[sims] SIM's Spring release Issue

[Steven_Cleaver]

Hi

 

We have just been upgraded to the Spring release of SIM's and I am using Commandreporter to extract a report where as before the upgrade this was taking about three minutes to extract what is quite a hefty amount of data, I have gone to run this report this evening and it is still running the Report 30 minutes later with no sign of finishing. I was just wondering if anyone has noticed any issues with running Commandreporter since the upgrade.

 

Many thanks

[vikpaw]

Only have a couple and not monitored them.

Worth just running the report manually, maybe some of the data areas have changed.

Could try the reindex patch.

[Steven_Cleaver]

Only have a couple and not monitored them.

Worth just running the report manually, maybe some of the data areas have changed.

Could try the reindex patch.

 

Cheers Vik, the report won't run manually as has to much data to extract and SIM's crashes when I try to run it, report did extract but took around 40 minutes as oppossed to the 2 or 3 minutes previously, so I could run it on a schedule, I hadn't heard about the reindex patch so might try this or recreate the report to see if it is any quicker in case as you say some of the data areas have changed and thats why it is struggling ran a couple of Individual reports and these seem fine.

[MattMitchell]

If it's pulling out a lot of data, it might be worth running multiple reports to partition it down; for example, a student focus report could be partitioned by the year group, conduct points can be partitioned nicely by academic year, etc.

 

One thing to bear in mind, is that some criteria will work better than others. Watch how quickly a report run in the Results focus when you filter by result set! Doing the same by result date can slow things dramatically. If you can hit on something that's likely to be filtering on an indexed field, it tends to be a hell of a lot quicker ;-)

 

Similarly, I've found that changing the effective date on which a report runs, can have a massive impact on the time taken. Some fields, especially in student focus, can really slow things down a lot, which appears to be because of the tables that have to be joined in the underlying views on the server.

 

Certainly, if there's a field you don't need in the report, try missing it out. Also, some sets of data can be pulled out in different ways. Assessment results are a classic example of this - a lot quicker through the results focus than the student focus.

[Steven_Cleaver]

If it's pulling out a lot of data, it might be worth running multiple reports to partition it down; for example, a student focus report could be partitioned by the year group, conduct points can be partitioned nicely by academic year, etc.

 

One thing to bear in mind, is that some criteria will work better than others. Watch how quickly a report run in the Results focus when you filter by result set! Doing the same by result date can slow things dramatically. If you can hit on something that's likely to be filtering on an indexed field, it tends to be a hell of a lot quicker ;-)

 

Similarly, I've found that changing the effective date on which a report runs, can have a massive impact on the time taken. Some fields, especially in student focus, can really slow things down a lot, which appears to be because of the tables that have to be joined in the underlying views on the server.

 

Certainly, if there's a field you don't need in the report, try missing it out. Also, some sets of data can be pulled out in different ways. Assessment results are a classic example of this - a lot quicker through the results focus than the student focus.

 

My issue was really was that it was fine before the Spring upgrade but since then is taking 30 to 40 minutes for the same report instead of about 3 minutes I have created a couple more extracting large amounts of data and again is taking a long time but I am now filtering for a few students as I am only testing for a system we are looking at developing.

 

To be honest I did initially quite refine what I was exporting but have found by opening this up have been able to extract results I hadn't realised were there and at a testing stage to see all the data and what you could use is really useful.

 

I have at the moment two Reports one that extracts the Time table Class\Subject structure although we have an Exporter that sort of does this and imports this into Moodle so could use this or the report and a secound Report that is extracting results, idea being feed this into our own SQL based system and look at our own Tracking and Intervention system and Automate the extract from SIM's into the new system to run on a schedule.

 

By the way think the new home page and some of the new features in SIM's are excellent including the Pupil Premium well done Capita.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Steven_Cleaver

[PhilNeal]

Steven is possible that tables have been restructured to hold more data and a side effect is that the report now takes longer. If after you've played a little more and it still is an issue drop me a note with the output details.

 

Thanks for the positive feedback BTW!

[Steven_Cleaver]

Steven is possible that tables have been restructured to hold more data and a side effect is that the report now takes longer. If after you've played a little more and it still is an issue drop me a note with the output details.

 

Thanks for the positive feedback BTW!

 

Cheers Phil that makes sense about the Tables to be honest when I first designed the reports with the amount of data I was extracting filterd for just a couple of students thought it would take ages but with CommandReporter ran really quickly so removed the filter and ran it remotely when no one was in and it ran in about 3 minutes for what is to be honest a massive amount of data to export out, it was just after the upgrade was taking longer and I was a bit worried this would be an issue with all reports including individual reports but I have run a few of these and if anything these are quciker to run although no staff are in at the moment still on holiday.It isn't really a big issue as the I eventually intend to run this as a scheduled task overnight so wouldn't really cause me an issue but just wondered if anyone else had noticed anything.I'll have a bit more of a play with CommandReporter and Reports but as I say isn't to big an issue.

 

As regards the upgrade our Deputy Head, myself and MIS Officer are well impressed with the Home Page and a few of the other new features so excellent job.

[PhilNeal]

Ok thanks Steven