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SchoolTool 2.6 Release Notes

Long-running tasks

Some tasks take more than a few seconds to complete, especially in bigger schools. Users were not able to use the application while reports were being generated. Downloads were timing out in as little as 10 seconds. Such tasks should be done asynchronously to allow users do something else, or wait for them to be completed if they wish so.

Celery is an asynchronous task queue that executes long running tasks. SchoolTool and its plugins now use it to do the following tasks in background:

  • PDF reports
  • XLS export
  • XLS import (disabled)
  • Multiple reports in a ZIP archive

Messages are sent when a task is completed. They are available from the Home page. A notification with the number of new messages is displayed near the person’s name in the top right of the page.

Server

There are now 4 processes, controlled by a supervisor daemon:

  • schooltool - schooltool web application
  • zeo - ZEO server allows many clients to use the same ZODB storage
  • celery_report - a celery task queue that generates reports
  • redis - a simple key-value database for celery

New make targets:

  • start - start all processes as daemons
  • stop - stop all processes
  • restart - restart schooltool and celery processes
  • rerun - stop schooltool and run again in the foreground. restarts celery
  • status - status of all processes

Redis server is written in C and needs to be installed separately. On Ubuntu or Debian:

$ sudo apt-get install redis-server

Instances have to be updated to run this version. If you run from a sandbox:

$ bin/make-schooltool-instance instance

Ubuntu package schooltool contains updated configuration files. If they have been modified, you may be asked how to handle the conflicts. So it is recommended to upgrade it in the terminal:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install schooltool

Answer Y (install package maintainer’s version) to all questions to get the new files. A backup of modified files is made with a suffix .dpkg-old, compare them and make the same changes in the new files:

$ cd /etc/schooltool/standard
$ diff -u paste.ini.dpkg-old paste.ini

Ubuntu

SchoolTool 2.6 is available for

  • 13.10 (saucy) from the universe
  • 13.04 (raring) from the dev PPA
  • 12.04 (precise) from the dev PPA

Additionally, there are daily builds from trunk branches of actively developed projects in the trunk PPA.

New features

  • Background XLS export
  • Background report generation
  • Message about finished background tasks, with download links
  • The rest of reports converted to the new style
  • SVG-based filtered/chart reports
  • Differentiate permissions of administrators, clerks, and managers
  • Read-only views for gradebook and parts of the school

2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

Final release for Saucy

  • Name order setting and column split.
  • Navigation inside School tab when non-active school year is selected.
  • Tracebacks can now be submitted to the correct project in Launchpad.

SchoolTool 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

SchoolTool Gradebook 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

  • Flourish-style report card and student detail report.
  • Update for the new journal that uses an attendance score system.
  • Split Name column into First Name and Last Name, allow sorting by either.
  • Used name sorting setting in gradebook XLS export
  • Sections in the report card should be sorted (https://launchpad.net/bugs/1154209)
  • Fix navigation in report card layout views if a non-active school year is selected, or school years title contains accented characters (https://launchpad.net/bugs/1234690)
  • Make default score systems translatable.

SchoolTool Journal 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

  • Respect name sorting setting to order columns, allow sorting by either name.
  • Initialize score systems container before adding new ones.
  • Order the scores in the ‘10 points’ in descending order.
  • Translate score system titles and options.
  • Journal attendance / grade months should respect the configured time zone (https://launchpad.net/bugs/1233995)
  • Update translations, remove unsupported ones.

SchoolTool CanDo 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

SchoolTool Intervention 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

  • Register launchpad project for the error view.

SchoolTool Virginia 2.6.0 (2013-10-10)

  • Respect name order setting for sorting.

2.5.3 (2013-09-17)

Saucy Beta 2

SchoolTool 2.5.3 (2013-09-17)

Bugfixes

Internals

SchoolTool Gradebook 2.5.3 (2013-09-13)

  • Fix report sheet links when a different school year is selected
  • Updated translations

SchoolTool Journal 2.5.3 (2013-09-13)

SchoolTool CanDo 0.8.2 (2013-09-14)

  • Add a view to batch-deprecate skills, skill sets and nodes.
  • Added field to node search table to filter by common text
  • Fixed Save button in deprecate skills view when there’s only one result
  • Changed wording and functionality of Visible/Active/Retired to Deprecated
  • Changed wording attribute to field in batch assign view
  • Fixed score student view for projects

SchoolTool Virginia 0.8.2 (2013-09-14)

  • Fix access to report with newer schooltool.

2.5.2 (2013-08-23)

Saucy Beta

SchoolTool 2.5.2 (2013-08-23)

  • Autocompletion in gradebook for discrete score systems.
  • TAB key in gradebook moves to the next cell.
  • Further updates to permissions.
  • Clerks and administrators now have appropriate access to parts of the School.
  • Fix failures when creating timetables with rotating periods and weekly time slots (https://launchpad.net/bugs/1214131)
  • Updated translations

SchoolTool Journal 2.5.2 (2013-08-23)

  • Fix student’s journal tab and view.
  • Used jQuery UI autocomplete widget for discrete score systems
  • Update Portuguese translation.

SchoolTool Gradebook 2.5.2 (2013-08-23)

  • Read-only gradebook and term reports access for clerks and administrators
  • Used jQuery UI autocomplete widget for discrete score systems
  • Updated Portuguese translation

SchoolTool Intervention 2.5.2 (2013-08-25)

  • Added Portuguese and Sinhalese translations

SchoolTool CanDo 0.8.1 (2013-08-23)

  • Nodes and skill sets can now be deprecated.
  • Allow clerks and managers to access skills and reports.

SchoolTool Virginia 0.8.1 (2013-08-23)

  • Clerk, manager and administrator access to reports
  • Added option for setting a year suffix for document ID and title

SchoolTool Devtools 0.8.0 (2013-08-23)

  • Add debugdb, an interactive database debug tool.

2.5.1 (2013-08-02)

Saucy alpha

SchoolTool Journal 2.5.1 (2013-08-02)

  • Split journal into three modes: attendance, scores, and homeroom.
  • Schoolwide attendance view
  • Homeroom attendance grades overlayed in journal attendance gradebook (where available)
  • Rewrite journal storage based on score systems.
  • Customizable journal score systems
  • Excused status, enter ae or te in the journal.
  • Score history
  • Only clerks and instructors can edit journals by default.

SchoolTool 2.5.1 (2013-08-01)

  • Differentiate permissions of administrators, clerks, and managers.
  • Scripts and styles for the new attendance features.
  • Updated translations

SchoolTool Gradebook 2.5.1 (2013-08-01)

  • Changes to scores systems, needed for the new attendance features.

SchoolTool Intervention 2.5.1 (2013-08-02)

  • Update permissions for administrative groups

SchoolTool 2.5.0 (2013-06-03)

Reports

  • Background XLS import (disabled)
  • Background XLS export
  • Background report generation
  • Multiple reports in a .zip archive
  • Messages about finished background tasks
  • Added resource library for filtered/chart reports
  • Removed Person XML reports

SchoolTool Gradebook 2.5.0 (2013-07-03)

  • Background PDF reports
  • Background XLS export
  • Removed one hundred total constraint on category weights

SchoolTool Journal 2.5.0 (2013-07-03)

  • Background XLS export

SchoolTool CanDo 0.8.0 (2013-08-01)

  • Background PDF reports
  • Moved in Per Student Skills Report and Skills Completion Report from schooltool.virginia
  • Added Student skill completion (by section) pdf archive report.

SchoolTool Virginia 0.8.0 (2013-08-01)

  • Background completion reports
  • Fixed sorting of completion reports
  • Moved out Per Student Skills Report and Skills Completion Report
  • Added section report links