Plugin Change History: Base Plugin 2 - Localization, pages, PowerQueries

As of January 1, 2023 plugin versions will now be in YY.MM.DD format to allow you to know when the plugin was completed.

The Base2 plugin contains only the DataBase Extensions (DBx). These are separate as the plugin enable process will fail if the PowerQuery attempts to reference a DBx that has not been installed yet. In the plugin enable process PQs are enabled prior to DBx so when they are in the same plugin they always fail.

Base Plugin 2 can be deleted and reinstalled for any version. You may use the update button IF there are no localization changes. PowerSchool's update feature will not properly handle localization changes and will display a field not found error in it's place. To make this slightly easier all versions where the first 2 pieces are the same are safe to update. ex: 9.0.0 to 9.0.1 -> Safe to use the update button       8.4.6 to 9.0.0 -> Do not use the update button. Delete Base 2 and install fresh.

Before updating Base 2 you may need to update Base 1. Make sure you have the latest Base 1 version

Current Version for Download

V24.11.08 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.11.08)

  • None
  • Filter Settings
    • none
  • New Page
    • none
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • Correct issue where some F/R students were incorrectly assigned low balance when the balance was within the P low threshold but greater than the F/R low threshold.
      • Add logic to obey the new setting to include ALL positive balances, not just low balances, for schools who wish to send end of year balance messages or would like to send balance updates to all, not just those who have low/negative balances.
  • New PQs
    • none
  • Removed
    • none

When updating from v8.x please go to system > BrightArrow Settings, click the filter button in the District row and click submit.

V24.09.24 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.09.17)

  • MBA Reports - When a multi student report is made it's not email-able but the message said no report to email. Changed the message so that it now indicates why the report can not be emailed even though a report exists.
  • Add logic to current selections for new contacts setting for Custody OR Receives Mail OR Data Access
  • Add Voice and Text toggles to all stock legacy fields within the Student Profile > BrightArrow Settings page
  • BrightArrow Parent page in the Admin and Teachers portal now will indicate if the page is live on the parent side or not so viewers can know if the parent actually sees the page yet.
  • BrightArrow Parent page in all 3 portals can now show the Parents and/or Student language settings if the setting is set to use a legacy field as it's source 
    • Setting is off by default and can be turned on in the main settings page in read only or edit mode to allow parents to edit the values. 
    • Contact level languages can not be displayed as they'd change by contact.
    • Settings that use the BrightArrow legacy field, either as the language field or as an override to a language field, can be set to view or edit
    • Settings that use a legacy field for language without the BrightArrow field can be set to view only
    • Teachers can not edit the values though the screen will simulate the edit mode if that's turned on so that teachers can see what the parents see.
  • PDF Password Hints can now be provided and displayed on the parent portal page
    • Hints are blank by default. Blank hints removes the section from the page.
    • Hints can be anything up to 4000 characters and can be used to point the parents to the right value without outright revealing it
    • Hints can also contain the actual password itself
    • If no PDF PW field is detected no hint will show even if a hint is provided
  • Filter Settings
    • Display on Parent Portal setting for Parent and Student languages
      • Off by default
      • Can be set to view only to show the value but not edit or full edit
      • Currently only available when the language setting involves the BrightArrow Legacy Language field (either as the language field or as the override to the language field)
    • New Contacts Filter: Either Custody OR Receives Mail OR Data Access checked
    • New Alternate Contacts Filter: Either Custody OR Receives Mail OR Data Access checked
    • New PDF Password Hint option to display a hint to the parents about what the PDF password will be
    • Options that require a custom data plugin will now be disabled if a data plugin is not present and enabled
      • This will not correct the value if currently set
  • New Page
    • none
  • PQ Changes
    • 5 PQs (BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy, BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Legacy, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate, BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Contacts)
      • Updated how they find current classes so that they now can find an alternate school where a student is taking classes before the cc start date. Uses the same padding values from the settings page as rosters and teacher sections.
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy
      • Change the existing Voice/Text fields that were previously place holders to use the new fields instead.
        • Mother_Home_Phone, MotherDayPhone, Father_Home_Phone, FatherDayPhone, GuardianDayPhone only
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
      • Add logic to use the Custody OR Receives Mail OR Data Access filter option
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents Combined
      • Combines the legacy and contacts options so that users can switch without needing to redo the exports
      • Contains all the legacy phone toggles, even the ones for home_phone and the 3 emergency phones
      • Replaces BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy AND BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Students Combined
      • Combines the legacy and contacts options so that users can switch without needing to redo the exports
      • Replaces BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Legacy AND BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Contacts
  • Removed
    • teachers/brightarrow/guardian.html

V24.08.20 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.08.13)

  • Improved current selection queries to improve reliability in case prefs duplicate
  • MBA Report Emailing - Improve performance for schools that have not updated the MBA plugin in the past year
  • Improve performance when saving records
  • If user does not have access to /admin/brightarrow/indAccess.html will no longer validate security, will just disable instead
  • Filter Settings
    • Contact Tab:  Add ability to exclude guardiandayphone, emerg_phone_1, emerg_phone_2, emerg_3_phone from exports when using legacy options.
      • Default to exclude
    • Staff Tab: Add ability to exclude additional phone field from exports
      • Default to exclude
  • PQ Changes
    • Add default field placeholders to Basic queries
    • Improved performance when prefs duplicate. Ultimately the duplicate should be removed (try PowerTools for help)
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy
      • Add GuardianDayPhone, Emerg_Phone_1, Emerg_Phone_2, Emerg_3_Phone as options. Will obey enable/disable toggle in settings
    • BrightArrow - Basic - User Contacts
      • Add Lunch_ID to export
      • Add Additional Phone 01 to export. Will obey the new filter setting
    • BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter
      • Corrected issue preventing exports from working
    • BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter
      • Improved performance

V24.06.27 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.04.19)

  • Improvements for emailing html reports
  • Correction for changes in MBA Report Creator which caused the integration to falsely report that no reports were present when there were reports.
  • Correction for changes in MBA Behavior which caused the BrightArrow button to be replaced
  • Moved 2 more reports from MBA Student Fees plugin to use generic HTML report emailing function

V24.06.17 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.04.19)

  • Fix for PowerSchool 24.5.1 insertion point removal
  • Fix when showing options user doesn't have permission for in admin portal
  • Fix for Email with BrightArrow button in HTML reports showing when Report Emailing feature is disabled. Button showed but didn't work but should have been a message stating the feature was turned off.
  • Enhancements for Email HTML reports
  • MBA Report Creator fragments moved to use Email HTML Reports method
  • Correction for parent portal - display issue

V24.05.28.22.12 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.04.19)

  • Same as v24.05.28 except no enhanced UI links
  • Intended only for users whose PowerSchool version is 22.12 or earlier. If you are on PowerSchool 23.1 or later do not take this version
  • This will be the last version that does not include that file. To take newer versions your PowerSchool version will need to be 23.1 or later.

V24.05.28 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.04.19)

  • Minor fix for schools who have a custom BrightArrow Data plugin version 6.x to fix an issue where the requesting a current selection of students or parents always resulted in students AND parents. This update is to maintain backwards compatibility with older data plugins, however schools should still contact support to get scheduled to update their data plugin if it is version 6

V24.05.24 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.04.19)

  • Moved Enhanced UI navigation links from the separate plugin (BrightArrow Navigation Links) to Base 2. You no longer need to have that separate plugin installed. Delete it.
  • Change to home page fragment to account for errors from some other plugins that aren't being updated
  • Moved time zone check from plugins area to home page
  • MBA Report Creator
    • Fix to work with segmentation
    • Add ability for teachers to email reports from PowerTeacher
  • Filter Settings
    • Add Transportation tab with 1 setting at this point to indicate when to switch from current day buses to the following day
  • New Page
    • wildcards/title_student_end_css.brightarrow.student.alert.txt
      • Add the quick links to send to a single student's parents, students or both parents and students when using the Enhanced UI in PowerSchool. Links will show in alert bar.
    • wildcards/teachers_title_student_end_css.BrightArrow.student.alert.txt
      • Properly remove the parent page from the list when the feature is turned off
    • wildcars/brightarrow/baEmailHTMLReports.txt
      • File will be used to help email out html reports that you make
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • Correct for when lunch status is Exempt or Temporary. Exempt will follow the same filter rules as Free, Temporary will follow the same filter rules as Paid
    • Corrected issue where queries that rely on time (attendance not taken, meeting attendance, etc) would fail if any record existed with a time between 00:00:01 and 02:46:40. While not likely to exist, even 1 record crashed the entire results.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 1, BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 2, BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 1, BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 2
      • Add column Att Comment
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow Transportation - Current Day Bussing - from Filter
      • Replaces BrightArrow Transportation Current Day Bussing
      • Obeys filter settings and corrects for local time zone vs database time zone discrepancies
      • Simplified export setup compared to previous query

V24.02.19 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.02.09)

  • Languages with a "_" in them will have it replaced with " " on export
  • Some permission mapping changes
  • Stock current selection queries replace '_' with ' '
    • Does not apply to custom current selection queries without data plugin update
  • Corrected issue with servers on PS version 23.10, 23.11, 23.12 where it reads as earlier than 23.5 where a file changed in PTP
  • Add plugin version info to current selection tables before sending to BrightArrow to aide support when issue arise
  • Add option to exclude individual students from Fees exports
    • Works with new BrightArrow Fee Summary - from Filter PQ
  • Filter Settings
    • Removed option to allow SSO to utilize LastFirst as a validation field for new customers. Customers currently using that field can still use it for now
    • Weekly Low Grades
      • Remove option to enter "High" letter grades for now. Option was revealed before it had a purpose and adds confusion
    • Fee Summary
      • Add option to include transferred out students
      • Add option to include graduated students
      • ** If not also included in student/parent exports then there will be no phone/emails for those students anyways. Recommend turning those on for main export as well in order to be able to use those records
    • Misc
      • Add option to include transferred out students
      • Add option to include graduated students
      • Imports will remain active and/or pre-enrolled only but this will allow us to create separate lists that include graduated and transferred out students if you need them. Your main lists will remain as they are even with these on
      • Add option to include all schools a student has classes in rather than just the student's main school. 
        • This will change the school from being a single school "ABC" to comma separated list ",ABC,DEF," which means subset lists that look for School = ABC will need to be altered to School contains ,ABC,
        • Allows the school lists to include students that are only there for 1 or 2 classes as well so notices can be sent home
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy, BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Legacy, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate and BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts
      • No new fields = no changes to exports necessary to use any of the changes
      • Add logic to obey new Include Transferred filter option
      • Add logic to obey new Include Graduated filter option
      • Add logic to obey new filter option to include cc schools for each student rather than only the student's main school
      • Language field -> replace '_' with ' ' to normalize most language differences
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and Filter 2
      • Add 32_section_term and 33_section_portion fields. 
      • Fields represent the term information of the section so that we can import just full year classes or just semester classes, etc.
      • Future fix will do this automatically through the filters. Quick fix for urgent need.
    • Removed "old" PowerQueries to declutter. Copies of the old queries can be fond in the BrightArrow Old Queries plugin. If you still have exports relying on the old queries you can install that as well until they have been converted to the newer versions
      • Student Based PQs
        • BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy, BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Legacy)
        • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited version (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate and BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts)
        • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts)
        • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Alternate (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate)
        • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Student (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts)
      • Staff Based PQ
        • BrightArrow User Contacts - Default (replaced by BrightArrow - Basic - User Contacts)
      • Attendance Based PQs
        • Teacher
          • BrightArrow Attendance Taken (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter)
        • Single Day
          • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - Default (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Default (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 2)
        • Multi Day
          • BrightArrow Attendance Code to Day Cumulative Abs (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Presence Status (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code All Sections (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Presence Status (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
          • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category (replaced by BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1 and BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2)
      • Grading Based PQs
        • BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code (replaced by BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter)
        • BrightArrow Missing Assignments (replaced by BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter)
      • Fees PQ
        • BrightArrow Fee Summary (replaced by BrightArrow Fee Summary - from Filter)
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow Fee Summary - from Filter
      • Replaces BrightArrow Fee Summary
      • Obeys filter settings and corrects for local time zone vs database time zone discrepencies
      • Simplified export setup compared to previous query

V24.01.19 (min Base Plugin 1: v24.01.18)

  • Lists created from a current selection of student or students & parents will now be able to show on student history page. Previously due to linkages to the parent portal list the information would be sent without the links back to the student.
  • Increased minimum frame height
  • Adjust frame size when new UI is enabled
  • Add ability to email from MBA Report Creator - archived reports. Previously only able to email for single student, now can email the entire job.
  • Edit for MBA Report Creator insertion point change
  • Student record > BrightArrow Settings > Excludes: Add new option to exclude from balance1 exports.
  • Filter Settings
    • Add 3 new toggles related to new fields as filters in the primary parent filter tab and in the alternate filter tab
      • School Pickup
      • Caregiver
      • Volunteer
  • PQ Changes
    • Add Contact first name, last name, relationship to Basic PQs exporting contacts (Basic - Parents, Basic - Parents Alt, Basic - Students)
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • enforce new individual student exclusion setting
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
      • enforce new school pickup, caregiver, volunteer filters
    • BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter
      • Correct for scenario where alpha grades are used but only for low, not high.

V23.12.29 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.12.21)

  • Improved speed by removing problematic pshtml tag that was tripling page load times
  • Fix for staff current selections where previously the function kept using current students instead of staff
  • Removed the ability to use server internal ID for SSO as PS 23.12 no longer supports it and it was tripling the page load times of all pages, including the /admin/home.html page.
  • Add ability for shared servers to automatically see the CID and Key fields if a new school is enabled but those fields are not filled in
  • Removed the option to turn off Permission by Person for newer customers, only exists for older customers and will eventually be on for all automatically.
  • Filter Settings
    • Option to select Built in contacts language field for language. Previously only the BrightArrow custom contacts language field was available.
  • New Page
    • Extra Contacts: Declare extra contacts based on school, district of residence, and topic.
      • Section is still in development. Needs security and edit options at minimum. Releasing now due to the high volume of requests for the speed improvement after the PowerSchool 23.12 update.
  • PQ Changes
    • Ability to use PowerSchool's built in contact "preferred language" per contact (pq works as far back as 21.11.4)
      • Works with 
        • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts
        • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
        • BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts
      • Does not work with older contact PQs as those are intended to be retired in the future in favor of these
      • Does not work with Legacy based PQs as they don't deal with contacts ever and this is a per contact language
    • BrightArrow Transportation Current Day Bussing
      • Correct issue when Start or End date are 1/1/1900
      • Add "description_long" which equates to "Bus#" + the bus number +  " -  " + description + (AM or PM)
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow - Extra Contacts - Students -> Students and the extra contacts by topic that associate with them
    • BrightArrow - Extra Contacts - School -> Schools and the extra contacts by topic that associate with them
    • BrightArrow - Extra Contacts - Individual -> Extra contacts by topic that associate with them

V23.11.14 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.11.07)

  • Correct issue with new voice toggle in contacts where it wouldn't keep the type drop down open if clicked with a mouse
  • Add logic into the current selections to handle new legal guardian toggles
  • Add Exclude Emergency and Exclude Weather to Student > BrightArrow Settings page > Exclude tab
    • Will require separate export if using either option
  • Remove check for beta which was causing issues with visuals in the page when storing grades
  • Filter Settings
    • Add 7 new toggles related to new legal guardian fields as filters in the primary parent filter tab
    • Add 7 new toggles related to new legal guardian fields as filters in the alternate filter tab
    • Removed subquery looking for beta plugin from admin_nav_menu_left_css as it caused a visual issue after storing grades. Function still worked, just a visual issue. Since the option is not needed at this time removing it causes no harm
  • PQ Changes
    • Add students.districtofresidence to the 5 BrightArrow - Basic student/parent queries
    • Add logic for new toggles related to a contacts legal guardian field status
      • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts
      • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
    • Altered date check to verify the date after correcting for DB time zone difference for PowerSchool hosted schools in many queries
      • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts
      • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
      • BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts
      • BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter
      • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 1
      • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 2
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 1 (time zone previously only corrected for period time checks)
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 2 (time zone previously only corrected for period time checks)
      • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1
      • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 1
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 2
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1
      • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2
      • BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter
      • BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter
      • BrightArrow Special Programs - Current
      • BrightArrow Student Course Enrollment
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow - Student Exclusions -> Used to create lists based on the weather or emergency toggles

V23.10.25 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.10.14)

  • Fixed issue with some MBA reports in an endless loop when trying to email
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 1, BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 2 -> Change period start and end times to be numbers without the date to accommodate DEM filtering needs

V23.10.20 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.10.14)

  • Staff autocreate will now omit powerschool.com and clever.com email addresses as those are not messaged by schools
  • MBA Archived Report Creator report - do not display the Email with BrightArrow button when printing
  • MBA Fees Statement report - no longer allow attempting to email 0 reports. Previously the button would show and produce an error due to there not being any reports to send.
  • MBA Fee Receipt - Corrected issue with files not transferring. Hide duplicate email button
  • When using the new navigation the BrightArrow option will now properly hide completely when enabled but the user doesn't have permission.
  • Contacts: Add a "Voice" option to go along with the built in "Text" option
  • Correction for DB server time zone vs real time zone was incorrect after noon (12 hr vs 24 hr). This has been corrected.
  • Filter Settings
    • Contact phones for primary, alternate and student filters now have options for sending voice and text on/off values. Options are
      • Always ON (default, currently how it works anyways)
      • Always OFF
      • Follow contact setting -> if the toggle is on in the contact it'll be on, if it's off in the contact it'll be off.
    • Users school_phone now defaults to disabled for new records.
    • Current day attendance can now be set to export only the current period rather than all periods for the day
    • New toggle to export only "enabled" schools reducing the need for excluding schools on export
    • New toggle to exclude co-teachers from Attendance Not Taken. Defaults to include co-teachers as that's how the PQ worked before this option was added. Switch toggle to exclude to make it so only main teachers are included.
  • New Page
    • Integration with MBA's Behavior plugin, specifically the log letter generator page to allow emailing those reports
    • Integration with MBA's Fees plugin, specifically adding in an option for the After School Care Invoice report to be emailed
  • PQ Changes
    • Staff PQs will no longer require PTAccess checkbox to be turned on to count as "active" PT record, only the active checkbox is needed now.
    • Status now counts all schoolstaff records, not just the home school. If a user is inactive in the home school but active in another school they will now be considered active. Previously active required home school to be active.
    • Newer PQs will obey the option to only export "enabled" schools
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts, BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate, BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Contacts now will obey phone voice and sms (text) settings from the filters.
    • Add students.city to the 5 BrightArrow - Basic student/parent queries
    • BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter updated to obey new filter for including/excluding co-teachers
  • Removed
    • /admin/reports/fees/studentFeeStatements fragment. No longer needed as MBA moved this report to /admin/mbaFees/reports more than 2 years ago. Customers now advised to update MBA fees if this affects them.

V23.07.20 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10)

  • PQ Changes
    • Add school category to allow for filtering by category if needed
      • Added to Basics PQs (users, students, parents)
      • Added to BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter
      • Added to current day attendance PQs from filters
      • Added to multi day attendance PQs from filters
      • Added to BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter and BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter
      • Added to BrightArrow Special Programs - Current
      • Added to BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student and BrightArrow Low Balance1 - User

V23.07.13 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10)

  • Remove links to old google docs based help info in favor of the beacon. All information had already been ported over 12 months ago.
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Legacy
      • Simplified version of BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version. Select all fields and they show up in the correct order.
      • Use only when exporting parents using legacy (1:1) fields for phones and emails such as home_phone, guardianemail
      • Only active and pre-enrolled students will be included
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Students from Legacy
      • Simplified version of BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version. Select all fields and they show up in the correct order.
      • Use only when exporting students using legacy (1:1) fields for phones and emails such as cellphone_ba, studentemail
      • Only active and pre-enrolled students will be included
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts
      • Simplified version of BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter. Select all fields and they show up in the correct order.
      • Use only when exporting parents using the contacts module for phones and emails.
      • Only active and pre-enrolled students will be included
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Parents from Contacts - Alternate
      • Simplified version of BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Alternate. Select all fields and they show up in the correct order.
      • Use only when exporting parents using the contacts module for phones and emails and need to use the alternate filter
      • Only active and pre-enrolled students will be included
    • BrightArrow - Basic - Student from Contacts
      • Simplified version of BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Student. Select all fields and they show up in the correct order.
      • Use only when exporting students using the contacts module for phones and emails.
      • Only active and pre-enrolled students will be included
    • BrightArrow - Basic - User Contacts
      • Same as BrightArrow User Contacts - Default but numbered so that the fields are in order and the fields no longer used are removed. At this time no emergency contact fields are included but they can be added back if needed.
      • Only active users will be included

V23.06.23 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10) (future)

  • Better handling for shared servers
  • Add ability to modify page permissions on the filters slide out
  • Corrected drop down menu issue on the start page introduced in 23.5.1
  • Add back the logic for showing/hiding options based on user permissions, now working with the new navigation as well
    • Make sure to download the updated Navigation Links plugin if you are on PowerSchool 23.5.0 or later

V23.05.08 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10)

  • For PS 23.5
    • Change one of the scripts whose file name has changed and caused a critical error in PTP.
    • PTP has been unstable in 23.5, if you haven't updated please wait to update until after grades have been committed for the year.
    • IF you insist on using the new menu, those links will be added in a separate plugin until everyone has been updated to 23.5 or later. This allows for a single Base 2 plugin without a separate version for those with vs without the ability to accept the navigation pieces.
  • Staff contact info -> Correct cell phone hover effect. Was "Home_Phone" even though the field was "CellPhone".
  • Contacts -> Improvement to work with some other fragments. Most worked, some didn't and now all known contacts fragments work cleanly.
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version, BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited version, BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter, BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Alternate, BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Student
      • Add Web_ID as an option. Previously only Student_Web_ID was an option
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - User
      • All positive balances will be available for EOY status messages
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • All positive balances will be available for EOY status messages
      • This includes F/R even if exclusion is marked as it will not reveal status. However F/R will not be included if negative and exclusion checked.

V23.04.20 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10)

  • Security change when emailing images
  • Student cell phone toggles default to on when no selection has been made yet
  • Filter Settings
    • New staff setting to be able to change which schools are used to populate staff lists.
    • New staff setting to be able to change how users are automatically created. More options to come.
  • New Page
    • MBA Fees receipt now includes button to email with BrightArrow
  • PQ Changes
    • Multi-Day Attendance -> Daily PQs corrected to not count the same day multiple times which could happen in certain setups.
    • BrightArrow Transportation Current Day Bussing
      • Allow for start/end dates to be blank
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • If lunchstatus is blank assume P
    • BrightArrow User Contacts - Default
      • Update "brightarrow_access" to obey auto creation setting
      • Add "school_populatefilter" which will show the schools the user is associated with based on the filter setting.
      • Replaces the need for schoollist, schoollist_all, schoollist_inactive, schoollist_admin, schoollist_teacher and schoollist_autosend.
      • Old fields still exist for now for backwards compatibility
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Special Programs - Current
      • Retrieve current special program information
      • If no program end date then use current enrollment end date to determine if the program is still current.

V23.03.10 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.03.10)

  • Correction for teacher search page to only show students from current school. If current school is district then will use all schools.
  • Correction for teacher search page to only include sections that the teacher has access to within the enrollment filter range. Previously classes that had ended over X days earlier would still show in the list
  • BrightArrow Settings page - When in district office add an option to only view schools where BrightArrow is enabled
  • Small edit for users using the Beta plugin to put the waiting spinner back
  • Filter Settings
    • Lookup Rules > Attendance > Attendance Not Taken Reminder Settings
      • New option to choose if period should list Period Abbreviation or Period Name. Defaults to abbreviation
  • PQ Changes
    • Improved performance of new multi-day and current day attendance by filter queries
    • BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter
      • Improved performance
      • Add Attendance person's name, school phone, email as export fields
      • 12_period will now show either period abbreviation or period name depending on setting
    • Single day attendance by filter PQs (4):
      • Add YTD count of the same filters
    • Multi-day attendance add logic to work if multiple set to 1 
      • and message intervals is blank to then include all
      • and message interval contains + such as 5,9,12,18+ to mean that any count greater than or equal to the + value is valid. In this case counts of 5, 9, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21... would be included
      • and message interval contains - such as 5,9,12-15 to mean that any value within that range would be included. In this case counts of 5, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 would be included.
    • Multi-day attendance
      • Add logic if user submits attendance code as "absent" to mean all absent codes

V23.01.31 (min Base Plugin 1: v23.01.30)

  • Small bug fix in My Contact Info
  • Add missing prefhelper.html file to guardian portal
  • Add links to use current selections from PowerScheduler so that users do not need to go back to the PowerSchool home page to send a message.
  • Add contacts as an option for initial student page for each user
  • Filter Settings
    • Increased multiday attendance multiple option from maxing at 12 to maxing at 15.
    • Add Current Day Attendance Settings
      • Use current days attendance or previous day (defaults to current date)
      • Separate options for listing which codes to use for absences or tardies
      • Ability to only include if they the student received a min of X per day (defaults to 1)
      • How to Change the Current Day Attendance Settings
    • Add ability to exclude Free and/or Reduced students from balance filters
  • PQ Changes
    • BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter
      • Correction for letter grade from scorelettergrade to actualscoreentered
    • BrightArrow Transportation Current Day Bussing
      • Correction for when FromTo is not entered and can not be used for separating different rows
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • Obey the exclude options from filter
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • Hard remove balances of 0 from possibilities no matter what is entered in filters. Previously there was a way to get 0 balances to load if number entered incorrectly.
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 1
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - from Filter 2
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 1
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - from Filter 2

V23.01.04 (min Base Plugin 1: v22.12.19)

  • For PowerSchool 22.12:
    • Small changes to align with PowerSchool's code changes.
  • Fixed issue with Arizona and California state reporting creating a mis-alignment of columns compared to the headers. In prior versions the 2 headers could be switched compared to the data below making it appear one value is checked instead of another.
  • Fixed issue with BrightArrow staff page
  • Add way to include custom phone/emails in BrightArrow staff page similar to how custom student/parent fields can be added to the BrightArrow Settings page within the student record.
  • Filter Settings
    • Add insertion point for custom options per school
    • Add Students.ID as an option in the PDF Password filter
    • Multi-Day Attendance: 
      • Add new category of "No Category" to the drop down. When selected a new option to list the attendance codes will show. Att Categories are desired but when not an option (NC is force removing categories after making them) this can be used as a work around
      • When multiple is set to 1 (i.e. no multiple) a new box appears to allow the manual entering of the message intervals (5,8,10 for example)
    • Missing Assignment Filters: 
      • Choosing to use the missing flag will hide the letter grade option to reduce confusion.
    • Weekly Grade Reminders:
      • New option to select the minimum frequency before including. Defaults to 1 (send any grade that matches requirements) but can be set to 2, 3, etc. to coincide with some eligibility requirements
    • Low/Negative Balance Rules:
      • Allows for setting where the cut off for a low balance is based on lunch status without sending lunch status.
        • ex: Low balance is considered $5 for P but $1.50 for R/RDC and not at all for F/FDC.
      • Allows for setting of staff cut offs as well
      • Can set up low, negative, and extreme negative ranges if desired
      • How to Change the Low/Negative Balance Rules
  • PQ Changes
    • Updated PDF_Password in all PQs it appears to include the  new students.id option
    • Updated 6 PQs (
      • Obey new no category option
      • Obey new message intervals option
    • Updated
      • Added column 22_frequency to the results
  • New PQs
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - Student
      • Returns students who meet balance criteria in the balance 1 field based on filter settings
      • No longer requires the sending of lunch_balance when needing different rules based on free (F), reduced (R) or paid (P) status.
      • Directions for setting up the export: Setting up Student Lunch Balance Exports - Filter Method
    • BrightArrow Low Balance1 - User

V9.2.2 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.2.2)

  • For PowerSchool 22.12
    • Removal of support for Internet Explorer when emailing reports
  • MBA Integration Changes
    • Add ability to email saved reports from individual student page

V9.2.1 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.2.2)

  • Added pref timeOffsetHrs as a calculated field to hold the number of hours between the application node (i.e. your local time) and the database node which for PS hosted schools has been changed to GMT. Since queries run on the database all time based queries on PowerSchool hosted servers have been calculating incorrectly when compared to current time. If the DB node and App node are on the same time zone then the value will be 0. A PS hosted server in Denver would be -7 as current time - GMT is -7.
  • Updated BrightChat tags to say Active BrightChats in most places
  • Altered logic so the contact language field only shows if it's needed for either parent or student contact language based on the settings. If no setting indicates it's using that field the field will remain hidden.
  • Fixed issue with Iowa state reporting creating duplicate columns. Since we can't change state reporting we worked around the error. Other plugins will still create duplicate instances in the contacts area until they are changed to work around the error or IASR changes how they do things.
  • Fixed issue with report emailing page out of PT
  • Filter Settings:
  • Updated stock staff current selection to obey new staff exclude options
  • PQ Changes
    • Updated BrightArrow User Contacts - Default to obey the 5 exclude options
    • Updated 5 PQs (
      • Now includes new column for PDF_Password which will return the value based on the setting
      • Added column fake_email which is hard coded to 'donotemail@brightarrow.com'
    • Updated BrightArrow Attendance Taken to calculate periods that have started / ended with the time zone fix for PS hosted schools.
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Attendance Taken - from Filter
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Taken but this one will obey all of the Attendance Not Taken Reminder filter settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
      • Directions for setting up the export: Setting up Attendance Not Taken Exports - Filter Method
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category but this one will obey all of the Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 1 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category but this one will obey all of the Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 2 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 1
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections but this one will obey all of the Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 1 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections - from Filter 2
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sections but this one will obey all of the Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 2 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 1
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category but this one will obey all of the Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 1 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category - from Filter 2
      • Same as BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category but this one will obey all of he Multi-day Attendance Category Filter 2 settings and the Tardy to Absence Conversion settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included.
    • BrightArrow Missing Assignments - from Filter
      • Same as BrightArrow Missing Assignments but this one will obey all of the Missing Assignment Reminder filter settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included
      • Directions for setting up the export: Setting up Missing Assignment Exports - Filter Method
    • BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code - from Filter
      • Same as BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store Code but this one will obey all of the Weekly Grade Reminder filter settings and removes the hunt and click for fields as all the fields are numbered and only the ones required are included
      • Directions for setting up the export: Setting up Weekly Low Grade Exports - Filter Method

V9.2.0 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.2.0)

  • PowerSchool 21.4 or earlier version is 9.2.1.21.4
  • Students BrightArrow Settings Changes
    • Separate data into tabbed topics - Parents, Students, Excludes
    • Language now shows value of external field if updated to decode (requires updated data file to work, older data plugins will not do this)
    • Messages will say if set up to use legacy fields or contacts for data
    • Hover over label will reveal table and field
    • Allow for legacy fields to show/hide based on filter settings
    • Allow for legacy custom fields to display as fields within the page (requires updated data plugin)
    • Labels for exclude options changed to no say "PQs" as many users will not know what a PQ is. Instead says "exports"
    • New exclude options:
      • Option to exclude discipline exports. This will exclude discipline logs (allowing you to leave logs enabled as a whole) and the future query to export incident management records
      • Option to exclude student from all exports. This will exclude the student from all exports including lists created from a current selection. If your data comes from a custom query your data plugin will need to be updated to version 9.3.0 or later in order for it to respect this setting.
  • Add field table.names to hover over effect in user contact pages
  • Altered contacts queries in current selections so that expired and disabled contacts are not included when counting the top 2, 3, 4, etc contacts
  • Fixed access to screenshots when viewing articles in the beacon
  • Fixed access to training video
  • Small security tweaks to improve performance with multiple fragments on the same page
  • Contacts Changes
    • Corrected issue where when more than 1 contacts customization exists the alignment is off
    • Added contact version of messaging language so that each contact can have a separate language.
  • Filter Changes
    • Corrected drop down option in Roster Settings tab that would remain active when it should have been disabled
    • New option for field labeled "Up to how many contacts per student?". New last option is to only include overrides. With this selected the "Allow Filter Overrides" option will be enabled and can not be disabled. 
    • Retired phone options Home Phone, Mobile Phone. Instead will use the option to only include one specific phone type and select Home or Mobile
      • Data will fix itself the first time filter screen is opened and saved
      • Not changed for students yet
    • Retired phone option Non Work Phones. Instead will use the option to include all phones EXCEPT specific phone type and Work will be selected from the drop down.
      • Data will fix itself the first time filter screen is opened and saved
      • Not changed for students yet
  • PQ Changes
    • Updated descriptions on nearly all PowerQueries to be more helpful now that they are displaying in DEM
    • All student queries updated to obey the student exclude all toggle
    • Added to nearly all PowerQueries
      • School_Name
      • School_Phone
      • School_Principal
      • School_Principal_Email
      • School_Principal_Phone
    • Added att_sec_email to all attendance PowerQueries
    • Added students.lunch_id to student PowerQueries
    • BrightArrow User Contacts - Default: Remove the schoolIDList options (list of schools using school number) and kept the versions of the same columns for schoolList (list of schools using school abbreviations)
    • PQs that use contacts: expired and disabled contacts are not included when counting the top 2, 3, 4, etc contacts
    • Fixed issue where multi-day attendance queries counted a day multiple times in specific situations
    • Fixed issue with student cell phone voice/text fields not getting the default value and exporting null
  • MBA Integration Changes
    • Corrected issue with schools on shared servers
    • MBA Fees: Add option to email Student Transaction Summaries
  • Instant Connect Only
    • Updated Publisher Name to be LINQ, Inc. since the purchase from eSchoolView. You will need to delete the old plugin and install the new one fresh or PowerSchool will show an error.

V9.1.2 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.1.2)

  • Security issue beginning in PowerSchool 22.7 addressed
  • Changed /guardian/alert.html to /guardian/home.html to correct for the error that occurs when switching students. Updated corresponding links.
  • Add the gradebook icons to teacher missing assignment search

V9.1.1 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.1.2)

  • Improvement in current selections handling new custom language fields, specifically when set to override

V9.1.0 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.1.2)

  • Fix for staff current selections
  • Added BrightArrowLanguages codeset
  • Contact Filter Changes
    • Added options to language field question
      • BrightArrow Legacy Language Field
      • BrightArrow Legacy Language Field as Override
      • BrightArrow Contacts Language Field
      • BrightArrow Contacts Language Field as Override
      • See What are the language options in the filter settings for updated information on using these
    • When not needed the Language Field (informational only) line will hide itself
    • Added new filter setting to use the override within the results. If the filter is not using the override the field will still show, it just will not be used.
    • Added ability to only include specific phone or email labels. Ability to include all except specific labels previously added.
  • Added Parent and student language fields to the student BrightArrow Settings page. If other fields are set to be used for language instead a message will show up stating what field to use for that language.
  • Added field to contacts to override filter setting. To be used when other filter settings don't match
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Fee Summary Show students who have a  positive fee balance. Current year only option uses the number of days fee padding setting to extend the year by N days per the setting to allow for reporting after the school year ends
  • PQ Changes
    • Added has_started and has_ended to the BrightArrow Attendance Taken PQ. Will allow for filtering only sections that haven't had attendance taken that have started and/or have finished before the export runs.
    • Updated to use new language fields
    • Updated to obey the only include phone and only include email type settings
    • Updated to obey or ignore the new contact filter override setting

V9.0.5 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

  • Fix for PT and Guardian portals, some screens processing before ready. Now displaying correctly.

V9.0.4 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

  • Add in 3 wildcards for backwards compatibility. They will be removed again once all school's data plugins are updated to version 9. Only affects a few districts but prevented current selection lists from working.
  • Beacon will no longer print
  • Add summerschoolid, summerschool (summer school abbreviation), summerschoolnote to plugins
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited version
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Alternate
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Student
  • MBA Reports - small change to how the reports are sent to make finding problems easier for support
  • MBA Fees - Correction when emailing reports from version 21.7.3 or later

V9.0.3 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

  • Adjustments to help when window width changes
  • Adjustments to PQs that rely on ps_membership_defaults to rely less on all fields in that table being entered
  • Added beacon to make documentation easier to find

V9.0.2 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

  • Small edit to hide security div
  • Correction for new language subquery

V9.0.1 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

  • 4 new wildcards to make custom data plugins more flexible
  • Fix for staff export where email or title are null

V9.0.0 (min Base Plugin 1: v9.0.0)

Can not use the update button, Delete Base 2 and install as new

  • Corrected rare issue with Transportation PQ
  • Added header cells for PT home screen to make the columns align in PS 21.11
  • Add BrightChat help documents when BrightChat turned on
  • Add Auto Creation Problems to list - customers with automatic user creation will not have these made as most of the time these aren’t accounts that should be granted messaging rights. Customers can still manually make these accounts, they just won’t be automatically created
    • DPI Account
    • Acadia Account
  • MBA Report Creator & MBA Student Fees  - security fix for when a user is not supposed to have email access through BrightArrow
  • Large enhancement to contacts filters
    • Ability to determine legacy vs contacts within the filter
    • Legacy contacts - allow to ignore certain phone/emails
    • Ability to exclude home_phone for both legacy and contacts methods
    • Ability to use built in filters or mark to use custom filter (custom requires custom data plugin still) removing some confusion on which is being used
    • If using custom filter ability to write in what that filter is for reference
    • Ability to determine if using no language, legacy language, contacts language field for parents and a space to put in which one as a reference point
    • Ability to use home_phone when phone1 is blank
    • Ability to exclude a phone type from primary and alternate filters
    • Ability to exclude an email type from primary and alternate filters
    • New student contacts tab allows for determining if using legacy or contacts to get student phone/emails
    • If student info coming from legacy then can choose if cell phone and student email are ignored
    • If student info coming from contacts then can choose what relationship type means student, this relationship type will get ignored by the parent extracts and will be used in a new PQ for student extracts
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - StudentPull student records from contacts using the relationship type declared in the filters
  • Edit PQ: BrightArrow User Contacts - Default
    • Forcibly excluding some management groups that never get messaged to reduce the need to add them to filters in the exports
    • DPI accounts
      • Email_addr contains dpi.nc.gov
      • Title contains dpi staff
    • ANS Charter accounts
      • Email_addr contains anscharter.com
      • Title contains acadia
  • Add DPI and ANS to the individual settings pages as accounts that won’t automatically get created if we are auto-creating your users
    • This does not mean you can’t manually make these users, only that they won’t auto-generate.
  • Add staff emergency contact information
  • Edit PQ: BrightArrow Log Details
    • Edit sort to sort by date and student, previously just date

V8.4.6 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.3)

  • Fix for COVID Tracer when Custom Query with Contacts selected in district settings
  • Add U_BA_MsgFields.CellPhone to default current selections as student cell phone
  • Fix for MBA Reports emailing. Accurately sending portrait vs landscape and page size. Previous method no longer works after recent changes in MBA plugins. Only affects users with non portrait letter size reports.

V8.4.5 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.2)

  • Fix for issue in PTP when PowerSchool has been updated to 21.11
    • Due to a change in a core PowerSchool file earlier versions of this plugin will cause PTP to be unresponsive. Make sure your Base 1 is updated to the correct version as well before applying this.
  • Add student FTE to PQs to allow filtering for schools that group by FTE

V8.4.4 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.2)

  • Bug fix in 3 PQs
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code All Sections
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Single Day Summary
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Single Day and Code Summary
  • Add settings for number of tardies to convert into absences
    • Ex: 5 tardies = 1 absence
    • In settings area, can set district wide or change by school
  • Updated PQ to use new tardy -> absence conversion
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category All Sectionspull meeting based on frequency of a code category across any section
    • Similar to BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category except this one will count all instances of that category across sections where BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category groups by section
    • Will respect the tardy -> Absence conversion
  • Bug fix when sending MBA Fees

V8.4.3 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.1)

  • Add Period_Start_Time, Period_End_Time to BrightArrow Attendance Taken PowerQuery. Times are integers to make the < > work in the filter.
    • Ex: 9:07 AM ⇨ 907Ex: 2:35 PM ⇨ 1435
  • Add cellphone_ba, cellphone_v, cellphone_t to BrightArrow Student Contacts - legacy version PowerQuery. Fields will be used for student cellphone settings
  • Add exclude_single_day_att, exclude_multi_day_att, exclude_logs, exclude_missing_assignments, exclude_src_by_sc to all 4 BrightArrow Student Contacts powerQueries.
    • If you have a data plugin you may also have custom BrightArrow Student Contacts queries there, those will need to be updated separately.
  • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Default
    • Period_Start_Time, Period_End_Time added
    • Sort added
  • Change Roster export, 06_period will now send section_number instead to reduce duplicates. 
    • If you use rosters please have a BrightArrow support person help with the update to move cleanly.
  • Correction for Search page in PTP
  • Add students.home_phone to contacts PQ
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Single Day Summary. Count and Percent of a single day absences and tardies.
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Single Day and Code Summary Count and Percent of a single day grouped by attendance code.
    • Important fields
      • Num_periods_scheduled - count of periods scheduled on a single date for a single student
      • Total_course_credit_points - total course credit points for the day
      • Num_absences - Number of periods absent (any absence) for the day
      • Percent_absences - Percentage of absences compared to number of periods scheduled that day
      • Num_tardies - Number of periods tardy (any tardy) for the day
      • Percent_tardies - Percentage of tardies compared to number of periods scheduled that day
  • New PQ
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code All SectionsPull meeting based on frequency of a specific code across any section
    • Similar to BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code except this one will count all instances of that code across sections where BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code groups by section
    • Because it’s not grouping by section it’s possible to have 2 on one day and 4 the next. If your cutoff for letters is 3 then it’d be skipped. Because of this there is a column for previous total by quarter, trimester, semester, and full year to allow you to check if they were below before and above now.
  • Teacher current selections now use the roster settings for number of days before/after an enrollment to show a student. Previous used a district wide pref. Roster settings can be district wide or changed by building and are used for BrightChat rosters as well, this puts them in line with each other for customers using BrightChat and teacher current selections.
  • Settings option now shows all the time, not only when BrightChat is turned on. This will allow changes to roster settings and Missing Assignments PQ settings without needing to temporarily turn on BrightChat.
  • Added toggle to the Additional Teacher Options section of the settings page from District office so users can hide the additional teacher options if desired.
    • The setting is live, not stored
  • Individual permissions now shows if the user can log into Admin or Teacher so it is clear
  • Individual permissions will no longer show Teacher Only and Admin Only options when a user can not log into both portals. Those options only make sense when a user can log into both portals and you want to only allow them to send messages from 1 portal
  • Single user settings now will display if the user can be automatically created each day. Same detail as the mass individual permissions page, previously only the enable/disable drop down showed.

V8.4.2 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.1)

  • Option to declare custom query (for custom contact rules or custom language users) while still revealing the Contact Filter option. Previously only visible when choosing pure contact option without custom variables.
  • Shared servers can now have separate contact rules for each school. Previously district setting used for all schools, no option between independent schools to have different filters
    • This does not affect schools who use a full district setup
  • Alternate Contacts Filter. The main filter is still used for current selections and the BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter PowerQuery. The alternate filter settings will be used in a new PQ.
  • New PQ: BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter - Alternate. Same as BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter but using the alternate filter settings.
  • Default filter and Alternate filters now have the ability to put in a label to remind yourself what each one is set for.
    • Ex: Normal contacts vs Emergency message contacts
    • Ex: General contacts vs Attendance contacts (for those who have different requirements for sending attendance messages
  • Correction of format for dob_yyyymmdd option
  • Correction in BrightArrow Attendance Period to Day Cumulative Abs PowerQuery

V8.4.1 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.1)

  • Add staffpers_guid to user PowerQueries
  • Redirect away from an old server if your PowerSchool is still pointing to it.

V8.4.0 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.1.1)

  • Add BrightChat to interface
  • Changed View in Personalize -> View My Contacts, Edit in Personalize -> Edit My Contacts
  • Add setting Edit My Custom Contacts to edit only custom phone/emails as a setting which would then apply to all portals for schools that want to leave home_phone, school_phone, email_addr restricted but allow users to edit their own extras.
  • Add ability to edit custom phone/emails from PowerTeacher if Edit in Personalize selected. Still can not edit home_phone, school_phone, email per PowerTeacher’s security
  • Add Voice/Text on/off toggles for staff home_phone field
  • Added 4 new options as contact filtesrs
    • data access or custody
    • data access or lives with
    • data access or receives mail 
    • data access or emergency
  • Fixed issue with report emailing when square brackets are in the report name
  • Add Student_Web_ID to stock PQs, available for export without customization
  • Add ability to change days before/after student enrollment to include them in the roster allowing for changes from settings screen instead of from Data Export Manager
    • Anyone running a roster export will need to update it as the change will prevent old templates from running.
    • Allows for differences in setup between schools on the same server. School can choose to use the district settings, use their own settings, or link to another school so when that school changes settings it changes for them too.
  • Missing Assignments: No longer set number of days back from Data Export Manager, now set it from settings page making it easier to make adjustments.
  • Added teacher email to several PowerQueries
    • BrightArrow Missing Assignments
    • BrightArrow Grade Count by Section by Week
    • BrightArrow Grade Count by Section
    • BrightArrow Log Details
  • Added contact_firstlast to 2 PQs 
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited version
    • BrightArrow Student Contacts - unlimited from filter
  • Add option for schoolday_plus3 which will show the 3rd insession date following the attendance date
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily - Default
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting - Default
    • BrightArrow Attendance Code to Day Cumulative Abs
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Presence Status
    • BrightArrow Attendance Daily Frequency by Code Category
    • BrightArrow Attendance Period to Day Cumulative Abs
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Presence Status
    • BrightArrow Attendance Meeting Frequency by Code Category
  • Added transaction_date, transaction_type to same PQs above

V8.3.11 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Add issms, isvoice to the unlimited from filter PowerQuery to allow for the SMS checkbox to turn on/off texting for that phone.
  • In certain situations the Email with BrightArrow link did not show in the MBA Report Creator. Corrected that.

V8.3.10 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • When using contacts add option to choose first 1/2/3 phones per contact
    • If you have a data plugin must be on 8.5 for this option to work
  • Add detail to Individual Settings screen including hints for when auto-account creation will not work for this user and more filters to make larger lists more usable
  • Moved help section to collapsible region to provide consistency when switching between old and new UI
  • Added warning for rare instances when user requests more rows than tlist_sql will return. PowerSchool error was not obvious before and left users not knowing what happened.

V8.3.9 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Add team and building to most PQs
  • Prevent sending MBA report cards multiple times for the same job
  • Small improvement for report emailing

V8.3.8 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Performance improvements for emailing MBA Reports Creator reports

V8.3.7 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Fix for disappearing links from home page on pre-PS 20 installations while using Safari
  • Fix for MBA report sending, some performance improvements in processing before sending to BrightArrow

V8.3.6 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • COVID Tracer - Add main teacher LastFirst to the section line when separating by section
  • Add Mail Merge Field section in the teacher search pages to show what fields are available for messages, specifically for final grade and missing assignment messages.
  • Add DOB in 2 new formats as part of the options in student PowerQueries
    • dob_yyyymmdd will display the DOB in 19901231 format
    • dob_yyyy_mm_dd will display the DOB in 1990-12-31 format
  • Minor fix for My Contact Info link

V8.3.5 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • MBA Reports - Ability to send report cards with student photos using the button instead of sFTP
  • MBA Reports Cards - Hide the Email with BrightArrow button until all the reports are done processing to prevent users from sending before all the data has loaded.
  • New PowerQuery: BrightArrow Grading - Search by Store CodeWill allow for weekly exports of final grades as reported by the teacher (not stored grades). Used to automate weekly grade status updates or at risk notifications.
  • Edit PowerQuery: BrightArrow Missing AssignmentsChanged core table from students to pgfinalgrades so that it’ll be grouped in the Grading section in DEM
  • Fix for issue that occurred on the last day of enrollment within the COVID Tracer
  • Small change to separate groups of reports when multiple people sending reports at the same time

V8.3.4 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Fix issue with My Contact Info link on PS v19 servers (not an issue for 12 or 20 servers)
  • Add master on/off COVID Tracer switch available only from District Office
  • Edit to make it easier to use contacts extensions with current selections. To date affects 2 customers

V8.3.3 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Add School_Phone to the staff contacts page
  • PowerTeacher > Backpack > BrightArrow Parent: 
    • Fixed issue where the header changed in PS 19
    • Fixed issue where BrightArrow Parent option turned off for PowerTeacher and page will not change

V8.3.2 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • Add main teacher last name, track available for mail merge
  • Add ability to force page to be view & edit for all groups to allow the prefs to work
    • change is immediate but page response is not, may take an hour or more to show
  • Fix for rare error

V8.3.1 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • COVID Page
    • Renamed COVID Tracer
    • Add Directions
    • Add Mail Merge Field section
      • Add School Name and School Phone to mail merge fields
    • Correct issue when not separating by section

V8.3.0 (min Base Plugin 1: v8.0.1)

  • COVID Search page initial release

V8.2.3

  • Remove ability to edit personal phone/email in PT. Background error shows it wasn’t really saving. Made read only until security is fixed

V8.2.2

  • Cell phone call/text checkboxes checked by default to allow users to use these right away.
  • Fixed issue with staff home phone and email fields in new My Contact Info pages where switching schools would not show the built in powerschool fields correctly (home phone and email). No issue from BrightArrow fields but PowerSchool’s code didn’t work correctly in many situations.

V8.2.1

  • Fixed Track on 4 PQs

V8.2.0

  • Add faculty contact page to allow for use of custom phone/email fields already included in Base Plugin 1.
    • Currently only 4 fields:
      • Email Address from Users table
      • Email 2 from DB Extension
      • Home Phone from Users table
      • Cell Phone from DB Extension
        • Options to say phone is call or text only. This functionality will be expanded to Home Phone in the future
    • On/Off toggle in BrightArrow Settings page (off until turned on)
      • Disabled - doesn’t display anywhere
      • Admin Edit Only - Edit from staff record like a normal custom staff page
      • View in Personalize - Admin Edit Only + users can see their own data by going to personalize ( initials -> Manage Profile in new look ) then click My Contact Info
      • Edit in Personalize - Admin Edit Only + users can view and edit their own data by going to personalize ( initials -> Manage Profile in new look ) then click My Contact Info
    • Phase 1 is very basic, adding emergency information in future updates.
  • Add video: Learn About BrightChat
  • Updated video logic, more to come
  • Fix for rare error when do data file exists at all and user requests current selection of staff call list
  • Added Quarters to the PQs for multi-day attendance letters. This will allow schools to restart the count each quarter. (Full year, semesters, trimesters added in original version)

V8.1.2

  • Fix Missing Assignment issue for PTG sections

V8.1.1

  • Add Track to the BrightArrow Search screen
  • Add ability to change how sections show up in the BrightArrow Search drop down. Currently a district setting only, can not be changed on a building by building basisOptions are:
    • Course Name (Course Number.Section Number) - Default
    • Course Name (Expression)
    • Course Number.Section Number (Expression)Note: Previous default was Course Number.Section Number (Expression)
  • Small change for email only customers

V8.1.0

  • Add option for contacts filter: primary emails and portal emails (no secondary)
  • Moving main pieces of queries into wildcards. This will allow us to update everyone by updating the wildcard instead of needing to go to each and every plugin
  • Fixed issue when selecting single students from the BrightArrow Search page. Admin side only, was sending wrong ID only when selecting a single student. Worked for sections and all students, only single student was affected. Now corrected.

V8.0.7

  • Fix to default missing assignments query
  • Alterations to student contacts screen to reveal if a contact is disabled since the default visual doesn’t give any visual representation letting the user know
  • Alteration to student contacts screen to add in column for Receives Mail
  • Alteration to contact page - student relationship section to add Receives Mail column for easier identification of contacts with that box checked.
  • System > Report Queue Settings > Completed Reports page
    • Added ability to send report emails from here just like your personal queue. Allows admins to send reports others have run.
    • Added filter to this page so you can reduce the results in view. It’s the PowerSchool built in filter and follows the restrictions that come with it. Should make finding the right report easier.

V8.0.6

  • Changes to use a staff member’s dcid instead of their id for situations pulling class information. Should allow for pulling classes across schools when teachers teach in multiple buildings.
  • BrightArrow Search page in PowerSchool that is identical to the teacher version. Used to mimic what the teachers use to help troubleshoot or to perform a task for them when needed.
    • Settings that are stored per teacher are used so if the teacher has set previous days to 10 then admin sees 10 as well.
    • Requires an update to data plugin if using a custom data query in order for the missing assignments and final grade searches to work. Please contact support to get this done if you wish to use these from the admin side.
  • Corrections to BrightArrow Search page in Admin/PowerTeacher / PowerTeacher Pro. 
    • Record count: Feedback was still using a straight count of records which didn’t account for the new contacts model.
    • Altered feedback in certain situations where the messaging was a little ambiguous
    • Altered display when using “Show Results
      • Columns that aren’t needed for that search method are removed
      • Columns that can be used in a message to parents students such as Assignment or Due Date now give a display hint to tell the user what field to use in the message if they wish to include that informationEx: DueDate is now DueDate (field7). User would put [[field7]] into the message to include that data.

V8.0.5

  • Custom current selection of staff fix
  • Add homeroom to users PowerQuery

V8.0.4

  • Small fix for latest MBA Report Card Creator plugin. Backwards compatible for the old MBA Report Card Creator as well
  • Add Track to most PowerQueries

V8.0.3

  • Added phone option for not work which allows for any phone type EXCEPT work. Previously this was done with the option that would be Not work AND Not Daytime as PowerSchool considered them the same.
    • New localization tag, please delete and re-install Base 2 plugin, do not use plugin update feature

V8.0.2

  • Alteration to the PowerTeacher/PTP BrightArrow Search filters to account for classes where the period never meets the schedule OR the day is never on the calendar. Previously these sections were not included as they never actually met. COVID seems to have introduced creative scheduling and as such changes were made to accommodate.
  • Small edit to faculty page to display SSO hint.

V8.0.1

  • Separated out the DB extensions from BrightArrow Base Plugin v7.4.2 into BrightArrow Base Plugin 1 (above). Base Plugin 2 contains the rest of the files from the old BrightArrow Base Plugin v7.4.2
  • This version contains new functionality for unlimited contacts users to be able to change filters in the interface without needing a new plugin. This feature is functional but not finished.
  • New PQ - Logs. Requested by users to help automate discipline letters going home, however it can be used for any log type.
  • New PQ to pull contacts based on filter settings. This PQ will pull the correct contacts, phones, emails as the filter settings are changed allowing for requirements changes without redoing the DEM exports.
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