CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: Remote County Testing - Release 9.6 Improved CWS/CMS Data Quality in Preparation for Import to CARES, Phase 3

December 16, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs and Training Contacts:
The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate in the Release 9.6 County Test Workshop (CTW). Registered testers will participate in the testing of Release 9.6 Data Quality SCRs, which is scheduled for delivery to the Counties on May 17, 2025.
The CTW for Release 9.6 will be conducted in a remote setting via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) workstations.
The deadline to register is Thursday, January 9, 2025
System Change Requests (SCRs) included in this release are:
  • SCR 8982 - Add Missing Name for Placement Homes for CARES
  • SCR 8983 - Add Missing Name for Non-Foster Care Facilities for CARES
  • SCR 8999 - Update Client Dates out-of-range for CARES
  • SCR 8985 - Make Name Mandatory for Non-Foster Care Facility
  • SCR 8989 - Cleanup Outdated Home Studies
  • SCR 8843 - Transfer Enrollment between DOE Schools
  • SCR 8967 - Duplicate Hearing Notebook Warning
  • SCR 8972 - ACL 22-95 ICWA Eligibility Data Entry Mandatory Fields (Part B)
  • SCR 8943 - Expand Merge History Log
  • SCR 9020 - R9.6 Training Tools Package
Counties are encouraged to register individuals with knowledge and experience working in the areas mentioned above. A mix of end users with casework or supervisory experience will also be beneficial. Participants will validate the changes in the release and will perform tests of problem fixes and enhancements. Participants will work with other County and State testers and vendor support staff.

Remote CTW sessions will take place in the morning from 9:00AM - 12:00PM and again in the afternoon from 1:00PM – 4:00PM on the following dates: 

R9.6 Data Quality SCRs in the VB6 Environment
CWDS is seeking a total of fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the following twelve (12) sessions (2 sessions per day):
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, February 6, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, February 13, 2025 (AM or PM session)

R9.6 Data Quality SCRs in C# Environment
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the C# fourteen (14) sessions (2 sessions per day).
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, April 3, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Monday, April 7, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, April 10, 2025 (AM or PM session)

Participants are welcome to register for any of the sessions listed above in half or whole-day increments.

We encourage you to submit your request for a specific session as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025. If a session’s count exceeds the maximum count, Customer Relations will work with that tester to be rescheduled for another session. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

A Release 9.6 CTW Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025, so the CWDS office can finalize the needed arrangements.

 Link:     https://forms.gle/cBBQdesgqUYpc5eA6

The CWDS Office will work with the registered testers on all the details of their CTW participation.  

Special Note: The County data will be pulled from the Production environment and copied to the CTW environment at the close of business on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Therefore, changes to your Production environment after this date will not be in the CTW environment.

If you cannot access the Online Registration Form or have any questions regarding this recruitment, please contact CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov.

Your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated. 

Action Required
Submit a Release 9.6 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025.
Training, Product Release, CWS/CMS, Testing

CWS/CMS Release 9.5 and Interim Release 9.5.0 (3-Day Reminder) Bulletin

December 12, 2024 Customer Relations
Release 9.5 will be implemented on Saturday, December 14, 2024
The application outage begins on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at 5:00 AM and will most likely complete around 11:00 AM. Users will not be able to access the CWS/CMS application during this period. All application updates will be applied during this outage and should be available once the outage is complete.

Note: Business Objects will be unavailable from approximately 8 AM to 11 AM while the Release 9.5 updates are being applied.

Customer support will be available from the IBM Helpdesk at (800) 428-8268.

Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file was made available on Friday, December 6, 2024, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release.  The code is located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
  •  \CODEDIST\Staging\R95
Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:
By Friday, December 6, 2024, dedicated county users should have started seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R95 folder.  This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release 9.5 to take place on or after December 14, 2024.

Dedicated County users should do the following on the night before the release:
  • Restart (reboot) the workstation and log into Windows (aka the "welcome screen").
  • Restart again and do not log into Windows.
  • Leave the workstation powered on.
CWS/CMS, Release

Business Objects Issue and Workaround – UPDATE 2

December 11, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

December 11, 2024 UPDATE 2: The BO production environment was experiencing congestion and running slowly this morning. As a result, the BO team performed a reboot at 11:30 AM. The reboot was successful, and everything is now functioning properly.
_________________________________________________________________
December 11, 2024 UPDATE: The CWDS custom branding effort failed last night and the Business Objects (BO) login screen was reverted to the generic SAP version. The BO team will research this branding issue and then determine the next steps in regards to this effort.

Meanwhile, the BO production environment is down this morning. The BO team is researching the cause, including if it is related to last night’s rollback following the failed custom branding effort.
The BO reports did not run last night. Once the BO environment has recovered, users will need to review the reports, and run them if needed.

Additional communications will be delivered as new updates are provided.
_________________________________________________________________
December 6, 2024 UPDATE:  The CWDS Office and IBM have scheduled an outage for the Business Objects (BO) server to update the branding on the Business Intelligence login screen. Following the update, the branding will return to the normal CWDS branding instead of the generic SAP screens. The scheduled BO maintenance outage will be on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, beginning at 4:00 PM and concluding at 4:30 PM.

BO will not be available during the scheduled outage.

The CWDS Office and IBM continue to work with the vendor on the issue regarding transferring reports to and from the Rich Client server. An additional update will be provided once the fix for that issue has been determined.
_________________________________________________________________________________
November 21, 2024 UPDATE: After working with the Business Objects vendor, IBM and the CWDS Infrastructure team are reporting that Business Objects is now up and operational, with a few limited issues / differences that remain to be resolved.
Please Note: The login screens will look a bit different. Generic SAP screens will be used temporarily and will be updated at a later date (please see screenshot below).

In addition, there appears to be an issue with transferring reports from Rich Client to the server and back. IBM and the Infrastructure team will work with the vendor as a fix for this specific continuing issue becomes available.
Screenshot of the generic login screen:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
November 20, 2024 UPDATE:  Several issues have been identified after the installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade.  Work is taking place now to resolve those issues and a communication will be shared once resolved.   
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 FINAL UPDATE: The installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade has completed. Business Objects is now accessible; however, users may experience degraded performance while the Business Objects server catches up on the scheduled jobs from this morning. The CWDS Infrastructure team and IBM are monitoring for potential issues.

NOTE: Web Intelligence Rich Client users may need to update their workstation installation of the client.
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 UPDATE: This is a reminder that the Business Objects production environment is not available this morning, to install a patch update. A follow-up communication will be sent out once the environment has become available, estimated to occur at around 12:00 Noon.
________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: We are applying a patch to address this Business Objects issue, which will be implemented in both the Training and Production Environments. These environments will be unavailable during the following patch periods:
  • Training Environment  - November 19th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
  • Production Environment - November 20th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Action Required
If users experience any issues please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
_____________________________________________________________________________
An issue has been discovered with the current version of Business Objects used with the CWS/CMS application.

Issue Description:
Whenever a numeric field, such as government entity code, is used as a condition in a data provider (query), the query will run correctly the first time. Whenever the data provider is edited, the system will return a type mismatch error and require the user to remove and re-add the condition. The query will then run, as long as it is not edited again.

This only appears to be an issue with numeric fields; character fields, such as Client Name, do not experience this issue. Once the query is run, it operates normally as long as the user does not go back and edit the data provider. The user can refresh the data and save, as well as edit the report formatting, without issue.

Issue Resolution:
A patch level update will be required to resolve the issue. The CWDS Office and IBM are evaluating the next Business Objects patch to determine if it will resolve the issue, without generating any new issues. There is currently no estimated time of when the patch will be implemented. Additional updates will be sent out as new information is received.

Workaround:
When Business Objects informs the user of a type mismatch error after a numeric field is used as a condition in a data provider, and the data provider is edited, then the user must remove and re-enter the condition. The query will run, without issue, as long as the data provider is not edited again.

Action Required
Until the issue is corrected with the appropriate patch update, users will need to perform the workaround listed above, by removing and re-entering the condition when they receive a type mismatch error message.
Update, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: California Department of Education - Updated Providers List

December 09, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts
On Friday, December 6, 2024, the list of Education Providers in the CWS/CMS application was updated with data obtained from the California Department of Education (CDE). During this update, several Education Providers in the application were end dated. This occurs whenever an existing CWS/CMS Education Provider no longer shows up as an active Education Provider in the data obtained from CDE.

Attached is a list of all closed Public Education Providers and all closed Private Education Providers that were end dated during this update. This information is being provided to assist counties with determining if any data corrections are needed.

Please contact CDE with any questions regarding the list of closed schools.
Email: cdsadmin@cde.ca.gov
Update, Announcement, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: Business Objects Issue and Workaround – UPDATE - Dec. 10, 2024 | 4 PM - 4:30 PM

December 06, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

December 6, 2024 UPDATE:  The CWDS Office and IBM have scheduled an outage for the Business Objects (BO) server to update the branding on the Business Intelligence login screen. Following the update, the branding will return to the normal CWDS branding instead of the generic SAP screens. The scheduled BO maintenance outage will be on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, beginning at 4:00 PM and concluding at 4:30 PM.

BO will not be available during the scheduled outage.

The CWDS Office and IBM continue to work with the vendor on the issue regarding transferring reports to and from the Rich Client server. An additional update will be provided once the fix for that issue has been determined.
_________________________________________________________________________________
November 21, 2024 UPDATE: After working with the Business Objects vendor, IBM and the CWDS Infrastructure team are reporting that Business Objects is now up and operational, with a few limited issues / differences that remain to be resolved.

Please Note: The login screens will look a bit different. Generic SAP screens will be used temporarily and will be updated at a later date (please see screenshot below).

In addition, there appears to be an issue with transferring reports from Rich Client to the server and back. IBM and the Infrastructure team will work with the vendor as a fix for this specific continuing issue becomes available.

Screenshot of the generic login screen:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
November 20, 2024 UPDATE:  Several issues have been identified after the installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade.  Work is taking place now to resolve those issues and a communication will be shared once resolved.   
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 FINAL UPDATE: The installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade has completed. Business Objects is now accessible; however, users may experience degraded performance while the Business Objects server catches up on the scheduled jobs from this morning. The CWDS Infrastructure team and IBM are monitoring for potential issues.

NOTE: Web Intelligence Rich Client users may need to update their workstation installation of the client.
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 UPDATE: This is a reminder that the Business Objects production environment is not available this morning, to install a patch update. A follow-up communication will be sent out once the environment has become available, estimated to occur at around 12:00 Noon.
________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: We are applying a patch to address this Business Objects issue, which will be implemented in both the Training and Production Environments. These environments will be unavailable during the following patch periods:
  • Training Environment  - November 19th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
  • Production Environment - November 20th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Action Required
If users experience any issues please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
_____________________________________________________________________________
An issue has been discovered with the current version of Business Objects used with the CWS/CMS application.
Issue Description:
Whenever a numeric field, such as government entity code, is used as a condition in a data provider (query), the query will run correctly the first time. Whenever the data provider is edited, the system will return a type mismatch error and require the user to remove and re-add the condition. The query will then run, as long as it is not edited again.
This only appears to be an issue with numeric fields; character fields, such as Client Name, do not experience this issue. Once the query is run, it operates normally as long as the user does not go back and edit the data provider. The user can refresh the data and save, as well as edit the report formatting, without issue.

Issue Resolution:
A patch level update will be required to resolve the issue. The CWDS Office and IBM are evaluating the next Business Objects patch to determine if it will resolve the issue, without generating any new issues. There is currently no estimated time of when the patch will be implemented. Additional updates will be sent out as new information is received.

Workaround:
When Business Objects informs the user of a type mismatch error after a numeric field is used as a condition in a data provider, and the data provider is edited, then the user must remove and re-enter the condition. The query will run, without issue, as long as the data provider is not edited again.

Action Required
Until the issue is corrected with the appropriate patch update, users will need to perform the workaround listed above, by removing and re-entering the condition when they receive a type mismatch error message.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS, Outage

CWS/CMS: CDT Service Desk Bulletin - SAFE Cloud Service Scheduled Maintenance

December 06, 2024 Communications
ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance of the SAFE Cloud service. The maintenance begins on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Sunday, December 15, 2024, at 2:00 AM. The activity will cause interruptions in the SAFE Cloud service. Some Business Objects (BO) reports will fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve from SAFE during this scheduled maintenance.

Action Required
All users should logoff of the SAFE Cloud service prior to the start of the stated maintenance timeframe. Please check on your scheduled BO SAFE reports and automated FTP scripts. If needed, re-run the reports and scripts.
 
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content in SAFE.
Maintenance, CWS/CMS, CDT, Bulletin

CWS/CMS: Release 9.5 and 9.5.0 (15-Day) Informational Bulletin

December 02, 2024 Customer Relations
The mandatory VB6 version of Release 9.5 will be implemented on Saturday, Saturday, December 14, 2024.

Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:

The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, December 6, 2024, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release.  The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
  •  \CODEDIST\Staging\R95
Perform any necessary testing, but do not install countywide before December 14, 2024. The new release will not work with the database until then.

Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:

By Wednesday, November 27, 2024, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R95 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.5 to take place on or after December 14, 2024.

Release 9.5 documents are located on the CWDS website. The xTools file and related README file are located on the CWDS Training Portal. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches. 
 
CWS/CMS, Release

CWS/CMS: November 2024 Workstation Patches

November 26, 2024 Communications
All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Workstations for November 2024:
  • MS Windows 10 22H2 Patches
    MS24-NOV: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 - Windows 10 Version 22H2 - KB5046613 (x64) Important 
  • MS Windows 2016 (LTSB) Patches
    MS24-NOV: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 LTSB - KB5046612 (x64) Important
  • MS Office 2016 Patches
    MS24-NOV: Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 - Excel 2016 - KB5002653 Important
    MS24-NOV: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002619 Important
  • Office 365 Patches
    Office 365 Version 16.0.18129.20116 Available - Current Channel - Office 365 Important Unspecified
  • Google Chrome Patches
    Google Chrome 131.0.6778.70 High 
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: Education Provider Information from the California Department of Education (CDE)

November 22, 2024 Customer Relations

What is Impacted: CWS/CMS Application

On Friday, December 6, 2024, from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, the CDE Interface will run to update Education Provider information for public schools, private schools, and school districts in the CWS/CMS application. This update applies to CDE school information only. School information manually created by a CWS/CMS user will not be affected. During this time, users may be unable to perform Education Provider searches in the CWS/CMS application.

Due to differences in data and formatting between CDE and the CWS/CMS application, some otherwise valid Education Providers may be end-dated.  If this occurs, please refer to the Work Around section below. A list of all end-dated Education Providers will be sent to the SPOCs via email as soon as they become available.

Additional Notes:
Code Table Refresh is not required.

Work Around
If an existing CDE Education Provider has been end-dated because of this process, users will need to conduct a search for the current Education Provider and create a new Education Notebook for the client.

Contact
CWDS Customer Relations

CWS/CMS, Bulletin, Education

CWS/CMS: Business Objects Issue and Workaround – UPDATE

November 21, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

November 21, 2024 UPDATE: After working with the Business Objects vendor, IBM and the CWDS Infrastructure team are reporting that Business Objects is now up and operational, with a few limited issues / differences that remain to be resolved.

Please Note: The login screens will look a bit different. Generic SAP screens will be used temporarily and will be updated at a later date (please see screenshot below).

In addition, there appears to be an issue with transferring reports from Rich Client to the server and back. IBM and the Infrastructure team will work with the vendor as a fix for this specific continuing issue becomes available.

Screenshot of the generic login screen:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
November 20, 2024 UPDATE:  Several issues have been identified after the installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade.  Work is taking place now to resolve those issues and a communication will be shared once resolved.   
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 FINAL UPDATE: The installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade has completed. Business Objects is now accessible; however, users may experience degraded performance while the Business Objects server catches up on the scheduled jobs from this morning. The CWDS Infrastructure team and IBM are monitoring for potential issues.

NOTE: Web Intelligence Rich Client users may need to update their workstation installation of the client.
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 UPDATE: This is a reminder that the Business Objects production environment is not available this morning, to install a patch update. A follow-up communication will be sent out once the environment has become available, estimated to occur at around 12:00 Noon.
________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: We are applying a patch to address this Business Objects issue, which will be implemented in both the Training and Production Environments. These environments will be unavailable during the following patch periods:
  • Training Environment  - November 19th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
  • Production Environment - November 20th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Action Required
If users experience any issues please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
_____________________________________________________________________________
An issue has been discovered with the current version of Business Objects used with the CWS/CMS application.

Issue Description:
Whenever a numeric field, such as government entity code, is used as a condition in a data provider (query), the query will run correctly the first time. Whenever the data provider is edited, the system will return a type mismatch error and require the user to remove and re-add the condition. The query will then run, as long as it is not edited again.

This only appears to be an issue with numeric fields; character fields, such as Client Name, do not experience this issue. Once the query is run, it operates normally as long as the user does not go back and edit the data provider. The user can refresh the data and save, as well as edit the report formatting, without issue.

Issue Resolution:
A patch level update will be required to resolve the issue. The CWDS Office and IBM are evaluating the next Business Objects patch to determine if it will resolve the issue, without generating any new issues. There is currently no estimated time of when the patch will be implemented. Additional updates will be sent out as new information is received.

Workaround:
When Business Objects informs the user of a type mismatch error after a numeric field is used as a condition in a data provider, and the data provider is edited, then the user must remove and re-enter the condition. The query will run, without issue, as long as the data provider is not edited again.

Action Required
Until the issue is corrected with the appropriate patch update, users will need to perform the workaround listed above, by removing and re-entering the condition when they receive a type mismatch error message.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS