penfold_99

@vikpaw forgot to add SIM.net Partnership exchange is built on SIF.

There are a couple of SIF agents for SIMS.net. SIF implementations were originally being lead by LAs for vertical reporting and LA wide learning platform integration and not from a school horizontal integration point of view. this is changing. LA SIF infrastructures cover 40% and LA independent SIF cover infrastructures are able to cover 100%. If an application already has an API then SIF enabling is straight forward. We SIF enabled Oliver in 10 days by using their API.

The only obstacles to SIF is supplier support, we have written SIF agent where needed and have been talking to suppliers regarding adopting SIF. When talking to suppliers the driver is now having to support 2 new MIS in the form of progresso and aspen. Progresso has a SIF agent but aspen doesn't yet. We also need schools to talk to their suppliers about SIF integration and when there will be support. Is SIF the only answer, well yes and no. If you just want a common data model then no, there are others CTFs but these may not contain the required information, if you are wanting to keep multiple data sources in sync such as MIS, library system, learning platform, cashless catering with the potential for update from any system then SIF is the only answer.

SIF is able to do this through XML filtering.

That is mainly due to how (for example) sims permissions work and how they roughly relate to data items. To gain access to one data item for example teacher role (which is in their contract) you need personnel manager rights. Which gives access to most system don't need. You could go down the custom permission but that would in increase possible support issues after MIS upgrades

For example if an application only requires details for a sub set of students such as 6th form, SEN, they should only have access to those students. Most system grant access to all students irrespective of what data the application requires. Context is a tricky thing to implement successfully between application as its dependant on the needs of the user.

There are two types of authentication application and user. One of the key things to understand is where the system boundaries are between users and data. Application to application integration extends this boundary outside of the normal boundary of the school or La network, but the relationship between users and data doesn't change. One key thing to remember is the requirement for dual authentication only applies in a few use cases and mainly down to the type of data being accessed. The government clarified this in relation to parents/guardians, with online reporting the parent has access to data normally covered by IL2 but due to the cost of rolling out dual authentication they advised it wasn't required as only a small new of records were allowed to be accessed per login. One of the key things MIS's should do but currently don't (I haven't seen anything that does) is scope which students an application access.

Lucky I do. Drum roll........ And the answer is SIF. SIF allows for secure data transfer between applications plus it doesn't matter if the MIS is in house and the other application is hosted externally, vice versa or both remote. connections are secured by client ssl certificate authentication.

Looks like Capita now own Northern Ireland, as Northgate won the BSF style bid to refresh their IT and SIMS.net was the only MIS that was going to be used.

Which version of Moodle are you on? Is "Form to download for year 12" the section name? If not it wont change the what is displayed in the navigation block.

I would only use IPSCA if you had to as they have had issues with browsers supporting their certificates.

Is the position an exams officer? Exams in sims and pretty straight forward and the help guide is pretty useful and quick to pick up. If the positions is exams officer everything out side of sims is tricker to handle than the bits in sims.

What is your classification of high end? Expensive? SIF can be a low cost option, happy to have a conversation about it if it would help?

@CyberNerd. Have a look at this plugin, https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=local_externalzip It puts the option back.

You can always force moodle to use an external zip application under Administration > Server > System Paths, you can set the path the zip executable (if installed) On linux it would be /usr/bin/zip On Windows it would be c:\program files\gnuwin32\bin\zip.exe

What is max_post_size set in your php config? I could be timeout on upload, have a look at execution timeout.

There is a massive difference between 1.9 themes and 2.0 but once you get your head round how 2.0 themes are constructed is it straight forward (there are still the odd quirks buried in there). I would have a look at how the standard theme is constructed and copy and rename the folder and tweak the css from there. chrome is very helpful in testing css changes.

We bought the mother-in-law a kindle fire hd for xmas and she absolutely loves it. Its tied to amazon but with a simple option you can hook it into google play. I have been able to sync photos from her samsung mobile to her kindle via the amazon cloud. The screen is excellent for reading and big enough to watch iplayer. tvcatchup works but you cant currently get 4od or 5 on demand as adobe have dropped android flash support and they require a newer version.

A providing SIF agent (GroupCall) will only make data avaliable in the SIF open standard. A SIF agent (ZILink) will then subscribe to this information via a Zone Integration Server (ZIS). ZiLink is in two parts, one part is a set of plugins that are installed in to moodle and the second is a hosted sif infrastructure that connects to the plugins via moodle standard web services and pushes data retrieved from your mis via sif, all the data transferred is secured with SSL certificates. I can give a more detailed explanation of how SIF works if you would like? If you just pm some contact details.

GroupCall Xporter SIF will get you data from SIMS.net/Facility CMIS in SIF format but won't put it into moodle, you would also need ZiLink for Moodle which will take the data and can push it into a development and a live moodle. ZiLink for Moodle also include the GroupCall Xporter SIF and a Zone on a ZIS that handles the communication between the two. (for clarity we are the authors of ZiLink for Moodle and AFAIK the only provider of SIF based Moodle Integration, if there were others I would have covered them in this post)

Which SIF based solution have you been looking in to?

If you do a little digging, i wouldn't touch with 20ft barge poll. I looked up who registered the domain they have protected it with WhoisGuard but if you do a search of the address listed you get the following article about credit card fraud linked to www.scamwarners.com • View topic - wefeminist.com , Uses stolen Credit Card Numbers

This is we're we opted for, allows quick access to the rest of London for a few beers.

It's probably come about due to the upcoming change in the law over fair copyright. It probably let you only copy the whole album to another device instead of individual albumn only tracks.

It depends if the parent company see the division as core or non core, if the company see the division as non core (which I think the case is here as Serco Learning was the only software only division in Serco Group's portfolio ) they will see at the right price. ACS are a software house so it makes sense for the to buy Serco Learning, they are synergies between both companies, so instead of them having to buy in IGate (Developers of Progresso) they can do it themselves.