More about the roster text file

As you know from the tutorial to create a new course, you need to start by creating a text file in a certain format. You can name the file anything you want, but be sure it's a plain (ASCII) text file. For Windows users, Notepad will work, for example. Here again is the sample roster text file we used in the tutorial:

PHY 101 01
Introduction to Physics
Spring 2003
Prof. Einstein
X34322   Albert Einstein
X343888  Neils Bohr
X347332  Isaac Newton
X394032  Michael Jordan
X334321  Steven Stanton
X394452  Cindy Slattery
X485734  Robert Frost

Line 1 of the roster file designates the course code section for the course. This information is displayed on various screens in Manhattan to remind the user what course they are working in. Beyond that, the string you type in the first line has no meaning - we could have typed "Bananas are yummy!" here. The maximum length is 20 characters. Both you and the teacher of the course can change whatever you type here at any point in the course. (The option is under the teacher's Configuration menu - see Select modules, change course title, semester, teacher information)

Line 2 of the roster text file is the title of the course. Like the course code section data, this information is shown to users while they work within the classroom to remind them of which course they are working with. Its maximum length is 40 characters. The course title can also be changed later by the teacher or system administrator using the course's configuration menu.

Line 3 is the semester. This is another piece of information that is displayed on screens for no other purpose than to let the users know which course they are working with. The string "Ice Cream Sundae" is just as valid as "Spring 2003". However, you'll find that when a person logs into Manhattan, their courses will be organized by the values of the Semester field. Be consistent! The 'semester' field can be changed by teacher or administrator at any time, again via an option on the course's Configuration menu.

Lines 4 and 5 both describe the primary teacher of the course. On line 4, list the name of the teacher as s/he will be referred to within this particular classroom. In our example Albert Einstein wants his name to appear as "Prof. Einstein" within this Physics 101 course. If he wanted to be "Mr. Einstein" you would type that on line 4. If he wanted to appear as "Albert Einstein" or "Bozo the Clown", then that's what you would type. Note that there's nothing permanent about what is entered here. Once a course is set up, a teacher can change his name, or the name of any student within his classroom, by selecting an option on the classroom's Configuration menu - see Change a person's name, team, or alias.

On line 5 type the ID number of the teacher followed by one or more spaces or tabs, followed by the teacher's first name, followed by spaces or tabs, followed by the teacher's last name. Here it IS important that you use the teacher's correct, full name (with no middle initials), since Manhattan will use the full name to derive the teacher's username. If you had typed "Prof. Einstein" instead of "Albert Einstein" on line 5, the teacher would wind up with the username pe4322.

When you create a new course using this method you can only specify one teacher. However after a course is created, additional teachers can be added to a course by entering the course's configuration menu, by selecting Configure courses from the system administrator's main menu - see Add a teacher

The remaining lines of the file list the students in the class the same way the teacher's information is listed on line 5.

Note that each line representing the teacher or a student is of the form:

ID<spaces/tabs>FirstName<spaces/tabs>LastName

There's no accommodation for middle initials, and everything after the FirstName is treated as the LastName. For example, given the lines:

23423423        John Q. Public
93834383        Mary Van Smith
43423433        Martin Casey Jr.

John's LastName is "Q. Public", Mary's is "Van Smith", and Martin's is "Casey Jr." The last name used to derive the person's username as described above, so John's username would be: jq3423, which is probably not what you want. Also, lists of names displayed on various pages within Manhattan are sorted by the last name, so John's name will be found under the Q's.

Do yourself a favor and strip middle initials and suffixes like like "Jr." and "III" from the roster text file before you create a new course. The "Van" in Mary's name in the above example, however is perfectly OK since it is truly part of her last name.