Project Fedena is an open source school management system built using Ruby on Rails. It was developed by Foradian Technologies in response to requests from schools in India needing an efficient data management solution. The project started with two developers learning Ruby and Rails simultaneously with building the initial application. Key aspects of the system include its user-friendly interface, ease of use, and architectural design using Rails, MySQL database, and other plugins. While Rails provided benefits like code readability and conventions, ongoing work is focused on improvements to testing, deployment, performance, and scalability. The project aims to develop an open community of contributors on its website at ProjectFedena.org.

1. Project Fedena and
Why Ruby on Rails
ARVIND G S
CTO
Foradian Technologies Pvt Ltd
arvind@foradian.com

2. What is fedena ?
• Fedena is an Open Source school/campus management
system
• It is the first Open Source School ERP based on RoR
• It is a web 2.0 application being developed by Foradian
Technologies

3. Evolu:on of Fedena
• Many schools/colleges in India approached foradian to
provide them an exact solution for managing their data.
• Foradian’s thought of providing an efficient, user friendly
school management system to the universe
• A system that should make the user feel that the real
power is in their hands
• Cannot find an exact open source solution for this till
date

4. Start of Project Fedena
• Project Fedena started with two new fresher as
developers and a designer for designing the UI of the
application
• Developers started learning Ruby language and RoR
framework which was an entirely new platform to
foradian
• The development got started in parallel with the learning
process
• When we were able to generate the desired output, the
management team planned to release the system as
open source

5. Why Ruby on Rails
• Foradian’s desire to learn a new language/technology
• Ruby is a powerful scripting language
• Adhered to OOP principles
• Code Maintainability
• DRY principle
• Increased Productivity
• It allows us to work with minimum confusion

6. Fedena System

7. Highlights of the System
• Eye Catchy UI Design
• User Friendly
• Easy Navigation
• Any one with basic knowledge in computer and internet
can easily operate fedena

8. Architectural Overview
Users
HTTP Request
Browser Apache/Nginx
Web server
Forwards
Delivers Mail HTML Output Request
passenger/mongrel/
dispatcher fast cgi
Loads Active Record
Action View CRUD
Renders
Response
Renders Passes
Controller Data Query
Delivers
Action Mailer Database
mysql
Fedena Application (RoR)

9. Architectural Overview
• Ruby version used - 1.8.6
• Rails version used – 2.3.5
• Database used is mysql
• Web Server used is Apache
• Deployment Techniques Used – Passenger/Fast CGI

10. Gems and Plugins Used
• Prawn – for pdf generation
• Declarative Authorization – To implement authorization
mechanism for different users
• Open Flash Chart – For graphical representation of
student’s progress report
• Fckeditor – used for adding rich text contents in the news
section of the system

11. Rails Advantages
• Powerful
• Readable
• Convention Over Configuration
• Inbuilt security improvement techniques
• MVC architecture
• DRY principle
• RESTful architecture
• Code Reusability
• Active community ready to help at any time

12. Rails Disadvantages
• Rails applications are comparitively slow
• Deployment is a bit tougher and the support is less for
this
• Increased hosting cost

13. Project Fedena – Challenges Ahead
• Rails testing to be started
• Choosing the appropriate deployment method
• Cache Mechanism to be implemented
• More Performance and Security improvement methods
to be incorporated
• Scalable architecture to be implemented

14. ProjecGedena.org
• Developer’s area for contributing to project
fedena
• Features:
1. RoR developers can join and start
contributing to the project
2. Source Code Download
3. Installation Instructions
4. Bug Submission
5. Bug Tracking
6. Community Forum

15. Fedena License
- Fedena is licensed under Apache 2.0 -

16. More Links
• Website – www.projectfedena.org
• Test Fedena Application – www.projectfedena.org/testing
• Video Tutorials – www.youtube.com/user/projectfedena

17. Thank You