School

[Tom]

Hi,
As a teacher in a relatively medium-sized rural school, without an IT
teacher I was wondering whether someone could tell me if the following is
possible and what programming languages I would need to learn in order to
bring this project to life.

I was interested in creating a password protected website which has a list
of students names who could be marked present or absent at the beginning of
the school day. Once this is done I would like a list of the absent students
to be placed in another file, accessible on the website under the current
days date, therefore allowing me or one of the other teachers to check past
absences (1 week ago, a month ago, a year etc.).

I was also interested in creating an automated lunch system where the
students at the beginning of the day can enter an id say firstname_lastname
and be able to select the foods / drinks they want for recess and/or lunch.
I would then like the program to tally the cost and inform the student of
that cost aswell as creating a separate file, which lists all the orders for
the day and when they are to be ready (either recess or lunch), which will
be accessible by the canteen ladies.

I was also interested in creating a section on the website which would list
where students are at the moment. E.g. It's Friday afternoon Period 4 and I
am looking for firstname_lastname, I could enter their name into a search
box and it might display "firstname_lastname is currently in Room 65, Senior
Science with Mrs Smith".

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

 

[Cameron]

Hi,
As a teacher in a relatively medium-sized rural school, without an IT
teacher I was wondering whether someone could tell me if the following is
possible and what programming languages I would need to learn in order to
bring this project to life.

I was interested in creating a password protected website which has a list
of students names who could be marked present or absent at the beginning of
the school day. Once this is done I would like a list of the absent students
to be placed in another file, accessible on the website under the current
days date, therefore allowing me or one of the other teachers to check past
absences (1 week ago, a month ago, a year etc.).

I was also interested in creating an automated lunch system where the
students at the beginning of the day can enter an id say firstname_lastname
and be able to select the foods / drinks they want for recess and/or lunch.
I would then like the program to tally the cost and inform the student of
that cost aswell as creating a separate file, which lists all the orders for
the day and when they are to be ready (either recess or lunch), which will
be accessible by the canteen ladies.

I was also interested in creating a section on the website which would list
where students are at the moment. E.g. It's Friday afternoon Period 4 and I
am looking for firstname_lastname, I could enter their name into a search
box and it might display "firstname_lastname is currently in Room 65, Senior
Science with Mrs Smith".

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

PHP could do these things, and the power of an SQL server would be
advantageous, and obviously although a person adept at PHP could
accomplish this in rather short period of time it would take someone new
quite a bit longer, for the password protected part you could use
".htaccess files" however, if you are going to go to all the trouble of
writing the rest then you may as well use PHP for that as well.

~Cameron

 

[PW]

This could easily be done with Active Server Pages (ASP) using a Microsoft
Access database.
The password protection could either be programmed, or you could use normal
windows authentication.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Cameron]

This could easily be done with Active Server Pages (ASP) using a Microsoft
Access database.
The password protection could either be programmed, or you could use normal
windows authentication.

HTH,
Paul

if I remember correctly aren't access databases extremely limited to
like 7 concurrent users, SQL is much better and there are many free
servers out there, if the school already has a system with Internet
information server running and has appropriate licenses then ASP is an
option, but PHP is the way to go for minimum cost, unfortunately it's
not quite as easy to set up as ASP (which IMHO is rather Quick and dirty
).

~Cameron

 

[PW]

if I remember correctly aren't access databases extremely limited to
like 7 concurrent users, SQL is much better and there are many free
servers out there, if the school already has a system with Internet
information server running and has appropriate licenses then ASP is an
option, but PHP is the way to go for minimum cost, unfortunately it's
not quite as easy to set up as ASP (which IMHO is rather Quick and dirty

Access databases are officially rated to work with 10 concurrent users.
What are the chances of 10 people using the application simultaneously ?

I've installed systems using Access database for a 24 store retail
franchise. I wouldn't recommend it, but the customer started with 6 stores
and expanded over 2 years. The application continues to work with no
problems so they decided to forego SQL Server until a problem occurred. Its
still going strong. But besides that, if you have SQL Server then thats an
obvious better choice. Then again, Access is far cheaper.

For ASP there are no licenses, all you need is Notepad. As long as the
school has W2k-Pro or XP-Pro, then IIS comes bundled with the operating
system.

ASP is as robust and professional as any other environment, such as PHP /
MySql. ;-)

 

[SpaceGirl]

Access databases are officially rated to work with 10 concurrent users.
What are the chances of 10 people using the application simultaneously ?

I've installed systems using Access database for a 24 store retail
franchise. I wouldn't recommend it, but the customer started with 6 stores
and expanded over 2 years. The application continues to work with no
problems so they decided to forego SQL Server until a problem occurred. Its
still going strong. But besides that, if you have SQL Server then thats an
obvious better choice. Then again, Access is far cheaper.

For ASP there are no licenses, all you need is Notepad. As long as the
school has W2k-Pro or XP-Pro, then IIS comes bundled with the operating
system.

ASP is as robust and professional as any other environment, such as PHP /
MySql. ;-)

Is the latter true? I dont think so. Windows servers need to be licensed for
the number of users accessing them dont thye? I'm not sure these days.

SQLServer is also *very* expensive. Even a "small" version costs about $5000
I think.

 

[PW]

Is the latter true? I dont think so. Windows servers need to be licensed for
the number of users accessing them dont thye? I'm not sure these days.

SQLServer is also *very* expensive. Even a "small" version costs about $5000
I think.

Windows servers can be licensed a few different ways. By processor(s), by
CAL's, and I think there are other methods although these are the only two I
have dealt with.

SQL Server is not really expensive. Approx $1,200 for standard edition.
But this is also subject to processor(s) and/or CAL's.

And then there also the SQL Server DESKTOP version which is called ummmmm
.... MDAC (I think), which comes with MS Office.

 

[PW]

And then there also the SQL Server DESKTOP version which is called ummmmm
... MDAC (I think), which comes with MS Office.

Sorry, not MDAC, but MSDE.