Setting up user accounts

Once you have an active school account you can request users accounts to be created at any time. In order to maintain traceability and security all accounts are created by LL4Schools on submission of a list of users.

How do I send the file?

The file should be sent as an attachment TO: admin@ll4schools.co.uk

The file should be sent FROM: the email address used at registration. Any requests for account creation from other email addresses will be discarded. You can, of course, request that the email address we have on file is changed. This will be done after the new address has been confirmed.

What needs to be in the file?

The following information is required for each account. It is very important that the information is complete, the file has a field headings line and that the columns have these names in this order: username, password, fullname, e-mail, type, description. Accounts are created automatically - if the file is not in the correct format it will be rejected and returned for resubmission. You can email the user list as a spreadsheet example (Excel or OpenOffice) or a csv file example.

username: these must be unique for each user within your school and can contain alphanumeric characters only (i.e. no commas, apostrophes, dashes, etc.). LL4Schools will append a four letter code which will be unique to your school to guarantee uniqueness across the whole userbase but to avoid delay in account creation you must ensure that the usernames you supply are unique within your own site.

password: if you want to supply your own passwords for some/all of your users then put them in this column otherwise it may be left blank. If left blank for any user then a random password will be assigned to them. The format will be 8-alphanumeric and mixed case characters. Users can change their password in the "Account Settings" area.

fullname: The users' full name, e.g. Fred Bloggs. Please avoid apostrophes (as in O'Toole for example).

e-mail: users DO NOT need an email address to access the LL4Schools service: if your school does not give pupils email addresses then please leave this column empty. For schools that do use email with pupils we would strongly advise the use of an email system where there is control and traceability of accounts: your Local Authority may provide a secure school email system, for example; or your VLE/MLE; or one you run "in-house". However, this is not always possible and many schools and students use public web-based systems like hotmail, gmail, yahoo mail, etc. There can be a mix of users with and without email addresses in the file you submit.

type: currently there are three types: Pupil, Staff and Admin. However, the only valid user types for this file are Pupil and Staff. Staff users are automatically added to the Staff Room and your main school community. All pupils are added to the school community. There is one and only one Admin account for each site and this is created when you first register and is automatically added to both the Staff Room and Administrator Support communities. The admin user is also the main school contact.

description: you can optionally include up to 100 characters of text in this column which will appear in the user's profile as their brief description. You may, for example, add a teacher's subject or position here.

When the accounts have been created you will receive a csv file with the username to be used within the system (i.e. with the four letter code) and a randomly generated password which users may change at any time. Any errors will also be notified at the same time. These files will be emailed to the registered administrative address.

Now can I use it?

Yes - just go to http://elgg.ll4schools.co.uk and log in...