EmilyTapestrySupport Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 In this tutorial I'm going to walk you through the new Android Tapestry app. With the new app we have been able to add lots of exciting new features; the main ones for staff are: You can login and add observations whilst offline and keep working even when the internet connection is poor You can start your next observation without waiting for the previous one to upload Observations can be saved as drafts You can filter which children and observations you see You have the option to choose which account to login to if you are set up on multiple accounts If you don't already have the new app installed, you'll need to download it via the Google Play store on your smartphone or Tablet. If you have the new app already, feel free to skip this section. You can find the app by either searching 'Tapestry Mobile' in the Google Play store or downloading it directly from the link here. It's a separate app to the original, so you should see two app options in the Google Play store. The app you want is the one with the circular logo, not the square logo. If you have an Amazon Fire device the process is quite similar, just search for "Tapestry Mobile", either at Amazon.co.uk or via the Amazon app store on your device: Please note that the new app is still in the beta stage, which means were are still adding things to it and there might be bugs. If you have any questions about the new version of the app, you can check out our FAQs page; if your question isn't answered there or you would like to provide us with some feedback about it, please contact us by emailing support@tapestryjournal.com.au. So, without any further ado, let's look at the new app! As you'll see from the screenshot below, the initial login page looks much the same, requiring you to enter an email address and password to access your account. You can use the eye icon to see your password before logging in to ensure it is correct. One of the new features we have been able to add is the ability to choose which account you want to login to if your email address is set up on multiple Tapestry accounts. After entering correct login details, you will be presented with a list of all accounts your email is linked with and to then login, you just need to select which account you would like to enter. After you've successfully logged in, you'll see the below screen. I've annotated the key points on there for you to note, so let's go through them. 1) On the right-hand side of the screen you'll see the observation you have selected to view; it's title, author, when it was uploaded, any media, notes, assessments, likes and comments. 2) This button here will enlarge the selected observation so the list of obs on the left-hand side is removed. 3) The buttons in the top right-hand corner will allow you to move through the observations, going and up and down. 4) On the left-hand side of the screen you will see a list of all your observations which you can scroll through. 5) The search bar at the top of your list of observations allows you to search specific terms to find an individual observation or several observations. 6) The page filters at the bottom are a new feature on the app, these will allow you to filter which observations you see in this list. For example, if you just want to see observations for a particular child or group of children. 7) To add an observation you just need to click on the '+' button, exactly the same as you would have done before! 8) Clicking on 'You' will take you to a screen where you can change certain settings, enable/disable the offline mode and push notifications, as well as your email/password/PIN and find out certain information about your account. We'll go over this screen in more depth later. 9) Finally, clicking on the name of your setting at the top will take you to your app notifications if you have these enabled. If you're using an Android phone this screen will look a little different, only showing you a list of observations (just like the original version of the app). To view an observation you just need to select it. How to add an observation Let's now take a look at how to add an observation from the new app. To start, you'll need to click on the '+' button as indicated by point 7 in the screenshot above. You'll then see the below screen. On the observation page you can then add a title for the observation (1), notes (2) and any media (3). When adding media you have the choice between taking a photo or video then and there using the app or if you already have the photo or video on your device, you can select to upload it using the 'Add from Library' option. To link children to the observation you just need to select 'Select Children' (4). After you have selected this, on the next screen you will get a list of all your children; you can select their names from the list just by tapping on them. To narrow down the children you see on this screen, we have added the ability for you to search children's names (A), as well as filter the children you see in the list (B). This will allow you to filter children by cohort, group, key person, gender, season born (UK), SEN, EAL, free school meals and pupil premium. If you want to select all children that you have chosen to see, you just need to click on 'Select All' (C) in the top left-hand corner. Once you've added all the children you want to attach to the observation you just need to click on 'Done' (D). Once you've added children to your observation, you can then add any assessments you want (point 5 from the original screenshot). A handy little addition we've been able to add to this process of adding assessments is the ability to 'favourite' them. As well as being able to favourite an assessment framework, you can also favourite aspects/areas and age bands/levels/stages within that framework. You can use this to quickly add assessments for your most used ones. To add a favourite you just need to select the 'Pick assessments' button and then if you click into a framework, you'll see the favourite button (a star) in the top right-hand corner. Once you press on this button you'll see it turns orange to indicate it is now a favourite. Now that you've added your favourites, when you select 'Pick assessments', you'll see these appear at the top of the screen. To remove a favourite you just need to go into it and unselect the star button, it will then no longer show as orange. After you have added any assessments you want, you can then select the status of the observation - in journal, not in journal, staff view only (6). Please note if you are a full staff member rather than a manager, your ability to select different statuses may depend on how your user permissions are set up. Two new features we have also added are the ability for you to select a different time/date for an observation (7), to allow you to backdate observations, and the additional information field (8). If you don't have the additional information field enabled on your account, you just need to go the Control Panel -> Settings -> Observations to enable this for staff and within the User Permissions section of the Control Panel you can choose whether relatives can see this. At the top of the observation screen you can cancel adding the observation at any time (9) and this will give you the option to either save a draft or discard completely. This draft feature is also new and will allow you to save what you're doing without adding it as an actual observation, you can then return back at a later date to complete it. A draft won't show up in your list of observations, but if you have any on your device you'll see it will say at the top of the list of observations '[number] draft observations on this device'. Drafts are saved for up to 10 days for staff members and after this they will be deleted. At the top you can see also the status of the observation that you have selected, so this case, it is 'not in journal' (10). When you are happy with your observation you just need to click on 'Send' (11). Viewing/making changes to an existing observation Below we can see what a finished observation looks like on the app. Here I've just clicked on the expand button that we saw earlier in the top left-hand corner of the observation so we can see it all. If you want to make any changes, you just need to click on the 'Edit' button (1) in the bottom right-hand corner and you can change the status of the observation, if you have permission to do this from the status option in the bottom left (2). Finally, you can comment on an observation just by clicking on the 'Add a comment' button (3). Changing settings within the app There are certain settings you can change within the app, you can find these within the 'You' section that was mentioned earlier in this tutorial. Just to remind you, it can be found in the top left-hand corner on the main screen. I'll now talk you through all the options you see on this page. 1) This will take you to the app lock screen which will allow other members of staff to login using their PIN. 2) If you are set up on multiple Tapestry accounts using the same email address, this will allow you to switch between these accounts. 3) This will fully log you out of your account. To log back in you would need to enter your email address and password or if you are a PIN-only member of staff you will need a manager/full member of staff to login and lock the screen for you to then login using your PIN. 4) If you want to receive push notifications on the device you are using, you can enable this here. For more information about push notifications on the app you can read this tutorial. 5) This shows you every type of notification on Tapestry for your account type and what your preference is for each. 6) If you want to change the email you use to login with, you can change it here. You will need to know your password to do this. 7) If you want to change the password you use to login with, you can change it here. Please note you will need to know your current password to do this. 8) You can select this option to change the PIN you can use to quickly log back in to your device. You will need to know your password to do this. 9) This option will allow you to save (or remove a saved) email address so you don't need to enter it each time you login on this device. 10) This option allows you to enable/disable the ability to access the app on this device and add observations to it whilst offline. For more information about this, please read this tutorial. 11) This allows you to initially login using your fingerprint rather than entering your email and password. Please note this will only be available on devices with fingerprint scanning. 12) This allows you to login using your fingerprint on the PIN unlock page, rather than entering your 4-digit PIN. Please note this will only be available on devices with fingerprint scanning. 13) This allows you to delete any data stored by Tapestry on the device you are using to access the app. So, those are the main features of the new Tapestry app! For more information about the offline mode and push notifications, I've linked below those tutorials for you. Enabling and using the offline mode on the beta Android app Enabling and using push notifications on the beta Android app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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