new SchoolTool packages

[Tom Hoffman]

Hi all,

If you'd like to check out the current status of SchoolTool on your
fresh Hardy install (or your old Gutsy), we've got a fresh set of
packages, so that once again, SchoolTool is only an apt-get (well and
a 'sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list) away.  Release notes and install
instructions follow.

--Tom

SchoolTool Spring 2008 (Hardy) Release Notes
============================================

The Spring 2008 release of SchoolTool is the final snapshot or "alpha"
release of SchoolTool prior to SchoolTool 1.0, scheduled for April
2009.  The next major release will be SchoolTool 1.0 beta, in October
2008.  As an alpha snapshot, the Spring 2008 release is incomplete,
but provides an update on the current status of the project.

Of particular note is the implementation of a complete
build/package/distribution tool chain via Launchpad.net which allows
non-technical users of Ubuntu Linux to have a running student
information and calendaring system with a few simple commands, and
which automatically  builds and pushes software updates via Ubuntu's
package manager.

This release includes:

* Calendar -- SchoolTool's calendaring features have been further
refined.  SchoolTool provides web-based and iCalendar compliant
calendaring services, including a school-wide shared calendar and
individual calendars for persons, groups and resources, such as the
library or a computer lab.  We provide unique integration for a wide
range of school timetables, including rotating schedules.

* Resource Booking -- Integrated into our calendar are tools to find
available shared resources within a school and manage reservations.

* Journal -- An integrated gradebook and attendance log of the style
used by classroom teachers in Eastern Europe.  The journal allows a
teacher to assign each student a score or indicate an absence for each
meeting of a section.  The journal uses AJAX to quickly update
individual scores without refreshing the entire page.  The Journal
will be the basis of SchoolTool's attendance system.

* Demographics -- By default, SchoolTool now tracks a small set of
data about each student.  We've worked on making this extensible and
customizable, and future releases will have a more comprehensive
default demographics schema.

* Navigation -- SchoolTool's navigation paradigm has been redesigned
for much greater ease of use.

Coming attractions: in addition to the above components, we are
currently working with schools to develop and test an "American style"
gradebook, a competency tracking system (CanDo), and an intervention
tracking and narrative report system.  These tools will appear in
future "core" SchoolTool releases or as add-on components.  We will
also be creating many web and .pdf reports for all this data.

Administrative features:

* Installation and updating via Ubuntu package management.
* Proper init scripts for controlling startup/shutdown.
* Installation conforms to Debian practices; files are in standard locations.
* Custom access control policy for SchoolTool allocates permissions
based on group membership or relationships.
* Access control partially customizable through the web.
* Automatic generation of large-scale sample data for testing.
* Data import through CSV files or custom Python scripts (LDAP and CAS
single sign on support under development).
* Server control and database maintenance via the web.

Infrastructure:
* Uses Ubuntu package-managed Python 2.4, Zope 3.4 and Paste.
* Full i18n and unicode support throughout.  Existing translations are
out of date, but will be updated in coming months via Rosetta on
Launchpad.net.
* SchoolTool is now a WSGI application, allowing the use of any
WSGI-compliant web server, including Apache with mod_wsgi, and WSGI
middleware.

Backward compatibility:  Unfortunately, SchoolTool 2008 is NOT
compatible with previous SchoolTool Calendar and SchoolBell releases.
Given the long delay between releases, there were extensive internal
changes not only to SchoolTool itself, but also to Zope 3, which
rendered backward compatibility support quite expensive.  Given our
limited development resources and the small size of the legacy
SchoolTool userbase, we reluctantly decided not to attempt to support
backward compatibility.

Forward compatibility:  Given that this is an alpha release, which
should not be trusted in production use, we may not support full
forward compatibility to October's beta release.  We have to focus on
completing the basic feature set.  From that point on, we will support
forward compatibility into production versions of SchoolTool 1.0.

Installation:

For the forseeable future we are only supporting deployment on Ubuntu
Linux (currently, Gutsy and Hardy).  Since we aim to support
installation by school personnel, we need to require a relatively
controlled environment that we understand intimately.  In 2008, it is
usually easier to install Ubuntu on a server or virual machine than to
manually install and maintain the host of libraries required by
SchoolTool on a system where they aren't under package management.

1) Add SchoolTool's Launchpad PPA to your Software Sources.

Either manually edit /etc/apt/sources.list or go to the System menu,
select Software Sources and select the Third-Party Software tab.

Add these lines:

If you're running gutsy:

    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main
    deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu gutsy main

If you're running hardy:

    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main
    deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/schooltool-owners/ubuntu hardy main

2) Update your software list.

Either type "sudo apt-get update" in a Terminal or, if you've got the
Synaptic package manager installed, go to System > Administration >
Synaptic Package Manager, launch it, and click "Reload."

3) Install schooltool-2008

Either type "sudo apt-get install schooltool-2008" in a terminal (and
answer "y" to the subsequent questions), or in Synaptic search for
"schooltool-2008", select it for installation, and hit "Apply."

If all goes well, many, many small Zope components will be installed
and you'll have a SchoolTool server running on http://localhost:7080.
The login is "manager" and the default password is "schooltool".