UWPClasses: List Classes and Construct Schedules
Quick Notes
- Sept., 2009: UWPClasses now generates Zimbra calendar entries
for the classes you're taking (or teaching). See the 'Calendar' item in
the Help menu for directions.
General Information
This is an application I wrote to help generate schedules. You can
download and run it on Windows-based systems that have access to the
Internet. No installation is required: just save the program on your
computer - perhaps on the desktop - and run it. The program lists open
classes and allows the user to select sections to be placed on a schedule.
Sections which meet at a conflicting time are then marked in maroon. You
can also print the schedule on any printer accessible from your system.
For more detail, see the help menu in the application.
Note that you don't need to do anything to install this application:
just download it and run it. Installs are only needed for complex
applications that include lots of supporting files. UWPClasses is a
relatively simple application and will not interfere with
others on your computer.
The data used by UWPClasses comes directly from the nightly snapshot
known as "DataMart". This means that the data can be up to 24 hours out of
date. For "real time" data, log in to PeopleSoft.
If you find errors in the data shown by UWPClasses, first check to see
if the same error is in PeopleSoft. If it is, the problem must be
corrected by the Registrar's office. Even if it has been corrected in
PeopleSoft, the fact that UWPClasses can be working from data that's 24
hours old means that it may take a while before UWPClasses is using the
correct data. If you've confirmed that the Peoplesoft information has been
correct for at least 24 hours, please send email to hasker
describing the problem as precisely as possible.
The program does work over dial-up connections, but there's a large
amount of data involved so it takes several minutes to start up and switch
semesters. If nothing seems to be loading, try using your web browser to
check that your internet connection is working.
Support for Linux and Macintosh computers
UWPClasses is compiled for Windows systems and is known
to work on all versions of Windows including Vista and 7. As with many
applications, UWPClasses will run in Linux using the Wine package, however there are
limitations. The most obvious one is that when running UWPClasses from
within Wine, attempting to print a schedule results in runtime errors. But
you can use UWPClasses with Wine to at least create a schedule that would
then be printed elsewhere, though you may get warnings when prompted for a
file name. When running UWPClasses in Wine, you'll receive warnings about
"Rich Edit" unless you follow the procedures listed for running HiC with Wine. If you have other
experiences with using Wine to run UWPClasses, please let me know of any information that
might be useful to others.
We have reports of UWPClasses also running on Macintosh computers
with the commercial Wine package installed. It also runs under Darwine, but the appearance may
not be the best due to differences in fonts. Again, please let me know of any information that
might be useful to others.
Source Code
If you're interested, the source
code for UWPClasses is available. Please send me any improvements!