Configuring the RISC Preferences File
The Preferences settings for RISC are defined in the Preferences option in the Configure menu using the RISC Admin program. These settings are used to setup the default configuration for RISC. These defaults are set in the RISC.INI file that is stored in the RISC Program folder. When selected, a help screen is displayed explaining what the function does. Click OK on the help message and the Preferences screen shown below will be displayed:
The first time the Preferences screen is displayed after installation, four items should be blank - Short Name, Administrator Password, Confidentiality Status and Confidentiality Password. Each of the items in the Preferences screen is described below:
User Registration:
This field contains the name of the registered user (normally the school's name) that was defined in the installation process. If a typographic error was made during installation or if the school's name changes, this field can be edited as necessary.
Please remember that copyright law protects RISC and copies MUST not be made and given to others.
Short Name:
This field is used to define an abbreviated name for your school and should be kept to less than seven (7) characters. For example, if your school name is New York Girls High School, then put
NYGHS as the Short Name. The Short Name is used on reports and student contact forms.
Administrator Password:
Entering something into this field will set a password for RISC
Administrator. Once set, the next time a user attempts to start RISC Administrator, it will request the entry of the password. Until correctly entered, none of the options in the Configure, Archive or Utilities menus can be used.
RISC Program Path:
This is automatically entered in the Preferences screen as the path where RISC was installed during the installation process. Do NOT change this unless the LAN Systems Administrator wishes to move RISC to another path on the server. You
MUST either specify a drive letter as part of this path, or use a
UNC path.
RISC Data Path:
Is automatically entered in the Preferences screen as a \DATA folder under the path where RISC was installed to during the installation process. Do NOT change this unless the LAN System Administrator wishes to move RISC or the data files to another path on the server. While the Data path is fixed during installation, it can be moved to another path, even onto another drive if desired. You
MUST specify a drive letter as part of this path, or use a UNC
path.
Temporary Files Path:
RISC creates Temporary Files when searching through the Contacts database for specified criteria and when selecting and printing Form Letters. It is very important in a multiple user situation that each user has a unique path to store temporary files.
If each user has a local hard disk (as is the case with new computers), then the Temporary Files Path could be set to
C:\RISCTEMP\ or C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\
(however, this is only valid if EVERY user has a local hard disk on their workstation). If each user without a local hard disk logs into the fileserver with a unique login name, then a “home” directory on the fileserver can be used as the Temporary Files Path. If a shared
login name is used by users for logging into the server and local hard disks are not available, then a shared Temporary Files Path can be used, but be aware that if simultaneous searches of the Contacts database are conducted by the users, problems will occur. Users must have full access (Read/Write/Change/Erase) to any server path used for temporary files. You
MUST specify drive letter as part of this path.
If the entered path does not exist yet on a user's workstation, RISC will attempt to create it for you when the user next runs RISC. However, if that user has only restricted access to the local hard disk with Windows 2000 or XP, an error may occur.
RISC Confidentiality:
RISC has the ability to mark certain contacts as ‘Confidential’. The details of these contacts can only be viewed by staff who know the Confidentiality Password. See
the Help Desk webpage on RISC Confidentiality.
Confidentiality Status:
The default setting for Confidentiality Status in RISC is Off. This means that all contact records are available to all users and no contacts can be marked Confidential. To turn on Confidentiality, click on the Confidentiality Status field to toggle it from Off to On
(and vice versa).
Confidentiality Password:
If the Confidentiality Status is turned ON, you MUST also enter a Confidentiality Password. This is the password to be used to unlock all confidential records in the Contacts database. You can change the Confidentiality Password at any time using this option.
User-Defined Field Names:
RISC contains six user-definable field names to make the system very flexible. For example, the field named ‘Contact Status’ could be used to define the status of individual contacts, or can be completely redefined to be ‘Location’ if it is felt that this definition would be of better use. Each of the six user-definable field names is described below. Be sure to place a colon
immediately after each defined field name.
Name Field:
This field refers to the name of the individual student with whom contact is made. The field title ‘Name:’ could be replaced with ‘Student:’ if desired. No more than 12 characters should be used for the Name field.
Student Base Enabled:
Can be set to either True or False. If you exported student data from your school’s administration system and imported it into RISC, this will be set to ‘True’ (enabled). If set to True, RISC will use the files STUDBASE.DAT and STUDBASE.NDX for student data which includes student name, parent/guardian contact, home phone number, address details, grade/year and roll class/homeroom. If set to ‘False’ RISC will use the Student List file called STUDLIST.DAT that contains only student names. Clicking on the field will alternate between True and False.
Contact Category Field:
RISC offers four definable fields for classifying individual student contacts (Category, Type,
Category 2 and Status). You may wish to define the Contact Category Field as ‘Subject or
Location:’ to allow for statistics to be calculated by these groupings.
Contact Type Field:
This field name is restricted to 10 characters, so it is best left set as ‘Type:’ or ‘Infraction:’.
Contact Category 2 Field:
This field name defaults to 'Action Type:', so it can be used to keep
track of what was done regarding each contact (incident).
Contact Status Field:
You may wish to define the Contact Status Field as ‘Status:’ to allow for
easy retrieval of contacts marked 'Complete' or still 'Incomplete' or
'Pending'.
Contact Description Field:
This field is normally used to describe the individual student contact. The default field name is ‘Contact Description:’, but can be changed to ‘Description of Contact:’ or even ‘Description of Individual Student Contact:’.
Contact Action Field:
This field is normally used to describe the result, action or solution to an individual student contact. The default name is ‘Contact Action:’, but can be changed as desired.
Saving Preferences:
Once you have filled out the Preferences form as desired, click the Save button to write the settings to the RISC.INI file. If there are any problems with the settings entered, a message box will appear alerting you to the specific problem. After successfully saving the Preferences, you will be returned to the RISC Admin main menu.
Quitting Without Saving Preferences:
If you do not wish to save the changes to the settings in the Preferences form, click the Cancel button and then click the Yes button to quit. After quitting the Preferences form, you will be returned to the RISC Admin main menu.
Back to Preferences
Screen
The Register of
Individual Student Contact (RISC) is developed & distributed
by Marillion Designs.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Marillion Designs. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
