[sims] PHP and commandreporter.exe

[Tim158]

Hi there,

 

I have an excellent new PHP/mySQL-based reward system for my school that I would to integrate with SIMS. To start, I've installed a web server (IIS) on the same server (windows 2008) as SIMS. PHP is working fine so I run the following code in an attempt to get lots of XML on the web page I am looking at.

 

$output = shell_exec(escapeshellarg("c:/Program Files (x86)/SIMS/SIMS .net/CommandReporter.exe")." /USER:joebloggs /PASSWORD:joebloggs /REPORT:TimTest 2>&1");

echo "".$output."";

 

This produces the following output and error:

 

SIMS.net Command Line Report Exporting Utility 7.60 Copyright © Capita Education Services 2006. All rights reserved. Logging into to SIMS.net as user joebloggs Getting reports for user joebloggs Report 'TimTest' found.

Error Loading Report. Reason :The type initializer for 'SIMS.Processes.DocumentServers' threw an exception.

 

 

I had a brief look at the way Moodle interacts with SIMS but its like a sledgehammer is being used to crack an egg (does it really need to be that messy?). A simple solution is what I am after, but any solution will do. I've spent about a week on this problem and I welcome anything that may be of help. I'm sure Capita could tell me the answer but I don't fancy their £1,000 per day tech support

 

Tim

[graym]

Hi there,

 

I have an excellent new PHP/mySQL-based reward system for my school that I would to integrate with SIMS. To start, I've installed a web server (IIS) on the same server (windows 2008) as SIMS. PHP is working fine so I run the following code in an attempt to get lots of XML on the web page I am looking at.

 

$output = shell_exec(escapeshellarg("c:/Program Files (x86)/SIMS/SIMS .net/CommandReporter.exe")." /USER:joebloggs /PASSWORD:joebloggs /REPORT:TimTest 2>&1");

echo "".$output."";

 

This produces the following output and error:

 

SIMS.net Command Line Report Exporting Utility 7.60 Copyright © Capita Education Services 2006. All rights reserved. Logging into to SIMS.net as user joebloggs Getting reports for user joebloggs Report 'TimTest' found.

Error Loading Report. Reason :The type initializer for 'SIMS.Processes.DocumentServers' threw an exception.

 

 

I had a brief look at the way Moodle interacts with SIMS but its like a sledgehammer is being used to crack an egg (does it really need to be that messy?). A simple solution is what I am after, but any solution will do. I've spent about a week on this problem and I welcome anything that may be of help. I'm sure Capita could tell me the answer but I don't fancy their £1,000 per day tech support

 

Tim

 

Did you ever solve this? I'm in an identical situation.

[localzuk]

The way I did it was to run the reports as a scheduled task, then just grab those XML files as you would any other.

[graym]

I'm trying to avoid that because of the data protection issues of having student details left in an unprotected file. It appears to be somethig to do with permissions of the user used by IIS8 to execute the command.

[localzuk]

I'm trying to avoid that because of the data protection issues of having student details left in an unprotected file. It appears to be somethig to do with permissions of the user used by IIS8 to execute the command.

 

If someone has access to that server, then they have access to the data already, as they can just copy the sims database...

[graym]

The addresses in the sims databases are encrypted. I'll do that as a last resort, but I can't for the life of me figure out why running the shell command manually on the webserver works fine, but running it through the website (as the same user - checked in IIS) won't.

[localzuk]

The addresses in the sims databases are encrypted. I'll do that as a last resort, but I can't for the life of me figure out why running the shell command manually on the webserver works fine, but running it through the website (as the same user - checked in IIS) won't.

 

No they aren't. They are plain text, just like all the info in the SIMS db. Or at least, they were when I last looked 6 months ago.

[rpwillis]

It's probably having a problem finding the My Documents for the IIS user. Try setting Load User Profile to True on the application pool.

[zag]

Tried to do something very similar last term. There is a 7 page thread on it here.

 

In the end I gave up with command reporter. It seemed to me that Capita didn't want to make it easy to use it, especially in a batch way.

 

In the end we bought a piece of software called tasc insight which did everything perfectly including achievements and reports to parents/students for less than a grand.