I have FMPro5.5. Would like to develop a school reporting system where
student details are entered, then the teacher can select a Key Learning Area
(eg English/Reading) whereby a list of indicators are presented- the teacher
selects the indicators that the student has demonstrated, This is done for
English, Math, Science etc. Then the teacher is taken to the REPORT card and
all those details are entered into the front/back page.

I am stuck at this point! Do I go flat database? Or try my hand at
relational? I have been reading as much as I can on this subject BUT
everything available is based around BUSINESS style solutions (invoicing
etc) which throws me off!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

In article <40ef6246$0$25458$afc38c87 (AT) news (DOT) optusnet.com.au>, "Pixeltoy"
<pixeltoy (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

It sounds like you only need a simple "flat database" (ie. just one
file / table) to hold records for the students and have two or more
layouts within that file - one for data entry and one for printing the
report.

I can't see any reason you'd need to have a relational database, unless
there's multiple classes / subjects that each student takes that each
need their own set of indicators. Then the easiest way would be to have
a Student file / table and a Classes file / table linked by an ID
number unique to each student.

Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Harry,
Thanks for your response. I dabbled a bit today. Yes there are multiple
classes eg: Class A1 ( 30 students), Class A2 etc
And then there are 6 Key Learning areas (English- Reading Writing
Spelling) (Math- measurement space number) (HSIE) (Science) (PDHPE)
(CAPA)
Each of these KLA's have numerous 'Outcomes' which students demonstrate
achievement via 'indicators'

Hence, Student A in class A2:
in English- Writing, achieved outcome EW2.1 (then 2 or 3 indicators to
match)
This is done for each of the KLA's above.

So, judging from your helping hand, a relationship file seems to be the
way???
File1= Students <child> <<student id>>
File 2= Outcomes/Indicators <child> <<outcome id>>
File3= Report <parent> <<student id + outcome id>>

BUT I cant get the outcome/indicator to comply to my theory. I am
reading frantically through LeSaux resources, FMPro books/Guides and
the FMPro manual. I am sure it can be done!!!!

I'm joining this discussion a bit late, but here are my 2¢ worth ...

Sometimes it helps to work backwards, that is from what the intended
format or layout needs to look like. What you want this thing to look
like as a final product may help give you a better idea of how to get
there. Does the report need to look like a bulletted list, a prose
paragraph, etc. etc.? Does it have to appear personalized? Do you want
/ need to use appropriate pronouns [he / she] and adjectives [his /
her] and possibly the student's name in the outcome descriptors? I'd
strongly suggest you spend a lot of time actually designing on paper
the format of your layouts before starting the coding. The clearer your
goal is, the more focused your efforts will be.

If you go relational, you are going to need a unique identifier for
each and every student at some time. Are you a school administrator? Do
you have access to the student's ID? If you are doing this just for
yourself, you might not need it, but if you want others to share this
database or export outcomes to some form of adminsitration software
package, you're going to need the student ID for sure.

Another question ... Does each student get a report for each subject
separately or do you want all reports for each student to be printed at
the same time. This poses its own problems. I'd suggest you create one
report for each student separately. This will help in sharing
information with colleagues and avoid a significant waste of paper due
to the way Filemaker handles breaking layout parts across page
boundaries.

These ar ejust some of the things that come to mind. Hope it helps.

Graham

In article <120720042133078940%pixeltoy (AT) yahoo (DOT) com>, Pixeltoy
<pixeltoy (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

You only really needs a separate file / table and relationship if each
student attends a different subject in Class A1 *and* another subject
in Class A2, etc.
ie. English in Class A1
Math in Class A2
Science in Class A3
That makes it easier if you also need to pull out 'By Class' reports
for the teachers as well as the usual 'By Student' reports for each
student.

eg. Student File
Student ID
Name
Address
Contact Person
etc.

Outcomes
Student ID
Class Number
Indicator
Outcome
etc.



A separate Report file isn't really necessary. All you should need to
do is print the report from the Outcomes/Indicators file which can have
a relationship link back to the Student file (using the same Student ID
field) to obtain the details like the student's Name.

Then all you need to do is find the appropriate student(s), possibly
sort the records by Student ID or Class, and then print the aprropriate
report layout.



*BUT*
If you only want the 'By Student' report then you probably don't need a
separate file / table and relationship at all. A simple "flat file
database" would do.

eg. Student Reports
Name
Address
Contact Person
etc.
Math Class Number
Math Indicator 1
Math Indicator 2
etc.
English Class Number
English Indicator 1
English Indicator 2
etc.

Or if each student stays in Class A1 for all subjects (a junior school
perhaps) then you obviously only need one Class Number field.

The only real problem here could be if you decide to expand what you
want to get out of the system at a later date.



Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)