152 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
152 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
<!--startcut ==============================================-->
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN HTML header *** -->
|
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
|
|
<HTML><HEAD>
|
|
<title>SAGU, Free Software for Academic Administration LG #72</title>
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000AF"
|
|
ALINK="#FF0000">
|
|
<!-- *** END HTML header *** -->
|
|
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">
|
|
<IMG ALT="LINUX GAZETTE" SRC="../gx/lglogo.png"
|
|
WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="124" border="0"></A>
|
|
<BR>
|
|
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN navbar *** -->
|
|
<IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/left.jpg" WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"><A HREF="bright.html"><IMG ALT="[ Prev ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/prev.jpg" WIDTH="16" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Table of Contents ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/toc.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Front Page ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/frontpage.jpg" WIDTH="137" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/talkback/all.py?site=LG&article=http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue72/brod.html"><IMG ALT="[ Talkback ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/talkback.jpg" WIDTH="121" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../faq/index.html"><IMG ALT="[ FAQ ]" SRC="./../gx/navbar/faq.jpg"WIDTH="62" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="chung.html"><IMG ALT="[ Next ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/next.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/right.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" ALIGN="bottom">
|
|
<!-- *** END navbar *** -->
|
|
<P>
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
|
|
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<H4 ALIGN="center">
|
|
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
<P> <HR> <P>
|
|
<!--===================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<center>
|
|
<H1><font color="maroon">SAGU, Free Software for Academic Administration</font></H1>
|
|
<H4>By <a href="mailto:cesar@brod.com.br">Cesar Brod</a></H4>
|
|
</center>
|
|
<P> <HR> <P>
|
|
|
|
<!-- END header -->
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
|
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Cesar Brod</H4>
|
|
<EM>Cesar Brod got first involved with Linux in 1993 when he needed a "Unix"
|
|
that he could use in his computer in order to emulate problems he was having
|
|
in a System V based machine. Cesar has been in the computer industry
|
|
since 1980, working for companies such as NCR, BASF, Tandem/Compaq and ACI,
|
|
most of the time providing software and hardware system support for these
|
|
companies' customers and working with pre-sales. In 1998 Cesar decided he
|
|
had got enough of big cities and moved with his wife and three daughters
|
|
back to a very small city in the south of Brazil, Arroio do Meio, where he
|
|
had spent the best of his childhood in the late 60s. In 1999 Cesar proposed
|
|
his services to Univates, a University in the neighboring city of Lajeado,
|
|
where he is now the IT Manager and coordinates software development. Cesar
|
|
is also one of the coordinators of the Free Software Project of the State of
|
|
Rio Grande do Sul.</EM>
|
|
|
|
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<BIGGER><STRONG>I</STRONG></BIGGER>n 1999 I was hired by Univates to head their IT department. The major problem
|
|
they had at the time was their proprietary-software based academic/administrative/financial
|
|
system, which clearly would not be able to handle the data of the new students
|
|
that would be enrolled in the coming term. The easy alternative would be to
|
|
buy a proprietary solution, but the amount of customization that would be
|
|
required and the prohibitive cost of the software forced our community-owned University
|
|
to search for alternatives. Being a Linux user since 1993,
|
|
I was already thinking we could build a new system, totally based on free software.
|
|
A PHP tutorial at the 1999 LinuxWorld Expo, and some conversations with people
|
|
already using PHP were the necessary information I needed to produce a development
|
|
plan that was approved by the rectors.
|
|
<P>
|
|
In the beginning of 2000 we started the writing of SAGU, using the same
|
|
ER (Entity-Relationship) model used by the old system. From the beginning,
|
|
SAGU was conceived to have a web-based (browser) user interface, so the user
|
|
would be platform independent - we already had a plan to migrate the user
|
|
desktop to Linux. We started the development using the MySQL database server,
|
|
and as in that time, MySQL didn't have transaction support, we migrated the
|
|
development to PostgreSQL. As we didn't have previous experience with MySQL
|
|
or PostgreSQL we decided SAGU should also be database independent, so we created
|
|
a structure (actually, a PHP program) called common.php, which would handle
|
|
database connections - if we ever needed to change to another database, the
|
|
only program we would change was common.php. Later, after a visit by Mr.
|
|
Rasmus Lerdorf to our University, we decided we would stick to PostgreSQL
|
|
and created a new transactional/presentation base for SAGU and all of our
|
|
free software projects, called MIOLO, but this is another article...
|
|
<P>
|
|
SAGU stands for Sistema Aberto de Gestão Unificada, which translates
|
|
into English to Open Unified Management System. In a nutshell, SAGU automates
|
|
all the relationships between the students and their educational
|
|
institution, from the moment the student enrolls for the entrance exam until
|
|
after he/she graduates.
|
|
<P>
|
|
SAGU went live on July 2000. The first production version was developed
|
|
in less than six months by a group of three developers. SAGU subsystems try
|
|
to mimic the functions of the educational institution, so, it has modules
|
|
that handle the entrance exam (optical reading of the student answers, classification,
|
|
classroom assignment) the enrollment process (which courses the student may
|
|
choose for a given term, prerequisites), the academic data (grades, academic
|
|
history), financial and accounting data (payments, credits, scholarship, interface
|
|
with the banks and other accounting/ERP systems) and reporting tools.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Now, SAGU is being rewritten using Object Orientation techniques, and all
|
|
of the database transactions and presentation logic is going to be handled
|
|
by MIOLO (MIOLO is the Portuguese word for the inside part of a bread).
|
|
<P>
|
|
More information on SAGU, along with the source code, can be obtained at
|
|
<a href="http://sagu.codigoaberto.org.br">http://sagu.codigoaberto.org.br</a>
|
|
. Unfortunately, for English readers (most of you, I believe) most of the
|
|
information is in Portuguese. There is an effort on porting it to English,
|
|
being coordinated by Kaziro in Sweden, in order to have SAGU working for
|
|
some schools in South Africa - isn't it the true beauty of Free Software?
|
|
Kaziro can be contacted at <a href="mailto:kaziro@spray.se">kaziro@spray.se</a>
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
If you are in the educational area, you may also be interested in knowing
|
|
our GNUTECA project, which is being alpha-tested in one of our libraries. GNUTECA
|
|
is a free software for library administration, including materials catalog,
|
|
loan and collaboration system. It is compatible with library standards (MARC)
|
|
and provides a good migration path for users of the CDS/ISIS system to the
|
|
free software world. GNUTECA info can be found at <a href="http://gnuteca.codigoaberto.org.br">
|
|
http://gnuteca.codigoaberto.org.br</a>.
|
|
|
|
<P><EM>Cesar will be giving a talk about SAGU at the Linux Showcase,
|
|
5 November 2001, at 1:30pm. At 8pm, he will be hosting a BoF session
|
|
on Brazilian free software.
|
|
See <A HREF="http://www.linuxshowcase.org/">http://www.linuxshowcase.org/</A></EM>
|
|
</EM>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
|
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
|
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001, Cesar Brod.<BR>
|
|
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
|
Published in Issue 72 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, November 2001</H5>
|
|
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
|
|
|
|
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
|
|
<HR><P>
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<!-- *** BEGIN navbar *** -->
|
|
<IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/left.jpg" WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"><A HREF="bright.html"><IMG ALT="[ Prev ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/prev.jpg" WIDTH="16" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Table of Contents ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/toc.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALT="[ Front Page ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/frontpage.jpg" WIDTH="137" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/talkback/all.py?site=LG&article=http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue72/brod.html"><IMG ALT="[ Talkback ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/talkback.jpg" WIDTH="121" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><A HREF="../faq/index.html"><IMG ALT="[ FAQ ]" SRC="./../gx/navbar/faq.jpg"WIDTH="62" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom"></A><A HREF="chung.html"><IMG ALT="[ Next ]" SRC="../gx/navbar/next.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="bottom" ></A><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/navbar/right.jpg" WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="45" ALIGN="bottom">
|
|
<!-- *** END navbar *** -->
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
</BODY></HTML>
|
|
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
|