Re: Gradebook definition - first try

[Micah Yoder <LYoder@cyberis.net>]

Tim Wilson wrote:

> We need a way to create customized reports. For example, we just finished
> mid-quarters at my school. All students who are currently getting a D or
> lower get a report mailed home from the school. I would like to create a
> "mid-quarter" report that would automatically generate a report in a
> particular format for those students getting <= a D in all of my current
> courses. The report, once created, could be saved for later use. This
> would be a huge time saver. Also, some sort of batch printing is a must. I
> shouldn't have to open each file, generate, and print the mid-quarter
> reports one at a time. Instead, I could simply choose for which courses
> (or sections) I'd like to create a given report and have the computer do
> all of the work.

That opens up a whole new can of worms, but I agree it's needed.  Over
on the 'Doze side I've used Crystal Reports, which can do exactly what
you said.  Unfortunately, there's nothing like that for Linux that I
know of.

What we could do fairly easily is make a Perl template to select and
iterate through data and print what you want.  It should be fairly easy
for any competent computer person to modify it to specific needs.  But
it won't win any usability awards.

We're starting to rack up enough projects already, but what about a
graphical report generator like Crystal Reports?  That would go a long
way to legitimizing business use of Linux.  It should have many data
sources - XML, any RDBMS, etc.  If we write the whole thing in Perl (or
maybe C with embedded Perl), we could easily use Perl as a language for
conditional report features.  Of course, simple conditional expressions
would not need that.  We don't need to program to check if grade <= 'D'.

I think the hardest part of writing such a program would be the GUI and
editor parts, and perhaps we could pull most of that from one of the
GNOME word processors when they're closer to being done.