SIMS 7 - Command Reporter (Distribution)

Report definitions created by SIMS and who have had their supplier changed to clearly identify the provider may be distributed to schools free of charge if they are intended for manual execution within SIMS by their customers and would not attract a per-site integrator charge.

Reports definitions provided by integrators to customers which are then executed automatically using some form of application, batch file, scheduled task or similar would incur the per-site charge as per integrator contracts with ESS regardless of how the automation process works.

File Types

• Report Definition files ('.rptdef') are obfuscated binary files 
• Parameter Definition files ('.paramdef') are text files containing xml

Integrators could choose to:

• Make files available on a web site for download on a web page
• Ship files with their installations alongside their own binary files
• Use their own applications to download files from the web

Please note that the appropriate MIME type needs to be set for the files, we have seen that bug appear in our own code and it would manifest itself as the corruption of the .rptdef file (which is encrypted). The clue comes from a different file size after download!.

Security of the report definition files

There is no personal information in most Rptdef files generated by integrators. It is however possible for a report definition to contain names and filters which could in theory make them contain personal data for example

Filter:

• Surname = Smith
• Forename = Jane
• Pregnant = True

However this type of report definition is typically not useful for integrators.