Volunteer Software Development Team - New Cadet Portal

Just a thought, Will cadets now need to be BPSS cleared and have to do the Responsible for Information Training? As they now might have access to controlled documents?

No, that is not the intention and none of the documents they will be accessing will be protectively marked or controlled. For instance, AP1358C, ACTOs etc are not protectively marked nor are the forms until completed…

We are trying to reduce admin not invent it and there is no way that we want/need cadets to be BPSS cleared because they have access to Cadet Portal! :slight_smile:

Thanks for clearing that up

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No worries and it is a valid question :smiley:

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When BADER was first launched it was open for all cadets, access was by the generic sqn account. That changed very quickly.
Just saying JE, just hope that nobody gets a twitchy you know what.

I don’t think I understand what you are driving at - the cadet will only have access to their own SMS record with a unique username and password through Office 365…

Sorry, when the SharePoint section of BADER was first launched the cadets were supposed to have access to SharePoint so they could see the APs ACPs etc. That changed very quickly after launch. Hopefully the goalposts will not be moved again.

Aha I am with you now. That was purely due to the licensing issues associated with giving 35-40,000 cadets a sharepoint license which isn’t cheap. That was also just a trial which didn’t go the distance due the above.

The cadets O365 account will actually just be an Active Directory record which allows them to authenticate through O365 and therefore no associated licensing issues, so we won’t hit the same blocker.

Edit: although the sharepoint project mentioned above did serve one useful purpose, it meant that https://cadets.bader.mod.uk was already registered with the MOD and we haven’t had to go through the lengthy process of getting a URL/sub domain approved as we will be using that one :grimacing:

Just a quick update on how things are going with Cadet Portal:

  • We had a very successful weekend at Cranwell in late September and we had meetings with RCN (Project Sponsor), Wg Cdr Training, Wg Cdr CCF and others - lots of good work done
  • The Events module is coming along nicely and the changes to SMS to accomodate this have been completed at a database level. We still have a decent number of things to complete on this and this is the current development sprint focus
  • We are almost there with the Training dashboard with Music functionality being added in. I have engaged with three different band-CFAVs directly and we have some minor changes to make in light of the updated ACTO 123. I am also engaging with the Corps Sports Officers to talk to them about how CP can be used to support them in the future.
  • We have created an initial Deployment Communications Plan and I have enlisted the help of a Media Comms CFAV to help with the design and development of a comprehensive strategy to help us with the launch when we get there
  • We are trialling using Microsoft Teams to communicate with key members of the Cadet Portal Working Group which is really helping us to communicate effectively
  • We have a new developer starting with us soon now that the necessary paperwork requirements are almost complete - hoping that will help us to speed up development specifically with wiring in the user interface to the database

So, all going well and I think we will be well positioned for the Command Board in three weeks time.

If anyone would like a demo of Cadet Portal, please contact me from your Bader account and I will look to see if I can organise group demos for ACC members as required.

Best,

J

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, elevator music on a PC.

PM me your contact and I would like to see it

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I would like to see a demo, I will email you from my Bader account

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Possibly some kind of 90’s style midi playback :wink:

No worries, look forward to hearing from you :slight_smile:

We have joined Facebook RAF Air Cadets - Cadet Portal on Facebook and Twitter will follow.

Give us a like if you want to keep up to speed :slight_smile:

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How customisable will it be from a unit perspective?

Hi Matt,

Can you give me a little more detail? What would you want to be able to customise?

Will Cadets be able to remotely access their accounts? Will it be adjustable for mobiles and tablets?

Off of the top of my head, I’m thinking along the lines of being able to post documents (training programme, orders, etc) to the interface, being able to post basic messages to people - essentially, a little like the Facebook groups used by many units (but without the issues with under-13s) or the Jive system as used on Defence Gateway.

Yes, this will be available in the Squadron Downloads section of the tool which will link to SMS. In SMS (in the future), there will be a section that allows you to upload documentation to your Squadrons Cadet Portal. This could include things like training programmes (although I think we will add other training programme functionality in future separately but that will be in a future release), Gift Aid forms, local Squadron Orders (fire, security, standing etc etc).

Yes, in a future release, we want to be able to post announcements and urgent announcements (for things like event cancellations etc), that is all in the roadmap. Won’t be in MVP (or I should say “probably won’t be” but will be in a future version).

Does that help?

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Indeed it does.

Has much thought been put towards integration with a commercial solution such as Jive or Slack? One thing that would be very handy would be the ability to create push notifications, without which a system such as this is rather less useful.