Importing Images into SIRS

Step-by-step instructions for importing your Mountain West Studios photo CD into Management Information Group's SIRS program.


Please ensure that you have the correct photo CD (labelled "SIRS"); CDs designed for other admin packages will not import into SIRS.

Student Picture Import will import student photographs from your Mountain West Studios photo CD. These pictures will be shown in Student Demographics on the Personal-2 tab.


1. If you are installing photos from Retake Day only, skip to step 1b. For Original photo day CDs, or CDs containing both Original and Retake days on a single disc:
Copy the contents of the CD to your hard drive, or to a shared network drive if multiple stations need to access the photos. The shared network drive must be mapped identically on all computers which need to view the images. For example, if you are copying the images to your I: drive, the other computers must also have an I: drive, and their I: drive must be the same network drive as your I: drive. You will most likely require Administrator priveleges for your network. Note: If you installed photos last year, you will need to delete last year's \photos\ folder. If you are unsure about this step, please contact your district help desk for assistance.

1b. This step replaces Step 1 if the CD contains Retake Day photos only, and you've already imported images from your Original photo day via Step 1. If you are installing photos from your Original photo day, you can skip this step.
As before, you will need to copy the images from the CD onto your hard drive, or to a shared network drive if multiple stations need to access the photos. However, since you already have a "photos" folder on your hard drive from the original photo day, you cannot just drag the entire folder from the CD to the hard drive. In the same folder on your hard drive as before (where your old \photos\ folder is located), make a new folder called "retakes" (or "photos2", or similar). Copy the contents of the \photos\ folder on the CD into your new folder. When you are done, you will have two folders; the original \photos\ folder and the new \retakes\ folder. Follow the remaining steps, substituting the name of your new folder (ie. "retakes") in place of the old "photos" folder. If you need assistance copying files, please contact your district help desk for assistance.

2. Go to File - Import - Student Picture Import.



3. If you imported images last year, click on last year's import description(s), and click Remove. If you are importing photos from your Retake day, do NOT delete the existing description from your Original photo day.

4. Click Add. An Import Files window will open up.



5. Enter the Description of the import (you can enter today's date; the actual description is not critical).

6. Enter the File Name of the text file. You can click on the "browse" button to find it; it will be located in the \photos\ folder on the drive you copied the photos to (in Step 1), at the end of all the images. If you had copied the CD contents to drive I:, it would be i:\photos\student.txt
Note: Depending on how Windows is set up on your computer, the file may appear without the ".txt" extension, ie. as just "student".

7. Select the File Type from the drop-down menu; choose "Delimited".

8. Select the Delimiter from the drop-down menu; choose ", Comma".

9. Click the Ok button.

10. Click on the Import Details tab.



11. Enter a Field No. for each of the fields from the Table/Field list. Click "Student Number" and choose Field No. 1. Click "Picture File" and choose Field No. 2.

12. Enter the name of the Images File Folder containing the images, or use the "browse" button to select the folder. This is the folder where the pictures are located, ie. i:\photos

13. Click View File. This will show the match-up of student ID numbers to the appropriate pictures.

14. Click on the "close" button (X).

15. Click on the Imports tab.

16. Click the Import button to begin the picture import process.

17. A message will appear when the process is complete. Images not matched to student numbers are staff and students who's numbers were not provided.

18. Click Close.

19. You can view the images by selecting Student Demographics and clicking the Personal-2 tab. If you can see the images, it means that the CD is good, and you've done the installation correctly.


Troubleshooting

1. If the images do not display after you've restarted your computer, it may be because you didn't log into the network drive where the images are stored (log-in sessions are terminated after restarting). Once you've logged in (usually by double-clicking that drive, and entering your name and password), you should be able to view the images through SIRS. Please contact your district help desk for assistance with network access and privilege issues.

2. If the images display on the computer that the installation was done on, but the images do not display on other computers, the CD is good but the drive that was chosen in Step 1 was not a shared network drive, or was not mapped the same on all computers. Please contact your district help desk to resolve this issue.

3. If none of the images import, the student numbers used could be incorrect, or there could be a problem with the CD. Please contact our Digital Department for assistance.


Calling for help

If you require assistance with your SIRS program, please contact SIRS at 780-452-3422. Program updates, patches, and manuals are available at www.migsirs.com.

If you require assistance with your network (including logging on, setting up shared network drives, and network privileges), please contact your district help desk.

If you experience difficulties with your Mountain West CD, you may contact our Digital Department via email, or via telephone at 604-433-0551 ext.122 from Greater Vancouver, or 1-888-644-4494 ext.122 toll-free from all other areas.