LiveStream 5.2.0 just went live on the update repo with three new features and a handful of fixes and improvements. The full release notes are over at the Knowledge Base, I just want to take a moment to highlight the shiny new things.
1. Supervisor Bypass
We’re often asked by busy sysadmins, “How can I delegate some of my web access management tasks to the teachers and supervisors?”
Sounds simple right? Just give them permission to log in and edit the relevant Policies and List Groups. That would be fine if the supervisor has an understanding of your overall policy structure, however this is rarely the case.
With Supervisor Bypass we hope to avoid any confusion and allow supervisors to react quickly to each of their user’s needs by interacting directly with the LiveStream deny pages.
When a user encounters a denied request for content they need for their work, they simply call a supervisor over to their device and ask them to unblock it. The supervisor can see why it was denied, what the specific URL is and—if they deem it appropriate—can temporarily unblock it with a couple of clicks.
LiveStream records the details of every bypass event so that the administrator can audit them and choose whether or not to make a permanent configuration change or not.
2. Activity Reports for Devices
Formerly called “Category Reports,” Activity Reports have been leveled up to:
- Provide equivalent data for devices and users.
- Show the top users and devices by downloads.
- Be easily accessed from the main Reports screen.
3. Users Viewing Their Own Profile
Just about everybody who uses quota and/or credit has asked us to put this feature from Alert & Advance back, understandably. Any LiveStream user can now login to the management interface to see where their quota and credit consumption is at.
This is our first major LiveStream 5 update for the year and definitely not the last. We've got a big roadmap of features planned out and would love your help to keep shaping it. If you've got any features on your wish list, you can reach out to us on twitter or our help site.