SMS: Enter Marks

Owned by Derrick Lin
Last updated: May 22, 2024 by Mei Cheng Whale
2 min read
A mark has two attributes: 1. value: nomark | querymark | numericmark nomark = . querymark = ? numericmark = [-][0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)? 2. flag: optional letter in uppercase When displaying marks the flag replaces the decimal point for compactness. Numeric values must be inclusively within the given range ie. minimum and maximum unless you opted for soft limit. Numeric values are stored with the specified precision. When entering marks the valid formats are: a. display format 15L5 b. value c. value flag value - d. + flag - E.g. current -> 15.5L new 17X5 -> 17.5X new 17 -> 17L new 17Q -> 17Q new 17- -> 17 new +Q -> 15.5Q new - -> 15.5

  • Interactively

    • Under Student Menu, choose Modify Student.

    • If you have several marks to enter, a faster way is to use Bulk Entry.

  • From a file - Two types of file are accepted (.upd and .csv).

    • Format for .upd file

      • Example 1: Using StudentID (primary key in sms) as the key. First column is student ids, second column is mark name and third column is mark values.

        3123456|examA|18| 3121212|examA|10| 3123456|examB|15| 3121212|examB|8| 3123456|examC|6| 3121212|examC|3|

      • Example 2: Using other fields as the key. First column is key name, second column is key values.

        ass2grp|123|ass2|20| ass2grp|456|ass2|18|

    • Format for .csv file, example:

      • First line in the file must be comma separated (sms) fields.

    • The files must be copied to update_recs directory under $SMSDB, examples:

      • % cp file.csv $SMSDB/update_recs

      • % cp file.upd $SMSDB/update_recs

    • Instruct sms to import the marks

      • interatively: select Student Menu → Update Student

      • commandline: smsupdate file.csv or smsupdate file.upd

System update files: submissions.upd and marks.upd

  • a line with '?' value appended to submissions.upd for each submission by give

  • a line with mark appended to marks.upd by Xmark or Imark for each committed/finalised marked submission.

To update them on the commandline: smsupdate submissions or smsupdate marks

  • From WebCMS3

    • Fields must be Open to be editable by tutors in WebCMS3

    • Sync SMS with WebCMS3 - /home/webcms3/sms/sms_webcms3.sh

    • Create a cronjob for the sync - /home/give/stable/bin/gencronwebsms.sh