allow section to have its own time boundary

If this feature can be done, what I should do for current deployment to pave way for future upgrade?

I can do the following, please let me know if this is the right thing to do.

A. Supposing I want to add a section starting on 2010-03-08 and ends on 2010-04-02:

   0. Write down the section name, starting time and ending time in a memorandum;
   1. Configure current term to start on 2010-03-08 and ends on 2010-04-02;
   2. Schedule the course using any appropriate time table, it will be scheduled within the term;
   3. After scheduling, change current term back to how it was.

B. When I upgrade to the new schooltool with this feature solved, I should:
   0. Find the memorandum;
   1. Configure historical sections' start and end date accroding to the memorandum, dump the memorandum after doublechecked this.

Thanks.

Section durations that correspond with term lengths is rather fundamental to SchoolTool's structure right now.

Essentially, you've got a Year > Term > Section containment structure. You can hack around that a bit, as you've discovered, but, especially if you don't have a hard boundary between school years, that is, there is no point at which all sections end and then new ones begin, it is going to be... messy.

In a different context without a clean year/term structure (an online "virtual" school), we spec'ed out a plan to create a separate "ongoing" container (instead of a year) that would simply hold all the sections for that school. We could also make it possible to define unique start and end dates for sections in that container. This would not be very difficult, but probably in the range of 1-2 developer/months.

Currently, however, it is not high on our list of priorities for funded SchoolTool development. I wouldn't count on it being done as part of the internally funded, core SchoolTool development effort this year. OTOH, if someone else could fund the work we could find a developer to do the project. Or if you have experienced Python/Zope developers, we might be able to help them get started.

Hi. In case this problem is solvable, either letting section have its time boundary within the school year / term, or so flexible that it can flow out of school year / term -- either way is good for my deployement case.

I am sorry keep referring to my current deployment because I don't have a second experience of any other school tool deployment, but think this might be helpful for others as well.

Ignas,

I don't expect you to implement this, ;-)

but perhaps you could weigh in.