Linewize - release notes

Classwize and School Manager (Cloud) Hotfix 1.5.8

3 November, 2020

We fixed an issue some very large school districts encountered where classes and users could be missing after running a ClassLink import.

Classwize and School Manager (Cloud) Release 1.5.7

27 October, 2020

Welcome to Classwize and School Manager release 1.5.7!

Our focus for this release has been fixing common syncing issues and laying the groundwork for splitting Google Directory and Google Classroom out into their own synchronisation schedules.  Over the next few months, we’re expecting to move to a model where School Manager will continue to synchronize with directory services (e.g. Google, LDAP, Azure) with a dedicated schedule set for Google Classroom. Manual Synchronization can still be run by School Manager Administrators.

The first step in completing this split is giving teachers the ability to manually sync Classwize with their Google Classroom.  This will make sure that teachers can easily update Classwize with any changes that they make to their Google Classroom in between scheduled Google Classroom synchronizations.

We’ve added a new option in School Manager that, if enabled, will let teachers do just that.  You can read about that in more detail below, or access our quick guide for teachers in our knowledge base.  We’re also investigating if this feature can be made available to schools that use Clever, Classlink, OneRoster and Wonde classroom synchronization services.

New Features


There’s a new option in “School Manager > Configuration > Classwize” called “Allow teacher to sync Google Classrooms”.  Enabling this option will add a “sync” button to Classwize that lets teachers manually sync their classes with Google Classroom.  Disabling it hides the “sync” button.  School Manager administrators will still be able to run manual synchronizations for their school and district.

We’ve got a quick guide for teachers on using the sync feature and troubleshooting common issues in our knowledge base.


Bug Fixes


  • We’re continuing to do a lot of behind-the-scenes work to improve performance and stability by cleaning up code and getting rid of unnecessary logout calls.
  • In our last update, student tiles in Classwize were supposed to display alphabetically by first name.  This wasn’t working for everyone, but it should be now.
  • You’ll now get an error message if you try to create a website content filtering rule in School Manager that doesn’t include a URL.  We’re also forcing domain names in filtering rules to be in lowercase because some of you like writing domains in mixed or upper case and that both disturbs us and confuses the filter.
  • We fixed an issue where you couldn’t run School Manager reports on some iOS users because there was a mismatch between their iOS login and the School Manager directory.
  • Microsoft Azure should now successfully sync with School Manager if you have got the “Use Microsoft API” option checked.
  • We fixed an issue for OneRoster users where syncing would fail due to an invalid certificate error despite your certificate being entirely valid.
  • If you use both Google Groups and Google Classrooms, you shouldn’t get duplicate classrooms in Classwize after syncing anymore.
  • We fixed an issue for Wonde users where teachers couldn’t be imported into School Manager.
  • We’ve done some clean-up of the Classwize user interface to make things neater, and the text on the Focus interface should better reflect how the Focus feature works.

Cloud Release 1.5.6

12 October, 2020

New Features


  • We’ve made some big improvements to the Classwize “Rules” interface and workflow. You can now edit existing rules!
  • Classwize now shows your students’ real names instead of their system username wherever possible, and student tiles now display alphabetically by first name.
  • We’ve added functionality in School Manager that lets us display improved tooltips and provide in-application help and tutorials. We also gave ourselves the ability to use School Manager and Classwize to alert you to incidents and upcoming maintenance.
  • Saving changes to a class in Classwize now gives you an indication that it’s working away in the background instead of leaving you wondering if it was doing anything.
  • We’ve improved performance by optimising the Chrome extension’s configuration and doing a lot of other behind-the-scenes work.
  • School Manager Administrators can manually authenticate users from within School Manager.
  • We’ve standardised the “Close” user interface element in Classwize and improved the look and wording of the “Focus Class” interface.
  • We’ve improved the look of the “Help” information panel in Classwize, and made it easier for School Manager Administrators to keep the information in it current.
  • We’ve continued work migrating School Manager and Classwize to the Google Cloud Platform to improve performance and stability.

Bug Fixes


  • We’re deploying a fix to make “Search Blocking” and “Red Flags” use the same set of keywords. We’re rolling this out over the next few weeks, so it may take a little while for this to show up for you.
  • The “Weekly Wellbeing Reports” sections are now populated with correct information. We promise.
  • We’ve fixed an issue where teachers were unable to add students to a local group in Classwize.
  • Class Titles in Classwize should now display correctly when there is only one class.
  • Classrooms with special characters in their Title can now be opened from within School Manager.
  • School Manager should correctly display the IP addresses associated with “School Manager device > Configuration > Networking > Interfaces.
  • The School Manager Permissions table now shows the user-friendly name.
  • We’ve corrected the Pause Internet label and preview text for “Select Students” dropdown list.
  • We’ve fixed an issue where Classwize would make multiple login calls to Google/Azure authentication services when it didn’t need to.
  • School Manager now requires a valid MAC address when filtering by MAC address.
  • Classes in Classwize now end when their Group is deleted in School Manager.

Cloud Release 1.5.5

24 September, 2020

Resolved
  • [EDUGCP-434] - MyLinewize cutover to GCP
  • [EDUGCP-408] - Improve performance in GCP when using a Reporting/Pastoral Care Administrator with a lot of groups
  • [EDUGCP-414] - Timezone in /managedevice/settings/device not loading
  • [EDUGCP-416] - Current Transfer Rate does not show a value
  • [EDUGCP-454] - Errors in Cybersafety > Blocked when drilling into Policies
  • [EDUGCP-455] - Online device showing as Offline on first and subsequent page loads
  • [EDUGCP-466] - New coredumps are not showing in Diagnostics > Coredumps
  • [EDUGCP-376] - Extract services to their own repo: Bandwidth-quotas worker
  • [EDUGCP-405] - Extract services to their own repo: surfwizewebv2
  • [LW-1482] - Use RealName instead of Username to identify users in Classwize
  • [LW-1563] - Poor performance of AES/devices is starting to impact cause issues, fix it
  • [LW-1585] - Improve Classlink authentication logic so it can only trigger once
  • [LW-1596] - Remove network topology and interfaces from Configuration > Dashboard
  • [LW-1541] - Add Rule Modal in Classwize missed some language changes
  • [LW-1548] - Region switching (US -> AU) needs to be more performant
  • [LW-1557] - Syslog config returns undefined values when new
New Features
  • [LW-1511] - When there is a system incident / planned maintenance we need to keep our users informed with integration to status.io

Cloud Release 1.5.3

14 September, 2020

Resolved
  • [LW-1543] - classwize students dropdown in edit class modal not populated when device has restricted groups
New Features
  • [LW-1529] - Allow using a customer’s Google OAuth credentials for syncs

Cloud Release 1.5.2

7 September, 2020

Resolved
  • LW-1498: Classwize pause modal glitching when trying to remove multiple students
  • LW-1272: Search terms in /cybersafety/searches window show implied interactivity but are not clickable
  • LW-1430: Add User Modal: Validation message and invalid user details are not getting cleared off on modal close
  • LW-1488: Internal name is displayed in the Groups dropdown list on edit permission screen
  • LW-1515: School Manager Cloud throwing error when changing between us-1 and au-1
  • LW-891: Improve some tables in School Manager sorting logic
  • LW-1323: Improve Classwize “open url/tab” modal
  • LW-1328: “Apply to all students” checkbox for Pause Internet modal in Classwize
  • LW-1472: Change label on Classwize login page to include districts
  • LW-1477: Finish Classrooms -> Classwize language rebrand
  • LW-1489: Rename “Policy” to “Rule” for consistent teacher language in Classwize
  • LW-1480: Deprecate Classwize "Activity" tab
New Features
  • LW-1485: Add ClassLink support for teachers using Classwize