If you have not yet installed The Sleuth Importer, or for more information regarding the Sleuth Importer, see Sleuth Importer Install Notes
If you have installed the Sleuth Importer but it does not appear to be updating Sleuth with Student and Staff data then please check the following before contacting us:
- Check for Error Messages in Sleuth – Logon to Sleuth as an admin user and look at your MyMessages on the Home page. Any errors loading individual student or staff records will be highlighted in red. Also note the date of the message, there should be a message posted by the Sleuth Importer every time it runs, this is usually daily. If there have been no messages for any period then the Groupcall Xporter service, used by the Sleuth Importer, may have stopped running.
- Check for updates – Another problem encountered by schools using SIMS .net occurs when the SIMS is not being run on the server as it does not automatically pick up any updates. Therefore if you are encountering problems and SIMS is not running on the server then run it on the server to give it the opportunity to pick up the latest updates.
- Check the Windows Service called Groupcall Xporter is Running – Log onto the server where the Xporter is installed and click Start – Control Panel – Administrator Tools – Services. Check the Groupcall Xporter service is listed and started. If the service is running and there has been an update to SIMS or one of the .ini files in the Groupcall directory, then it should be stopped and re-started to pick up the changes.
- Check the Sleuth Importer is Using the Correct User – Log onto the server where the Xporter is installed and double-click the ‘Sleuth Importer Settings’ icon on the desktop. If there is no icon then use windows explorer to find and run the file “C:\Program Files\Groupcall\exporter\Sleuth\sleuthimporter.exe”. When you see the prompt for username and password details check that the username begins sleuthimporter@. If not then check back in your original email instructions or email [email protected] for the correct username and password.
- Try to Run the Import Process Manually – Run Start – All Programs – Groupcall – Xporter – Xporter management Console or click on the desktop icon called Xporter Management Console. If you don’t have this shortcut you are probably running an old version and should upgrade by following Sleuth Importer Install Notes. When the Xporter Management Console has loaded click the jobs menu item on the left and then select the Sleuth job and click run job now from the menu on the right. Click ok if you get a message saying enter last run value then wait for it to run and display a completed job message. If successful, this will run the import process and update Sleuth. Now logon to Sleuth as an admin user and check MyMessages again. If there is no entry for today then go back to the xporter management console and click log from the left menu.
- Check the Importer is Using This Year’s Data – Most MIS don’t consider the new intake and promoted students ’current’ until the winter term starts. Hence you may not see the new students reflected in Sleuth until this date.
- SIMS has a date range setup for each academic year. On the first day of a new academic year new students become ’current’ and existing students are promoted to their new tutor/year groups. The Sleuth Importer updates Sleuth based on the ’current’ on-roll student/staff data so if your data has not rolled over to the new academic year yet then Sleuth will not include the new students or updated student details until the new academic year in SIMS has started.
- For CMIS the Groupcall Xporter software should automatically select the correct dataset for you. If you are not sure you can check the log file to see what data set xporter has selected. If you make changes to the current dataset then you can run the Sleuth job manually and the promoted students will be imported into Sleuth.
- Check Permissions – A common problem encountered by schools using SIMS .net occurs when the user running the export part of the process lacks permission to access the data required by Sleuth. We recommend when you install the Sleuth Importer you create a SIMS user called sleuth, this user requires the following permissions: Third Party Reporting, Personnel Officer, Senior Management Team and School Administrator. If the user does not have these permissions then there will usually be an error in the log file Cannot find field StudentID or Cannot find field StaffCode – Native error: 10305. To resolve this, either:
add the requisite permissions to the SIMS user you chose to run the Sleuth Importer, or
change the user to another user that does have the required permission. To do this, from a console session, launch the Xporter product (click the X in the system tray). If you are running the latest version of Xporter you will have a menu option called SIMS on the Xporter setup menu where you can change the user. If you do not, delete the GCPassword.db file in the c:\program files\groupcall\exporter directory and restart the Groupcall Xporter service in windows services. You will then be prompted to enter a SIMS username and password.
- Check the log
The date stamped log of what has happened can be seen by running the Xporter Management Console and clicking log on the left in the menu. The Console will only show the most recent information, if you want to see more historical information you can look at the log file directly in the groupcall installation directory which by default is here:
c:\program files\groupcall\exporter\GCXporter.log
The logfile messages are dated and ordered chronologically so page down to the end of the file to find the most recent messages. Look for messages saying Error or Failed and consult the common errors listed below. If you are unable to interpret the error messages then you can email the log file to us at [email protected] Error messages found in the log files:
- Updater: Fetching http://www.schoolsoftwarecompany.com/updates/Exporter/Sleuth_GCX_Update.inf?scope=3834044&mis=simsnet&gcx=Sleuth 01-Sep-11 11:39:10: PROGRAM: Updater: Fetch Failed – EGCProtocol: (12007) The server name or address could not be resolved
You will get this error if the Xporter service can not communicate with the server address specified. Check it is not blocked by copying the url into a web browser, however this will only check for the currently logged in user rather than the user the groupcall xporter service is configured to use which may be different. Also check the proxy settings by loading the Xporter Management Console and click on the Misc menu on the left and make sure the setting “Proxy server settings – proxy server” is set correctly.
- Fetch Failed – EGCHTTP: (407) Proxy Authentication Required (The ISA Server requires authorization to fulfill the request. Access to the Web Proxy filter is denied.)
No Update: EGCProtocol: EGCHTTP: (502) Proxy Error ( Host is unreachable )
No Update: EGCProtocol: EGCProtocol: (12029) A connection with the server could not be established
Unable to connect to the remote host
These errors are because the exporter software can not communicate with the groupcall or sleuth server. It tries to communicate via the internet to website www.groupcall.com and www.schoolsoftwarecompany.com on port 80 and port 443. This is for downloading the software/updates and also to upload your MIS data. To solve the problem you need to configure your proxy server to allow traffic to pass through. Make sure you can access the two websites from internet explorer and that the proxy is configured correctly there. If that doesn’t help sometimes the proxy authentication is linked to the user the exporter service is running as. In Windows services right click the Groupcall Xporter 2010 service and click properties. Configure the logon user to be a user on your system that has access through the proxy. If you haven’t got a service called Groupcall Xporter 2010 then you are probably running an old version of Groupcall Xporter and should upgrade by following then Sleuth Importer Install Notes. Once you have changed the user restart the service and run the sleuth job.
- A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 – Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)
This message means that Groupcall Xporter can not connect to your Sql server used by your Sims system. This happens sometimes when Sims is upgraded/reconfigured. Check the contents of the connect.ini file (if present) in your c:\program files\groupcall\exporter and c:\program files\groupcall\exporter\sleuth directories against the connect.ini file in your Sims directory. The connect.ini file in the groupcall directory may have a line saying redirect, if so change any file/folder references that use mapped drives to local/UNC paths. If that does not work then simply copy the connect.ini file from your Sims directory and replace the connect.ini files in the groupcall directories. Then run the sleuth job manually.
- Error Showing a modal dialog box or form when the application is not running in UserInteractive mode is not a valid operation. Specify the ServiceNotification or DefaultDesktopOnly style to display a notification from a service application.
This message normally means there is a problem with your sleuth importer credentials. If you have an icon on your desktop called sleuth importer settings then double click that and enter your sleuth importer username (i.e. sleuthimporter@abc and your password.) If you don’t have a password then email [email protected] requesting your sleuthimporter credentials. If you do not have an icon on your desktop called sleuth importer settings then run the file c:\program files (x86)\groupcall\xporter\sleuth\sleuthimporter.exe and it will open a window to allow you to enter the sleuth importer username and password. Optionally you can also enter a proxy address, port number, proxy username and proxy password.
- EGCSqlException Primary Key constraint ‘..’ violated. Duplicate Found
SIMS: This error indicates that there is a data error in SIMS which has probably gone unnoticed until now. Run SIMS Workstation, go to Tools > Validate Memberships and let the process complete. Once completed try re-running the job. If the issue persists then provide the logs to us for further advice.
- EGCSqlException: (ESQLMemException) Cannot find field InCare – Native error: 10305 in the following …
SIMS: This error indicates that there are insufficient permissions for the SIMS user being used for the extract. RunSIMS workstation and check the user has the appropriate permissions. The SIMS user requires the following permissions: School Administrator; Senior Management Team; Personnel Officer and Third Party Reporting. Once completed, restart the Groupcall SIMS Server Windows Service and then try re-running the job. If the issue persists then provide the logs to us for further advice.
- EGCSqlException: (EGCSimsNetAppDomainException) COM Error: (80131604)
The problem might be that the SIMS.NET folder is not present or correct in the sims.ini file. There maybe a sims.ini file in your main sims share folder and/or your c:\windows directory.
It should read along the lines of this: SIMSDotNetDirectory=c:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS.net
Once it has changed, restart the Groupcall Xporter windows service and then re run the sleuth job from the management console.
If you still get the same error or it is correct then check the connect.ini file in c:/program files/groupcall/xporter directory to ensure there is not a redirect statement to a mapped drive that the windows service might not know. If it is then change it, for example to a database and username reference the same as your connect.ini in your sims folder.
If you still get the same error then try changing the user that the Windows service runs as, from System to be a local administrator account and then restart the service and the job should complete successfully.
(To change the user: Click Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Services;
Find Groupcall Xporter Service;
Right click Properties;
Click Log On tab;
Click This Account and enter details of a local admin user).
- EGCSqlException: (EOleException) Time out has expired and the operation has not been completed in the following …
The problem might be that the SIMS.NET folder is not present or correct in the sims.ini file. There maybe a sims.ini file in your main sims share folder and/or your c:\windows directory.
It should read along the lines of this: SIMSDotNetDirectory=c:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS.net
Once it has changed, restart the Groupcall Xporter windows service and then re run the sleuth job from the management console.
If you still get the same error or it is correct then check the connect.ini file in c:/program files/groupcall/xporter directory to ensure there is not a redirect statement to a mapped drive that the windows service might not know. If it is then change it, for example to a database and username reference the same as your connect.ini in your sims folder.
If you still get the same error then try changing the user that the Windows service runs as, from System to be a local administrator account and then restart the service and the job should complete successfully.
(To change the user: Click Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Services;
Find Groupcall Xporter Service;
Right click Properties;
Click Log On tab;
Click This Account and enter details of a local admin user).
Frequently Asked Questions.
We already have exporter installed for another program or system. Can we still use the sleuth importer software?
Yes you can. The Xporter software is designed to support several jobs at the same time. Just install the sleuth importer as normal and it will install the sleuth job alongside whatever job you currently have.
