This facility is available only v1.0.96 onwards.

The Bulk Reader update system allows the creation of 'Deferred Update' packages in order to make major, bulk changes all at the same time. In many ways, this system is a manual version of the facilities provided by the SIMS Importer. The Deferred Update system is not suitable for minor updates to individual readers, or to accomplish updates where it is likely that different changes need to be made to a wide range of individuals - it is designed principally for the modification of large numbers of readers with the same underlying alteration (e.g. a tutor group change).

In order to access the manual [Deferred Updates] system, login in as a managerial user and start the [Readers] manager. If you have permission, then select the [Deferred Updates] icon in the toolbar.

The Deferred Update system essentially consists of three separate stages:

1. Creating a new deferred update package and providing a unique description (e.g. 'Yearly Update 2017 3JS > 4ED')
2. Performing a search of the readers to identify the readers that should be altered in this deferred update
3. Attaching one or more changes to the deferred update that will be made when the deferred update package is executed.

In order to create a new deferred update package, click the [Create] toolbar icon. This will ask you to enter a short description describing what the deferred update package is for.

Keep your description short and succinct, but to the point and describing exactly what it does - you may have a number of deferred update packages created at the same time.

If you are creating a package to modify the tutor group '3JS' to '4ED' for the new academic year, it might be good to enter something like '2017 Tutor Group 3JS to 4ED' in order to keep it distinct from updates to other tutor groups for example.

Once created, the package will appear in the drop-down list at the top of the page. All current deferred update packages are displayed in this list, but only packages that have not yet been saved into the database are editable. Once saved into the database, the deferred update package is fixed and you can not modify it. If there is an error with the package, you will need to delete and recreate the package - make sure that the package is correct before saving it.

Next, you need to identify the readers that you wish to modify. In order to make the system familiar, the search system is identical to that in the main search facility. Enter as many search criteria as you need, then click search to display the readers identified by the search. The aim of the search is to identify only the readers that you want to be altered by this deferred update package.

For a tutor group update for example, the search criteria is easy: simply select the current tutor group from the drop down list in the tutor group criteria row.

NOTE: Trying to perform updates of this nature using criteria is extremely dangerous - update group 1 to 2, group 2 to 3, and group 3 to 4 for example, results in everyone in group 4 (think about it…) unless you are very clear about the criteria and order in which you perform updates. As a result, we have deliberately implemented a system where only the specific reader identified at this stage is used as the target of the modification. The change therefore becomes very targeted, and removes the chances of making an error when configuring a deferred update package. In other words, if the reader is not in the results list, it will not be affected by the changes.

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