...

...

...

...

Compatibility - iOS

Following table lists all supported combinations of Practique application and Apple iOS versions with indication on which versions of iOS Practique application has been extensively tested.

...

Practique version

...

Compatibility - Hardware

Practique is supported on iOS10.3 and above, which means that in order to use Practique for iPad you need to have iPad device which is able to run at least this version.

If you need to identify your device you can use use https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT201471

Some devices do not support new features (Slide Over, Picture-in-Picture, Split View, Transit in maps) of newer OS versions. Practique does not use any of these features so any iOS 10.3 compatible device is fully compatible with Practique.

...

Device

...

iPad

...

iPad mini

...

iPad mini 2

...

iPad mini 4

...

iPad 2

...

iPad (3rd gen)

...

iPad (4th gen)

...

iPad Air

...

iPad Air 2

...

iPad Pro 12.9"

...

Known issues

There may be Known issues with Practique for iPad application which may be applicable to the version of the application which you're currently using.

It is important that you read carefully Known Issues documentation and make yourself familiar with the workarounds which are provided for each of the Known Issue before your exam.

Known Issues are published on Known Issues page for both Practique for Server & Practique for iPad, please read Known Issues page carefully.

Published releases

Following list contains release notes for all published releases of Practique for iOS application.

6.1.0

Improvements

New Exam list layout

This release sees a new approach to how the exam list is presented. Previously all the sessions were shown for all the exam blocks which had been pushed to the devices, now only the exam and exam block names are shown on first starting the app. When an exam block is selected the data for all its sessions is downloaded to the app and the user can then select a session to run. The latest selected exam block will remain selected until another block is selected.

The current state of the local exam session data is indicated by the colour coding:

• Status
  colour Red title Red

    exam has no data locally, or the local data needs to be updated from the backend. The exam block must be selected so that its data will be downloaded

• Status
  colour Yellow title Yellow

    currently checking the exam against the backend service, or downloading data for the exam block

• Status
  colour Green title Green

    data download is complete and any "in progress" session can be selected from this exam block. The selected session is available to run offline.

This was done to both reduce the amount of information shown on the screen, and to prevent exam sessions from being started without all the required data being available on the device.

Change to indication of marksheet submission status

Following feedabck from users we have partially reverted the change made in release 6.0.1

The behaviour has been modified to remove the colour-coded feedback on the marksheet submission, the colours simply reflect the editing status of the marksheet.

• Status
  title No colour

    new marksheet; has not yet been edited

• Status
  colour Yellow title Yellow

    work-in-progress marksheet; marksheet had been submitted but is currently being amended

• Status
  colour Green title Green

    completed marksheet; examiner has submitted it to the Practique server

In this way an examiner can see clearly whether or not they have completed marking a candidate and will not be distracted by marksheets that are in the process of being sent to the backend. The text in the notification will say whether or not the marksheet has been received at the backend.

To still allow us provide feedback to marshals on the marksheet status, we now show that marks have been submitted but not confirmed by the Practique Server by highlighting the session name in red on the exam list page.

Automatic Assessment Configuration (AAC)

Single App / Guided mode can now be controlled from within the app - the device does not need to be managed by an MDM to do this. The option is available at any time under the app info button  >> Administrator settings >> Enable guided mode

It can be required on a per-instance basis - in which case, when starting the app the user is asked to "Confirm App Self-Lock", this would ideally be done by an administrator preparing the iPad for the exam.

Once enabled it can only be disabled from within the app Administrator settings.

• Autocorrect and spell checker
• Predictive keyboard
• Dictionary definition lookup
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Sharing
• Universal Clipboard
• Dictation

Enrolment

When using Configurator 2 any filename is accepted for the enrolment details file, but the information must still be in plist format.
The app can be re-enrolled by adding new details on the MDM or Configurator 2 without first un-enrolling

Fixes

PSD-2048: Marksheet question

When 2 buttons were used with long text labels, e.g. "Satisfactory" / "Unsatisfactory", the text in the label was broken and wrapped in order to fit the buttons in a row. To avoid this wrapping such buttons will now be laid out in a column.

PSD-2013: Unable to update list of published exams from Practique server

Failed requests from app to the backend could remain in the message queue, blocking new requests. These are now cleared.

PSD-2007: Marshal/Candidate views on iPad, re: Patient Name/RP

Patient name and role player can now be shown on the marshal schedule, on a per-instance basis.

Pre-defined resource types, Examiner Notes, Candidate Notes, Role Player Notes and Marking Notes, will now be labelled automatically.

"Show to Candidate" on candidate resources can now be disabled, on a per-instance basis.

PSD-1966: Able to add in a section title to a marksheet

A criterion type of label is now available; this will show text across the width of the marksheet.

PSD-1944: Initial Data Synchronisation of exam to iPad

UI has been reworked to make it clear when session sync is complete

PSD-1943: OSCE exam - examiners without wifi not able to log back into exam

Related to PSD-1944, the reworking of the UI should avoid this occuring

PSD-1920: marshall UI doesn't show student 'did not attend' 

UI matches examiner experience now

PSD-1772: app crash on swipe

On candidate and marshall iPads the swipe gesture is supported to allow the user return to their schedule screen. However, on the candidate iPad there is further work needed so we have disabled the gesture at this time; the button at the top-left should be used instead.

6.0.1

Practique is now available from the App Store

On installing the app it must first be enrolled and configured for your Practique domain. Please see instructions here

Improvements

Filters for Completed & Current exams on Exam list

Practique for iOS previously listed all exams on the Exam list screen which has been pushed to devices on Practique Server. This behaviour led to the situation when the Exam list screen has been cluttered with exams no longer relevant, however those exams has not yet been published and so remained available on the Exam list screen.

Practique for iOS will allow users to filter exams based on their status showing either Current exams (exams with pending or in progress sessions) or Completed exams (exams which have all sessions complete).

Better indication of marksheet submission status

Previously: The marksheet submission notification, the green coloured row on the candidate list or marksheet, would appear as soon as examiner pressed the Submit marksheet button. This notification did not take into account whether the data has been actually transmitted to Practique Server. Yellow colour was used to indicate that the marksheet has been changed and there are therefore not submitted changes.

Now: Changes have been made to the marksheet submission status notifications on the Examiner's device to provide clear notification of the submission status of the marksheet. The marksheet submission status on the Examiner's device is now indicated by following colour coding the stages:

• Status
  title No colour

    new marksheet; has not yet been edited

• Status
  colour Yellow title Yellow

    work-in-progress marksheet; currently being edited, or has been completed and submitted but the marks have not yet been confirmed at the Practique Server. This status will be seen for example when the session is being run off-line or if there are connectivity issues.

• Status
  colour Green title Green

    completed marksheet; marks have been received and confirmed by the Practique Server

New domain configurable features

• On Examiner's device the candidates can be identified by their full name, their candidate ID, or both together.
• On Marshal's device the name of the Role Player can be displayed along with the case title and summary.
• Client-specific terms and conditions can be added.

Fixes

PSD-1044     Typos on Marshal's iPad screen

...

Quick links

Compatibility - iOS

Following table lists all supported combinations of Practique application and Apple iOS versions with indication on which versions of iOS Practique application has been extensively tested.

Compatibility - Hardware

The current Practique release is supported on iOS12.0 and above, which means that in order to use Practique for iPad you need to have iPad device which is able to run at least this version.

If you need to identify your device you can use use https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT201471

Some devices do not support new features (Slide Over, Picture-in-Picture, Split View, Transit in maps) of newer OS versions. Practique does not use any of these features so any iOS 12.0 compatible device is fully compatible with Practique.

Known issues

There may be Known issues with Practique for iPad application which may be applicable to the version of the application which you're currently using.

It is important that you read carefully Known Issues documentation and make yourself familiar with the workarounds which are provided for each of the Known Issue before your exam.

Known Issues are published on Known Issues page for both Practique for Server & Practique for iPad, please read Known Issues page carefully.

...

Upcoming release

Access to the upcoming release is available via TestFlight, Apple's Beta release service.

Please submit a Service Desk ticket if you would like to be included, this will allow you review the upcoming changes and provide feedback.

Published releases

Following list contains release notes for all published releases of Practique for iOS application.

6.2.3

Full Release Notes

6.2.2

Full Release Notes

6.2.1

Full Release Notes

6.2.0

Full Release Notes

6.1.2

Full Release Notes

6.1.0

Full Release Notes

6.0.1

Full Release Notes

5.0.5 - All 5.#.# builds are now deprecated

Essentially the same as 5.0.4 but with project property updates required to support Xcode9+

...

Practique app 5.0.4 is primarily focussed on improving the stability of the app. This includes tackling user reported bugs and making systems architecture improvements to reduce the number of crashes. With this release, the Practique team has spent a significant amount of time performing tests internally but also on-site using our customer's infrastructure to try to simulate real exam conditions as close as possible. We are very grateful for your continued support and participation in building this product with us. 

Fixes

KI-PRAC-IOS-5: Written, OSCE - Login/Logout information for an Examiner may be in accurate on the Marshall screen

...

This has now been fixed and the application updates the information correctly and in a timely manner. Keep in mind that due to the changes on the Practique Server, there may be a delay (by default 10s, configurable) for the information to be distributed from the Practique Server to the applications. This delay was introduced in Practique Server 5.2.1 version in order to manage excessive load on the server.

KI-PRAC-IOS-2: OSCE - Examiners may occasionally encounter "Unable to create result" error message

...

The Practique application has been updated to minimise the possibility for the issue to occur.

KI-PRAC-IOS-6: OSCE - Previous candidate marksheet switches to amended state unexpectedly while marking the next candidate

...

Handling of the visual feedback for examiner list has been fixed so that the Submitted (Green), Changed/Pending (Amber) colour coding is accurately provided to the examiners.

KI-PRAC-IOS-7, KI-PRAC-IOS-4, KI-PRAC-IOS-3, KI-PRAC-IOS-1 - Synchronisation issues when server is under heavy load or when running larger exams

...

When a candidate is logged into the iPad, clicks on a station, marks the station as complete, returns to the list of stations and clicks on the same station he/she has just completed, a crash occurred. This was fixed by modifying the timing of internal processes in the system. 

Improvements

PRACIOS-222 - Support independent configuration of HTTP/WS network services

...

PRACIOS-210 Written, OSCE - System architecture improvement to prevent crashes when processing Results

PRACIOS-212 Written, OSCE - System architecture improvement to improve processing of Block list and Login

PRACIOS-126 Written, OSCE - Memory leaks 

Primarily affecting written exams due to memory consumption, systems improvement in the way data is cache to reduce memory consumption

5.0.3 - 21st April 2017

Improvements

Introduction of Resource captions (since Practique Server 5.2.0)

...

It is now possible to use Retry button also reason for the failure provided for troubleshooting.

Fixes

PSD-626, PSD-646, PSD-514, PSD-701: OSCE - Synchronisation fixes

Synchronisation changes in Practique for iOS in version 5.x.x introduced behaviours which caused issues during the OSCE exams, Written exams we're not affected due to the fact that Written exams do not synchronise one iPad dataset onto all other iPads as it is in case with OSCE. Nature of the issues would be not regular/deterministic and the rate of occurrence depends on the timing of the Examiner activity as well as size of the exam (especially multiple-concurrent exams).

Issues:

• • Application stuck on "Updating exam list screen".

  • Examiner iPads may got stuck at certain rounds while marshals already moved to next rounds.

  • After session is finished Examiners report problems logging in with message "Already logged in".

  • Examiners would appear logged in on Marshal & Practique Server while logged out on iPad.

  • Start/Stop round for Marshal would freeze after tapping and it would not be possible to end round

Issues has been fixed by separating the synchronisation of the data from the Practique Server (and reprioritising this activity) from the User initiated actions such as Start/Stop rounds. As well application now attempts to perform synchronisation after it finishes with User initiated messages and marks upload in order to make sure it is always up to date.

...

5.0.2 - 7th February 2017

Fixes

PSD-488, PSD-541: Written - Order of questions in Written exam was not maintained on the iPad

...

5.0.1 - 19th January 2017

Fixes

PRACIOS-176: Written, OSCE - Fix crash when synchronisation received reset exam message

...

In both cases Practique application

• • Provides list of exams which are currently published on the backend

  • Allows users to select Exam/Session combination to synchronise and login

Please note that the application now synchronise Exam data when user selects the exam which they wish to login. This is different behaviour from from the previous versions where application simply automatically synchronise one single active exam automatically when opened. In this version of application user needs first to select Exam/Session combination to initiate synchronisation for the selected exam.

Improvements

End of official support for iOS 8.x for the Practique application

Practique application has been updated to support latest versions of iOS9 & iOS10. Application will be actively tested and supported only on these versions of iOS.

Fixed problems with Single Application Mode iOS 10

Practique application opts out from Slide Over and Split View (please refer to About Multitasking on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for more details) to retain previous behaviour on iOS 10

Application Information device IP address fixed on iOS 10

Application 3rd party dependencies has been updated for iOS 10

Expose application log files and crash logs via iTunes file sharing

Practique application automatically uploads diagnostic log files to Practique server in background without any interaction required from the users. In order to make this process more transparent and provide means to extract required diagnostic information even in case where there is no network connectivity, these diagnostic log files are accessible via iTunes File sharing (see About File Sharing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for more details).

These diagnostic log files are used by Support team to troubleshoot when you encounter issues with the iPad application and you may be asked to provide these files to the Support team.

Security

Support for client/server Certificate pinning for improved security

Implementation of server certificate pinning for HTTPS transfers

Implement Server certificate pinning for WebSocket connections between iPad & Server

Fixes

Possible loss of marks when running an OSCE exam

Under certain exam conditions when there is large amount of examiners participating in exam 50+ there may occur issue with iPad application mark persistence which results in loss of marks. Issue is very rare and may not manifest during the exam at all or occurs for very few stations (<=2) during the exam.

Symptoms & Impact

Issue can be detected by observing marshal screen and identifying examiners which are indicated as online but do not have any marks submitted for several examination rounds despite the fact that their iPad (when physically checked by the marshal) is online and marksheets have been submitted by the examiner (green bars on the examiner screen). When detecting the issue make sure that iPad is on-line not to confuse the issue with normal off-line mode of the iPad.

Should the issue occur examiners are allowed to submit marks for whole session onto their iPads. Marks would be appearing as submitted but Practique server would not receive any marks for that examiner/station. Once examiner does log-out or application is closed the marks would be lost. When examiner does login again to the exam he would be presented with the list of candidates where only first candidate would indicate marks being submitted and the rest of the candidates would miss the submitted marks.

Fix & Prevention

Application now provides means both in user interface as well as internally to avoid any loss of marks.

Internal measures include making sure that the marks are saved to the filesystem (log file) when Examiner submits the marksheet before attempting to send or save marks to database in order to minimise possibility of any side effects preventing marks to be saved due to influence of problems in different parts of the infrastructure. Log files are also exposed to the IT teams which can extract log file and provide it to the Support team for marks recovery.

Measures from the user perspective include visual warning when such situation should occur and providing means for the user to recover from the situation and continue their marking without any impact on the marks or their marking.

4.2.2 - 2nd June 2016

Fixes

PSD-241: Rows randomly disappear / reorder on Marshal Schedule screen (see screenshot)Image Modified

Should your exam have a high number of stations this is a recommended update.

Under certain conditions rows on the Marshal Schedule screen could disappear when scrolling up and down. The issue is not consistent and may be difficult to reproduce, however it should be possible to reproduce when:

1. Round has a high number of rooms (15 for example, more than can fit on the iPad screen) so Marshal needs to scroll up/down

2. There are some marks submitted already for that round for one of the rooms which is off screen (for example 15th room on that round)

3. Marshal views the Schedule screen and slowly scrolls down to 15th room and then slowly scrolls up

4. At this point the last row may disappear and as Marshal scrolls up some of the top rows may appear empty

Should this issue occur it would be in both portrait and landscape orientations. It manifests by the rows disappearing at random and appearing again as user slowly scrolls up/down.

...

Marshal Schedule screen has been reviewed and fixed. Scrolling on those screens works as expected and rows do not change order or disappear in any way.

4.2.1 - 15th April 2016

Fixes

PRACIOS-145: Fix validation for required answers after CSP has been deselected

When marksheet with required answers contained CSP question which has been marked validation of the marksheet has been correctly disabled so that it can be submitted incomplete. However when the CSP question has been deselected the validation of required answers as not be re-enabled resulting in situation when Examiner may have submit incomplete marksheet.

This has been fixed and validation is re-enabled when any/all CSP questions are deselected.

4.2.0 - 12th April 2016 2016 (requires Practique Server version >=4.3.0)

 New features

 Critical  Critical Stop Points (CSP)

Critical Stop Points functionality provides means for Examiners to quickly fail Candidate in cases such as endangering an animal or themselves, serious professional concerns and so on. This feature is available via Marksheet authoring on Practique Server, for more information about how to use CSP please refer to Practique Server release notes.

In terms of Practique for iPad Critical Stop Points influence how the marksheet is validated on the iPad before it is submitted by the Examiner. This is only change to the behaviour of the Practique for iPad application, there are not User Interface changes for this feature.

If you do not setup your marksheet to use observation criteria marked as CSP then Practique for iPad remains the same as in previous versions.

Validation in detail:

1. Marksheet without any CSP question is valid and can be submitted when ALL mandatory questions are answered otherwise it is not valid and can not be submitted (this is behaviour prior to version 4.2.0)

2. If marksheet contains one (or more) CSP questions validation takes this into account and

   1. marksheet is considered valid if at least one CSP is selected regardless mandatory questions - This means that when student fails station early during the interview Examiner does not need to fill in whole marksheet with dummy marks and is allowed to submit incomplete marksheet.

   2. marksheet is considered valid if no CSP questions are selected and ALL mandatory questions are selected

   3. marksheet is considered invalid if no CSP questions are selected and any of mandatory questions are missing answers (this is behaviour prior to version 4.2.0)

4.1.0 - 5th April 2016 2016 (requires Practique Server version >=4.1.0)

...

Presentation and impacts of this feature

• Examiner is notified that Candidate did not attend by updating their schedule. Candidate name is displayed in grey colour and strikethrough style: John Doe

• Examiner is no longer able to enter marks for Candidate who did not attend

• Marshal screens correctly reflect the number of expected marks taking into account Did Not Attend information

Examiner independent marking

...

How does Independent marking influence Examiner & Marshal screens?

• Examiner can mark any Candidate on their schedule

• Examiner Schedule screen no longer indicates current round

• Examiner Case screen no longer notifies that the Examiner is looking at the wrong candidate

• Examiner Case screen no longer notifies Examiner that current round is not started

• Marshall Circuit Overview screen no longer indicates current round

• Marshall Round Overview screen does not provide functionality to manage rounds

Marshal Circuit OverviewImage Removed

...

New Circuit Overview screen gives Marshals clear view of the status for their whole Circuit.

Information provided for the Marshall include:

• list of all rounds for the circuit

• total number of submitted marks

• total number of marks expected to be submitted

• number of marks submitted for each round

• number of marks expected for each round

• indication which round is Current indicated with the red bar

• indication of round status in terms of marks

  • Complete - Green - All marks submitted

  • Incomplete - Amber - Some marks pending

  • Pending - Grey - No marks submitted

4.0.5 - 5th April 2016

Fixes

PRACIOS-128: Written - Inform Server when user finishes exam

When user uses ‘Finish & Logout’ feature iPad application now informs server that the user finished his exam so that this information can be accurately displayed on the View Logins screen.

PRACIOS-56: Written - Exit SAM (Single Application Mode) when Login screen is displayed

When user did not use ‘Finish & Logout’ feature but just logged out while the SAM is enabled users iPad remains in the SAM even after the exam is finished by the exam team.

...

4.0.2 - 18th February 2016

Improvements

PRACIOS-115, PSD-192: When Marksheet amendments are allowed do not display “You cannot reverse this action.” as part of the submit marks confirmation message

Fixes

PRACIOS-113, PSD-191: Protect against possible rare conditions resulting in marks corruption

...

PRACIOS-98: Fixed rare application crash when user tried to open Application Details screen (using ) while iPad was disconnected from the WiFi

...

PSD-169: Unable to launch app in offline mode under certain circumstances

4.0.0 Comenius - 8th January 2016

This is major release of Practique for iPad, please refer to separate release notes 4.0.0 Comenius.

2.1.28 - 26th November 2015

• PRAC-756: Written, prepare HTML content for first question, to prevent rendering problems

• PRAC-755: Written, fix highlighting of the selected answers

• PRAC-754: Written, fix rendering of the list of Answers on iOS9

2.1.27 - 24th November 2015

...

Please upgrade your iPads to at least this version of the application.

• Re-releasing application with new Apple code signing certificates with validity till November 2018

• PRAC-716: Fix handling of the boolean fields for OSCE which caused problems when accepting marks from iPads

• Fixed incrementing of the build number (Shown in Application information section > Build) to provide accurate build number

2.1.26 - 15th October 2015

• Prevent crash when transitioning from mark sheet to the bypass round (eg. where round does not have MarkSheet)

2.1.25 - 9th October 2015

• Updating application settings imposed by Apple Transport Security

2.1.23 & 2.1.24 - 6th September 2015

• New features: Allow examiners to amend mark sheet on the iPad

• iOS9 necessary compatibility changes

  • Remove the separator insets and layout guide rendering.

  • Fix marksheet rendering

2.1.22 - 1st September 2015

• Fixed problem when upgrading applications from previous versions may not be initialised properly.

...

Document change history