[sims] Sims Report Question: Merging Fields & DFES Number

[russdev]

Hi guys

 

I have quick question for Sims experts we need to do the following things on a sims report and wondering if it can be done.

 

First is run report that exports students details as csv (the easy part) but against each of the student records it also has the schools dfes number. Then the second question want export student records to csv but column last column to be combination of other columns for example forename/surname.

 

Does that make sense..

 

Any experts out there with ideas..

 

Russ

[LosOjos]

Hi russdev,

 

AFAIK, there's no way to add the current school's DfES number to a report. You can get student's previous schools, but not the current one.

 

As for merging fields, again, you're out of luck in SIMS. What I would do to get around that is either feed the report in to a script that parses the CSV and merges the necessary fields in to a new column, or create an Excel report in SIMS with a macro to do the same job.

 

It sounds like this is a report you'll want to run on various sites, hence the need to identify the source school in the report. I know it's not ideal, but using the Excel/Macro method above you could prompt the user for their school's DfES number and have you macro add it in to a column.

 

If the point of the DfES number is purely to identify which school the report originated at, could you use the school's exam centre number instead? That is available in SIMS reports, however it will only show for students who have been added to the school's exams module as candidates, so it's not without setbacks of it's own...

[vikpaw]

I'd be tempted to yank the data out manually, but that would be frowned upon. What columns need combining exactly, as there are various options for surname/forename available.

 

The only one you'd struggle to get is the dfes number, but i'd just hard code that in, either via a macro or dumping it into a udf or result field, though in the excel macro would be the least maintenance.

You'd just have to set up each school manually with their own macro template.

 

To be honest, what are you doing with the CSV? why not just get a standard report to dump the data raw to CSV which you can give to all schools to import, and then adjust your import / processing routine to process it.

 

I can't believe you can get the dfes number out though, especially with all the reports for returns and such like.