System Prefs

From Redrock Wiki

    The legacy Trac 4.0 version of TutorTrac/AdvisorTrac/FitnessTrac is no longer receiving updates and will be end-of-life in 2025. All Trac 4.0 customers are encouraged to migrate to TracCloud. TracCloud has been designed from the ground up for speed, power, and security. Click here to schedule a TracCloud demo or reach out to sales@go-redrock.com for migration pricing or contract details. For more details about the migration process, click here.



TracCloud
For over two decades, Redrock’s TutorTrac has been a trusted solution used by thousands of centers worldwide. Now, we have completely redesigned TutorTrac using the latest, most sophisticated development tools to bring you TracCloud. Rebuilt from the ground up, TracCloud has been rigorously tested and proven effective in real-world production environments for over four years.

This transformation began with a fresh foundation — a new database (MySQL), a cutting-edge web hosting platform (AWS on Apache), and a robust development environment (PHP). But the improvements don’t stop there. TracCloud features a sleek, modern user interface designed to be exceptionally intuitive and user-friendly, making it easier than ever to navigate and manage your operations. Plus, TracCloud is fully optimized for mobile devices, allowing users to access and utilize its powerful features seamlessly from anywhere. We are now hosted on Amazon Web Services and we are taking advantage of modern cloud security, alert monitoring, and performance monitoring with automatic scalability for on-demand needs.

We are also excited to introduce new modules designed to enhance your campus’s ability to support students effectively. TracInsights for predictive analysis, Wellness Check-ins, and Reflective Prompts empower your campus to stay connected with students across your district. These tools provide instant alerts when students are struggling, allowing you to respond swiftly. Additionally, our TracFlow Automations can initiate timely interventions and connect students with the appropriate services your campus offers, ensuring no student falls through the cracks.

Guided by invaluable customer feedback, we preserved the features that made TutorTrac and AdvisorTrac so popular while embracing an ambitious vision: How can we elevate every great feature from the 4.0 version to be ten times better in the TracCloud version?

We are confident we achieved that vision. TracCloud is now a more powerful, intuitive, and versatile system while remaining affordable for every level of your institution. Whether you are a small writing center using our software for just $2,500 per year, a large multi-center support services department for under $6,000, or an extensive district with multiple campuses utilizing our comprehensive retention bundle (call for pricing), we have the ideal solution to meet your needs.

Most importantly, we are deeply grateful for the ongoing support and loyalty of our customers over the past 25 years. Your feedback and trust have been instrumental in making TracCloud what it is today. As we look to the future, we are excited to continue innovating and finding new ways to make TracCloud even more powerful and effective as a retention tool for your campus.

Training and Assistance for Your Migration
We understand that migrating from your existing, proven solution to a new platform can feel daunting. To make this transition as smooth as possible, we offer personalized one-on-one training sessions and handle the data migration for you. Our team will seamlessly convert your TutorTrac data into the TracCloud format, scheduling both training and migration to ensure minimal downtime and disruption. More importantly, we will perform the training and migration at no additional cost to you.

Unparalleled Tech Support
Redrock has built a strong reputation for responsiveness and availability. Our team remains dedicated to providing the same top-tier, unlimited support that no other company in this industry can match. Our experienced professionals are ready to assist you via support ticket, email, or phone, often responding within hours—if not minutes—of receiving your request. Over the past 25 years, our reputation for stellar support has been well-proven, and we will continue to earn our place as the leader in higher education software through our unwavering commitment to excellence.

Annual Redrock Conference
We will continue to offer in-person training and exclusive previews of the latest features and modules of our software at our annual conference. Customers have consistently reported that this experience provides a valuable opportunity to connect with Redrock team members, network with peers in their industry, share experiences, and gain insights into best practices for using the TracCloud platform effectively at their campuses.

TracCloud: Enhanced Capabilities and Continuous Innovation
TracCloud has been completely rebuilt from the ground up, retaining all existing features while significantly enhancing their performance and usability. Our comprehensive suite of capabilities includes advanced reporting, intuitive scheduling, feedback surveys, online whiteboard meetings, early alert systems, text messaging, study table management, payroll tracking, resource check-in/out, workshop tracking, task management, success plans, terms and conditions waivers, support for unlimited centers, asynchronous appointments, custom fields, custom forms, custom views, work plans, certifications, instructor attendance tracking, testing center group appointments, watch lists, student photos, batch visits, Supplemental Instruction (SI) visit tracking, email templates, and batch emails. All of these powerful features have been further improved and seamlessly integrated with new functionalities, ensuring a more streamlined user experience.

A Modern, Mobile-Friendly Interface
The enhanced TracCloud system offers a responsive, mobile-friendly interface designed for convenience and accessibility. Students can effortlessly schedule appointments by scanning a QR code and tapping a button. Similarly, they can confirm their attendance at a center by scanning a QR code and pressing a single button, providing a smoother, more enjoyable user experience. Every component of TracCloud is now accessible through this sleek, user-friendly interface, enhancing efficiency for both students and administrators.

TracCloud Reporting System is Second to None
Our reporting system capitalizes on the data we receive and generate from the operations that TracCloud manages. Because of the data capture, our reports can comprehensively indicate what resources are needed and how operations can be streamlined to maximize the help that students receive. Reports can be generated automatically by all staff, and data results may be automatically exported on a daily or weekly basis. Reports may be securely emailed on an automated schedule to the people who need the results regularly and timely. Faculty can receive automated reports on student activities, research departments can obtain raw or summarized data indicating important trends, and center administrators can gather feedback on how students are being assisted. All reports utilize the sleek, user-friendly interface that TracCloud is now known for.

Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Since the launch of TracCloud nearly four years ago, we have remained dedicated to enhancing and expanding the platform. This year, we are introducing several new modules that are easy to incorporate into your existing configuration. The Predictive Analytics module helps identify and monitor at-risk students, while the Wellness Check-In module provides valuable insight into students’ emotional well-being. Additionally, our Reflective Prompts feature encourages students to reflect on their educational journey and the steps they are taking to achieve success. All functionalities can be integrated with our TracFlow automation module, enabling timely early alerts and automated student interventions. The newly introduced AI MoodMeter field links allow proactive identification of students who may require additional support. These enhancements are just the beginning, with many more planned for release throughout the year.

TracCloud: An Enterprise Solution that still works for smaller Centers
TracCloud supports single, small centers with limited budgets while providing powerful scalability for large districts with multiple campuses. Our modular approach allows institutions to add features and functionalities as needed, seamlessly integrating them into a cohesive, robust, and user-friendly system. TracCloud continues to provide a comprehensive solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of institutions of all sizes.

A Commitment to a Holistic Approach to Student Well-Being
TutorTrac has historically been a center operations management tool. Our latest improvements with the new TracCloud have focused on the student experience and how centers truly help students succeed. Future modules of TracCloud will strengthen the connection between centers, students, and faculty, while also providing tools for Deans, Provosts, and VPs to oversee the integration of student support services from a high-level perspective. With our extensive experience in center management and student support, TracCloud is uniquely positioned to provide these essential reporting capabilities, thanks to our ability to gather data directly from the source.

Now, we proudly introduce TracCloud — our latest innovation in student retention and engagement, designed to streamline the management of your learning, writing, advising, or other support centers on your campus.

New, easy to use interface
TracCloud features a modern, easy to use, and mobile-friendly interface, allowing you to easily find and manage your data as you need. Students, staff, and faculty will have a much easier time navigating through the system and accessing the data they need. The new dashboard offers many easy to access widgets to view and manage your data.



New Features
Export almost any report into Excel. Static and dynamic QR codes for touchless-kiosk environments. Unlimited custom data fields in student records, visits, appointments, and more. Customizable views of listing pages. Student timelines. Twig and HTML-supported emails and system messages. Customizable log listing and kiosk views. Center descriptions. New reports. Student success plans as a new module, along with work plans for staff. The full list of changes couldn't fit in this article, and more is being added all the time. Relating to the schedule specifically, you'll find a new appointments listing, availability badges, custom search appointment links and QR codes, unlimited customizable max appointment rules, asynchronous appointment support, and more.



Customizable
With Twig support, you can personalize system messages, upcoming appointment lists, emails, and more based on the users who are viewing/receiving them. From simple changes like greeting the user by name to completely changing an email based on if the related appointment was in-person or online, in a certain center, for a certain reason, even if a certain custom field in the student's profile has a specific value. This extends to the log listing and kiosks as well, where you can add or remove fields, rearrange the data that's displayed, and add custom formatting with HTML and Twig.



Faster
Rewritten from the ground up hosted on AWS, using a MySQL database, TracCloud is faster in every way. This performance increase compared to TutorTrac or what we now call Trac 4.0 can be noticed throughout the entire system, with reports being especially improved. Even the biggest reports in TracCloud load within a few seconds.



Migrate Existing Data
Migrate your existing data from Trac 4.0, allowing you to pick up right where you left off. We'll work with you to plan out your migration, coordinating with your IT, and training your system administrators to get you started in TracCloud.



Although we now bid the old TutorTrac a fond farewell this year, we appreciate how successful it was for so many centers around the world. The new, easy to use interface of TracCloud will make our current TutorTrac users happy to move to this new version. Moreover, our support team will make the transition easy and painless!

Click here to schedule a TracCloud demo!


User Manual Contents

• Introduction

• SysAdmin Preferences

   • Custom Utilities

   • System Prefs

   • Advanced Prefs

   • LDAP Tool

   • Automated Events

• Center Profile Prefs

• Group Settings

• Sections

• Reasons

• Consultants

• Student Records

• Availabilities

• Appointment Scheduling

• Visits

• Resources

• List Management

• Kiosk

• Customize My Trac


System Prefs
System Prefs contains several global system preferences, including mail server settings, student permissions, document types, and many more specific settings organized by category.

System Prefs
defaultProfile

The defaultProfile setting determines what profile view will be displayed for the Default Login Screen, the Students, and the Faculty that use your Trac system. The Default Login Screen is the same for all Center Profiles and Subcenters within your Trac application, so the defaultProfile sets the view for the screen. The Students and Faculty are not created within a profile so they are not related to a specific profile and need this setting to determine what profile view they will see.


KIOSKBigLogin
KIOSK Mode uses a larger font and hides the announcements area.


KIOSKNewWindow
Entering KIOSK Mode opens new window.


Mail Settings
The Mail Settings preference contains several important configuration options in regards to email capabilities of your Trac system. The Mail Server Address can be set here, as well as your mail server Email Address. You can choose to send emails for missed appointments as well as emails for Terminated Visits (See Center Profile Prefs: Log in/Out – Auto Terminate).


MAILSERVER
The MAILSERVER setting enables your Trac application to use your college or university mail server to send emails. This is the preferred method to send emails from your Trac application. Your mail server must be set up to accept anonymous mail relay from the Trac server in order to use the MAILSERVER function. This may be an IP Address or a DNS assigned to your mail server. By default, the connection to the mail server is on port 80. If your mail server requires a different port, then append the port number to the IP or DNS address with a colon (i.e. mail.server.edu:26).


Campus Information
campusColorData

The campusColorData allows you to set up the color scheme for your Trac application. The colors of the title bar, the title text, the window background, and the window drop shadow are all set from this setting.


CampusName
The CampusName appears in the upper-right corner of the Trac system under the school banner. This is a global name for all users across all profiles. Typically the name of your college or university is entered here because it applies to all profiles.


CurrentTerm
The CurrentTerm is required when importing your student registrations. This setting allows your Trac system to identify which registrations are currently active for your students. The CurrentTerm setting must be entered in a numeric format. Each new term must have a higher numeric value than the previous semester. The Trac application can identify the old registrations because their term codes are less than the CurrentTerm. Future registrations have a term code greater than the CurrentTerm. If your college or university only uses an alphanumeric term code, then you can work with Redrock Software Corporation on a translation for your terms.


FundDefinitions
The FundDefinitions setting is used to set up a Fund Code report. This is commonly used to establish the definitions of a Perkins report.


HTML:NoAccessMsg
The HTML:NoAccessMsg is displayed to users that attempt to log in to your Trac system but are unable to access the system. This might be because they do not have the correct username and password or might be due to incorrect access privileges. The message can be formatted with HTML tags to customize the style, color, or size of your message. You can include links to other pages or an email for assistance.


Login Instructions
The Login Instructions contain settings that control the Log Student window used to sign students in and out of visits. The size of the box, instructions to sign in, and custom sign in procedures can all be setup through the Login Instructions.


LoginLinkData
The LoginLinkData setting controls a Campus and Redrock info boxes on the Default Login Screen. The boxes can be displayed or hidden and the text of the info boxes can be customized.


MainMenuCustomTab-Consultants
The Main Menu for Consultants can contain a custom tab. This setting allows you to enable the tab, name the tab, and provide content for the tab.


MainMenuCustomTab-Faculty
The Main Menu for Faculty can contain a custom tab. This setting allows you to enable the tab, name the tab, and provide content for the tab.


MainMenuCustomTab-Students
The Main Menu for Students can contain a custom tab. This setting allows you to enable the tab, name the tab, and provide content for the tab.


MainMenuCustomTab-Users
The Main Menu for Users can contain a custom tab. This setting allows you to enable the tab, name the tab, and provide content for the tab.


MessageTypes
The MessageTypes setting is used to list the types of messages that can be used to create messages in the student record. The type Student Msg and MESSAGE are default types used by the Trac application and should be included in this list of message types. These message types can then be assigned to groups to specify which types of messages they can create and view in the student message history. (See Chapter 4: Groups > Assigning Subcenter Privileges – Center Access)


navSearchOnLogList
The Trac Navigation search be used on the Log Listing.


orderReasonsByActive
Order the Reason Listing in the Center Profile by Active and then Inactive reasons


overrideSoundFile
Override the sound file for notification that a student is waiting to see you (leave blank for default sound), expected format: snd/fileName.mp3


SCRIPT:FacultyMain
The SCRIPT:FacultyMain setting is used to create customizations on the main menu for faculty. This might be a custom message or script that is executed.


SemesterEnd
The SemesterEnd is the ending date of the current semester. The date is entered in MM/DD/YYYY format. The SemesterEnd date is used to determine the date range for ‘This Semester’ when performing searches or running reports. Choose, or enter, ‘This Semester’ to automatically use the SemesterStart and SemesterEnd dates.


SemesterStart
The SemesterStart is the beginning date of the current semester. The date is entered in MM/DD/YYYY format. The SemesterStart date is used to determine the date range for ‘This Semester’ when performing searches or running reports. Choose, or enter, ‘This Semester’ to automatically use the SemesterStart and SemesterEnd dates.


StatusCrossTabDefault
The StatusCrossTabDefault setting is used in conjunction with the Appointment Status CrossTab report. The statuses are just the defaults for the report. When running the report, other statuses can be entered for the report. You can use the @ symbol for the wildcard in the statuses, such as @Cancel@ for any appointment status with the word cancel in it.

Student Data
BARCODERULE

The BARCODERULE is utilized when a script is required to utilize your barcode scanners or magnetic strip card readers. Most barcodes and magnetic strips contain extra data or characters beyond the Student ID. When the card is scanned or swiped, the extra characters must be stripped from the result of the scan. Most card readers will come with software to customize the scanner so it removes the extra characters and only sends the ID portion of the scan. That is the preferred method to work with card eaders, however, not all readers have software to pull just the ID. In that case, you will need to contact Redrock Software Corporation to work on a script to pull the ID out of the full scan. You will need to provide a text file of a sample scan and identify which portion of the scan is the ID.


CustomStudentFields
The CustomStudentFields contains settings to name and provide choices for each of the 9 custom student fields.


CustomStudentTabs
The CustomStudentTabs allows for setup of up to 3 custom tabs that appear on the Student Entry Screen. You may also name up to 3 custom sub-tabs that appear in the General Info tab of the Student Entry Screen. Additionally, you may name up to three sub-tabs that appear on the Student History page. The content is determined by the customized text stored in campus.xml (contact Redrock Software Corporation for customizations) and the security is defined in the group security options.


formatID
The CustomStudentTabs allows for setup of up to 3 custom tabs that appear on the Student Entry Screen. You may also name up to 3 custom sub-tabs that appear in the General Info tab of the Student Entry Screen. Additionally, you may name up to three sub-tabs that appear on the Student History page. The content is determined by the customized text stored in campus.xml (contact Redrock Software Corporation for customizations) and the security is defined in the group security options.


DEGREEINFO
The DEGHREEINFO setting is customized for specific installations of the Trac application.


formatID
The formatID setting provides a method for setting the number of digits and adding characters to the student ID. If your IDs are a full six digits and there is a student ID of 12345 then enter your preference as 000000. The six zeroes will force all six digits to display, including the preceding zero. This preference should be used carefully, however, because the formatting might not be entered correctly for your IDs and could then display your IDs as >>>>>>> if the IDs and formatting do not match. For example, if we enter the preference with six zeroes, 000000, but one student has an ID of 1234567, then this student ID could not be formatted according to the rule. You can prevent this by entering a # symbol for digits that you would like to allow to display but not force. So, again using our same example, you could enter the preference as #000000. This would force six digits and allow up to seven digits. The ID 12345 would display as 012345, the ID 123456 would display as 123456, and the ID 1234567 would display as 1234567.


GenderChoices
If you would like to override standard Male/Female choice, enter choices like M|Male(ret)F|Female(ret)U|Unknown


SCRIPT:BarCodeSearch
The SCRIPT:BarCodeSearch is a secondary option to the BARCODERULE that is only used if the barcode cannot be handled with the BARCODERULE setting.


SMS Defaults for Students
The SMS Defaults are used in conjunction with the Text Alerts Module (if purchased and active).


StandardStudentFields
The StandardStudentFields setting provides options to set up the choices for the standard student fields.


StoreStudentPass
The StoreStudentPass setting is required to be YES if students will be logging into your Trac application with a password locally stored in the Trac application.


StudEditInfo
The StudEditInfo setting provides a method to allow or prevent student access to edit their bio in the Trac application. If set to YES, then a link is available for the students to click on to edit their bio.


StudentAccess
The Student Access Preference controls student access to certain functionalities within your Trac system. As the Student group differs significantly from other groups in Group Access, the majority of the access level for the Student group can be handled here within the System Prefs. Functionalities for the student group include the abilities to:

  • Edit Bio from Main Menu
  • Book appointments
  • View own visits
  • View full name of Consultants
  • Browse Resources
  • Post documents
  • Control Access based on Center Status (banned, etc)


StudentPhotos
The StudentPhotos are set up with three settings: naming, extension, and display. For the Photo naming, there are a couple of basic options. Your photos can be named as the Student ID, Barcode, or internal Sequence number. Any other naming will have to be defined in a custom script that you would need to work out with Redrock Support. For the photo extension, you must include the period in the extension name. .JPG is the default and most common value. For the photo orientation, the options are Tall or Wide in a 3:4 or 4:3 ratio. When using these settings, the Trac application uses the default location for the photos. The default location is a Photos folder in the application installation directory (i.e. C:\*Trac\Photos). Place the student photos in this folder with the correct naming and extension, and they will automatically appear for the students based on your settings. If you need to input more advanced settings, then you will need to work out the details with Redrock Support.

Schedule Prefs
SubjectCodeLength

The SubjectCodeLength setting is utilized specifically for subject-based group appointments. This allows you to specify what portion of the SectionTerm code is the subject used for matching the students that join a group session. For example, you may have a MAT200 course with sections 01, 02, 03, and N1 for the term 201008. These could be identified as:

  • MAT200-01 201008
  • MAT200-02 201008
  • MAT200-03 201008
  • MAT200-N1 201008

A group availability for four people could be set up with the # symbol for the subject with a tutor that specializes in the MAT200 sections. Now, when a student books the first slot in the group appointment for MAT200 01 201008, the entire group is now set for the MAT200-01 201008 section. The SubjectCodeLength setting allows you to determine that the groups will match at a subject level by the value entered in the preference. If a number is entered, then your Trac application will match the subject at that specific number of characters. So, following the example, if the SubjectCodeLength was entered as 6, then MAT200 would be the matching Subject. This would allow students enrolled in all sections of MAT200 join the same session. If a character is entered, then your Trac application will match the subject at the location of the specific character. So, following the example, if the SubjectCodeLength was entered with the hyphen (-), then MAT200 would be the matching Subject. This would allow students enrolled in all sections of MAT200 join the same session. If the SubjectCodeLength is not utilized, then students in a group appointment set up with the # symbol will have to be enrolled in the same specific section.

Visit Prefs
DefBatchVisitDur

When creating visits through the Batch Entry methods, the default duration of the visit is determined by the setting, DefBatchVisitDur. It can be changed from the time entry fields.


DefQuickVisitDur
When manually creating a visit through the Quick Entry screen, the default duration of the visit is determined by the setting, DefQuickVisitDur. It can be changed from the time entry fields.

Document Posting
ALLOWEDUPLOADEXT

The various files extensions that are allowed for uploading.


DOCPOSTSINSUBDIR
Document Posts are stored on your server in a PostFiles folder in the Trac installation directory. The DOCPOSTSINSUBDIR setting allows your files to be organized into subdirectories within the PostFiles directory. The subdirectories can be named by student sequence number, ID number, Barcode, or Handle.


documentPostTypes
The documentPostTypes setting is used to list the types of Document Posts that can be assigned to an electronic file uploaded to a student record. These Document Post types can then be assigned to groups to specify which types of Document Posts they can create and view in the student Document Post history.


NoStudentOverrideDoc
Default value for student uploaded documents: Should it be blocked from being overwritten by student?


NoStudentUploadApptDoc
A document can be posted to a scheduled appointment. The NoStudentUploadApptDoc setting can enable or disable students from uploading a document to the appointment. This setting requires that students are able to view the appointment document post in order to post a document.


NoStudentViewApptDoc
A document can be posted to a scheduled appointment. The NoStudentViewApptDoc setting can enable or disable students from viewing a document that has been uploaded to the appointment.


NoStudentViewDoc
Default value for student uploaded documents: Should it be blocked from being viewed by students?

Host & SurveyTrac Settings
SURVEYHOST (SurveyTrac Module)

When a survey link is emailed to students, the link has to be formatted using three settings: SURVEYHOST, SURVEYPATH, and SURVEYPROT. The SURVEYHOST setting allows you to specify the URL of the host system. It may be an IP Address (default) or it may be a registered domain name, such as Trac.college.edu.


SURVEYPATH
When a survey link is emailed to students, the link has to be formatted using three settings: SURVEYHOST, SURVEYPATH, and SURVEYPROT. The SURVEYPATH setting allows you to specify the path in the URL that directs the user to the correct SurveyTrac files. The default value for this field is /surveys/ and there should be no need to change it.


SURVEYPROT
When a survey link is emailed to students, the link has to be formatted using three settings: SURVEYHOST, SURVEYPATH, and SURVEYPROT. The SURVEYPROT setting is used to specify if the survey link with be a standard HTTP or a secure HTTPS link. The default value for this field is http://. If your Trac application is secured via SSL, then this setting needs to be set to https://.

Starfish Export Module
StarFish Export Settings

These settings control the fields, format, and file location of the export generated by the Starfish Export Module.

Resource Settings
ResourceTypes

The ResourceTypes setting is used to list the types of resources that can be assigned to a resource record. These resource types are assigned to resources when they are created to group the resources and run reports. Separate each Resource Type with a Return character. Access to resource types cannot be controlled through the Group Access preferences, but Resource Types can be used to classify different resources. (See Chapter 12: Resources)

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