Rolling out the DMS

So the system that I started working on back in October last year has caught on - it started with the ESOL tutors asking how we knew what reviews to do and what files to get as we were never in the admin office one we came back from Christmas holidays. I showed them the DMS and they asked if they could use it too, so I made them user accounts and they are now using it too.

I've added a new database table for departments, and a DepartmentID for a user, that way I can show lists of learners and reviews due by department.

It didn't stop there, as the Steps to work team then wanted to use it too, and that meant I had to make a lot of changes, as they don't do two-weekly reviews. So I scrapped "Departments" completely and added "Programmes" instead, so that a learner can be on a programme, and I made a new table for "UserProgrammes" so that I can control which learners which users will be able to see.

To enable the management of the users and their programmes I've made a new admin section for the system. I've also made a new permissions system so that I can control what features each user can see, as I don't want other people seeing the admin section.

Within the past week every tutor in the building is now on the system and the amount of data is amazing. Its great because it is web-based so I can update it if needed during the day. I've made a mirrored version on my PC at home, and then transfer it each morning to update the code. On the down-side it has basically made what is meant to be my desktop PC completely un-usable, so I have found a spare PC and now have two PC's below my desk, and two screens!