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Exporting Student Data Files

If you already know what's required and why, and just need a refresher, you can jump directly to the Export Instructions. Otherwise, we suggest you read the following notes.


What's a Student Data File?
This is a file which is generated by your school administration software, and contains certain student information such as firstname, lastname, grade, division, and student#.

What's an ASCII file?
An ASCII file (for our purposes) is another name for a Student Data File (see above). It's actually a plain-text file, readable by all computer types and operating systems. It does not contain any formatting (ie. boldface, page breaks, etc.) except for carriage returns. "ASCII" (pronounced "ASS-key") stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

Who needs to do this?
If you are requesting any digital services such as a CD, school directory, or barcoded ID cards, it is imperative that we receive some information about your students in order for us to identify them. If we do not receive this information, we will be unable to produce digital services for your school.

In addition, each students' camera card is prepared in advance on our laser printers as opposed to being filled out manually at the time of photography; this reduces the amount of time each student is away from class.

When should we do this?
We require your data file at least two weeks prior to your photo day. We appreciate that school administrators are extremely busy, particularly in the first weeks of school, but without this data we will not know the identities of the students and therefore would not be able to produce the services that you have requested.

What if not all of the students have registered yet?
If we receive a file with "most" of the students, we can work around it by manually adding those students on photo day. If we receive "no" information we cannot create any digital services.

What is required?
Most school software programs used throughout Canada will contain a list of student names, with grade, division, student number, etc. This list can usually be exported from any of these programs and is called an "ASCII textfile"; this is the computer lingo for saying "a student list including names, grades, divisions, and student numbers", and will look similar to this:

All information required for your digital services must be included in the ASCII file. For example, if one of your digital services requires phone numbers and library numbers to be displayed, you must provide that information with your ASCII file.

You will also need to include a header in the ASCII file or in your email body, which lists the data fields in the exact order that they appear. This tells us what each of the data fields are, and is especially important for differentiating between grades and rooms, or home and work phone numbers. Here is an example of a header:
    firstname,lastname,grade,room,student#
Some programs, such as Turbo-School, automatically include a header in the ASCII file.

Please send a single file which includes ALL students, and NOT a separate file for each grade or teacher.

Following the instructions below will allow you to export a file similar to the above example, which is a "comma-delimited" textfile. Textfiles can also be "tab-delimited", which uses tabs rather than commas to separate the data fields. The proper file extensions are .txt or .csv.

We can also accept MS-Excel spreadsheet files, any version, as long as it contains only columnized text (ie. no formatting, borders, etc.). The proper file extension is .xls.

Note: If you are receiving services which require a library number, and your library program requires student numbers to be zero-padded to more digits than your student number, you must provide library numbers in that fashion in your ASCII file, in addition to your student numbers. For example, the student# data field would contain the normal student number for use with your school admin software, and the library# data field would contain the same number but with the required zero-padding. Unless your school admin software is tied to your library software, you will likely have to manually add this field (via MS-Excel or similar). Remember to include a header so that we know what each data field contains. Please contact your IT support person if you require assistance with this step.

In the following example, the student number is 5 digits, and the library number is the same number but zero-padded to 6 digits.
    firstname,lastname,grade,room,student#,library#
    Smith,John,03,21,12345,012345
Please include staff names in your ASCII file. At your option, you may include the staff names as a separate file in the same email, or in an email that immediately follows your student data. Acceptable file formats are standard ASCII text files and MS-Excel files. Staff names can also be incorporated (typed directly) into the body of the email; please separate first and last names with a comma and do not use a space. Type each staff name on its own line.

Examples:
John,Smith
Mr. John,Smith
J,Smith

Due to the large number of different computer and software formats and the volume of files we receive during the start of the school year, we require that you send only standard ASCII TEXTFILES or MS-EXCEL SPREADSHEET FILES.

We cannot accept files from WordPerfect, ClarisWorks, or files in any other format such as .pdf.

How can I do this?
If this student list can not be generated by your school board, the instructions below will help you through the process.
We suggest that the file be exported to a floppy disk (normally the a: drive) as it will be easy to locate.

How can I email the file?

  • Run your email program (ie. Netscape, MS-Outlook, Eudora).
  • Select "new message".
  • Enter in the "To:" field.
  • Enter your school name and city in the "Subject:" field.
    ie. the subject line should like this:
    Subject: Forest School, Calgary AB
  • Enter your name and telephone number (with area code) in the message body.
  • Attach the ASCII textfile to the message; this is often done by clicking File, Attach, at which time you will select the file name from wherever you stored it (ie. your floppy drive or desktop).
    TIP: Often the shortcut for this step is a paper-clip icon; this is the same procedure used to send pictures via email.
  • Click on Send.
  • If your system will not allow you to send an attachment, you can copy and paste the contents of the textfile into the message itself.

    What if I do not have email or my email does not work?
    If you are unable to send email, you may save the file to a PC-formatted floppy disk or to a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, and courier it directly to our Head Office so that we will receive it prior to 2 weeks before your first scheduled photo day.

    Our mailing address is:
      Mountain West Studios Ltd.
      1073 Roosevelt Crescent
      North Vancouver, BC V7P1M4
      Attention: Digital Department
    Please write the following information on the disk/CD/DVD label:
  • FULL school name (not just an abbreviation)
  • City
  • Contact name
  • Phone number, including area code and extension

    Can we send you a fax or printout of the students instead?
    Sorry, we cannot accept hard-copy (paper) lists. We can only accept computer data files as described above. It is not possible for us to manually enter all the information in time for your photo day.

    Privacy Information


    For additional information or assistance, you can email our Digital Department. If you are in Greater Vancouver you may telephone us at 604-980-8551, ext.122. For all other areas, our toll free number is 1-888-644-4494 ext.122.

    Export Instructions

    We have detailed instructions for exporting a Student ASCII textfile from the following school administration programs. The exact steps may differ slightly, depending on the version of your software.

    These are the ONLY instructions that we have. For the most part, they have been provided by the software manufacturers or other schools. If these instructions do not work for you, please contact either your District IT Department or your software vendor. If you obtain updated instructions, please feel free to send them along to us.

    TIP: Ensure that the current year is selected when doing the export.

    TIP: Ensure that the number of student records you are sending match the enrollment for this year.

    Note: We email a reply back to you once we've processed the file and verified that it's acceptable. If you do not receive a reply within two business days, please contact us to see if we've received your file.
    If your admin program is not listed, or if you require additional assistance, please consult your user manual for the procedure, or contact your District IT Department or your software vendor's technical support department.

    BC SD#36 - Surrey (Campus America SIS)
    1. Ensure that the P606 is set to the current year.
    2. Click C REPO.
    3. Choose either:
      FOTO-01 for a report which contains student_id, firstname, lastname, grade, and division.
      or
      FOTO-10 for a report which contains lastname, firstname, address, phone, grade, division, and student_id.
    4. Type in D FOTO on the Command Line of the MGMT screen, to display the report.
    5. Press Y to email the report.
    6. Enter your email address, ie. yourname@sd36.bc.ca, and mail the file to yourself.
    7. Log on to your email program, open the email that you just sent yourself, and FORWARD it to .
    8. If you require additional assistance, call the help desk at 604-590-3300, or our Digital Department at 604-980-8551 ext.122.

    Note: Please check the file dates and content to ensure that you are emailing the correct file.

     BCeSIS

    CREATING A PHOTO EXTRACT FROM BCeSIS

    1. Startscreen > Reports > Specify Extract Criteria > Clear Extract Criteria > Run Extract
    2. A pop-up window indicating the number of records (students to be extracted) populates the screen.
    3. Click on Go Back and then exit through the door.
    4. Click on Export/Ad Hoc File > Start Over
    5. Click on "Contains" > type Name into the "Wildcard" field and click "Query". This populates all selection options that contain the word "Name".
    6. Highlight "Surname" and click on the "Right Arrow" to move Surname to the "Selected Column".
    7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to move "Preferred Name", Pupil Number (BCeSIS ID #), Hrm S1 (Homeroom or Division) and Grade to the Selected Column.
    8. Click on "Create File". Be sure the resulting pop-up window has the following settings:
    · Delimiter field = comma (type a comma into the delimiter field)
    · Fixed Length = unchecked
    · Number of Columns To Order On = 1
    · Double Quotes Around Character Fields = No
    · Export Field Titles First = checked
    · Output File Filename = type the name of your school and the date of the extract, ie: Hope Secondary 15-SEP-2008
    9. Click on Create Export > click OK when Export Complete pops up > Exit through the door > Click Yes to Save Records

    The file should be saved to your Desktop, or you can click "Save As" to specify the location.

    Email the file as an attachment to ; please enter your school name in the Subject line and put your contact info in the email body.


    CONFIGURING EXTRACT AS AN EXCEL FILE (optional)

    1. Open your Excel application/program on your computer.
    2. Select "All Files" at the top of the resulting window.
    3. Highlight the extracted file from BCeSIS.
    4. Choose "Delimited" and click Next
    5. Choose Tab and Comma and click Next then click Finish.
    6. View the resulting Excel document. You should have fields as follows:
    · Surname
    · Preferred Name
    · Pupil No
    · Hrm S1 (change this field title to Homeroom or Division)
    · Grade
    7. Once you are satisfied that the data is accurate, select "Save As" from the File tab at the top.
    8. Select "Excel" with the ".xls" suffix for the "Format" field.
    9. Open the resulting document using Excel and verify the data is accurate.
    10. Email the file as an attachment to .

    Some Districts will generate the ASCII file for you; if this is the case, please contact your District BCeSIS Administrator, and have him/her generate your ASCII file and email it to .

    Please remind your District BCeSIS Adminstrator to put your school name in the Subject line of the email, along with contact info in the message body.

     CIMS
    1. Select "Download options".
    2. Select your school type (ie. elementary school).
    3. Choose one of options 3, 4, or 5, depending on the sort order. The sort chosen actually doesn't matter as we can re-sort it.

     Edmonton Public System
    1. Go to the Admin menu.
    2. Select Utilities-Export data.
    3. Select 4. ID cards.
    4. Save to floppy disk.

     MacSchool (with ASCII Transfer)
    (Insert a formatted disk in your floppy drive; if you are mailing the disk to us it must be a PC-formatted disk)
    1. Go into Macschool, ASCII transfer.
    2. Click File- New Template.
    3. Click Open.
    4. Click Edit- Format set-up, select comma separators, and click OK.
    5. Choose fields from list by double-clicking on Last name, First Name, Grade, Division OR Homeroom OR Teacher*, Student Number.
    *NOTE: Please include the groupings in which the students are called to the camera for pictures; usually division or homeroom.
    6. Click on Student Window (in background).
    7. Click on Student Info.
    8. Hold Shift while you click one of the students' select boxes (this should select all student in the school).
    9. Click File- Export.
    10. Click OK if asked 'are you sure you want to...'.
    11. Type in filename yourschool.txt; ensure that your floppy drive is selected.
    12. Click on Export.

     MacSchool (without ASCII Transfer)
    (Insert a formatted disk in your floppy drive; if you are mailing the disk to us it must be a PC-formatted disk)
    1. Go to Report Manager.
    2. Click on template, template is for attendance icon; click OK.
    3. Click on path button and choose students.
    4. Double-click on students' path at the top of your screen.
    5. Choose the first field for export by scrolling to Last name or Student name and double-click on field number.
    6. A template window will appear; draw a box approximately 1/4 inch high and 2 inches wide.
    7. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 for all fields (first name, grade, division OR homeroom OR teacher, and student number).
    8. Click on File- Save.
    9. Name the file mws export and click Save.
    9. Quit Report Manager.
    10. Open MacSchool attendance.
    11. Double-click on today's date in calendar.
    12. Click Edit- Select All.
    13. Choose output icon at top of screen ASCII File.
    14. Click Reports- custom templates.
    Select MWS Export and type in the filename yourschool.txt. Place a disk in the floppy drive and select the floppy drive by clicking on the desktop and clicking on the floppy icon and select Export.

     Maplewood
    (Uses 3-letter student letters code for internal purposes)
    1. Go to Reports/ Report Builder/ Reports for Exporting/ Present students.
    2. At the bottom of the screen press add field. A long white box should appear under the word 'items'. Double-click within the white box. A new box should appear named 'select field'. Double-click the word 'personal', double-click the word 'name', double-click the word 'surname'. The words (Surname- student) should now appear in the white box. At the right hand side of the table there will be another small white box with the word "Len" above it (this refers to the length of the field). Click in the white box and change the number '10' to '20'.
    3. Repeat the steps in # 2 to select 'usual name'; change the number '10' to '15'.
    4. Repeat the steps in # 2 to select 'students letters';change the number '10' to '3'.
    5. Repeat the steps in # 2 to select grade.
    6. Repeat the steps in # 2 to select division, class or homeroom- the photography order on photo day.
    6. Repeat the steps in # 2 to select any additional information required for your photographic services.
    8. Go to File/save/save as, name the file, and click OK.
    9. Go to File-export report. Export items 'alphabetically' and click OK.
    10. A new screen called 'report builder- export parameters' will appear. Check to see that the first and last students (alphabetically) are showing and if that information is correct, click export. A new screen will appear 'save export file'. Under filename, name the file an abbreviated version of your school's name, no more than 8 characters, and at the bottom right where it says 'drives', change it to your floppy drive (a: in most cases). Make sure that there is a disk in the a: drive and click OK.

     SASI
    1. If using SASI III and permanent ID numbers are not used in the program, run a "query" to mass-change the permanent ID field to the SASI four-digit number preceded by six zeros (this is necessary to be able to import the images at a later date).
    1a. If using SASIxp, modification of the students ID # (PermNum) is not necessary.
    2. For SASI III you can create an export using the format:
    student#, lastname, firstname, grade, homeroom#
    2a. For SASIxp you can use the following query format for Export:
    ASTU PermNum LastName FirstName Grade Homeroom
    If you have additional information required by your digital services, you can add it in the same fashion (separated by commas; note that the separation by commas in SASIxp is done in the export process so you should not include the commas in the query); ALL lines must have the same number of fields.
    3. Save the file to the a: drive.
    4. If possible, verify that the file has been exported by opening it in a spreadsheet program or word processing program (ie. Excel, Word, Notepad).

     SDR
    1. Select Utilities - Export.
    2. Select Data file for photographer.
    3. Follow the prompts to select the data fields.
    4. Click Export.
    5. Save the file as your_schoolname on the a: drive.

     SIRS (MIG)
    1. Select File-Export
    2. If you are using one of the newer versions of SIRS select the Mountain West Studios Ltd. export; if not then select the Jostens Imagbase export. Choose Run.
    3. Save as the file as your_schoolname on the a: drive.

    Calgary public schools:
    1. Go into User Define Report - select "Photo ASCII File (Student)"
    2. Retrieve it - run query - save the file.
    3. Repeat for the Staff file.
    Note: If you end up with ".vqm" files, you forgot to run the query.
    If you have any questions about this procedure, please email the     CBE IT Department.

    Trevlac
    1. In the Student Area, create a Query where:
      a) The Selection Criteria is student Status = Active
      b) The Fields to Display include:
              Student Number
              Given Name (Common or Legal)
                Last Name (Common or Legal)
                Home Room
                Grade
      c) The Order of Records can be whatever you wish.
    2. Save this Query with the name Photographer Export
    3. Click on the Query button to use this Query
    4. Click on the List tab at the top of the Student Master screen
    5. Click on the Export icon on the Toolbar (canister with arrow out)
    6. Set Type to "CSV - Comma Separated Values"
    7. Type "MountainWest" into the "To" field
    8. Click on the Green checkmark.
    9. This will create a file called MountainView.txt in the "trevlac" folder.

     Turbo-School (newest version)
    1. Go to Utilities- 4. Special Printouts/ Exports.
    2. Select F. Photo Studio Exports.
    3. Select 3. Mountain West.
    4. Select "No" for extended info (unless you want address, ph#'s, parents, etc. included for Mountain West's School Image Software)
    5. Follow the prompts and save to a floppy disk in your a: drive.

     Windsor
    1. Press Shift-F2 to go to the Picture Setup screen.
    2. Create an ASCII file of all the students containing the last name, first name, grade, student number and homeroom, class, or division.
    3. Save this to a disk by inserting a disk in your floppy drive.

    If you are unable to select the "Picture Setup" option, you can export from the Utilities menu:
    1. Utilities - ASCII - Export
    2. All Students (by grade, or your preferred choice)
    3. Follow the menus and enter your desired options
    4. Export Photo ID
    5. Select drive
    6. Select filename to save as (should be your_schoolname.txt).

     WinSchool
    1. Go into WinSchool, ASCII transfer.
    2. Click File- New Template.
    3. Name the template mws export.
    4. Click on student icon (picture of student in grad cap).
    5. Click Edit- Format set-up, select comma separators, and click OK.
    6. Choose fields from list by double-clicking on Last name, First Name, Grade, Division OR Homeroom OR Teacher*, Student Number.
    *NOTE: Please include the groupings in which the students are called to the camera for pictures; usually division or homeroom.
    7. Click on Student Window (In background).
    8. Hold Shift while you click one of the students' select boxes.
    9. Click Import / Export, click Export
    10. Enter your school name as the filename (ie. schoolname.txt); ensure that your floppy drive is selected.
    11. Click on OK

    		•   



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           Exporting ASCII Files
           Palm Software Installation
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           Importing BCeSIS Images
           Importing MacSchool Images
           Importing SASI Images
           Importing SIRS Images
           Importing Trevlac Images
           Importing Turbo-Sch Images
           Importing WinSchool Images




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