SameGoal integrates with any ODBC-compliant third-party student information system. For less popular or homegrown SIS solutions, SameGoal supports SFTP-based CSV file upload. This method works for just about any SIS, but typically requires more setup work than a streamlined integration process available for your SIS.
Steps
To setup an automated nightly demographics integration:- Generate CSV files in accordance with our generic API.
- Upload CSV files to your SameGoal SFTP account for processing.
- Connect to your SameGoal SFTP account.
- Create a new epoch directory in /upload/ whose name is of the date-time format YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.
- Upload generated CSV files directly into the epoch directory.
- Upload an empty file named COMPLETE (case sensitive) into the epoch directory to indicate the upload is final and can be processed.
For example, a nightly process running January 1, 2020 would typically write the following:
- /upload/20200101-139029/students.csv
- /upload/20200101-139029/guardians.csv
- /upload/20200101-139029/COMPLETE
We recommend:
- After setting up your SFTP account, verify you can connect with a graphical SFTP tool.
- Manually create a test epoch containing generated CSV files and a COMPLETE file.
- Depending on the time of day, your epoch may be processed immediately or take several hours.
- Once a test epoch has been processed successfully, schedule nightly CSV file generation and use a script SFTP tool for automated upload.
lightbulb Tip
If your district is unable to generate an epoch directory and/or COMPLETE file: Use an "_auto.csv" suffix and upload files directly to /upload/. For example:
- /upload/students_auto.csv
- /upload/guardians_auto.csv
Note:
- This suffix will trigger our server to automatically move the files to an epoch directory with a COMPLETE file for you.
- You do not need to place a COMPLETE file in /upload/ when using this method.
lightbulb Tip
Common gotchas:
- Files misnamed.
- File missing a column.
- Misnamed column in a file.
- No epoch directory or "_auto.csv" suffix.
- Missing a COMPLETE file in an epoch directory.
- Generated files don't meet CSV file generation requirements