Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud - release history

User Interface

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• Enabled a 'No Data to submit for this period' checkbox, to allow submitters to notify that they have no data to submit for a given month

Since the last release the following updates have been made

• Enabling of resubmission windows for IAPT from September 2020 to May 2021 (temporary through August)
• Supplier user role can make Test submissions

User interface

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• implemented improvements to the pagination used on the submissions dashboard so that
  • there is good colour contrast
  • the font size is legible
  • there are large clickable hit areas that are clearly spaced out 
  • the current page is clearly identified
  • a maximum list of 5 pages has been set 
  • 'previous' and 'next' links have been provided

User interface

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• improved the format of the error message shown when users enter an invalid password

• changed the content available to screen readers on the submission summary page so that when a user requests an extract, the screen reader will announce when the extract is ready for download

• aligned the colour contrast of main navigation links and form controls to be consistent with the NHS Design rules

User interface

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• edited the text that is read by a screen reader on the 'view' link on the submissions dashboard, so that users can identify which rows relate to test submissions
• improved the error message presented when a user attempts to upload an unsupported file type
• included valid file types in the message

User interface

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• ordered the reporting periods shown in the drop down list on the 'submit a file' page so that they are now ordered with the most recent period at the top of the list
• added hint text underneath the test submission checkbox to make it clearer what happens when this option has been checked
• made enhancements to the content read by screen readers for the submissions table on the dashboards page

Data quality summary report

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• applied changes to the Validation Report to order the errors in line with each dataset’s Table Validation Order as described in the Technical Output Specification
• improved the utility of the report by making clear the order in which to resolve rejection type errors and, in particular, errors of the type ‘No Valid Group Submitted’

IAPT test submissions enabled

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• implemented a feature to accept test submissions for the IAPT dataset in advance of their scheduled go-live date.  This means IAPT data providers will be able to submit test files for the August 2020 reporting period before the live window opens

File upload limits

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team have:

• adjusted the file size limit to allow files of up to 2GB to be uploaded
• increased the timeout applied when user’s are uploading files from 30 seconds to 2 minutes

File upload status reporting

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• made small text changes to the on screen messages displayed to better reflect the progress of a file upon upload and when processing starts

Test submissions

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• provided functionality for data providers to make a test submission to enable them to review any data quality issues in advance of making their actual submission

Test submissions:

• will return data quality reports but do not contribute to actual submissions, statistics or records
• can only be made within active submission windows for live collections
• option to mark a submission as a test is shown as a checkbox on the ‘submit a file’ screen
• are shaded in grey on the dashboard screen to differentiate them from other types of submission

Enhancements to logging and monitoring

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• made some enhancements to the visibility of system events to aid internal diagnostics. These changes don’t affect the user interface or user experience.

Enhanced organisation, backup, and access management

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• created a new way to add organisations, making it easier to add new ones and manage which ones can use SDCS Cloud
• fixed an issue for a specific file, where backups were not retained as they should have been
• moved user validation checks for downloading Post-Deadline Extracts earlier in the process

Fix and re-enable post deadline extracts

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• fixed an issue that provided the wrong post-deadline extract to users
• automated the release of post-deadline extracts, so they’re no longer dependent on a manual process
• amended how the system handles post-deadline extracts so that it supports the new extracts, which cover the full date range of submissions

Bug fixes and process improvements

The Strategic Data Collection Service in the cloud (SDCS Cloud) support team:

• fixed some issues and bugs in the back-end
• fixed a visual bug in IE11 that meant the submission page wasn’t displaying properly
• improved the way we do releases in future, making them more consistent and reliable