2. AlekSIS-Handbook
3. Englisch
4. Zen

Provide an extensible framework, allowing schools or their supporting IT companies to create their own apps (cf. [@sec:Development])

Help coding clubs and classes to understand the development as deeply as necessary to use AlekSIS for learning and creating their own apps

Keep AlekSIS free, open, and transparent (cf. [@sec:FOSS])

# The AlekSIS core

The AlekSIS core provides functionality and data models as a base for all apps.

## The concept of school terms {#sec:SchoolTerms}

In AlekSIS, mostly everything is based on school terms. A school term is a defined time range which can be used to link data to it. Typically, such data are learning groups, timetables or class register records. Although their name suggests it, school terms don't have to be a half or a full year. They should depend on the way how you organise data in your institution.

For example, if you issue reports at the end of every half year, a half year would be a good time range for your school terms because the class register statistics are evaluated for school terms.

Anyway, you should create a school term before you start to import or create other data entries like persons or groups.

### Manage school terms

You can manage the school terms if you login with your admin account and open the menu entry `Admin → School terms`. There you can find a list of all school terms and buttons to create, edit or delete school terms. Please be aware that there can be only one school term at time and each school term needs a unique name.

## The concept of persons {#sec:Persons}

The person model is designed to save all the data of students, teachers, guardians and any other persons of the school society. It tracks information like the following:

- Full name - Short name - Sex - Date of birth - Contact details (phone numbers, email) - Address details - Photo - Relation to guardians - Primary group (e. g. a class or a tutor group, cf. [@sec:Groups])

Except for the name, all data points are optional, so you can decide on your own (and on your local data protection laws) which data should be included in AlekSIS.

There are two important things you should know about persons:

**Persons are not automatically users:** That means that persons can be linked to an user account including things like a password and the ability to login, but they don't have to be. For example, your AlekSIS instance could save the data about parents, but you don't want them to login: In this scenario, the guardians are available as persons **without** user accounts.

**Persons are not linked to school terms:** As persons like students are not only at the school for one school term, persons are not linked to school terms.

### Manage persons

The main method to manage persons is the view under `People → Persons`. To add person to groups, you have to open the respective group and set the person as a member or an owner.