Building Computer System for Musical School with CSM Plone Krzysztof Gajdka, Wojciech Zabierowski, Andrzej Napieralski Abstract - In this document usage of CMS Plone system for building computing system in musical school was described. Keywords – CMS, Plone, computing system
I. INTRODUCTION The dynamic development of computer science in the last years caused that it practically penetrated to all spheres of life. Today it is almost impossible to imagine life without computers. Their ubiquity caused that they helps both science development and economic processes. Effective usage of computer science is very important in the part of life where processing and analyzing of data is necessary. That is why nowadays companies can not lead their activity efficient without implemented computer system. For a long time many enterprises uses computer programs. It used to be autonomic applications which operated particular departments of the firm and their only task was to increase efficiency of the workers. Such solution had few advantages: • It was cheap, • Effectiveness increased, • Low training costs, • Breakdown of any application didn’t cause breakdown of the rest applications. But in this solution applications weren’t logically related with each other. Every repeatable data had to be entered to all applications many times and drawing up a report was timeconsuming and sometimes impossible.
II. SITUATION IN MUSICAL SCHOOL Problems mentioned above was also related to workers of musical school “KWINTA”. They used Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word to register data about their pupils, teachers and instruments, to record payments and instruments lending. In this file any macro or function controlling weren’t defined and registered data weren’t related with each other – there were no common database. What is more, the same data was registered in few Excel files and then implemented in Word file. Because network wasn’t existed in the school, files were transmitted to all computers with usage of pendrives or floppy discs. It caused a lot of mistakes and misunderstandings between workers. Many times data were overwritten or duplicated and the same file had few different copies.
Figure 1 Unrelated files
III. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NEW SYSTEM In this case workers started to look for solution which would make their work easier, faster and also had such features like: • Easy development – in fact increasing demands and progressive solution implementation environment should have module building, • Service of external databases – data should be kept in one place to which different applications and system had to have access. It also should be cooperative with other common systems of databases, • Simple access to the system – no other additional software installation is required to be able to access the system, • System segmentation – system should have possibility to define access to some function for authorized person, • Possibility of putting multimedia elements – environment should provide multimedia installation, • Independent content creation – publication of content should be possible without knowing programming language, • Safety – access to administrative part of the system should be protected by login-password combination and access by Internet should be protected by SSL, • Template – issuing data with usage of predefined templates, • System management – possibility for users and authorization management should be also implemented.
IV. CHOSEN SOLUTION On the basis of analysis of above requirements and comparison of accessible on the market systems solutions it
was decided that the Plone content management system will be environment to build computer system for musical school. Plone is a ready-to-run content management system that is built on the powerful and free Zope application server. Plone is easy to set up, extremely flexible, and provides you with a system for managing web content that is ideal for project groups, communities, web sites, extranets and intranets.
Figure 2 Plone logo
Several the most important features of the system that determined the choice of this solution are mentioned below: Content Management • Manage content from any web browser (even mobile phone browsers) • Limited use of graphics in default interface for strong focus on the information and fast downloads • Undo and transaction rollback capability. Editing • In-browser rich (WYSIWYG) editor for editing any kind of textual content. • Edit content in any application (such as Dreamweaver or Word) without having to move content from server to desktop. • Can upload and translate many common Office file types: Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OpenOffice files, RTF. • Live editing - you can update the site from the site itself - no specialised tools needed Workflow • Built in workflow for editorial approval before publication. • Workflow is completely flexible and configurable through the web. • Different content types can use same or different workflow processes. • Content can be edited or moved during workflow process. People can create a document in "My Folder" and have it appear in the correct location on publication. Content Types • Comes with content types for common cases: news items, events, links, documentations, and more. • Easy to create new content types without any programming skills • Dozens of content types available as add-ons • Flexible metadata; comes with Dublin Core metadata as standard Searching • Built-in fast, flexible search engine • General search or specific searches (only on title, category, author, etc.)
New search indexes can easily be added Searching always shows latest information; no lag before published content appears in search results. Membership • Built-in flexible membership system • User authentication can use built-in database, LDAP, SMB, ActiveDirectory, relational databases, and many other systems. • Authentication is pluggable, so new authentication methods can easily be added. • User can be members of groups and groups can nest. • Single sign-on - prevents users from having to log on to each area separately. Security is controlled centrally. Security • Rich security model to provide flexibility and simplicity for common cases. • Scripts run in a sandbox, allowing site designers to create untrusted scripts. Presentation of Content • Powerful template system - based on tested, proven designs • Topics and Topic Map technologies enable efficient aggregation of content - management of content using a hierarchical topic system • Facilitates collaboration in editing and publishing Accessibility & Compatibility • Plone meets or exceeds US Section 508 and WAIAAA standards for accessibility. • Plone's interface has been widely tested in browsers on multiple platforms, allowing rollout in hetergeneous environments and confidence in public launches. Data Storage • Data is stored in built-in object database • Data can be stored in or accessed from relational databases, including Oracle, SQLServer, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Interbase, and ODBCcompliant databases. • Users add content, managers manage. Letting users edit and add content lets them feel ownership towards the intranet, and encourages content production. This in turn leads more people to use the intranet actively. • Easy to keep content updated, which again assures the value of the intranet Licensing Costs • Open Source • Add-on products do not have to be released under Open Source license. Technical Advantages • RSS exports of data for aggregation and distribution of information • Built-in webserver (will also integrate seamlessly with both Apache and IIS web servers), FTP server, WebDAV, XML-RPC server • Can be statically deployed for security and high performance • •
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Supports portlet technologies Modular object-oriented design based on the welltested application platform Zope and the Python scripting language Object database with full transaction support Plug-in interfaces to Oracle, MS SQL Server, PostgresSQL, mySQL, Interbase, Berkeley DB - and generic ODBC Powerful templating language that facilitates roundtrip design between designers and developers Supports distributed servers for added scalability under demanding conditions Can be used as-is, or as a base for future web publishing platforms Complete separation of layout, content and site logic - you can have several interfaces to the same information
V. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM The functionalities that make realizing tasks connected with leading the school possible are included in Plone system. They were contained in modules responsible for particular school activities. • Person – information about pupils, their guardians and teachers are registered in this module. Data implemented in this module contains personal data, addresses, telephone numbers and defined membership to the school, • Instruments – this part of the system is responsible for registering instruments, • School – module is responsible for registering information about schools. Basic information about school, workers (name, address etc.) and prices for classes are entered in this part of the system, • Timetable – timetable for teachers are set in this module, • Financial transaction – this module enable registering financial transaction, periodical payment counting for classes according to defined algorithm, • Lending – lending instruments are also registered. Different reports and notifications for pupils are defined in each module mentioned above which workers can easily print.
VI. WORKING WITH THE SYSTEM Workers are accessing to the system using internet browser and writing a server address to external network. To be register to the system they have to logon using their user name and password. According to authorization level they have access to particular modules.
Figure 3 Navigation menu
For communication between user and the system some assumptions were taken: •
fields required in data registering are marked with “ ”
Figure 4 Mark of required field
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when required data aren’t entered or wrong entered it is marked in red,
Figure 5 Mark of fields with errors
Information about results of work is also given by the system: • if operation is succeeded information on blue background is displayed
Figure 6 Information about correct operation
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if operation is failed information on red background is displayed
Figure 7 Information about incorrect operation
VII. FUTURE OF THE SYSTEM Implementation of computing system in musical school doesn’t mean to finish work over the system. After short period of time workers started to propose some new functionalities. Propositions worth of considering are: • inquiry desk for pupils – pupils can monitor financial transactions and communicate with teachers, • notice sending to pupils – in future it is consider to implement notice sending by electronic way (SMS, email). Creation of the web site of the school is also very interesting proposition. Thanks to WYSIWYG editor available in Plone there is no need to be familiar with HTML language to create and update school web sites. What is more,
usage of built-in mechanism for data control (workflow) will let control process of web sites creation.
VIII. BENEFITS FROM THE SYSTEM Building and implementing computing system in musical school “KWITNA” gave a lot of profits. Improvement of work, better information quality and faster data flow are the most important advantages. All of this was possible thanks to implementation of the system which collects, stores and processes data from all modules.
Figure 8 The new flow of information
In the system implemented in musical school data are entered once and available in others modules. Central storage of data allows for drawing up reports with usage of all sources. What is more, developing the system with proposed functionality will gain an advantage over competitors by offering services to larger number of recipients.
Krzysztof Gajdka, mgr inż. Wojciech Zabierowski prof. dr hab. inż. Andrzej Napieralski Katedra Mikroelektroniki i Technik Informatycznych Politechnika Łódzka Al. Politechniki 11 90-924 Łódź E-mail:
[email protected]
