The eSchoolPLUS document viewer integration allows general education staff to seamlessly view student documents in SameGoal while logged into eSchoolPLUS.
This integration:
- Adds a "Special Programs Summary" PDF as an attachment to each student in eSchoolPLUS that is actively participating in at least one Special Program. Participation is defined as having a complete and currently effective document for one or more Special Programs (eg Special Education, Section 504, Advanced Learners, etc)
- This summary PDF attachment is uploaded to category "SameGoal". All users in eSchoolPLUS with permission to this category will be able to access it.
- When the summary PDF attachment is opened, the PDF contains a link for each Special Program the student participates in. When clicked, each link displays the "Document Viewer" window.
- The "Document Viewer" window displays the complete, effective document for the given Special Program. Staff may also use the dropdown in the top right of the window to navigate to document attachments and alternate views, if applicable.
- The student attachments window containing the summary PDF is found in both eschoolPLUS and Teacher Access Center, giving general education staff streamlined access to Special Programs documentation.
Why does the integration use a summary PDF and the document viewer application rather than upload student document PDFs directly?
- To workaround performance issues in student information systems. Many student information systems run into performance issues when large amounts of PDFs are uploaded. This integration uploads at most only one small PDF per student, from which links to the SameGoal document viewer may be followed.
- To display as much information for each document as possible. Using the document viewer application allows users to not only view the document, but also any attachments or alternate views.
- To reduce nightly integration activity on the student information server. Because one 1-page summary PDF is uploaded each night for students rather than a large PDF for each student and program, the amount of time and server activity required for the integration to run nightly is minimized. Many districts run multiple integrations for other applications against their SIS nightly, so this helps reduce any risk of contention.
Why does the integration upload the summary PDF to a single "SameGoal" category, rather than uploading each PDF to it's corresponding category (eg the IEP PDF to category IEP, the 504 PDF to category 504, and so on)?
- To reduce configuration burden. As districts choose to use SameGoal for additional Special Programs over time (eg Third Grade Reading Gurantee, English Learning, etc), links to the appropriate document for each program appear automatically in the summary PDF. No additional eSchoolPLUS configuration to add attachment categories is needed.
- To maintain consistency with other student information systems. The document viewer integration works similarly across all student information systems supported, including the generic document viewer. An interface is provided to display all programs a student participates in (eg a snippet of HTML that displays clickable program alerts, or PDF that displays clickable program links), from which a document viewer window for each program is opened. If your district migrates from one student information system to another, you may expect that the document viewer integration will work similarly.
Can I email the summary PDF as an attachment?
- No. The "Special Programs Summary" PDF is uploaded nightly with fresh links to the document viewer window for each Special Program document. These links will expire, and are meant to be used by logged in eschoolPLUS users only.
- If you wish to download a copy of a student's document PDF, click the program link in the summary PDF to open the document viewer. Once the PDF is shown in the document viewer, you may download and save the student document PDF.
What can I do to streamline accessing student documents through the summary PDF and document viewer?
- eSchoolPLUS automatically downloads all attachments clicked from the attachment window. If you are using Chrome, the downloaded PDF will open in a new Chrome tab when clicked from the bottom of the original Chrome window. Each program link in the summary PDF opens a new tab in Chrome to display the document viewer.
- If you are having problems accessing downloaded PDFs, you might wish to contact your IT staff to revisit your district's PDF viewer configuration.
Steps
To setup document viewer integration with eSchoolPLUS :Create a SameGoal account in eSchoolPLUS if you have not yet done so for the state reporting integration.
Create a new category in eSchoolPLUS named "SameGoal" (suggested category description: "Special Programs documentation"). Configure appropriate staff access to this category. NOTE: If the category is not correctly named, the integration will not run successfully.
Visit Settings > District Information > Details tab in SameGoal using an administrative account. Scroll down to find eSchoolPLUS, and click the add Integration information button if an eSchoolPLUS screen is not already displayed. Complete the following fields under the horizontal line in the eSchoolPLUS configuration section. If your district uses the state reporting integration, many of these fields may already be filled:
- Login URL - Must start with "https://" and end in "eschoolplus" (eg https://applegrove.org/eschoolplus)
- Username - SameGoal web application account username.
- Password - SameGoal web application account password.
- Database - eSchoolPLUS database to write to.
- School Year - eSchoolPLUS school year to write to. Optional; when left blank, defaults to school year option with label "current year".
- Include - Integrations which may be enabled:
- Document alerts - Check for this integration.