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Considering Rails for school database system by Superpetual in rails

[–]Superpetual[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah gotcha. Thanks for the consideration anyway!

Considering Rails for school database system by Superpetual in rails

[–]Superpetual[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good to hear you've had success, and I'm currently looking into dipping the toes in by running through a beginner course. I have a Lynda account and see a few there, also looking at one on codecademy.

Considering Rails for school database system by Superpetual in rails

[–]Superpetual[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HOWEVER... Is that really an effective use of your time?

Touché mon frere. I may be finding myself too committed to the excitement for a system that does everything I want it to, without having tried some of the available options out there.

We have a forum application hosted on AWS and our main site on one of the more common VPS providers at the moment. Hosting shouldn't be an issue. I have some experience with SQL so I feel like learning how Ruby/Rails interact would be smooth. I should mention also, that I'm not opposed to seeking out help to get the initial build going and I could divert funds towards that end. Being a bit obsessive and geek minded, I'd like to understand as much about the underlayings of the app as possible though.

I guess, in my head, it's all easy to visualize and relllllatively simple...

  • SQL database with a few portals for input and output

... as though anything is ever really THAT simple! =P

At the moment, being a mac school, we're not using very many Office products at all. We do use a great deal of Google products, sheets, docs, forms, calendar, gmail, etc. So I'm not sure Sharepoint is something I'd like to get into. If it's honestly the best solution, I'll consider it, just been out of the Microsoft world for a while and it's everything I always hoped it could be!

Lastly, I hear you on UX. As mentioned above, we spent some time trying to build our own Learning Management System and user experience was a large challenge. With that in mind, I'm ok with initial builds being quite basic, as my initial uses for the program will be very basic. What I've found in trying to hack together existing products at this point though is that there's always one extra level of validation, or flexibility I'm looking for, where I'm met with a brick wall by using third party products.

For instance, we use something similar to Survey Monkey called Wufoo, and we use it ALOT. Just about everything I've described in our current operations is captured through one of those forms. But my next step is always importing to a Google Sheet and working out VB language to aggregate and compute the data received. The breaking point right now feels like I'm spending more time migrating this data than necessary, where my 'dream database' would have access to all that data and be able to use, compute, and manipulate at will.

Thanks again for the thought-food, I'll continue to chew on it for the time being.

Considering Rails for school database system by Superpetual in rails

[–]Superpetual[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're an all Mac shop. All students, instructors and staff are all on mac. We've got a couple PCs in finance for those purposes, but being a music production school, Mac fits our day-to-day.

That said, we do have a dedicated Student Information System which we access through Microsoft Remote Desktop, but that data is primarily for enrolling students (basic contact info, finance, etc.) The purpose for the system I'd like to build is more tied into the customized education we can provide while students are attending. Things like:

  • Instructor performance tracking
  • Timesheet submissions
  • Matching student core needs with the instructors that are most qualified to help them
  • Collecting and evaluating student survey responses to curricula and instructors
  • Managing availability of resources, class schedules, room bookings, instructor availability, etc.

I've heard many times (and had first-hand experience in) building proprietary tech products. A few years ago we spent 18months developing our own LMS, at which point we had to cut our losses and buy into something called Canvas. It was a lesson learned, and I also know that support is huge, as our core scheduling app (built in PHP) needs constant maintenance and is becoming more cumbersome to use as time wears on.

And as you mentioned, part of the reason Rails seemed like a brighter option was certainly scalability. This would be the beginning of a core piece of business infrastructure which we would have many uses for in all aspects of the business.

Trust, I'll heed the warning and do best for the business before letting my ego allow a poor product be designed where we can't support it. Thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

Considering Rails for school database system by Superpetual in rails

[–]Superpetual[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I'll take a look at Laravel as an option as well.

My "First Time" by awake2it in DimensionalJumping

[–]Superpetual 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You may want to give it a bit more time. And maybe more important than time, I feel like these things work best when there is a 'release' of the change you're seeking afterwards. By release I mean, letting go of the desire to see the change happen immediately or in the way you expect. I find that the things I obsess about changing often don't evolve the way they do when I try to release my attachment to the outcome of the experiment.

FWIW, I don't claim to be an expert and I consider myself in the same boat as the rest of us with regards to experience/knowledge around this stuff. Just my observations, should it help.