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This is the traditional way of integrating with SIMS and gives access to SIMS data that our web integration does not yet cover. (Work in progress)
The idea of installing SIMS or FMS for development and test purposes is quite different to installing SIMS for use in a school. Typically most systems will be installed as 'All in one' whereby the application, the document server (FMS has a kind of DMS) and the SQL server are installed on to the same 'box' because it is simply easier to debug and resolve problems locally rather than on components that are spread across a network.
If integration is solely via web API then TIs may not need copies of SIMS / FMS but any local integration work will be predicated on having a working copy of SIMS to engage with,
Ideally Windows 10 or 11 but server OS is ok too but can be harder to run tools such as visual studio on.
10-20GB but this depends on how many copies of data you want to use or keep. It works fine on my machine with 128GB SDD, but i do have to clean up backups and alike to keep a sensible amount of free disk space,
Usually this is driven by the demands of visual studio - 8 GB is probably the minimum for dev work but SIMS will happily run in 4GB, Often developer PCs these days have 32GB RAM and 'fly'.
Ideally i5 or equivalent or better, Again developers are expensive resources and high end processors are common in developer kit to reduce wait times.
Developers working with SIMS really need local access rights and need to have their machines relatively unfettered by the IT Security. For example developers typilcally will build new applications that are not signed and won't appear in a database of 'good applications'. Typically there will be a need to restore databases and use SQL management studio which will fight any need for IT admin approval, Likewise Visual Studio is likely to show odd behaviour if you don't have full rights. Some of these can be worked around but there must be a trade off between a corporate security policy and being able to do the job.
The co-existence of corporate applications and standardisation thereof is quite understandable but will be a significant and potentially insurmountable issue for developers and testers that need to work with SIMS.
Two possible options to local administration rights may be worth considering,
In essence, all the development and test occurs on a virtual machine (VM) which will work fine provided that the resources available to the VM are equivalent to the recommendations above.
Typically we will need to install
Any TI installing SIMS / FMS themselves will need to install a copy of SQL 2019 first and use that. The copy of SQL express on the current installers is not suitable for the training databases.
Once SQL in installed anr running, SIMS / FMS can then be installed.
Some functionality in SIMS / FMS require web access and hence the user(s) of the system will need to be able to access 'reaonable web content'. This web site for example is / should be critical to any development project.
Working with SIMS or FMS for development and test really does need high level access rights to the machine. History suggests that the developer / tester's experience will be frustrating if they need to get help every time they need to reset a database or upgrade / downgrade SIMS/FMS. Visual Studio and SQL Server and tools again are hampered in locked down environments when used for test or development.
If an organisation requires lock down then please have a discussion with us before booking an installation. We may be unable to complete installations in these circumstances.