[sims] SIMS report to output students who have a birthday today

[cjohnsonuk]

I've been asked to see if its possible to show a "Happy birthday to" section on our digital signage. The easiest way I can see it is to get sims to report the names and for me then to "perl" these into a web page or rss feed that the digital signage software (Xibo) will pull down and display.

 

I just need to know a) how to run a sims report on a schedule (it has to be automated!) and b) how to get the sims report to default to "today" for the matched DOB filter.

 

If only I could do a "select name, surname, dob from 'students' where 'students.dob' eq %todaysdate% "

 

Any ideas appreciated.

 

(ps don't pick me up on my sql syntax it was just to demonstrate how easy it should be to get at the information in SIMS!_)

 

ChrisJ

[vikpaw]

SQL is possible, but there is a report built in that shows a birthday list, defaults to today and shows a list which you can filter by reg group / year showing days to next birthday. obviously you need to just show those with 0. we run an edited version for a weekly list, but it's done manually.

 

As for scheduled. Set up the report and you can use something like command reporter to run it with a script.

 

To use the built in scheduled feature you have to get the manual from Capita SupportNet, it may already be in the built in documentation on server but i don't think so. This describes the process in detail, including the setting up of a scheduled task to run the report for you.

 

Hopefully that is the easiest way and does what you want.

 

By the way, the default output was to excel i think, i guess that's okay for you.

Edited January 5, 2011 by vikpaw
neatness

[glennda]

would be interesting to here actually - never really thought of using Xibo for this but could be cool to have an RSS feed along the bottom or something

[MatthewL]

Just to butt in but if that was me at a school I wouldn't want everyone knowing my birthday, isn't there some breach of confidential information here possibly if been displayed on the board its their birthday?

 

Just a thought.

[vikpaw]

Just to butt in but if that was me at a school I wouldn't want everyone knowing my birthday, isn't there some breach of confidential information here possibly if been displayed on the board its their birthday?

 

Just a thought.

 

it's for kids, so don't they go around bragging that they are 7 and 3 quarters to everyone...? and bring cakes in. I know i do, add 30 odd years though.

[MatthewL]

I know but still I know I wouldn't of wanted my birthday spreading around when I was at school, just something to think off, some kids don't like the world to know everything about them.

[cjohnsonuk]

would be interesting to here actually - never really thought of using Xibo for this but could be cool to have an RSS feed along the bottom or something

 

Does that mean you use xibo too? Just installed it the week before Christmas after failing to get on well with Sedao/Image flyer.

 

If I get it working I'll let you know (via this thread.)

[cjohnsonuk]

I know but still I know I wouldn't of wanted my birthday spreading around when I was at school, just something to think off, some kids don't like the world to know everything about them.

 

That's a good point but its not a technical one. I'll sort out the service, they can sort out the permissions/implications/ DPA breach related issues. ;0) I've been itching to get a scheduled sims report running but not had a "Non essential" reporting task to try it on yet. Looks like this is my guinea pig.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the existing report. I'll mod it to output to csv, then parse the file with a php page to present it as an rss feed or similar.

[glennda]

Yeah I have been using xibo for just under a year - replaced all our old Mediacat's with xibo machines. Currently got 4 screens around the school and hopefully more in the pipeline.

 

I think its a pretty cool idea and if we can get it all automated would be great - i currently have a .htm file that uses javascripting to create the date and display it, then RSS feed at the top with BBC news then a few powerpoints in the middle!

Edited January 5, 2011 by glennda

[vikpaw]

can you get the sims report to output to html or xml so it's more usable....?