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New Bitesize Training Dates Added for 2021
Fancy brushing up on your Lamplight skills? We’ve added some bitesize training dates for the new year. These sessions will cover reporting, creating groups/lists and data views. You can find more details of what each includes on our website. They last 2 hours, take place via Zoom, and cost £40 + VAT per person.
The first dates for 2021 are:
Thursday 21st January, 1 p.m.: Basic Groups/Lists and Data Views
Monday 25th January 10 a.m.: Reporting
Thursday 28th January 2 p.m.: Advanced Groups/Lists and Data Views
There is a maximum of 4 participants per session, so do book early to avoid disappointment!
New Groups/Lists and Data Views Bitesize Training Date Added!
We’ve added a new bitesize training session on Friday 11th December, from 10 – 12.
Do you want to make more use of the information in your system, but you’re not sure where to start? You can use groups/lists in Lamplight like saved searches: you enter what you’re searching for (e.g. ‘postcode starts with N1’) and Lamplight searches for everyone that meets the filters that you’ve chosen. You can then add a data view to this if you want to see more information. For example, you may want to be able to view the demographic information or contact details of the people on your group. The data view will show you these extra details in columns next to the names in your list.
If you’d like to learn more about how to set up and use groups/lists and data views in your system, why not join us?
We look at what groups/lists are in more detail, and how you can set up a new one based on information held in your system’s profiles. You can use demographic information, support needs, interests, membership information — whatever personal details you capture in a profile. We then introduce data views to you, and show you how to use them.
The training will be via Zoom. Places cost £40 + VAT and include an individual half hour training follow-up call. You can find more details on our website.
If you’d like a place, please contact us. If you’re interested in coming to this training on another date, please get in touch and we’ll let you know about future sessions.
Improvements to reporting and groups
We’ve improved the reporting on custom fields and made it more consistent. All non-free-text custom field types can now be used in report filters and row/column grouping.
There are some additions to grouping on cases (your terminology may vary) too. You can now create auto groups based on whether a case was open during a period, and also on the duration of the case in days.
Data views showing detailed information about referrals can include some referral specific information, such as referral direction and reason.
And finally, you can now associate custom tabs in activity records with particular work records. These tabs will only be enabled if you select the relevant work area when creating the activity. This will make creating activity records easier by making it clear which custom tabs relate to which workarea. System admins will need to set this up in ‘Manage custom tabs and fields in work records’.
Lamplight updates 12th Nov
We made a few updates to the system last night…
Convert auto groups (/lists) to manual groups
When you view all groups (you may call them lists or something else), the menu for auto and merge groups allows you to ‘convert to manual group’. This will run the group, and then create a new manual group with the current membership of the group. The auto group will still update as normal, but the newly created group will be fixed. This may be useful if you have larger/slower auto or merge groups for your reporting, as manual groups are much quicker to use.
My user restriction now limits editing of waiting lists and manual groups
If you are only able to see ‘my user’ profiles, you won’t be able to edit waiting lists or manual groups. This is because you will remove anyone from the list who is not one of your ‘my users’ without realising it (because you can’t see that they are on there, and they are not shown as members when you edit them). If you need to add one of your ‘my users’ to a waiting list or manual group you can go to their profile and in the relevant tab click ‘add’ to add them to the list. They can also be added via referrals as normal too.
My user restriction now limits access to mail merged files
If you are only able to see ‘my user’ profiles, you won’t see files that other people have generated if they might include mail merge details from those profiles. This prevents potential information leaks from documents other operators have created. The file hiding is conservative, so it errs on the side of caution when deciding whether to show a file or not. Files are visible to higher access level operators who can see all profiles.
Visual changes to the contact details profile tab
We’ve made the contact details action buttons a bit bigger and clearer, and they also now all show or hide depending on the permissions set below.
Minor fixes
- Creating a profile from a work record is now working properly if you have essential fields set for other profile types.
- Updates to the costing module to resolve an issue with location charges and display.
- Sorting tables or profiles by alternative name now works as expected
- Opening the rich text editor adds a bit of space below so that other fields are not hidden by the editor
- Monthly recurring work records would incorrectly set the recurring pattern to ‘2nd Monday of the month’ on particular days.
- The file type is set properly so that the help manual download will now open in Word correctly
System maintenance: database engine updates
Update: the upgrades proceeded smoothly with no downtime. The changes we’ve made will improve the speed and resilience of Lamplight.
We’ll be upgrading the underlying database engine used by Lamplight this weekend. There shouldn’t be any interruption to Lamplight during this time but it is possible. The work will be carried out at 10pm (GMT) on Friday 6th November 2020.
The main change we are making is to upgrade the database hardware resources, doubling processor and memory available which should improve the performance and capacity of Lamplight.
Lamplight downtime: an update
Thanks to everyone for bearing with us through the downtime that we experienced yesterday. This was caused by an issue that AWS had with their servers, so unfortunately was not in our control. As a result of this we’ve looked at how we use their services, and have spread that usage over all 3 of their London zones, rather than the 2 we had previously. This will help to increase our resilience should this happen again.
AWS have closed this as an issue today, so the service should be back to normal.
Lamplight outage this morning
A big apology to anyone who experienced the outage of Lamplight this morning. Unfortunately the problem was with our service provider, AWS, and so out of our control. We worked with them to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Our systems are set up so that they automatically detect any problems, and if we experience an unusually high demand new servers will come into service within a couple of minutes so that normal service is restored. This morning there was a delay within AWS, our server provider, and the additional servers did not come into service as we’d expect. Unfortunately this was beyond our control, and we had to wait for the underlying AWS delays to resolve.
In the past we’ve considered spreading our servers to multiple locations to avoid problems like this, but found that it is either cost-prohibitive, or would mean that data would be located outside the UK which is not acceptable to many of our customers.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience that this outage has caused you.
Support over the summer
We’ve been exceptionally busy recently and to help us make sure we respond to everyone fairly and promptly we will, for the time being, only be offering support by email.
If you do have a query please email hello@lamplightdb.co.uk with as much detail as possible (but please, no personally identifiable information) and we’ll respond promptly. If we do need to speak or see what’s happening we’ll arrange a convenient time to call or Zoom.
Thank you for your understanding. As you may have seen we’re currently recruiting, including two new positions in the Support and Community team, and we do intend that this is a temporary measure to help us manage high levels of demand.
We’re recruiting
As we continue to grow we have four new positions open across all our teams, including an apprenticeship. Full details are at www.lamplightdb.co.uk/join-us – if you know of anyone that’d be interested do pass it on.
Basic Groups/Lists and Data Views Training — Last Place 11th August
Are you unsure how groups/lists work in your Lamplight system? Maybe you use them already, but aren’t sure how to set up a new one or edit an old one. This training can help you with that.
We’ll be looking at how to set up a basic auto group/list using information from profiles. These groups/lists be used for a number of things including mailing lists based on people who’ve signed up for a newsletter, or to identify service users with specific support needs, for example.
We’ll also introduce data views, and show how to create one that includes profile information. You can use these to view your groups/lists, perhaps to create a report, or a register containing contact information.
The training will be via Zoom from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday August 11th. Places cost £40 + VAT, and each one includes an individual half-hour training follow-up call. You can find a full outline on our website.
If you’d like to join, please contact us. If you’re interested but can’t make this date then do let us know, and we’ll be in touch about future dates.