system for absences

Question

I would like to know what should be a good option to implement a system like that:

The system will be use by teachers in a school. They can login and see a list of the pupils that they have in the current class/subject. In this list they could mark the pupils that are not attending the class, and some other options... The system should also give the option to parents to justify the absences of their childs. The secretary can access to print some reports related.

This is more or less the system I would like to create.

As you see, doesn't look so complex, but I would like to have an idea about the tools I should use.

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As I said before, this is not HOMEWORK, so I hope the next answers take this in consideration.

I'm developing this real system, but I'm confuse about what to use. I was thinking in mysql and php. So I would like to know, even if looks so easy for you, the steps to follow or the different alternatives that I should consider.

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UPDATE:

I'm talking with my tutor, and we will go to the company that provides services with the servers, so I can ask them what we need. So normally I thinks the best is to ask for a phpmyadmin (cos we already have sql server). Should I ask sth else that I will need or will make it easier? Greets

Answer 1

A simple GUI and MySQL Backend should suffice.

Create a List of pupils, put 4 buttons next to each pupil (there, missing, excused, late) and just store it in a database for each class.

Report generation isn't that hard either, just execute the necessary selects (something like: select pupil_id, count(*) from class where state='missing') whenever someone clicks the reports->[...] menu items.

Of course it greatly depends on which other specs exist, but since this sounds like homework i think this should suffice.

Answer 2

I would use a web front end, with a database containing tables for Classes (which contains the teacher), a table for students, a table hanging off that with details of classes the student takes, and a table for absence details.

You can then set it up so that when a teacher accesses the system they can see the classes they teach, then they select a class it will show the students who take that class. Clicking on a student's name will take you to page where you can enter the absence.

It's a fairly simple set up, but I've developed something similar and it works very well.

Answer 3

By and large there are no tools for developing a certain kind of application. Tools are graded by complexity of application, choice of OS / platform and what programming languages you know.

So if you are a Windows kind of guy you might choose to use SQL Server Express, VB.Net and maybe Visio. Whereas if you're a FOSS fan then perhaps MySQL, PHP and Dia would suit you better. (Of course many FOSS products - including the three I mention - are available in versions which run in Windows, so it is not necessarily clear cut).

This is part of your internship? If so, you ought to use something which is compatible with what your employers use.

edit

Okay, so your internship is with a school, and they don't do much in the way of IT. In that case, if your skillz are mad enough I would suggest you go for the LAMP stack, as it is cheaper.

I would be careful about looking to roll this out to parents. That will elevate your application to a whole new world of concerns: unauthorised access to citizens' private data is a big deal right now, so this will land you with a lot of complexities you do not want to have to handle. Build an app for the teachers only. Get that working. Then if you have time on your hands look at deploying it to a wider audience.

Answer 4

OK, so you'll need access from multiple clients, so web based would be ok. You'll need persistent data that is rather primitive. So you might use almost any persistence solution. A RDBMS would be the most common choice, but CouchDB or other BigTable'ish implementations would also suffice.

Other than that you're free in your choice. Java, PHP, Ruby, C++ use whatever you like. Mysql, postgres, couchdb, xml flatfile are all valid choices for persistence.

Without more informations it's not possible to pinpoint a set of technologies ;-)