces, remove excess complexity and reassess navigational elements. This has all results in a simplified experience across all devices, while still maintaining our functionality and power.
Navigation Upgraded
In the process of upgrading the navigation system we recognised that many users were already familiar with our existing navigation system. So rather than completely replace the existing well known system we choose to evolve the system. This means the tab bar has been converted to a button list for easy pressing on touch screens. The button list also overflows into the side navigation when the screen size is limited. The side menu has been hidden off screen on small devices to maximise screen real estate. This navigation will easily be accessible under the 'hamburger' icon in the top right while on mobile.
We have also move notifications into their own column on the right hand size. On small screens this remains off-screen until summoned but on very large screens you will always be able to see the notifications, increasing the value of this important system.
While reviewing our interfaces we found that on small screens identifying your location became difficult. To help improve users knowledge of contextual location we have added breadcrumbs to many features. This should help users understand their location and also navigate back to where they came from.
Touch Friendly
As part of this review, we recognised that most mobile devices are also touch based devices. To support touch we increased the size and padding around elements to ensure users with large fingers could easily click on buttons and links. Additionally we reviewed our drag and drop systems and made them more fool proof when using your fingers.
Skin Builder
With the new interface, all old customised skins cannot be easily migrated into the new system. To help you migrate quickly and easily we have created a new skin configuration. This will enable you to configure all the colours, images and logos used in the new interface. By default the system will continue to use your existing skin, however be aware that this will be a mix of the old interface and the new interface and may not function entirely correctly. We do recommend that you migrate to the skin builder, by enabling it in Admin > Settings > Skin Config.
Here's a guide for using the new skin builder
If you find yourself limited by the skin builder let us know and we can extend its functionality or build you a new custom skin based on the responsive interface.
Engagement Report
We recognise that providing the best support for Schoolbox requires insights into how the system is being used. These new reports are designed to help Schoolbox admins understand and execute targeted PD and monitor KPIs. We have been using this data internally for some time to increase the effectiveness of our deployments, so we hope it can now help you do the same. These reports are designed to give an overview of who is using Schoolbox and how they are using it. Insights into login rates, LMS usage, homepage components are all available in a single simple interface.
Known Issues
- Custom skins built on the old platform may not work correctly. We recommend you migrate to the skin builder and build a new skin on the new platform
- Custom modules built on the old framework will need to be migrated to the new framework. Please contact us for assistance migrating your custom features to a new mobile responsive design
- There are some display issues with the editor, we are replacing the editor in version 15.6
Update 15.5.1
Released 26th November 2015
Admin
- SB-10376 Fixed daemon bootup fatal error logging
- SB-8499 Fixed the video dashboard component so it correctly shows the current selected video
- SB-10415 Fixed the selected state on the engagement reports
Interface
- SB-10361 Added hover tint on mouse over to submit button
- SB-10430 Fixed accordion active text is always black
- SB-10374 Fixed size of overflow icon when in button groups
Core
- SB-10398 Removed news component completely from dashboard when no news available
- SB-10380 Removed news icon and fixed alignment when no image provided for news on dashboard
Homepages
- SB-10436 Fixed display of attached files in social stream
- SB-10468 Updated blog delete button to be consistent with rest of system (top right corner)
CMS
- SB-10387 Removed white drop-shadow behind text in upload dropzone
- SB-10362 Fixed vertical alignment text inside dropzone
- SB-10401 Fixed the location of the 'Add Folder' buttons on screens larger than 1920px
- SB-10420 Fixed CMS Permission override access to resources
- SB-10389 Fixed issue where you could not load a folder due to links and files sharing an ID
- SB-10402 Fixed icon colours to match folder tree
- SB-10405 Fixed superuser access to folders with no permissions
LMS
- SB-10427 Fixed due work link for teachers so it goes to teachers view
- SB-10348 Ensured section titles in quiz are limited to 50 chars
Resource Booking
- SB-10394 Fixed upload image controls when creating and editing resources
Update 15.5.2
Released 4th December 2015
Admin
- SB-9264 Improved user bulk modify to work even on very large lists of users
- SB-10395 Fixed inconsistent styling for the grid of components in Admin pages
- SB-10413 Removed some default homepage colour settings that were no longer in use
- SB-10537 Fixed usage report missing from the admin menu
- SB-10550 Ensure push notification config options are installed and shown
Homepages
- SB-7348 Decreased max font size on tiles, to ensure tile font does not get too big for its own good
- SB-10492 Fixed textbox component names not being correctly sanitized for HTML
- SB-10507 Fixed the image component title pretending to be from a different component
- SB-10509 Fixed role suggestion not suggesting roles when adding members in manage group
- SB-10539 Fixed countdown component so it uses font colour from component settings
Core
- SB-9875 Fixed showing broken image icon for portrait images when a user is not found
- SB-10524 Removed custom templates that are no longer required because of localisation
- SB-10551 Fixed date display in Resource Booking and the User Profile page
- SB-10553 Fixed news article author links to the user profile page
Notifications
- SB-10124 Fixed wiki notifications not being sent to staff users upon revision
- SB-10479 Fixed Settings page layout when no groups exist
CMS
- SB-10425 Fixed folders not being deleted correctly when their parent folder is deleted
LMS
- SB-10495 Fixed being unable to delete items from a Course Builder component
Resource Booking
- SB-10504 Fixed the modify booking confirmation modal not making the requested changes on approval
- SB-10552 Fixed updating a booking not making any changes
Custom
- SB-10476, SB-10477, SB-10478 SHCL: Fix multiple issues caused by old custom templates
- SB-10531 MS: fixed assessment ordering
Update 15.5.3
Released 11th December 2015
Admin
- SB-10414 Fixed errors when the date range is changed in the Engagement report
- SB-10632 Improved user bulk modify submit button layout
- SB-10668 Fixed site analytics config option to be optional
Core
- SB-10491 Fixed layout on error pages
- SB-10572 Fixed styling of the auto-suggest drop downs
- SB-10633 Changed the expanding lists icon from a + to a ^ to avoid confusion
- SB-10651 Fixed Drives failing to load and incorrectly reporting as not configured correctly
- SB-10662 Improved the course detection query causing high load on some servers
CMS
- SB-7321 Added the ability to delete a folder from the modify folder page
- SB-10566 Fixed the folder permission warning no longer showing
Homepages
- SB-10638 Upgraded Clickview to the latest v3 api
- SB-10568 Improved layout of select source option on components
- SB-10647 Removed empty whitespace from some components in read only mode
- SB-10534 Increased maximum length of links in the Tiles component from 250 to 2000 characters
- SB-10596 Fixed the delete collab document button so it now deletes, not duplicates
- SB-10625 Fixed homepage feed layout
Messages
- SB-10562 Altered the description for a forum message to make it clearer
- SB-10577 Fixed styling for message settings option icons
LMS
- SB-10253 Fixed students being unable to access teacher annotations via crocodoc under some circumstances
- SB-10547 Fixed Due Work items not showing the comments from teacher for students in some cases
- SB-10573 Fixed styling of the delete modal on submissions screen to match the new design
- SB-10614 Fixed inconsistent colours on rubrics between teacher and student view
- SB-10656 Fixed being unable to change the point values in rubrics
Resource Booking
- SB-10579 Fixed fatal error when creating a new resource in resource booking
- SB-10630 Fixed display of errors when the booking form is not filled in correctly
WebDAV
- SB-10263 Fixed files uploaded via webdav failing, resulting in files with 0 byte size
Skins
- SB-10360, SB-10424 Fixed login forms with incorrect styling due to old skins
- SB-10530 Fixed empty line of text appearing in list items
- SB-10538 Fixed custom css from old skins breaking new responsive skins
Custom
- SB-10667 TS: Update sync year levels
Update 15.5.4
Released January 11th 2016
Admin
- SB-10523 Added config options to users to remove contact information and timetable
- SB-7870 Increased size of year field from 7 to 250
- SB-10710 Removed the tiny option from the skin config as it was too small to be usable
- SB-10722 Added ability to customise side nav and tabs while using Skin Builder
- SB-10637 Optimised Remote Services API to redirect faster when using new window
Core
- SB-10681 Set timetable font colour to black for all content
- SB-10750 Fixed issue when WebDAV browser would not prompt for authentication if it could not login
- SB-10737 Fixed number input fields not rendering properly at small input sizes
- SB-10296 Removed underlines from many buttons
- SB-10489 Fixed alignment on Child Subject dashboard component
- SB-10576 Fixed header colours to be responsive to background colour
- SB-10628 Added mouses overs to 'Actions' or 3 dot options
- SB-10629 Increased size of default Schoolbox icons to support HIDPI screens
- SB-10798 Fixed issue with SQL connector when service not available
- SB-10713 Fixed font to default to Open Sans on all devices
- SB-10727 Fixed styling on Parent Directory
- SB-10731 Fixed font size on profile pages
- SB-10783 Fixed issue with SQL connector when no data returned
- SB-10285 Fixed tab bar highlighting on Resource, My Files and Drives
Calendar
- SB-10685 Fixed inability to delete tasks in the calendar
- SB-10692 Fixed modifying a calendar event always makes it an all-day event
CMS
- SB-10785 Fixed moving links in resource browser
- SB-10755 Fixed downloading folders in resource browser
- SB-10223 Cleanup zip temporary files when creation fails
- SB-10403 Added course icon to resource browser preview pane
- SB-10623 Fixed padding in resource picker modal
- SB-10721 Fixed folder creation so superusers can create folders without access
LMS
- SB-10346 Fixed issue with student submissions via WebDav having a double extension
- SB-9895 Fixed unable to add rubric criteria using copy and paste using right click on mouse
- SB-10226 Added more reliable saving of student quiz and survey data (won't progress unless data is saved, will retry automatically several times over a minute)
- SB-10636 Fixed link to grades page when not showing grade averages from grades subject listing page
- SB-10641 Fixed issue with large rubrics hitting a form size limit
- SB-7334 Fixed due work link in expired course so students can see past results after course unit has closed
- SB-9753 Fixed quiz "Completion Message" not being included in import/export xml feature
- SB-10485 Removed submitted/not submitted labels showing on submissions with no electronic submission
- SB-10567 Removed eye button from course import
- SB-10615 Fixed mark review on exact/numeric answer questions
- SB-10618 Fixed mark review on multiple choice questions
- SB-10741 Fixed tooltip on criteria delete button when criteria cannot be deleted
- SB-10794 Improved styling on marksheet visibility icons
- SB-10774 Fixed error when viewing a student's unmarked submission in crocodoc
Homepage
- SB-10687 Improved countdown to be more responsive and fit on smaller screens
- SB-10781 Fixed Image Slideshow when using the "Collapse Content" option
- SB-9846 Added colours back to component icons
- SB-10366 Fixed component adding animation sometimes going the wrong direction
- SB-10481 Fixed dropzone being very small in Firefox browser
- SB-10528 Fixed homepage statistics off by one day
- SB-10635 Fixed layout of forum messages so they have more space on small screens
- SB-10786 Fixed layout in homepage activity
Resource Booking
- SB-10773 Improved error messages when attempting to book a resource you do not have access to
Custom
- SB-10522 Arden: Added compact mode to homepage news
- SB-10574 TPS: Reordered side navigation
- SB-10677 Dio: Added yr10-13 ePortfolio enabled
- SB-10694 RLC: Removed resources icon
- SB-10738 KDS: Linked My Files to Google Drive
- SB-10082 LGSPK: Added Timetable Importer/Converter
- SB-10791 Scotch Oakburn: Removed author of news