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Safari 6.0.4 and Powerschool(Gradebook)

  • April 17, 2013
  • 6 replies
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G
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Hey all,
So looks like the new Safari 6.0.4 changes the behavior of how our teachers interact with the Gradebook portion of PowerSchool.

What used to happen is a teacher would login to powerschool then click on the grade book tab and Safari would download a file called launchgradebook.jnlp and then would autoopen this file.

Now it seems like .jnlp files are flagged as not safe (even if you have the open "safe" files after downloading box checked in safari's general preferences) and it will not auto launch it after the download which in this environment is going to cause headaches.

For now I'm disabling this update on our update server, but I wanted to see if anyone had a work around for this?

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public School

Best answer by GabePPS

@boettch
This method doesn't work since the website doesn't use java or even an applet but downloads a java app. So enabling this wont solve the issue.

So we got this back from Pearson which is a new work around:

Alternate PowerTeacher Gradebook Deployment for Mac

An alternate deployment method is now available for PowerTeacher Gradebook on Mac OS X. In instances where teachers on Mac OS X 10.6-10.8 are unable to use the Java browser plugin to launch PTG using Java Web Start, a new option is now available. Teachers can download an .app to launch PTG without relying on the Java browser plugin and Java Web Start.

Start Page > System > System Settings > Global Server Settings

New setting on Global Server Settings page for administrators to enable the new deployment method Alternate PTG is packaged as an .app and only has to be downloaded once Removed dependency on Java Web Start and the browser Java plug-in Teachers can still access alternate PTG deployment even if administrators haven't enabled it as the primary launch method.

GabePrinceton Public Schools

    6 replies

    scottb
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    • scottb
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 17, 2013

    Try using Safari 6.0.4's new feature as explained here:
    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57579973-263/apple-adds-site-by-site-java-support-to-safari-for-os-x-10.6/

    And here's info about the plist:
    https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=7113

    B
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    • blackholemac
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 17, 2013

    I'm going to second Gabe Shackney's post...I've tried building a white list and well...still can't get PowerTeacher Gradebook to autolaunch upon download. What I find myself wondering though is if you can whitelist a whole domain (say our internal one using some sort of wildcard like *.yourcompanyhere.com and allow all Java applets coming from that one domain to run unquestioned. Not a fan of it, but I need some implementation assistance figuring out how to properly list our PowerTeacher Gradebook...that is until the folks at Pearson get the stupid gradebook off of Java. I beg them to.

    G
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    • GabePPS
    • Author
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • Answer
    • April 18, 2013

    @boettch
    This method doesn't work since the website doesn't use java or even an applet but downloads a java app. So enabling this wont solve the issue.

    So we got this back from Pearson which is a new work around:

    Alternate PowerTeacher Gradebook Deployment for Mac

    An alternate deployment method is now available for PowerTeacher Gradebook on Mac OS X. In instances where teachers on Mac OS X 10.6-10.8 are unable to use the Java browser plugin to launch PTG using Java Web Start, a new option is now available. Teachers can download an .app to launch PTG without relying on the Java browser plugin and Java Web Start.

    Start Page > System > System Settings > Global Server Settings

    New setting on Global Server Settings page for administrators to enable the new deployment method Alternate PTG is packaged as an .app and only has to be downloaded once Removed dependency on Java Web Start and the browser Java plug-in Teachers can still access alternate PTG deployment even if administrators haven't enabled it as the primary launch method.

    GabePrinceton Public Schools
    J
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    • jllewis
    • New Contributor
    • May 13, 2013

    Hate to revive an old thread here, but I need some info about deploying the PTG app from Pearson. Is it only available from them or does someone have a copy that I can use?

    G
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    • GabePPS
    • Author
    • Esteemed Contributor
    • May 14, 2013

    As far as I understand it, its built into the latest revision of the PowerSchool system. The setting is listed in my post above to enable the download. Your powerschool admin should be able to enable it for you to download. We set it up as a push to all the teacher machines.

    Seems to be working great, just know that the login name is case sensitive in this app (which is the same as the ipad Gradebook app).
    Gabe Shackney
    Princeton Public Schools

    GabePrinceton Public Schools
    C
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    • CasperSally
    • Honored Contributor
    • May 14, 2013

    We just ran into this and confirmed what Gabe posted works.

    We noticed if you're in PS Admin and try to launch the gradebook as a teacher, it still tries to use Java. You actually have to login to the teacher site to have it download the app.

    Unfortunately, the app just launches their Java gradebook. I was hoping the app didn't use Java at all, instead it just takes away the browser launching of Java.

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