Staff support alert

[Theldron]

A member of SLT wants me to create a program that when double clicked will send an alert to SLT and Head of House laptops when a student needs to be removed from class.

 

I haven't touched programming in 13 years, so what would the best programming language to learn to achieve this? I would like to learn several languages including a web-based language for some other projects I have in mind also.

 

How easy would it be to extract data from our MIS (SIMS) into this program?

 

My idea is the teacher opens the program either selects the teachers name, class room, and student (this data would have been extracted from SIMS) or enters the information manually into text boxes (probably easier) the teacher clicks send. This brings up a flashing box on the SLT and HOH laptops with the information entered.

 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sean

[joe90bass]

I thought SIMS had an alerting system built into it?

[localzuk]

I believe joe90bass is right, it does somewhere. I've never used it though myself.

 

To build this, I would use c# with MSSQL.

 

Craft a report in SIMS which would export the information you want, and create a little application that imports that data into your own database (you shouldn't access the SIMS.net database directly, nor do you really want to - its a mess in there) - you can then make a batch script which calls the commandreporter.exe tool to run on a periodic basis to update the data stored etc...

 

I'd combine the data from SIMS with usernames of the people logged in, so you can then find out which lesson/which room directly from their username. So, then you just have your client open on startup. Finally, have a button which submits the request and sticks it in the database.

 

Then have another client which is running on the SLT/HOH laptops which periodically checks the database for any unacknowledged alerts and display them on screen along with an 'acknowledge' button.

 

Simples.

[joe90bass]

Good to know my memory is still okay.....From the help within SIMS:

Sending an Emergency Alert

 

 

Click the Emergency Alert button on the main SIMS toolbar, which is available from anywhere in SIMS.

 

A confirmation message is displayed, indicating that the Emergency Alert has been sent.

 

Click the OK button to continue.

 

A message is sent immediately, via the selected communication method(s), to those people who have been selected as a recipient for an Emergency Alert.

 

Attached is a screenshot of the config page for alerts

Edited January 27, 2012 by joe90bass

[Theldron]

Cheers both ill have a look.

[jdoyle]

If you haven't programmed in a while, do you really want to spend time getting up to speed, developing, testing and then maintaining a single app?

 

Why not check what you have in place and see if it can be utilized to produce what's being asked for?

 

assuming everyone has email open generally, use MS Word/Excel 2010. Fill in templated data, Choose Save and Send, (PDF or Word Doc) with High Priority to a preset email group.

 

Always possible to use VBA to keep the Word/Excel doc within boundaries.

 

If you have Sharepoint 2010, choose Save and Send to Sharepoint and have Sharepoint send an alert by email/text to a preset group. InfoPath form as another possibility?

 

alternatively, if staff have mobiles phones, possibly setup a text messaging procedure.

[pete]

I'd say IRC, IM (say Jabber with AD auth) and auto-login when their desktop loads.

 

KISS. Don't re-invent the wheel just because you can.