CMT's Web Attendance program was developed to allow teachers to enter student attendance information directly to the iSeries CIMS® student database without the need to learn CIMS green-screen navigation procedures. Because attendance is taken through a web browser, the software is cross-platform.

There are many advantages to this approach of taking attendance:

• Information is entered directly to the iSeries CIMS student database eliminating uploads and downloads.
• No attendance data is stored locally on the PC, so if the teachers' PCs are not backed up often, previously entered data is safe.
• Nothing needs to be loaded on each workstation. All programs are run directly from the iSeries.
• iSeries reports allow administrators to determine which teachers have not taken attendance for any given day.
• Using Web Attendance eliminates the need for scan sheets and barcodes.

There is one piece to Web Attendance - the iSeries server code. The iSeries and PC communicate via TCP/IP through a web browser.

Once the iSeries installation is complete there is one additional setup step ¡V updating the iSeries-user-id/CIMS-teacher-id cross reference file. As its name implies, this file maps iSeries user profiles to CIMS teacher IDs. An interactive green-screen maintenance program is included with the iSeries installation to aid CIMS administrators in maintaining this file.

After selecting the web page to access, the user is initially presented with a Sign On panel.

After entering the iSeries user id and password, a screen will appear in which they can choose which building they are accessing. They will only see multiple buildings if they have been given access to them.

After selecting the building, a calendar appears including months for the current term. Teachers will only be allowed to enter attendance for days that exist in the school calendar within CIMS. The current date will be red.

After selecting the date, a list of courses will appear. The user that signed on will only see the courses and sections that he/she has access to. If attendance has already been taken by the teacher for certain periods this will also be indicated. Two options exist on this screen, the Enter button to the left allows for the maintenance of attendance, and the Display button to the right allows only for a listing of the attendance for that course, for the selected date.

After hitting the Enter button for the desired course, a list of students will appear. Clicking on the button to the left of the student's ID number will toggle through the allowable CIMS absence types (click once for A (absent), again for T (tardy) and again changing it back to P (present)). If a student was previously marked absent and an absence reason exists, the user will see this information but will not be able to make changes.

After taking attendance, clicking the Save Absences button will post the attendance directly to CIMS. The following confirmation screen will appear.

    iSeries/AS400 Server

• OS/400 V4R2M0 or higher
• CIMS Student version 6.0 or higher
• TCP/IP configured and enabled
• HTTP Server

    PC Workstation

• Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher; or Netscape 6.0 or higher
• TCP/IP connection to the iSeries/AS400

For additional information or to obtain an official quote, please contact CMT via e-mail or phone (989) 791-4860.

    Note: The project cost does not include on-site installation or training. If these services are desired,
    please contact either one of our student software trainers: Barb Kostick or Amy Kolka.