Hi all,
If you'd like to check out the current status of SchoolTool
on your
fresh Hardy install (or your old Gutsy), we've got a fresh
set of
packages, so that once again, SchoolTool is only an apt-get
(well and
a 'sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list) away. Release notes and
install
instructions follow.
--Tom
SchoolTool Spring 2008 (Hardy) Release Notes
============================================
The Spring 2008 release of SchoolTool is the final snapshot
or "alpha"
release of SchoolTool prior to SchoolTool 1.0, scheduled for
April
2009. The next major release will be SchoolTool 1.0 beta,
in October
2008. As an alpha snapshot, the Spring 2008 release is
incomplete,
but provides an update on the current status of the
project.
Of particular note is the implementation of a complete
build/package/distribution tool chain via Launchpad.net
which allows
non-technical users of Ubuntu Linux to have a running
student
information and calendaring system with a few simple
commands, and
which automatically builds and pushes software updates via
Ubuntu's
package manager.
This release includes:
* Calendar -- SchoolTool's calendaring features have been
further
refined. SchoolTool provides web-based and iCalendar
compliant
calendaring services, including a school-wide shared
calendar and
individual calendars for persons, groups and resources, such
as the
library or a computer lab. We provide unique integration
for a wide
range of school timetables, including rotating schedules.
* Resource Booking -- Integrated into our calendar are tools
to find
available shared resources within a school and manage
reservations.
* Journal -- An integrated gradebook and attendance log of
the style
used by classroom teachers in Eastern Europe. The journal
allows a
teacher to assign each student a score or indicate an
absence for each
meeting of a section. The journal uses AJAX to quickly
update
individual scores without refreshing the entire page. The
Journal
will be the basis of SchoolTool's attendance system.
* Demographics -- By default, SchoolTool now tracks a small
set of
data about each student. We've worked on making this
extensible and
customizable, and future releases will have a more
comprehensive
default demographics schema.
* Navigation -- SchoolTool's navigation paradigm has been
redesigned
for much greater ease of use.
Coming attractions: in addition to the above components, we
are
currently working with schools to develop and test an
"American style"
gradebook, a competency tracking system (CanDo), and an
intervention
tracking and narrative report system. These tools will
appear in
future "core" SchoolTool releases or as add-on
components. We will
also be creating many web and .pdf reports for all this
data.
Administrative features:
* Installation and updating via Ubuntu package management.
* Proper init scripts for controlling startup/shutdown.
* Installation conforms to Debian practices; files are in
standard locations.
* Custom access control policy for SchoolTool allocates
permissions
based on group membership or relationships.
* Access control partially customizable through the web.
* Automatic generation of large-scale sample data for
testing.
* Data import through CSV files or custom Python scripts
(LDAP and CAS
single sign on support under development).
* Server control and database maintenance via the web.
Infrastructure:
* Uses Ubuntu package-managed Python 2.4, Zope 3.4 and
Paste.
* Full i18n and unicode support throughout. Existing
translations are
out of date, but will be updated in coming months via
Rosetta on
Launchpad.net.
* SchoolTool is now a WSGI application, allowing the use of
any
WSGI-compliant web server, including Apache with mod_wsgi,
and WSGI
middleware.
Backward compatibility: Unfortunately, SchoolTool 2008 is
NOT
compatible with previous SchoolTool Calendar and SchoolBell
releases.
Given the long delay between releases, there were extensive
internal
changes not only to SchoolTool itself, but also to Zope 3,
which
rendered backward compatibility support quite expensive.
Given our
limited development resources and the small size of the
legacy
SchoolTool userbase, we reluctantly decided not to attempt
to support
backward compatibility.
Forward compatibility: Given that this is an alpha release,
which
should not be trusted in production use, we may not support
full
forward compatibility to October's beta release. We have to
focus on
completing the basic feature set. From that point on, we
will support
forward compatibility into production versions of SchoolTool
1.0.
Installation:
For the forseeable future we are only supporting deployment
on Ubuntu
Linux (currently, Gutsy and Hardy). Since we aim to
support
installation by school personnel, we need to require a
relatively
controlled environment that we understand intimately. In
2008, it is
usually easier to install Ubuntu on a server or virual
machine than to
manually install and maintain the host of libraries required
by
SchoolTool on a system where they aren't under package
management.
1) Add SchoolTool's Launchpad PPA to your Software Sources.
Either manually edit /etc/apt/sources.list or go to the
System menu,
select Software Sources and select the Third-Party Software
tab.
Add these lines:
If you're running gutsy:
deb htt
p://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy
main
deb-src htt
p://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy
main
If you're running hardy:
deb htt
p://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy
main
deb-src htt
p://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy
main
2) Update your software list.
Either type "sudo apt-get update" in a Terminal
or, if you've got the
Synaptic package manager installed, go to System >
Administration >
Synaptic Package Manager, launch it, and click
"Reload."
3) Install schooltool-2008
Either type "sudo apt-get install schooltool-2008"
in a terminal (and
answer "y" to the subsequent questions), or in
Synaptic search for
"schooltool-2008", select it for installation, and
hit "Apply."
If all goes well, many, many small Zope components will be
installed
and you'll have a SchoolTool server running on http://localhost:7080.
The login is "manager" and the default password is
"schooltool".
--
edubuntu-devel mailing list
edubuntu-devel lists.ubuntu.com
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-devel
|