Setting up for PA Keystone testing and CDTs... DRC Insight

[JKling]

Is anyone else getting ready to run the DRC Insight CDTs? I would like to start a repository of helpful tips on getting these going.

First I am looking at the requirements to disable the Auto spell, fill and cap functions. I was looking for these settings in the JSS. They are in General --> Keyboard on the iPad. Has anyone seen them on the JSS?

[philhavens]

You can not disable auto-correct features through an MDM at this time unfortunately. You would have to disable these features individually on each iPad that is being used as a test device.

[JayDuff]

We are doing DRC Insight this year. I'm sorry to see this thread hasn't gone anywhere.

[philhavens]

Good news JayDuff! You can now restrict auto-correct, predictive text and capilitization in a configuration profile on supervised devices.

Create a new config profile and under Restrictions you will see the check boxes to disable these functions.

I'm not sure exactly what version added support but it is definitely in the latest version if your JSS is upgraded.

[JayDuff]

Thanks for the quick response, Phil.

According to the DRC docs, it was added with iOS 8.1.3. However, there may be other issues, like getting Autonomous Single App Mode (ASAM) to work. Or whether one needs to use Single App Mode (Kiosk mode).

Also, I was hoping for some guidance on which other restrictions people use besides the ones enumerated in the DRC documentation.

Now that I've talked to JAMF support, I can provide answers to some of these issues, for posterity.

To run in ASAM, you make a Configuration Profile and configure restrictions. You can set them however you like, but WIDA has some specific restrictions they want enabled. Under the Applications tab, you add the bundle ID of the DRC Insight app. For us, it is com.drc.wbte.ipad.ent.prod - yours may be different.

What got ME was, that the iPad doesn't lock down the app until you actually begin the test! So, to test it out, I had to do a demo test, and the app would let me go home with the home button all the way up until I entered the user name and password. Actually, that's really nice because it means even if the kids mess around and get into the app when they aren't supposed to, they can get right back out without any adult intervention.

I hope this helps any future searchers!

• J.

[sboutot]

Did you have to upload the .plist from the configuration profile created in the DRC device toolkit?

[JayDuff]

Sort of. You put the contents of the plist into the app config in Casper.

If you have multiple Cache Servers, you'll need to upload the app once for each cache serer. Then you open the appropriate plist for each one, and copy/paste the <dict> through </dict> lines into the App Configuration tab for the app.

So, for example, mine looks like this:
<dict> <key>ouIds</key> <string>id string redacted</string> </dict>

Hope that helps!

[sboutot]

yes, thank you

[brandon_heldsta]

To add to this, you can combine your State and WIDA configurations into a single App instance, although like @JayDuff mentioned - you do have to have seperate apps for different caching servers of the same type. For example, if you have 2 State TSMs and then 2 WIDA TSMs - you have to do 2 Apps configured for 1 of each type.

The combination looks like:

<dict> <key>ouIds</key> <string>id string redacted,id string redacted</string>
</dict>

Their documentation will tell you to do it differently, but it's incorrect.

[JayDuff]

We started testing yesterday. It's been pretty bad. You may want to have some laptops or a lab handy, in case the failure rate gets too high, as it has here for the last 2 days.

We are seeing anywhere from 10% to 50% of students in any given classroom having either an Internet Connectivity error, or an app crash (which, thanks to our correctly configured policy, causes a loop, where the app crashes then relaunches over and over), or an in-app error that says that the test won't run because the device isn't in single-app mode, or - my personal favorite - the test runs fine, but the app never drops itself out of Autonomous Single App Mode.

DRC has been completely AWOL this week, so it's probably not just happening to us. Voicemails and emails left, without response. Calling in gets one put on hold for half an hour or so, then transferred into voicemail.

Testing on OS X devices (laptops and desktops) has been FLAWLESS. So, we have those devices standing by in case a student or teacher loses patience with the iPads.

This is a bad one folks - be prepared!

[stoneacheck]

@JayDuff I've tried loading this managed config multiple times with the everything in between the <dict> tags and it crashes the app whether it's loaded as in-house or vpp

Here's a screenshot of the settings

Here's the crashing in a screen capture

Any ideas? Like you said, their support has been non-existent

We only have 25 students testing at at time over a couple weeks, and have a gig internet, so we're not even using the caching servers, just creating the ORG unit in the Device Toolkit.

Loading the JSON config on a mac was flawless, as you said, but every kid testing has an iPad so we'd like to use those.

[JayDuff]

@stoneacheck - Lose the <array></array> tags and you should be all good.

Oh look! I got my CCT badge! XD

[cpdecker]

Hey all,

We are deploying INSIGHT on iPads and Macs as well. I created an ORG Unit for each school, and configured a different App Catalog entry and Mac JSON file for each of them. Was this incorrect? Is there a way to create a single config for the entire district? We only have one cache server (so far).

I also had a problem with the App failing as an in-house App on my test iPads. The only way I've gotten it to work after that is by wiping the iPad, which I obviously don't want to do. Here's an e-mail I sent in to support, they say it is a known issue:

"Hope things are well. I ran into a slight issue while setting up the INSIGHT App. 1 out of the 17 schools we have had a problem when I installed their version of the App to test on my test iPad. I got this error message on the iPad:

Unable to Download App
"DRC INSIGHT SWES" could not be installed at this time.

And I got this error message in Casper:

The app “com.drc.wbte.ipad.ent.prod” is already scheduled for management.

I have seen this error before when iPads were trying to download App Store Apps from the caching server and the download was corrupt/incomplete. So I deleted the App in the App Catalog and added it back for that particular school. After I wiped the iPad clean, the App began to work. I hope it is fixed, but I wanted to see if you had heard of anyone else having this issue? We are getting ready to deploy it to a good number of students, and wanted to get ahead of any problems that might exist since my only fix so far was to wipe the iPad, which I obviously don't want to do for students."

Proposed fix was "Clearing all pending and failed commands on the affected device > unscoping the app to the affected device > updating inventory on the device (verify nothing is pending or failed) > rescoping the app to the affected device > attempt to install again". Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem for me.

Has anyone else seen this? I'm a bit afraid to roll this out en masse without having a fix for this problem.

Thanks,
Cameron

[JayDuff]

That message looks like the app is already on the device. Also, be sure you have the App Configuration set up with the XML for your TSM. See the screen shot of the settings from @stoneacheck but be sure to take out the <array></array> tags.

We have the students assigned to Static User Groups and whenever we have an issue, we remove the student from the SUG, wait 30 seconds, then put them back in, and that seems to clear the problem.

[stoneacheck]

@JayDuff thanks, that worked!

Now to figure out why when we enable a TSM in the Device Toolkit to use caching, it fails to load a sample test on the iPad, but when we leave everything unchecked, it runs fine.

All the traffic is whitelisted in our firewall - I have a feeling it fails when trying to pass a cert to the caching server because it'll start to load a question then fail and give Connection Error Retrieving Content error screen.

I originally setup the caching on old xserves running 10.6.8 but the documentation says 10.7+ so to play nice I threw it on some mac mini's between 10.9-10.11 and it's taking a looooong time to download the assets but i'll try pointing it to those after it's done. One of them is on 40k of 600k assets the rest say around 2k.

Also when I go to ping trends it pulls up nothing despite claiming to send some data every 15 mins which means that's busted or we are having a hard time getting that data out to them (the outgoing traffic shouldn't be filtered through our firewall and we whitelisted everything they suggested for incoming, so who knows - I don't see anything getting blocked in the live view)

[cpdecker]

@JayDuff, Thanks for your reply. Indeed, I was installing and removing the App with its different App Configuration profiles multiple times on the same iPad, but when I got to the one that didn't work, I tried it alone on my second test iPad, and it failed again. Hopefully removing it and re-uploading the .ipa file fixed the issue.

[JayDuff]

<duplicate post - said it was being moderated - please delete>

[stoneacheck]

well I just ran the system readiness check and I had green check boxes on either the 10.6 or 10.10 servers, so who knows. I still can't load the test though and I think it has something to do with that cert...

We use Smoothwall for our internal l and it triggered a HTTP error 415 trying to load this file - http://drcca02.datarecognitioncorp.com/CertEnroll/drcca02.DataRecognitionCorp.com_DRCSUBCA01.crt

[JayDuff]

We've seen that here as well, @stoneacheck. It's part of WIDA's issues. We use a Smoothwall too. To rule it out, I have an SSID set up on it's own VLAN, and all those IPs are listed as exceptions in the Smoothwall. So, essentially, anyone who logs into that SSID gets unfettered access to the Internet. Anyway - we put an entire classroom of iPads on that SSID this morning, and let the kids test. We still got Internet disconnected errors and the like. The only improvement was that we didn't see any devices miss the ASAM unlock message and get stuck. But this was a very small sample size, so they may have just gotten lucky.

[jfouts]

I'm having a problem where we get thru the sample questions but as soon as we begin the first test question the app crashes. We are set up as an in-house app and are using a configuration profile for Single App Mode. Practice tests work fine. Any ideas?

[ROAllen]

We are green on the system checks on the ipad but we cannot load any of the practice test. We get a TSM connection error.

Anyone else seeing the same thing?

(Everything is working fine on Window's PC's)

[brandon_heldsta]

@ROAllen - It's DNS. I had the same issue. Change everything (Device Toolkit, TSM name, everything...) over to IP instead of hostname.

[ROAllen]

@brandon.heldstab Thank you so much man! That was it. Wonder why WIDA couldn't tell us that. =/

[brandon_heldsta]

@ROAllen You're much better off trying to find support here in this thread than you are with their helpdesk. I don't even bother calling them anymore other than to verify outages.

[Nick_Gooch]

Ugh... Things were going ok for a while. Now students are starting the speaking portion of the test and the iPad app is crashing often. Sometime is lets them back in sometime it just crashes again as soon as they log in. I guess it's time to install on the PC's.

[Mike-C__]

So how many servers are you guys setting up to support the WIDA testing? I guess we are going to have a ton of students doing the speaking test and the "system requirements" are way different for speaking. Any suggestions?

[andy_cauble]

We had devices getting stuck in ASAM mode even at the Menus and then looping back into the app. Never releasing the student from the app. We were running DRC Insight 6.1.0. Got informed from DRC that we needed to upgrade the app to 6.2.0. That it addressed this issue directly. Now ASAM mode doesn't seem to be working at all. We are using the bundle ID "com.drc.wbte.ipad.ent.prod" as suggested further up, but DRC support acts like they have no idea what needs to be used here...which seems crazy. This bundle ID worked with 6.1.0 but now on 6.2.0 nothing. Does anybody have any ideas?

[andy_cauble]

6.2.0 Bundle ID changed from to "com.drc.wbte.ipad.ent.prod" to "com.drc.wbte-ipad.drc". Confirmed working in our district anyway. thought I'd share for others that might run into this problem.

[mpittcasd]

Just wanted to drop a thanks in here for everyone's help. I had a PDF from DRC last year that had instructions for setting up the iPad, but it seemed overly complicated. Happen to find this thread from Google this week and got their app in Self Service and configured for us already. I included the two ID strings for ours and it shows PA and WIDA when opening the app. I emailed some of my teachers that have been asking for this to set up a log in and try it out, but I think the hard part was actually easy thanks for the info here.

[JKling]

OK, so is there a condensed version of this thread. I am building a document and getting a little lost in what did and did not work. Can anyone post the process that worked for them?

[mpittcasd]

I went into the JSS and the Mobile Device Apps section and set up an entry for DRC Insight. I used the search App Store option to find it. I used the default settings for everything, but I personally set everything to be Managed if possible if it's something I'm pushing to our iPads.

The only other thing I did was go to the App configuration tab and in the box entered: <dict> <key>ouIds</key> <string>ouId string</string> </dict>, where the bolded ouId string is the configuration code from my JSON Configuration file for the desktop clients.

Saved it and grabbed an iPad to download the app from our Self Service. It downloaded no problems and opened up looking the same as the desktop program.

I personally did not push out a config profile to turn the spell check off since our deployment is only 1-to-1 right now and I didn't want to inhibit any English assignments the students might have to work on. I spoke to my one teacher out there that helps get these kinds of things running in the classrooms for everyone else. He thinks it won't be an issue if we have the teachers who want to use the tests to walk the students through turning off the spell check and other options, then verify they have it turned off, before having the students log in to start the actual testing.

[Kira]

"Included the two ID strings for ours and it shows PA and WIDA when opening the app." @AdamBritt I have been trying to get the selection on our devices as well with the string that is provided but it keeps going to the original screen and no selections come available. Does anyone know how to the selection to come up? Here is the string that I am using:
<dict> <key>ouIds</key> <string>,</string>
</dict>

[mpittcasd]

I just double-checked how I configured mine; in the <string> #string </string> section I have both tests strings in there, separated by a comma. So it's <string>#string1,#string2</string>, no spaces anywhere. Then when the app opens it shows both test options the exact same as the PC software.

[Kira]

Ok, Thanks. That is exactly how are string is too.

[mpittcasd]

The only other things I can think of would be to check if it's on the latest version and maybe uninstall and re-install through Self Service if possible. Ours was set to version 7.1.0 and it looks like 7.2.0 was just released two weeks ago. I don't think I ever downloaded the app onto the iPads outside of the JSS push so I wonder if you update the settings if it needs pushed again.

[msnowdon]

@stoneacheck

I've setup DRC INSIGHT on Chrome Books via the Google Admin console. Now we need to use MacBooks as well. I created a package to install the app but Im trying to figure out the silent configuration. Their documentation isn't the greatest. I realized that I need to use the .json file from the deployment file but I'm not sure where I need to place it in the policy.

I did convert it to html but I dont want to use it as a configuration profile because that doesn't take effect immediately.

Can I ask you how about your process of installing and configuring DRC INSIGHT for OS X?

Thanks

Mark

UPDATE - I figured it out. I think I was making it harder than it had to be. Once I realized that the installer placed a DRCConfiguration.json file on the computer, I simply swapped it with the one from the configuration deployment zip file and used Composer to capture it.