MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday school

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
Gary_Miller
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MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday school

#1

Post by Gary_Miller »

The current download to 3.5 yesterday went without any problems. I had to fix a few minor calling issues but that went well.

However, when I got to the primary I can no longer create a custom classes and that is a problem for us.

We had split the Valiant 10 and 11 year old classes into two classes, Valiant 10 and 11 yr old Girls and Valiant 10 and 11 yr old Boys. To do this we had to create a custom class so it could be gender and age specific. No longer an option according to the new MLS manual.

We had also made used the custom option to create an Girls Activity Days Class, Wolf Den, Bear Den, Webelous Den and 11yr Scout Patrol.

It sure would be nice to have this feature back.
genman
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#2

Post by genman »

Gary_Miller wrote:I can no longer create a custom classes and that is a problem for us. We had split the Valiant 10 and 11 year old classes into two classes, Valiant 10 and 11 yr old Girls and Valiant 10 and 11 yr old Boys. To do this we had to create a custom class so it could be gender and age specific. No longer an option according to the new MLS manual.
This is a problem for us too. Is this a bug or a new feature?
genman
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#3

Post by genman »

Looks like we can workaround it by a combination of splitting the Valiant 10 and 11 classes to manually create four classes based on gender (e.g. into Valiant 10B, Valiant 10G, Valiant 11B, and Valiant 11G), followed by merging the two gender classes together (e.g. into Valiant 10-11B, Valiant 10-11G). Not a big problem after all.
chris_hazeldine
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#4

Post by chris_hazeldine »

Problem that you encounter with this approach is that the class rules no longer apply to the merged classes. We just had a new family move in and their Boys got added to the Valiant 9/10/11 Girls class.

There is also something odd happening where the record shows the class 3 times in the Organisation list. I have been trying to figure out a way of adding the Class Rules but can't see anything simple.

Anyone know?
genman
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#5

Post by genman »

chris_hazeldine wrote:We just had a new family move in and their Boys got added to the Valiant 9/10/11 Girls class....I have been trying to figure out a way of adding the Class Rules but can't see anything simple. Anyone know?
Good point. My understanding is that MLS no longer supports class rules. You may just have to manually move children to the right class when there are move-ins. Probably a good idea to double-check all of the class rosters just before printing them out for a new quarter.

I suspect MLS support for class rules is history. MLS is somewhat of a poor stepchild, with new resources going to LDS.org development.
jdlessley
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#6

Post by jdlessley »

chris_hazeldine wrote:Problem that you encounter with this approach is that the class rules no longer apply to the merged classes.
Merged Primary classes retain those membership rule criteria that are the same. Or at least that impression is given when viewing the class membership rules after a merge. The one criterion that appears to change from a value to being blank is "Minimum Age at Beginning of Year". However as noted in this thread there may be some age criterion being applied from one of the merged classes. I am not sure yet.
chris_hazeldine wrote:We just had a new family move in and their Boys got added to the Valiant 9/10/11 Girls class.
All Primary classes have the "Sex" criterion of "Male or Female". Designating one class for boys and one class for girls does not change the sex criterion. New move-ins will be put in the class appropriate for the age. There is no automatic separation for sex. That has to be done manually. This is a limitation of splitting classes based on sex.
chris_hazeldine wrote:There is also something odd happening where the record shows the class 3 times in the Organisation list.
Could you be more specific as to where the class shows three times? Are you referring to the Primary tab in the Primary organization or are you referring to the Class Members tab in the Primary organization or perhaps both?
chris_hazeldine wrote:I have been trying to figure out a way of adding the Class Rules but can't see anything simple.
Class membership rules are not editable. They can be viewed but not edited.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
chris_hazeldine
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#7

Post by chris_hazeldine »

Attached image of the member screen showing the class listed twice. Tried to reset the organisations but still has the two classes. Not shown in the class members list twice.
Attachments
image.jpg
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Last edited by chris_hazeldine on Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
jdlessley
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#8

Post by jdlessley »

genman wrote:My understanding is that MLS no longer supports class rules.
Each class has standardized membership rules. The membership rules for a class can be viewed by clicking the name of the class. What is not supported currently is the ability to edit those class membership rules.
genman wrote:You may just have to manually move children to the right class when there are move-ins.
When classes are split then membership for move-ins is to the original class regardless of what it has been renamed. For example if the Valiant 11 class is split into Valiant 11A and Valiant 11B and the original Valiant 11 class was renamed Valiant 11A then all new 11-year-old move-ins will appear in the Valiant 11A class. The same applies for classes split based on sex. If the original class was renamed Valiant 11G for the 11-year-old girls then all 11-year-old move-ins will appear in the Valiant 11G class.
genman wrote:MLS is somewhat of a poor stepchild, with new resources going to LDS.org development.
The changes to classes to support only standardized classes is in preparation for adding the capability to manage classes online. After the basic capability to support standardized classes online is met, I expect further development to continue for other capabilities such as editing class membership rules. If and when that will happen is unknown. Church departments such as the Priesthood Department are the customers that drive the development efforts.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
chris_hazeldine
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#9

Post by chris_hazeldine »

chris_hazeldine wrote:There is also something odd happening where the record shows the class 3 times in the Organisation list.
Could you be more specific as to where the class shows three times? Are you referring to the Primary tab in the Primary organization or are you referring to the Class Members tab in the Primary organization or perhaps both?

I had some trouble adding image in IE so saved post then added image from iphone which worked. So if you missed the post due to it now being before your last comment can you please look back.
jdlessley
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Re: MLS 3.5, No more custom classes in Primary and sunday sc

#10

Post by jdlessley »

chris_hazeldine wrote:Attached image of the member screen showing the class listed twice. Tried to reset the organisations but still has the two classes. Not shown in the class members list twice.
This appears to be a bug that they did not anticipate for merged classes. I am guessing that since the Valiant 10 and Valiant 11 classes were merged that the boy now is a member of two classes, according to the MLS programming to display class membership for a member. The query for the member record to display class membership has not been adjusted to account for a merge. So now the boy's member record shows both classes, but now they have the same name because of the merge.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
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