Welcome to Open Administration for Schools - version 3.75


What's New in 3.75?

This version adds a new locker system that allows office staff and
teachers to maintain student lockers including searching and reporting
functions.

There are rewrites to most scripts to allow them to generate non
ISO-Latin web pages (with an HTTP header with uft-8 encoding). There
are also a new subject enrollments script replacing the others. There
are also updates on the Start/End of Year page with many rewrites
replacing the sprintf rounding function with a more reliable version
based on a perl number formatting module (Number::Format).



What's New in 3.50?

This version adds a new Pre-kindergarten report card system (or
alternate Report Card system) that has unlimited support for
objectives along with predefined choices for those objectives. This
system is integrated into the existing report card script, but uses
different tables for it's data. There may also be more than 1 teacher
for each subject.

The report card has also had many new options added to allow more
customization of the report card in schools.

There is a new assessment key for subjects like Personal and Social
Development/Growth where their assessments are different than other
subjects, since the focus is different. This new key system is also
available in the assessment addition scripts on the teacher site.

The attendance scanning system and attendance profile report have also
been updated.

The script for adding schedule (timetable) entries has been updated to
allow for both addition by teacher or by grade. The teacher method
would normally only be used if a couple of teachers in a school were
using this and no one else. Typically all grades are added to a master
timetable.

There is a new student timetable report to print student timetables
for any selected terms of interest.


What's New in 3.25?

The teacher site now may use authentication from the staff table. This
means that when staff are added (using a new staff add script that
generates secure passwords and also checks for them), they may
immediately use those credentials (userid and password) to access the
teacher site. They will still have to use the login button (currently)
to enter their password again to set their session values (ie. login
time, etc.). The staff edit script is also updated with password
security checking. The password requirements are set at the top of the
admin.conf configuration file (ie. for password length (min and max),
capitals and alternate characters, etc.).





What's New in 3.00?  

A new label printing script which uses customized label formats. A new
report card script that generates a single file for each student. A
new email script to automate emails to parents and students. Rewrite
of all teacher scripts to add new config script loading method. New
add subject enrollments by grade script. Several other fixes to the
HTML look and feel.

The only additional requirement for 3.00 is another perl module called
Number::Format.

There are no structural changes to any tables.


What's New in 2.50?  

A rewrite to parts of the fee system along with a new report and an
additional receipt number field in the fees journal.

Rewritten bulk reset field scripts (with one replacing many of the scripts).

Updated IEP system to support new Sask Learning 'impacts' requirements'.


What's New in 2.40?
Well, there _were_ several things... I just forgot to write them in here...


What's New in 2.30?

This version contains, along with many scripting rewrites and updates,
a new transcript system to print attractive transcripts for students
that will also track the student's progress towards graduation
requirements.

This version also contains a large number of rewrites of the main
teacher site scripts to better support session management as teachers
move from gradebook to report card marks entry, daybook, etc.

There are a small number of structural updates in tables to support
these features.


What's New in 2.25?

This version contains rewritten web pages for the admin and teacher
site.

The teacher site has a new 'single logon' which allows teachers to
logon and then enter attendance, enter the gradebook or daybook, etc.
All the related scripts have been rewritten to support this single
logon session.

The report card system has been rewritten along with the discipline
system. There are 100+ rewritten scripts.


What's New in 2.20?

This version contains a new transportation section on the Schedule
page to help manage student bussing and transportation in general.

This version also contains new Saskatchewan SDS scripting to
synchronize local school data with the provincial student data system.

Please see the Installation and/or Update Docs in the Administrator's
Manual.


What's New in 2.15?

More fixes for the Gradebook including updated reports with group only
reporting, variable font sizes, etc. This largely completes the
rewrite started in 2.10.

Completion of the Student Rubrics in the IEP system. This, also,
largely completes the Student Outcome Rubrics requirements.

New Unexcused Late report.

New Choice Chips reports, editing functions.

Teacher login functions (with session management) on main teacher
page. Login understood by gradebook; soon to be followed by attendance
and marks add, etc.


What's New in 2.10?

This is the Gradebook release with a very large rewrite to change the
weighting system into a simple to understand assessment item weighting
approach. It also adds session management to all scripts. 

There is also a force bulk update system for Saskatchewan schools to
force an update to Sask Learning at the start of the school year.


What's New in 2.05?

This is the Special Education release with new service tracking and
student outcome rubrics in the IEP module.  There are also many
bugfixes that were found that resulted from the large number of script
rewrites for the 2.00 release. There are no new SQL structural changes
in the main application, but the IEP system has some new fields and
there have been a couple of data fixes in the subject table (duplicate
idnums for 200-52 and 804-24). The fixes are in the utility
folder. The installation process is indentical to the 2.00 release.


What's New for Version 2.00? (Hey, it rhymes...)

This version now has timetabling features and includes export/import
support for use with the free FET (Free Evolutionary
Timetabler). These are located on the schedule page.

There are several rewrites of the gradebook scripts to support
constant group percentages. When you add or remove assessment items,
the percentage values of different item groups (ie. tests, labs,
homework, etc.) will remain constant. There is a new test clone
function to simplify the maintenance of multiple sections of the same
subject, etc.

Scripts have been modified to support new MySQL 5.x keywords and
tables have had field names changed.

Scripts have been rewritten to support a translation lexicon hash in
each. This will allow for OA to function in other languages.


What's New for 1.98?

Transcripts are now available on the report card page. They will
store information for multi-year retention and customization of the
transcript is available.

There is a new attendance scanning script which is based on points for
particular attendance reasons. Accumulated points will generate a
discipline entry and also create form letters for mailing home. 

The attendance system has a new 'per student' editing function (along
with search).

The SDS system for Saskatchewan schools has an updated course query
function that uses the new xml query functions. It also has a new
course enrollment synchronization script. It no longer uses the course
enrollment journal.

Metaedit has some new options for select elements to allow for leading
blank entries.

The gradebook has a new item entry format to simplify weighting and
group assignment.

There have been several smaller bug fixes in scripts.


What's New for 1.97?

Again some major rewrites in the gradebook area and also the
Saskatchewan Student Data System (SDS) to take advantage of the new
XML ver 2 Queries available. Several of the subject enrollment scripts
have been updated along with the main OA page and the export page. The
configuration script now requires a return address for the secretary
for return email from Sask Learning for enrollment update
responses. The metaedit script has been updated to allow for textarea
forms to have row and column settings and for 'Choose One' kinds of
defaults for the selection list types of forms. There are also sundry
other smaller changes, but this will not alter the basic
installation/configuration from earlier versions. The major changes
will come with the 2.00 release and later.


What's New for 1.96?

This version has many updates in the report card and gradebook
areas. It also includes some new fixes to the SDS enrollment function
and sundry other small fixes.


What's New for 1.95?

This version could be called the 'Customization Version'. It will
allow the addition of fields to the student table (and it's clones:
studentwd (withdrawn students), and prereg (preregistered
students)). The additional fields added to the end of these tables can
be incorporated into student enrollment, student editing, student
viewing, full student roster and student search by the use of
templates.

4 Templates allow the selection of any fields in the student table(s)
to be edited, searched, viewed and reported. Those that are not
significant to the school can be dropped from the templates (even
though they will still exist in the tables... but only remain null).

The gradebook has had several problems fixed, including the addition
of session management based on the CGI::Session module.

There is a new 'lunch attendance' function (and a matching table). 

There is a new teacher schedule viewing script.

There were several other fixes made.


What's New for 1.90?

There has been a rewrite of the report card script to move as many
configurable features as possible into a separate configuration file
for report card generation. It is located in the OA etc folder and
called repcard.conf.  As well, the school logo file that is included
in the report card can now be located in this etc folder, rather than
directly in the repcard directory.

The schedule table has be changed slightly and the scheduling
management tools have been rewritten to support the daybook.

An early release beta version of the online daybook is available in
this release also.

The gradebook has had some of the reports updated, and a class report
is now available. (although not complete).


What's New for 1.85?

This completes the updates for the use of PostgreSQL as a database
engine for Open Admin.

This version also has the new image management tools (early release)
and student images in the student search functions. It also has a
custom export function for student information and a workstation level
script to backup the entire database.

It also has updates and bugfixes in a number of areas including
gradebook and report card systems.

There are some additional features in the admin.conf file. There is
also a new image.conf to control aspects of student/staff images. As
well there are a few structural changes in the gbscore and dates
tables to support upcoming features.


What's New for 1.80?

There has been a modification to all scripts in order to use a single
configuration file for all virtual (or non-virtual!) sites. This
school wide file is located in the /school/etc folder at the same
level as the cgi and tcgi folders. It will allow schools to use only a
single site if they want, with different directories for teacher site
and main admin site (protected by different passwords, etc. of
course).

The PostgreSQL database may now used with OA, giving an alternate
choice to MySQL as the underlying database engine. However, this is
still an early test release for Pg support, so it should not be used
on production systems.

This versions has many other fixes, including several on the SDS
system and a new classroom registration journal that tracks changes in
class enrollments. The SDS class update script makes use of this new
functionality.



What's New for 1.70?

There is a new lightweight navigation system in place to help users
get around on the admin pages. The gradebook has had more updates and
features added. There are several other small fixes added. 

The move to a single configuration file per school is beginning, so
there is a new etc folder in the school folder that will hold the
single admin.conf configuration file. However, code does not yet
support this location, so there is not any need, as yet, to update
this file for current schools.

The latest version of APG (Automated Password Generator) should be
installed to support password generation for student records to allow
online viewing by students and parents.

There is a new file linked to the main page via SSI (server side
include). As long as your apache configuration does this (which I
assume is already active to do the date processing), it will include
an 'notifyadm.html' file. If the file is blank, then nothing
appears. However, by copying update notifications over an existing
blank file you can notify all your schools of updates directly (It's
in their face, rather than via email notifications). You can quickly
notify schools by using the 'oafscopy' utility to add this to all
schools on your central server.

I'll add something similar for a teacher site, but allow management
from the admin site, so that central office can notify teachers of
updates, etc.

When adding the gradebook code, make sure that you have added the
cookie variable for the gradebook at the bottom of the
/tcgi/admin.conf file. If not, you will have to log in continuously
since it won't remember your browser cookie.



What's New for 1.60?

I will try to keep the release cycle to no longer than 3 months
between versions. Currently we have been running between one and two
months for release 1.50 and 1.60. This will likely continue for a
short while as the family and parent-teacher scheduler are finished.

This version has the parent site script for viewing student
attendance, report card and gradebook information. It has updates to
the online gradebook. It has the current version of the SDS code,
which seems to be working successfully for enrollment and demographics
updates. However, I'm sure there will be other small updates. The
change log on the main openadmin site lists the other changes from
1.50.

I have removed the gradebook manual (a pdf file) from this version, so
it should be downloaded separately and copied into position in
/tadmin. This is to help out those with limited Internet connections
(I have seen numerous re-tries from some locations for download)
trying to download Open Admin for Schools.

---snip---- older versions removed....
