[sims] Edit Multiple Templates

[myarnell]

Hi all

 

I am new to SIMS and have been told to add a particular piece of information (Pupil Premium Indicator) to all marksheets. I can change each template individually but surely there is a way to change multiple templates.

 

The templates are set up as Year 7 Art, Year 8 Art etc.

 

Mark

[LosOjos]

Hi all

 

I am new to SIMS and have been told to add a particular piece of information (Pupil Premium Indicator) to all marksheets. I can change each template individually but surely there is a way to change multiple templates.

 

The templates are set up as Year 7 Art, Year 8 Art etc.

 

Mark

 

You would think so, but unfortunately not; it's a manual task

 

If you're tech savvy, you can export templates to XML, edit them and re-import them, so some tasks can be sped up (got to be extremely careful though, you can quickly mess up your DB this way if you make a mistake!). However even that option won't help here as the 'Additional Student Info' columns aren't included in the export.

[myarnell]

Blimey... I thought I was missing something. I am going to learn about XML so I can write a program to edit outside of SIMS for future stuff.

 

I realise I am playing with fire here.

[LosOjos]

Blimey... I thought I was missing something. I am going to learn about XML so I can write a program to edit outside of SIMS for future stuff.

 

I realise I am playing with fire here.

 

Yes I've had a similar project in mind for some years now - never the time!

 

In my mind, the ideal system you'd simply describe your template, pick your courses for it and it'd generate all aspects/resultsets/templates for you. Changing would mean changing the master template only.

 

One day maybe

 

Just be very careful around IDs - I forgot to change the ID on some templates once, ended up replacing a load of existing templates with the wrong ones!

Edited September 15, 2015 by LosOjos

[bobsmith]

I sent an email with two screenshots showing staff how to do this themselves, in the long run I feel this is a better solution as marksheets can get very crowded with all the aspect columns and then all the potential additional columns.

 

When I arrived here somebody had done what you've been asked to do, there were at least 5 additional columns on marksheets and staff were struggling to see the important (data entry!) columns in all the mess on screen.

 

If you want the master template hierarchy you want to look at CMIS rather than SIMS, marksheets used to take me no time at all as you only had to set up one plus the exceptions for the subjects that used a different format.