[SIMS] Batch create Aspects in SIMS?

[LosOjos]

That looks fine to me

[tben2505]

Great.

And I've attached the excel file that I'll run - could you just see if that looks OK to you too?

[vikpaw]

Ah, so all imports do have a bizarre ID in them somewhere?
So what happens if i export mine, and send them to you for import, are they tagged in some way or would you risk a tiny chance it might have the same id as one of yours. That doesn't sound very robust.

[LosOjos]

Spotted your problem: you're using the gradeset external ID when specifying the details of your original aspect (in B3 on the spreadsheet), it's the aspect's ID that you need, which in this case would be 3391 (you can see it in the XML as "<ExternalId>3391</ExternalId>")

Correct that, and it should run fine...

[LosOjos]

Ah, so all imports do have a bizarre ID in them somewhere?
So what happens if i export mine, and send them to you for import, are they tagged in some way or would you risk a tiny chance it might have the same id as one of yours. That doesn't sound very robust.

Truth is I don't know... that certainly appears to be what would happen, but it does seem like a gaping flaw if it's true... perhaps SIMS also checks the supplier ID that is also in the XML and assigns a new ID if it's from an external supplier?

This has got me thinking actually, I'm going to do a little playing, we may be able to make this batch aspect system a little more robust if that's the case...

Just on the off chance, @PhilNeal if you're reading, do you know the specifics?

[tben2505]

Spotted your problem: you're using the gradeset external ID when specifying the details of your original aspect (in B3 on the spreadsheet), it's the aspects ID that you need, which in this case would be 3391 (you can see it in the XML as "<ExternalId>3391</ExternalId>")

Correct that, and it should run fine...

You sir, are a genius! Thanks!!

[LosOjos]

You sir, are a genius! Thanks!!

No genius, just spent a long time battling to create an easier life myself along with other members here, glad to be of help though

[vikpaw]

@LosOjos - that's what i think must happen, because it sets supplier ref and other things, so if you keep some extra info in there it should otherwise we'd all be leaving our systems open to massive corruption just by importing some third party aspects.

was it @Dancer that created that macro / routine? perhaps he'll have more of an idea...

[LosOjos]

@LosOjos - that's what i think must happen, because it sets supplier ref and other things, so if you keep some extra info in there it should otherwise we'd all be leaving our systems open to massive corruption just by importing some third party aspects.

was it @Dancer that created that macro / routine? perhaps he'll have more of an idea...

I believe it was yes, his name certainly rang a bell when you said it and it was the same person who created the one for templates (all uploaded to SupportNet quite some time back)

[ajp233]

Back in the day when I worked in Local Authorities we developed an Excel file that allowed schools to enter KS2 raw scores and marks and obtain a set of reports (tabular and graphical). It also automatically identified students who were within 3 marks of the next level (helped the school identify possible remark requests), and finally it generated a SIMS Assessment Manager xml results file for import into their system via a macro.

To give you a flavour the following VBA code creates a File System object called XMLFS, creates a text file called ResKS22010.xml in S:\SIMS\Marks and then begins to write text into the file

Set XMLFs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set XMLFile = XMLFs.CreateTextFile("S:\SIMS\Marks\ResKS22010.XML ", True)

' Write opening lines of XML file with results file Tag and Header Line
XMLFile.WriteLine "<ResultFile>"
XMLFile.Write "<Header>"
XMLFile.Write "Key Stage 2 Assessment Results 2010"
XMLFile.WriteLine "</Header>"

I'v still got a copy of the Excel file and it is perfectly feasible to adapt it to make bulk generation of aspects not reliant on the existence of 2 additional text files in the same directory as the Excel file.

Think I might give it a go actually......something to get my teeth into

[LosOjos]

I'v still got a copy of the Excel file and it is perfectly feasible to adapt it to make bulk generation of aspects not reliant on the existence of 2 additional text files in the same directory as the Excel file.

Think I might give it a go actually......something to get my teeth into

Let us know how you get on, I think the reasoning behind using a pre-existing aspect as a base is it already specifies the gradeset, aspect type etc.

There are certainly ways you could do it with a nicer front end, but finding time to do that when this one has worked for me has meant it's always been at the bottom of the list unfortunately!

[tben2505]

Something which allows you to choose a different gradeset for each row would be great, too!

[LosOjos]

I can see this becoming another little EduGeek project... kind of feels wrong continuing development without @Dancer's blessing though...

[vikpaw]

If you know the gradeset IDs in your system, you would be able to push that into the file where it is currently specified quite easily.

[tben2505]

Well, I couldn't !!

And there doesn't seem to be a way of easily finding the ID - furthermore, it seems (redundantly) every aspect not only needs the gradeset ID, but also the grades and equivalent values of that gradeset. Which is silly!