report writing software

[Evan Ingram]

Hi all,

was wondering if anyone could give me some advice / recommendations on open source report writing software. Whats out there, how reliable it is etc.


thanks
~Evan

[Stuart Johnson]

On Tue, 2007-02-27 at 14:57 +0000, Evan Ingram wrote:
> was wondering if anyone could give me some advice / recommendations on
> open source report writing software. Whats out there, how reliable it
> is etc.

Hi Evan,

I can point you at two possibilities:

ClaSS http://www.laex.org/class

and

FreeMIS http://freemis.net/

Both started out as report writing systems - and as needs must they have
both gone on to be so much more. Both are still in use after two-three
years in their respective schools and are quite happily handling all the
reporting the national curriculum can throw at them.

I know more about ClaSS as its become my full-time job; its now in use
in probably a dozen schools, the reports are highly customisable, it can
work with a statement bank, and all the teachers I speak with say nice
things about it.

Give them both a look. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions.

Regards,

stuart

--
S T Johnson
s...@laex.org
http://www.laex.org/stuart/

[Tom Hoffman]

By "report writing" do you mean "laying out a report with the data
coming from elsewhere?"

If you know Python, ReportLab does a good job: http://reportlab.org/

--Tom

[Evan Ingram]

On 2/28/07, Stuart Johnson <s...@laex.org> wrote:

On Tue, 2007-02-27 at 14:57 +0000, Evan Ingram wrote:
> was wondering if anyone could give me some advice / recommendations on
> open source report writing software. Whats out there, how reliable it
> is etc.

Hi Evan,

I can point you at two possibilities:

ClaSS http://www.laex.org/class

and

FreeMIS http://freemis.net/

Both started out as report writing systems - and as needs must they have
both gone on to be so much more. Both are still in use after two-three
years in their respective schools and are quite happily handling all the
reporting the national curriculum can throw at them.

I know more about ClaSS as its become my full-time job; its now in use
in probably a dozen schools, the reports are highly customisable, it can
work with a statement bank, and all the teachers I speak with say nice
things about it.

This is the kind of thing im after. Looks like theres a lot more to it than just reports but i will take a look at it, thanks.
 

[John Ingleby]

Andrew Evans has blogged a summary of the recent SIFA UK meeting that
was held at Dunchurch near Rugby on 6 & 7 March:

http://industry.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=28839&page=1628&catID=1735

Notably further proof of concept work is going to be carried out across
Birmingham schools.

Any SF-UK people likely to be involved in this?

John
****