Integration with SIMS.Net

[gavcradd]

Hi everyone, Head of ICT here (so teacher, please be kind...)

 

I have quite a few programming projects that I've done over the years to do various things in school, but they all rely on me exporting data from SIMS into another database. Many years ago, I tried to get data automatically out of the SIMS database (just things like students names and classes) but hit a brick wall. I tried contacting the company officially but they wanted an extortionate fee for developer access.

 

Has anything moved on over the past few years? Is there any easy way to get data out of the SIMS database? Anyone done anything like this with their projects?

[Steve21]

From my understanding it's basically 4 options,

 

a) Use another product like groupCall who already have the license to export, then use that data for your stuff.

b) Buy a license

c) Do it by copying database etc, then taking data from your 2nd copy, aka not live one. (But not sure if that's only for testing, or officially ok)

d) Make use of the export reports etc, and export XML which you then import, but a bit of a faff way

 

Steve

[Meldrew]

d) Make use of the export reports etc, and export XML which you then import, but a bit of a faff way

Steve

 

I use the d option myself using commandreporter.exe found in the SIMS installation folder. As Steve says, it exports an XML file that you need to parse through, but I find it works a treat. I use this method to maintain a list of students and classes in a MySQL database syncronised with SIMS overnight. I then use that data to provide various web apps for staff here, eg email all students in a class, email all teachers of a student, etc.

 

Meldrew

[bantonia]

You could use my webservice software to run reports remotely and receive the data as an XML soap message. Download from http://www.beaconhillcott.net. You do have to install Glassfish on a SIMS server or workstation and add a path in the environment variables to your SIMS .net directory. This is what I use. I know this thread is over a month old but I thought I'd add my contribution to this problem which doesn't appear to being made any easier.