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Student Administrative Software for Unix?
MISplice asks: "I have been searching for a Linux alternative to SASIxp which is a student administrative databse for K-12 schools (it does grades, schdeuling, and holds demographic and medical data). I have found the OpenSIS project which seems to be on hiatus and never past the implementation stages. Does anyone know of such a product or project that is under development? If not does anyone know if these types of products will work under WINE?" Have there been any new developments in this area since this article from 2000?
I don't know if you have considered Linux, but with all of the free software available to you, you should be able to put together a workable solution in Linux without spending a whole lot of time and money. When I hear anything about "organizing," I think "database," and when I hear "database" in combination with "Linux," I think "MySQL," which is faster than anything available on Windows. Hey, Slashdot uses it, so it's got to be good. It shouldn't be too hard to hack together a MySQL database and a simple PERL/TK frontend to handle queries. You'll find that having the source code available makes this kind of project extremely easy. Good luck!
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Check out Bessie the Annhilator. It does a great job at grading even if it doesn't do the rest of what you asked. It's written in php and is very extensible.
If you don't absolutely need open source, you could look into PowerSchool (http://www.apple.com/education/powerschool/). It's got scheduling, reports, transcripts, report cards, etc. Runs on Unix or Windows servers. I remember reading that the guy who used to head up Apple's OS 9.1 development moved over to the PowerSchool team.
For those of you not familiar with SASIxp or other Student systems it would be a monumental undertaking.. for instance.. SASIxp has been around since the early 80's in a DOS based version and has matured from there. It has over 175 different databases, not to mention that most major files(grading, demographics, courses.. which each section can have 10 + databases associated with them) have 30+ fields each (in DB4 most of which can be transfered to SQL with an executable they provide) and multiple sub routines that allow data to be transfered between school years at the click of a button. I personally have been working alone in trying to create a similar system Using an SQL database with PHP as the interface.. I know nothing about PHP and am still trying to think of all the tables and logical keys to link everything together. Everything I have is basically on paper and will stay that way until I can get the database design the way it should be... So for those that say build it yourself.. I am trying but it is a grave undertaking just to make sure you have the majority of the Fields needed by schools. I would gladly collaborate with others to restart something Similar to OpenSIS just to get a basic foundation I don't even care about reporting yet I would just like a nice Database with a friendly UI to get the data and print it 1 page at a tiem.. from there I can worry about reports.
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