SIMS 3rd Party Access Documentation

[peterteckhokgoh]

hi there

 

i would really love to get some the documentation for the 3rd party access commands. specifically commandreporter and osql. the osql uses sql and so a the spec of the tables and their relationships would be absolutely tops.

 

anybody any ideas? i think these seem to be so hard to come by, but would so useful and powerful if they were used

 

thanks

 

pete

[techyphil]

Sorry, im not sure what your trying to do?

[dhicks]

i would really love to get some the documentation for the 3rd party access commands. specifically commandreporter and osql. the osql uses sql and so a the spec of the tables and their relationships would be absolutely tops.

 

There really isn't all that much to document. The CommandReporter tool should give you a list of parameters when you run it with no commandline options. You need to set up a report in SIMS for it to run beforehand - you can import existing reports with the CommandReporterImporter tool. I've written a couple of SIMS reports and server-side Perl scripts (the scripts literally call CommandReporter to run a report, then spew the XML data received back over the requesting HTTP connection) to help us synch our SIMS database with our LDAP server, i.e. a simple script that turns CommandReporter into a get-XML-report-X REST function call. I've also got a semi-finished client-side Perl script that parses the information it gets from SIMS to match up with LDAP (I've got it adding records, I need to get it to update them properly).

 

I'm sorry, I don't know what OSQL is, but the structure of the SQL database that SIMS uses is propriatory, and Capita don't like you examining it. After 15 or 20 years of moving from platform to platform and implementation to implementation, I'm sure the word "hairy" doesn't do the SIMS database structure justice.

 

--

David Hicks

[fooby]

let me get a shovel.... i have that documentation somewhere.....

 

please see attached zip with CHM compressed inside. Remember to extract it to a local drive as a CHM will not run from a UNC path or mapped drive letter.

 

@David

I would be interested to see the results of your sims > ldap work. We are investigating this but would want class groups created as security / distribution groups in active directory.

 

Edit - Removed due to request received. Anyone school wanting a copy should contact their LEA Support Team. Companies should contact the original poster. We apologise for any inconvenience cause - Diello.

Edited December 30, 2008 by Diello
OP Request

[Willzzz]

Hi

 

I am trying to use Third Party Reporting to fetch XML data from SIMS and then display it on our intranet using asp/php.

 

I'm not brilliantly up on networking stuff, is this possible, how would I go about it?

 

Will SIMS need to installed on the intranet server?

 

Thanks,

 

Will

[dhicks]

I am trying to use Third Party Reporting to fetch XML data from SIMS and then display it on our intranet using asp/php.

 

First, there should be a special user in SIMS just to run with the CommandReporter tool. It's something obvious like user "commandreporter" or something. Log in as that user, create a report that produces whatever information you want. Then use the commandreporter command-line tool to run that report - you'll see it spew a bunch of XML out to the console. Next, wrap that command line in a program that takes that output from the command line and sends it over the network somehow - easieest way to do it is probably write some kind of web-based script so that visiting http://yourSIMSServer/theReportName.asp or whatever simply gets you that XML returned from the CommandReporter tool. Then write software that calls that URL appropriately.

 

I'm currently very busy trying to sort this exact problem out on our system, I'll probably move the data extraction tool to a small self-contained Python web server. It'll be a little while until I can get this all neatly packaged and sorted out, though.

 

--

David Hicks

[conedltd]

Hi,

 

Came across this and thought it would be a good method for us to link our Active Directory sync utility to SIMS. Can you repost the zip file again, as this version appears to be corrupt.

 

Thanks!

[matt40k]

Extract it to your desktop, then open it, it needs to be locally saved.

[conedltd]

Thanks for the quick response. I understood the instructions in the previous posts. My problem is that the zip file once downloaded will not unpack. On two different systems using winrar, winzip and XP built in, errors in the zip file are reported.

 

Can anyone let me have a clean up-to-date copy of this SDK?

 

Thanks

[matt40k]

Try this.

 

Remember, you can't distribute it outside of your school without expressed written consent from Mr Capita. You have been warned!

 

Edit - Removed due to request received. Anyone school wanting a copy should contact their LEA Support Team. We apologise for any inconvenience cause - Diello.

Edited December 30, 2008 by Diello
Request Received

[niki_yakov]

Hey,

 

I try to access sims database but cannot find documentation for it. Can you help with that?

 

Nick

[russdev]

You need to contact Capita or your local support team...

 

Commandline reporter stuff is free but the business objects requires a license which you pay for.

 

Russ

[niki_yakov]

Hi Russ,

thank you for your replay.

 

where can I find more info about command line reporter stuff?

Do you know some links?

 

Nick

[matt40k]

Ask your Local SIMS Support Team for the SIMS.net Third Party Reporting SDK. If your not a school then: SIMS partners introduction - Capita Children's Services

[niki_yakov]

Hi matt40k,

 

thank you very much. This will help.

 

Regards,

Nick

[ants1974]

I am struggling to find any documentation on the command line reporter. Anyone have it?

[matt40k]

CommandReporter.exe? Yes, you have to ask your Local support team for it or David Grashoff.

[vikpaw]

I am struggling to find any documentation on the command line reporter. Anyone have it?

 

There are quite a few examples in this forum on how to use it, including some useful apps built around it. I thought the docs weren't much use or at least only as useful as running the command with "/?" parameter.