Student Messages / Bulletin System

[mrdolan]

I have written a simple web based student Messages / Bulletin System (in PHP) for use by school staff to post messages that can then be viewed by or shown to students.

 

I have previously mentioned this in this thread.

 

Following a few requests I have now packaged it up for others to use and have created this thread for any feedback or discussion (I hope it's in the correct place).

 

I am not going to write lots about it here as all the details can be found at:

 

mrdolan.org/messages-system

 

You can also see a demo and read the end user instructions.

 

Or download directly

 

I hope someone finds it useful. I would appreciate any feedback.

 

Thanks.

Edited October 23, 2014 by mrdolan

[zag]

For anyone who wants to find it quickly, here's the download link

 

http://mrdolan.org/downloads/messages-1.0.zip

[mrdolan]

Yes, sorry I do tend to write in more detail than is probably necessary. I also know that I have found detail to be helpful when trying to get some stuff working in the past, so it's there is anyone needs it.

 

The direct link is now in the first post.

Edited October 23, 2014 by mrdolan

[denon101]

I have it downloaded and installed. Got it working to the part where I need to verify a password. Tried the one suggested and nothing happens? Any ideas?

[mrdolan]

I have it downloaded and installed. Got it working to the part where I need to verify a password. Tried the one suggested and nothing happens? Any ideas?

 

Have you placed the password.php file somewhere on the server (where is it?)

Have you added the location in the config.php file?

[denon101]

Yes I have, but I am using wamp. So I have placed it in folder and included the location in the config file. If I don't have it in the location I have the file in now. I get even more errors.

[mrdolan]

Can you try getting it working without the password feature.

 

Remove the line from the very top of each page's php file.

[Bev]

I've got very close to implementing this today, but I am a bit stuck.

 

I am trying to set it up internally, running as localhost, as we don't have any useable school webspace, and it's really an internal system anyway so doesn't need to be out there in the public domain.

 

I've managed to install IIS & PHP, and can run the system, but my problem seems to be that we have SQL server rather than MySQL.

I think I've got the tables set up correctly in SQL server, but I am not sure how to change the connect.php module to use SQLServer, or indeed what the username / password would be. (It's currently set to use Windows Authentication)

 

Would I be better installing MySQL? Can I have both running? As Lansweeper is using SQLServer and I don't want to break that.

 

Many thanks for any help.

 

Bev

[zag]

Yes MySQL takes 2mins to install with the platform installer for IIS. I suggest you do that. It wont intefer with SQL server.

 

Test it on your local PC first to find out though.

[Bev]

Thanks, I will try that tomorrow. I've spent the best part of today battling with it, so hopefully if I install mySql it will come together quickly.

[Harry_Small_]

Hi, I am getting this when I have completed the first 5 steps? Gyazo - 9e9138ded570cb74b615884c1d7f19da.png

[Bev]

it's messages2014, but I couldn't get that to work. Presumably because it couldn't find the password file. I edited out the password check for the time being.

 

I'm still struggling with MySQL, the version I installed through the web installer was 5.1 but myPhpAdmin won't talk to less than 5.5, so I'm now trying to reinstall.

 

None of my issues are related to the app, just to my lack of experience in development.

[Bev]

it's taken me the best part of 2 days, but I have it up and running!

I need to try and customise it now for our year groups (5-8), but I think I can manage that now that I've got all the components in place.

[Harry_Small_]

This is how I have the config setup: Gyazo - d83ece840a9f09e8162ce11e400c85e0.png and it all seems to be working. I had a friend do a bit of editing to change a few things for me!

[mrdolan]

it's taken me the best part of 2 days, but I have it up and running!

I need to try and customise it now for our year groups (5-8), but I think I can manage that now that I've got all the components in place.

 

Great to hear that you have it up and running. What customising are you planning? I might be able to point you in the right direction.

[Bev]

I've just changed the year groups to 5 - 8 rather than 7 - 11, and removed the maths and canteen screens.

 

I've managed all that, but am a bit stumped about setting it up internally. I wasn't going to put it on the internet as it's just a local system, and I don't have any webspace.

 

I've got it working on my server as localhost. It all looks fantastic, but when I try and access it from any other machine in school it is asking for a login, and I think smoothwall is blocking it as well.

Plan B is to try and find some webspace.

[Bev]

I'm just about there.

 

I'm just not sure how the RSS Feeds work. I can see the output of the feeds if I use Chrome.

 

http://wmsmessages.eu.pn/feeds/receptionnoticesfeed.php

displays

http://wmsmessages.eu.pnTo be displayed in receptionen-ukCopyright ©Year 5 dancers at 12.00

Mon 8th Dec 14Year 5 Boys after school on Tuesday

Mon 8th Dec 14

Year 5 - 12:00 Monday

Year 6 - 12:30 Monday

Year 7 - 12.00 Tuesday

Year 8 - 12.30 Tuesday

 

Mon 8th Dec 14

 

 

But I can't seem to pick them up from an RSS Reader. Do I have to publish it somehow?

Edited December 8, 2014 by Bev

[mrdolan]

You should be able to pick them up in a feed reader if you add the address of the feed page. I have successfully subscribed to your feed above in feedly.

 

The feeds aspect is the part of the system that I haven't worked on as much as I would like yet.

[Bev]

Ah, that's interesting. I can also see them in Feedly.

 

I was wanting to use Rollgator which will give a rolling newsscreen, like this Screen sample of Rolling Aggregator for your public display

 

I thought it would work for the reception screen, but that can't pick it up. I get this RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall

 

I will have a look for another option for the front screen.

 

Apart from that, all looks good.

 

Thank you.

[Bev]

Just to finalise this,

 

some of the feed readers don't like the HTML codes, so I added some code to clean out
etc, and it is now displaying in Rollgator, which makes a nice Display screen for our reception area.

 

The only problem I have, is it won't recognise a new line, so if you do a list then everything appears in one line.

I think I will have to live with that for the moment.

 

You can see the front screen with Rollgator -

RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall

or

RollGator - Your feeds roll on your wall

 

I haven't decided which format I prefer.

[Bev]

I just wanted to follow this up. We launched this new system on Monday and it's been a huge success. Everyone likes it (which is very rare), and it's fixed my problem of how to keep the front screen up to date which has been an issue since I started 6 years ago.

 

I'm using Rollgator to drive the front screen, as in the above post, and it works great. Having looked at the rollgator code, I'm going to try and write my own version so we aren't using a third party, and I can use the school colours, but that will probably be a half term project.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Bev

[mrdolan]

Hi Bev, I'm pleased that you have things up and running well and it's nice to hear positive feedback from your school.

 

Thank you for the update.

 

Tim

[Theldron]

Hi, I am currently trying the system as it was recommended, but when I try to add a new message, Ill select the day I want to add it to e.g. Wed when I click Send I get the following error:

Error: Incorrect integer value: '' for column 'mon' at row 1

 

I have to 'Select all' to get it to send.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[spadam]

Hi.. I came across this today from this thread and have had a go at setting it up. I have it installed at /var/www/messages/ and think I have followed the setup steps correctly. When using the app though if I navigate to an admin page and then back to a non admin page the url still includes the admin directory and so the page is not found (e.g. localhost/messages/admin/year7bulletin.php). I suspect this is due to the way I've specified my base url in menu.php (messages). Can anyone tell me what I need to change?

[Bev]

I have mine specified like this

 

 

 

but I also changed the links to the class pages

 

Year 6 bulletin

Year 7 bulletin

 

 

I had to change quite a lot, as I needed different year groups.

I don't know if I did it the way it was intended, but it seems to work.