[sims] Reporting in SIMS Help

[01hanstu]

Hi,

 

Can anyone help? I need to be able to export the students names and pictures from sims to a template document as we are making ID Cards.

 

Can anyone help. All I seem to get is either just their names.

 

Thanks

- Stuart

[ChrisH]

You need the output to be an rtf.

[Dancer]

If you use NT4 for photo reports

Nova has a photos folder that has all the student photo stored as bitmaps with the filename as admission number.

Depending what you need copy the files out and use a bat file to rename them

[01hanstu]

Thanks for your replies.

 

NT4 has been faded out

[vikpaw]

You need the output to be an rtf.

 

There is a built in report called Photographs, you can modify this to your own needs.

This will output whatever student details you want and the photograph.

 

There are many sample photo reports on Capita's SupportNet website that you can download and use or i can upload one of mine if you really want, but mine shows a page with 24 passport sized photos for a whole class, not much more use than the built-in report.

 

There's also a document on SupportNet to help you design your own rtf reports.

 

Lastly, depending on how you are creating your ID cards, (we use a program called card 5), there is a thread on SupportNet which describes a process of creating an SQL database that extracts the student info and photo and makes it available to the id card software in this case Card 5, you may be able to do similar.

 

What is probably best is if you can access the original source of the photos, from where they were uploaded into SIMS. This should be a store similar to that in Nova-T, assuming you bulk import photos into SIMS.

 

lettuce know if you need more help.

[Greg]

Download the advanced reporting training handbook from Capita, there's a section in there on making ID cards with photos directly from SIMS reporting.

 

If you want the photos exported then you can save a photo report as a web page, this creates a folder with the photos in, named with (I think named by student id no)

[LosOjos]

I have created a macro enabled access database that will extract all photo's and any other details you want from SIMS.net and enable you to put them in to a form template ready for printing (it was created with the intention of making ID cards so there's a template included) let me know if you want a copy of it

[kxv2020]

I've got a rtf template ... PM for more details.

[vikpaw]

I've got a rtf template ... PM for more details.

 

That's no fair. This is a community:

Share and share alike as my old Maths teacher used to say.

But, then he used to also say - never a borrower nor a lender be.

[LosOjos]

I've got a rtf template ... PM for more details.

 

Personally I found this route unreliable as you can't control the size of the image you get and it tends to just be a table full of images with very little in the way of customization possible, that's why I created an access database.

 

It takes the raw image data from an XML report (which it acquires automatically from SIMS when you provide a valid username and password) and converts it back in to a JPEG, placing it in the picture frame you want, sized however you want it along with any other details you want all placed in to a form in access, very customisable and easy to use. It also allows you to provide a default image to use if there is no picture available.

 

If anybody's interested, I'll post it here for you to try out.

[vikpaw]

I'm intrigued J'J'.

Our Card 5 ID card system is very odd, and at the moment uses an Access database. What i'd like to do is to be able to extract the photos from that. So i guess the reverse of what you do. Our first photo is done on that system and then i need to extract in order to put into SIMS. I played around with vb.net and blobs for a month but didn't get anywhere

 

as for the rtf - i've not had problems with size. there is a command that allows you to set the size, but i just fixed the table margins/row size and the large 1200 x 1500 images are nicely resized into the cells.

 

this way i can have nice large photos available for single printing - when we need to print an alert notice (e.g. medical) about a student, but the general class lists neatly fit on one sheet of A4.

[Greg]

Personally I found this route unreliable as you can't control the size of the image you get and it tends to just be a table full of images with very little in the way of customization possible, that's why I created an access database.

 

You can control the size of the photo in an rtf by either using a percentage or a size in pixels within the photo tag.

In the rtf, insert a table into a column on the page and you can tweak as required.

Edited February 16, 2010 by ChrisH

[enjay]

i can upload one of mine if you really want, but mine shows a page with 24 passport sized photos for a whole class, not much more use than the built-in report.

 

That would be useful here - the only photo report we seem to have fits about 3 photos per page, so is close to useless... Could you upload it somewhere for me?

[kxv2020]

Personally I found this route unreliable as you can't control the size of the image you get and it tends to just be a table full of images with very little in the way of customization possible, that's why I created an access database.

QUOTE]

 

You can control the size of the photo in an rtf by either using a percentage or a size in pixels within the photo tag.

In the rtf, insert a table into a column on the page and you can tweak as required.

 

 

That's what we've been using ... I have wrapped the photo inside a table in word which fixed and then inserted the photo into a cell with 60% photo option. Basically it!

[vikpaw]

That would be useful here - the only photo report we seem to have fits about 3 photos per page, so is close to useless... Could you upload it somewhere for me?

 

i wanted to check them and make sure they are usable in other schools, but take a look and see if they work for you. there are 3 different types.

EDIT: One where you choose the reg group from a drop down; one where you enter the name of the actual class code from timetable e.g. 7a/Ma1; last one does the same but for User Defined Groups.

 

i only very occasionally get an issue when a photo is malformed and much larger than the rest. it might be the case that my photos are just the perfect size for my reports.

 

if you get a problem let us know and you can easily modify the report template to include a line like 50% or something to reduce them all.

 

Hope That Helps

)

Photo reports.zip

Edited February 17, 2010 by vikpaw
typo + specify the 3 reports.

[vikpaw]

just thought, that UDG one is a new addition to my collection, it requires the UDG / ADG group short name to work, however if you enter the class code from timetable it also works, so it can supercede the basic non tutor groups report.

 

EDIT: not that it matters, i'm not actually using rtf, i think i modified the Word List Report...

Edited February 17, 2010 by vikpaw
addition

[john2k5]

This seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, any chance of posting it?

 

Thanks

[vikpaw]

This seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, any chance of posting it?

 

Thanks

 

It's attached as a zip file two posts back. Can you download it?

[DSkier]

I have created a macro enabled access database that will extract all photo's and any other details you want from SIMS.net and enable you to put them in to a form template ready for printing (it was created with the intention of making ID cards so there's a template included) let me know if you want a copy of it

 

Hi have been trying to create a phograph report with very little luck. Would appreciate some information and possibly a copy of your access file that extracts photo's and details.

 

Thanks

[vikpaw]

Hi have been trying to create a phograph report with very little luck. Would appreciate some information and possibly a copy of your access file that extracts photo's and details.

 

Thanks

 

What problems do you have? Have you tried the reports i uploaded?

 

It's best to avoid extracting data directly via SQL as will no doubt be the case in the access database solution, unless you have a test server you can use.

How do you get the photos into SIMS, perhaps you already have them on a disc somewhere you can use, most photographers supply them now.

[Stuart_C]

I've not tried anything too complex but found it relatively easy to knock out reports with photos using rtf templates.

[LosOjos]

It's best to avoid extracting data directly via SQL as will no doubt be the case in the access database solution, unless you have a test server you can use.

 

Just want to second that, but also note that my database does not extract data via SQL, rather it uses the CommandReporter tool to extract data safely.

 

Try Vik's reports he posted as it will be simpler to run it from SIMS if possible, but if you find you can't get it to do exactly what you want (I found it difficult to customise the output to my needs) then feel free to try my database: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4779199/SIMS%20ID%20Interface%202003.zip

[DSkier]

What problems do you have? Have you tried the reports i uploaded?

 

It's best to avoid extracting data directly via SQL as will no doubt be the case in the access database solution, unless you have a test server you can use.

How do you get the photos into SIMS, perhaps you already have them on a disc somewhere you can use, most photographers supply them now.

 

Hi thanks for the reply

 

I am trying to create id cards from a template on Access. I don't have a copy of the photographs I need, I would like to extract them in an Access friendly format including the admission number. I can get an RTF format but cannot get Access to open the format as separate records and attach the appropriate admission number. Any ideas?

 

Thanks for your help

[DSkier]

Thanks for the help

Downloaded the database and will give it a go!

 

DSkier

[LosOjos]

Hi thanks for the reply

 

I am trying to create id cards from a template on Access. I don't have a copy of the photographs I need, I would like to extract them in an Access friendly format including the admission number. I can get an RTF format but cannot get Access to open the format as separate records and attach the appropriate admission number. Any ideas?

 

Thanks for your help

 

It's a bit of a backwards approach, but if you download them all using the database I provided a link to, they'll all be stored in a folder called "CACHE".

 

However, the filenames will be the student's external ID (I found that guest students have no admission number, so used this to ensure all students were downloaded properly), but you can simply change the relevant column in the SIMS report you have to upload to the admission number and then the file names will be the admission number too.