Scholaris accessing/writing to Sims: Legit?

[mr_simonward]

I had a very positive meeting with the people from Ergo who are selling Scholaris. We were very impressed, and just waiting to hear what the damage will be (£££).

There is one thing bugging me though, and I want to 'compose' my question correctly before putting it to the people at Ergo. This refers to SIM's intergration. It has been suggested that Scholaris is fully intergratable with SIM's and can create users, read timetables etc. We have started used SIM's to register this year, and I asked if we would be able to do this to and was told "yes, that is being developed".

Does this sound acceptable to people? Is it legit?

I raise the question after have spent some time looking into Frog, and being told that 'extra' software would be required to allow it to 'talk' to SIM's, and having read on here that other software of any sort accessing/writing to SIM's is frowned upon by SIM's.

What exactly should I be asking inorder to determine that this is all above board? (in 'laymans' please)

Cheers in advance.

[mr_simonward]

Oh, if anyone has had a quote from Ergo for Scholaris and would like to give me an idea of what ££££ to expect, I'd appriciate it.

[Oops_my_bad]

It will probably be like how other VLE's talk to SIMS, just a .csv export.

Although I would be interested in seeing how it reads timetable data - something so far we havent been able to crack (novat4)

[Geoff]

If a 3rd party developer wishes to intergrate their software with SIMs they must buy a SIMs developer license and use the provided APIs. Accessing the database directly is naughty.

[mr_simonward]

So basically, I need to ask "Do you have a SIM's developer License?".

I'm sure we as a school would not be liable, that is not really my concern. I'm more concerned about being sold something that they may not be able to deliver.

Cheers.

[Geoff]

Well no, you don't have to ask them. You could ask Capita "Ergo are selling Scholaris, a VLE. They say it is compatible and integrates fully with SIMS. Is this correct?"

My only concern is that you may invalidate your SIMS support contract if it does not turn out to be kosher.

[mr_simonward]

Sorry guys - I think I'd read too much into this. I have been in touch with Ergo who have corrected me (thank you).

"The Scholaris product isn't fully integratable with SIMS - for this you would need to pay Capita their £10k for their full webparts. What is does give you is read only access to the data. This data populates class lists, timetabling info, student information, etc. You cannot write back to SIMS - so changes to user information need to be carried out in SIMS not in Scholaris."

[Oops_my_bad]

Do you know how it interacts with timetabling?

[mr_simonward]

Erh, not really - but I know that SIM's displays timetables, so presume it will pull it from there. I'm not sure if it is SIM's that is actually storing the timetables though. I'll ask our guys...

[StArbiter]

Sorry guys - I think I'd read too much into this. I have been in touch with Ergo who have corrected me (thank you).

"The Scholaris product isn't fully integratable with SIMS - for this you would need to pay Capita their £10k for their full webparts. What is does give you is read only access to the data. This data populates class lists, timetabling info, student information, etc. You cannot write back to SIMS - so changes to user information need to be carried out in SIMS not in Scholaris."

where did the £10K for SIMS web parts come from ? Are scholaris just offering web parts to add to the SIMS learning gateway ?

[NewOrder]

I think you will find Sims web parts are cheaper than that. What sims webparts do at present allow you through the Learning Gateway to interact with sims. You can view timetables, mark registers and do assessments.
You will need to connect your sims to a apps tier then for that to connect to your sharepoint server ' Learning Gateway' You then install webparts on your sharepoint server.

I suggest you phone sims and ask for a price. Explain what you are doing and they often quote people their Gateway price. The cost is nearer £4000 I think in year 1 and lower in year 2. The new 2007 sims should be out beginning Jan.

There are other companies developing utilities that take info from sims and show it in Sharepoint

[bossman]

@TeddyKGB:
I wouldn't worry too much about Nova-T4 as it will be non existant from next february and Nova-T6 M&P will be the only tool needed for designing and implementing the timetable.
You will be able to construct a query by way of a report which will parse SQL and give you a CSV result to which your prog can read from.

[russdev]

Non of vles have full interrogation with sims yet as far as I am aware but they are all working on it.

Russell

[webman]

If SIMS provided adequate, cost-free, third-party developer APIs then it would not be a problem for any VLE

[Tonyoung]

Hang on ! If SIMS have their own VLE solution and that's not fully integrated it's difficult to see how Capita would let another supplier get a lead ?