During implementation, PDFs from your prior system may be imported into SameGoal.
PDF imports are provided to allow staff access to historic documents authored in your previous system even after converting to SameGoal. Imported PDFs are not used to bootstrap program participation, deadlines or reports. To bootstrap your SameGoal environment in year one, use the Data Import tool in addition to the PDF Import tool.
The PDF Import tool associates documents by attaching the documents to existing student records in SameGoal. Because this tool does not create student records, either run a demographics integration or use the Bulk Loader to create student records prior to import.
- Extract PDFs from your prior system.
- Check with your prior vendor to see if they have a PDF export available.
- If no PDF export is available, SameGoal has tools and streamlined processes to extract PDFs from some systems. Check with your account representative to see what tools or process is best for your particular system.
- Directory and file naming conventions.
- Best option - Place PDFs in a per-student directory where the directory is named based upon the student ID number of the student. If this convention is used, imported PDFs are attached directly to the student record without best-effort document search for the student name and student ID number. Using this naming convention ensures that all documents in the directory are associated to the corresponding student record.
- eg: <domain>/students/<studentID>/*.pdf
- Second best option - Place PDFs in a per-student directory which has a name other than the student ID number. If this convention is used, all documents in the directory are assumed to be for a single student. The SameGoal PDF Import tool will process the text included in the PDF looking for a student ID number and last name which uniquely identifies the student record in SameGoal. If such a unique student is found, all documents in the directory will be associated to that student.
- eg: <domain>/students/<per_student_directory>/*.pdf
- Place PDFs in any directory structure with any filename. If this convention is used, the SameGoal PDF Import tool uses the same algorithm as above on a file-by-file basis. This means that documents which does not contain text based unique student identifiers (eg: scanned image-only signature pages) will not be attached to a student record.
lightbulb Tip
To ensure that the directory being uploaded into an environment is for the desired district, the top directory must be the district's SameGoal domain (eg
applegrove.org/...). When initiating a new import, the district's domain will be listed at the top in the blue bar.
Bulk PDF imports are provided to help districts bootstrap their new SameGoal environment in year one. SameGoal PDF import tool associates an unlimited number of documents per student going back arbitrarily many years. All form types are imported.
The most common reasons a PDF is not associated to a student record include:
- Unsupported file type. Only PDFs are imported into SameGoal. No other file types (eg: doc, docx, jpeg, etc) can be associated. If you wish to import a different file-type you must first convert it to a PDF prior to uploading it to the SameGoal PDF Import tool.
- File is too large. SameGoal only associates PDFs which are allowed by your current tier.
- SameGoal Standard - 50MB
- SameGoal Plus - 100MB
- SameGoal Pro - 150MB
- Student not in SameGoal. The student a PDF should be associated with is not currently in SameGoal (eg graduated, transferred, etc. prior to implementation).
- Missing student demographics. Each PDF must contain and meet at least one of the criteria below:
- Be contained in a per-student directory which is named with the student ID number (see option 1 above).
- Contain both the (a) student ID number and (b) the student last name
- Be contained in a per-student directory which includes at least one other document which contains the student ID number and (b) the student last name (see option 2 above). Without this information, it is not possible to associate the PDF with a particular student.
- PDF is image only. When a PDF does not contain text, the SameGoal PDF Import tool cannot directly match the document to a student record. Therefore, if you have many image only PDF documents, it is highly recommended to use a per-student directory naming convention for the import.
The PDF Import Tool bulk imports PDFs in 2 stages. It is used to migrate PDFs from a prior system when transitioning to SameGoal.
directions_walk Steps
- Login to SameGoal as an administrator.
- Visit Settings (left menu) > PDF Import Tool.
- Click the New PDF Import button.
- Select the folder on your local computer that contains PDFs from your prior system below.
- Once a folder is selected, the tool will automatically begin uploading the PDFs to SameGoal servers (Stage 1: Upload)
- A progress table will show the upload status of each document.
- While PDFs are being uploaded, do not interrupt the process (eg close the tab, close the browser, hit the back button, log out of SameGoal, etc). Doing so will interrupt this stage and require you to restart.
- A summary of the number of uploaded documents for processing and any upload errors will appear on screen after Stage 1 is complete.
- Once PDFs have been uploaded to SameGoal servers, they are automatically inspected and associated with the corresponding student in SameGoal when possible (Stage 2: Associate). Because this phase happens server-side, you may close the tab, browser, work on something else in SameGoal or even log out while PDFs are being associated.
- Once Stage 2 is complete, you will receive a notification email with a link to review results. Follow this link to see a summary report.
lightbulb Tip
This tool may be re-run multiple times for any folder. PDFs that have already been associated will not be re-associated.
After the PDF Import tool is run, review the report to ensure all of the desired PDFs were associated to the correct student record. SameGoal does not store PDFs which were not associated with a student record. It is the responsibility of the district to save and store these documents. To view the results of a PDF import:
- Login to SameGoal as an administrative user.
- Click Settings (left menu) > PDF Import Tool and select the start date and time of the relevant import.
- We recommend filtering the Result and Note columns, available in-app for Plus Edition or higher users, or downloading the report to filter results locally. The Note column will list the reason for why the tool did not associate the document. The Result column will show the below:
- Associated - the PDF has been associated to the student in the Student column
- Previously Associated / Duplicate - the PDF had been associated to a student in a previous import
- Not Associated - the PDF was not associated, and is less than 3 years old. Either a matching student record could not be found, or the PDF matched with multiple students.
- Not Associated (older than 3 fiscal years) - the PDF was not associated and is more than 3 years old. Either a matching student record could not be found, or the PDF matched with multiple students. However, since the PDF is older than 3 fiscal years, it is likely less relevant to current documentation.
- If you find PDFs which should have been associated but were not, address any issues and re-run the PDF Import tool. This can be done as many times as necessary to get the desired results.
- You can also manually attach PDFs if you wish.