Importing Bookings from SIMS

[mattgrimley]

Hey, i'm just muddling my way through a HAP+ install (v6.4) and i must say it is looking awesome.

 

I'm struggling a little bit at working out how to import room booking data from SIMS.

What specific data format must the export be and should the room names in HAP match the "Code" or the "Name" from SIMS??

 

Any advice would be greatly received!

 

Thanks again for this software, it's looking great!

 

Matt

[nickbro]

At the moment it is best to use the admin panel and manually add the timetabled lessons in. The SIMS import button would need to be done each week, or every so often.

 

SIMS needs to export a CSV

 

room (as set in HAP+'s config), ?, ?, subject, teachers email, lesson year, date:lessonnumber

 

I think. I wrote it from someone elses SIMS CSV export, it it prob doesn't even work anymore.

[mattgrimley]

ahh, i see.

 

I thought it might import the "static bookings" area (i.e. week/day/period) rather than date/period.

 

I have tried populating the StaticBookings.xml file manually using a cleaned up bunch of data from SIMS, but it doesnt seem to like my data 100%. A couple of entries for week 2 in one room show in the staticbookings list and don't appear to have errors, but do not show in the timetable.

 

I'll have another play on Monday to see if i can get something more consistent and informative

I'd love to shift our ICT bookings onto HAP if i can - they are the bain of my life!

 

Thanks very much for the quick reply!

 

Matt

[TheScarfedOne]

I had this working a while ago, but Ive moved schools since - and Im digging around! Will hunt out the format I used - as Im going to need it again!

[mattgrimley]

Well, i made a bit of progress. It turns out the data exports from SIMS were a bit odd. Manually sorting the XML file works consistently.

If you have any thoughts on the report to extract the data, I'd love to hear them. I got an assortment of odd data exports when i was playing and unfortunately our SIMS support is via our LEA who weren't able to help...

 

Either way, even if i have to add the data manually, we are likely to use the booking system here. The end-user experience is tremendous

[TheScarfedOne]

Plus one here for the Bookings bit as well. The additions of the extra features recently (templated emails, calendar reminders [been there a while], multiple admins [thanks for that @nickbro ])make it an all round winner :-) Edited June 29, 2011 by TheScarfedOne
failing to type properly!

[nickbro]

The SIMS import option will be rewritten when our Dept Head finally puts the timetable into SIMS. Once I can get my hands on what SIMS can/cannot output I can write the code to parse it.

 

There may even be a new feature in HAP+ which will show your timetable, based on the SIMS info

[mattgrimley]

the report found in this thread exports the timetables in a really nice format:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/scripts/40387-sims-mrbs-script-available-2.html

 

It exports to a csv file in the following format:

 

Room, Day Name, Period, Class Name, Staff Code, Subject Code, Students.

 

with a row for each unique lesson.

 

For us with a 5 period day and a 10 day cycle, this yields (up to) 50 rows per room. I.E. This is not date specific, but the actual timetable for the rooms (perfect for the staticbooking.xml file).

 

The Sims Report was written by "McTedo" in the thread linked above.

With a little bit of modding, i can turn this into a nice set of "staticbookings"