Attendance (plugin)

Last summer I worked on a database driven website using php and mysql called ARD (Attendance and results database) . It is similar to this attendance plug-in except you can upload attendance that is recorded using a bar code scanner and student ID cards with a unique bar code. This summer I am attempting to migrate it into moodle, but I am still a student and I am still learning so iI am struggling a good bit. Instead of starting from scratch I plan to use the Attendance module and make the necessary changes.

My first change is to have it so that there are only three variables in the settings, Absent, Present and Excused, You cannot add or delete any more and you can only hide the excused variable. I have completed this succesfully.


The next step is to have Absent set as the default value when taking attendance, this I am finding rather difficult so if any one has any ideas I would really apppriciate the help. I have tried playing with attendances.php and messing with the lines

foreach($statuses as $st) {
@$table->data[$student->id][] = '<input name="student'.$student->id.'" type="radio" value="'.$st->id.'" '.($st->id == $att->statusid ? 'checked' : '').'>';

but no joy so far


I then plan to have an action in the sessions tab that gives you the option to upload a text document that has the attendance recorded, if a barcode is present then the present value is set.

This is just a rough outline for you, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! If you can help me at all with the problem in bold that would be great and if you can reccomend any books/websites that can help me with my project I would be very thankful. I am doing this project in order to learn, not to be given all the answers, so I am just looking for a push in the right direction.

Thanks loads in advance!

Debz