Re: [Sheflug] Can open office help?

[Lesley Binks <lesley.binks@xxxxxxxxx>]

david wrote:
>>  
>> What format are the sims databases in?
>> Are they encrypted?
>>
>> If they are not encrypted, you could try sql and odbc to extract the 
>> required info to the required format.
> Databases are MS-SQL, but beyond that I don't know. When I asked about
>  accessing the databases directly I got a very terse reply from Capita
>  who pointed out that this was in flagrant breach of the license. Seems
>  a bit odd to me that the school can't choose how to access its own
>  data (they don't even know the authentication details for the MS-SQL
>  server) but there you are.
> 

I recently had to go back to 'doze for AutoCAD and found the licensing
thing very strange to deal with after all these years.
I have no idea about SIMS but Capita may be licensing you to use MS-SQL
in a restricted sense - that restricted sense being that you can't
freely make SQL queries to the databases - you can only use those for
which Capita have made provision.

If you get the data out in csv format then you at least have rescued the
data.  How any open programming effort will help the school at this
stage is the next question, but I do think it is worth pointing out to
the powers that be the free software that is out there - with a small
demo that actually works rather than a demo that does all they need.
I demonstrated OO this weekend and when people began to realise they
could save the money spent on an MS Office license and still get the
same functionality they became *very* interested.  Some of these people
were able to obtain student licenses of MS software but the prospect of
not spending over £100 on software seemed to appeal.

One difficulty I have found with sourceforge and freshmeat is estimating
 which of the hundreds of projects for any particular topic area is most
suitable in it's current state and/or most flexible in order to
accommodate the required state.

If you know what you want and are prepared to commit the time to test
bunny status, active development teams might find you useful.

Regards

L.




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