source: main/waeup.kofa/trunk/README.txt @ 13177

What is WAeUP.Kofa ?
********************

Kofa, which means 'entrance' or 'portal' in Hausa language, is a
multifunctional, open source, web based student management system to
provide transparent and comprehensive information about application
and study progress. Kofa is the flagship of the West African
eUniversity Project (WAeUP). See http://www.waeup.org to learn more
about WAeUP. The system controls all kinds of application and
student registration processes at large schools and universities in
Nigeria. It is a generic system which can be deployed by, and is
useful to most universities, colleges or schools wordlwide.

Kofa is really an allrounder. The best way to briefly describe its functionality, is to explain what the software can *not* do for you, rather than trying to describe all its features in just a few words. Kofa is primarily not an e-learning system, although, it has some basic content management features which can be used by lecturers to disseminate course material. Kofa is also not a scheduler which generates lesson plans or timetables for lecturers or students. Although students register their courses with Kofa and can see or print course lists for each academic session, so far, courses do not contain information, when or where they take place. However, due to the modular design of Kofa, a scheduler or room planner could be easily added.

Kofa is divided into sections. Each section has its own folder in
Kofa's :ref:`object database <object_database>`. When starting Kofa
in debug mode::

  $ ./bin/kofactl debug

we can use simple Python expression to view the first two levels of
the database structure::

  >>> list(root.keys())
  [u'app']
  >>> list(root['app'].keys())
  [u'accesscodes', u'applicants', u'configuration', u'datacenter',
   u'documents', u'faculties', u'hostels', u'mandates', u'reports',
   u'students', u'users']


The section/folder structure can be figured as follows::

  root (Database Root)
  |
  +---> app (University)
        |
        +---> faculties (Academic Section)
        |
        +---> students (Students Section)
        |
        +---> applicants (Aplicants Section)
        |
        +---> documents (Documents Section)
        |
        +---> hostels (Accommodation Section)
        |
        +---> accesscodes (Access Codes Section)
        |
        +---> configuration (Configuration Section)
        |
        +---> users (Officers)
        |
        +---> datacenter (Data Center)
        |
        +---> mandates (Mandates)
        |
        +---> reports (Reports)

The user handbook follows this organizational structure and adds
further chapters where needed. Also installation instructions and
basic information about customization can be found there.