Topic: Focus / Centre SIS installation

[johnhebert]

I work for a charter school where we currently have SME 7.2 in server/gateway mode and Moodle installed.
I have been looking for a Student Information System for our school without spending a fortune.
Most commercial products in this space like Powerschool, SASI, Rediker, etc are VERY expensive!
I am looking at Focus SIS (www.focus-sis.org), Centre SIS (www.miller-group.net), and OASIS/Anchor SIS (sis.akedu.us).
They all are variants of the same project started by a young developer named Andrew Schmadeke.
I saw this in another thread in the SME Server 7.x forum:

...As today is a holiday here in Brazil, I spend two hours searching for a SIS (student information system) for you.
I found http://www.focus-sis.org/ and I'm installing a test site to myself (www.abandonemicrosoft.net/escola).
If you'd like I can create an account and a school for you there.
When you have time, you can see/try what a SIS like this can do for you!...

Jáder

Jader, do you have Focus SIS running on SME 7.2 and if so do you have a Contrib or a How-To for the installation?
How did you install Postgres 8 and htmldoc which are listed as required for Focus?

Thanks,
John

[Jáder]

Hi

I'm sorry... I installed Focus on BlueHost ISP... not at SME7.2 server.
www.abandonemicrosoft.net/escola/ is a payed hosting service by bluehost.

I never tryed to put Postgresql 8 on SME7.x

Jáder

[Normando]

Postgres 8 in the wiki:

http://wiki.contribs.org/Postgres

[steever]

Has anyone tried installing OpenCentre from http://os4ed.com/content/view/30/48/ - it's an opensource SIS but it needs a postges database?

[steever]

I am willing to offer a bounty or donate AUD 100 for an RPM or good install instructions for either Focus of Centre Student Information Systems.  I am sure that many schools will benefit from this contrib.  Anyone interested?  I can't seem to get any further than installing postgres ...

[jcaseyadams@gmail.com]

The current version of openCentre has a fairly robust set of installation instructions that guide you through how to set up the solution.  Included in the current download is an automated installer for Windows that works flawlessly in all of our testing.  If you continue to have problems, we do answer general support questions via email at support@os4ed.com.  if you don't get the answer you need, email me at info@os4ed,com and I will make sure you get the help that you need.

Casey Adams
OS4ED Founder

[jcaseyadams@gmail.com]

In reply to John's first post on open source SIS and SME 7.2:  I am not familiar with SME, but openCentre ( http:/os4ed.com ) runs on all flavors of Linux to the best of our knowledge.  openCentre has been developed in partnership with the founders of Centre ( http://www.miller-group.net ) and is our attempt to develop an open source SIS and move it into mainstream use in education.  We have planned development cycles and will be releasing 4.1 in the next two weeks.

We have asked both the team from Anchor and Andrew Schmadeke to join us, but there doesn't seem to be any real interest to come together on their part.  For our part, we will continue to move forward with our development.  Our versions to date have mirrored Centre's development, but will likely move a different direction with version 5.0, which will come out later this year.

This year we will port the application so it can use any database and we will integrate it with Moodle allowing for seamless exchange of data.  You can view our demo at http://demo.os4ed.com by logging with admin/admin, teacher/teacher or parent/parent to see the different views of the solution.

After registering on our site, you may also get a free web demo to fully understand all of the features.  You may request a demo by sending an email with your contact information to info@os4ed.com.  Our mission is to provide quality open source applications to education that are viable alternatives to costly commercial solutions.  We give away a great deal for free, but not everything because we are trying to maintain a sustainable development path for our solutions so they can be used en masse.  We also provide help desk support, custom services, data conversion, etc.  for those clients who need those services.  Thanks!

Casey Adams
Founder, OS4ED