finalsite/renweb Integration Technical Overview version 0.1 June 18, 2009 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Terminology 3. Data considerations 4. Web service properties 5. Data reconciliation 6. RenWeb.com 7. Integration steps 8. Appendices Introduction This document describes the data integration between RenWeb s Student Information System (SIS) and finalsite. Terminology Term RenWeb finalsite Server Definition RenWeb s SIS The server which hosts a school s website. Web service Data integration An online service on a server that allows finalsite s server to access and extract data from RenWeb. The process of setting up, configuring, and deploying a scheduled, automatic extraction and upload of data from RenWeb to finalsite servers. The data thus extracted may be used to add or update various types of records on the school s finalsite website. Data considerations finalsite and RenWeb contain information that is unique in each system. They also contain common information. The common information may be presented differently in finalsite and RenWeb, but is known to have the same general meaning. An example of common information is the field of student last name. In data integration between finalsite and RenWeb, RenWeb will remain the master database, containing the most up-to-date data; any additions or changes will be distributed to finalsite via a web service. The data integration between RenWeb and finalsite currently supports the following types of data: Faculty & Staff Parents Students Classes Enrollment (class rosters) The constituent data (faculty, parents, and students) and class/enrollment data each have a corresponding web service or feed at the RenWeb s end (see Appendix B). For each web service, data is extracted periodically (see Data reconciliation, below). Web service properties RenWeb provides a SOAP-based web service which is accessed over the Internet using the HTTP protocol. NOTE: Currently only a one-way (RenWeb finalsite) flow of data is supported. Data Reconciliation Records are extracted one-by-one from the web service. Each record is required to have a unique identifier which may never change from one import to the next (called an importid). Once extracted, data fields are mapped to fit into the finalsite database structure and importid. The mapping is done in accordance with the mappings outlined in the Appendix. Subsequent imports allow changes and updates to the data to take place without human intervention. These subsequent imports are all centered on the importid. An existing importid will tell the import process to update the related data rather than creating a new record. NOTE: ImportIDs must be unique and may not change from one data import to the next. Changes to importids will greatly compromise the integrity of the data already stored in a school s finalsite website database.
The only constituent (user) relationships currently supported are parent-child and spouse. Relationships are provided by the web service using a specific querying mechanism. Once the data integration has been successfully tested (see below) the upload will be scheduled to occur on a regular basis (for example, hourly). The data import process will extract any data that has been added or changed since the previous import. NOTE: There is currently no support for communicating deleted RenWeb records to finalsite, with the exception of class rosters (withdrawn students will no longer appear on the roster). Deleting data has to be done manually or using the tools provided by finalsite for that purpose. RenWeb.com RenWeb provides a secure, web-based community environment which allows your constituents to view the following types of data, as well as update their passwords: Student reports and transcript information Student attendance Student schedule Family address and contact information Integration between your finalsite Communications Portals and RenWeb is supported through a Single Sign-On (SSO) pass-through authentication mechanism. In order for this to work, your constituents must have the same username in both portal environments. Since your users finalsite usernames are populated with your RenWeb data, the usernames in both databases will match. Integration Steps The steps that need to be taken to set up and complete the automatic data integration between RenWeb and your finalsite web site are outlined below: 1. Confirm with RenWeb that the web service is available and enabled at your school. 2. Contact finalsite to set up the integration with the RenWeb web service. 3. Map current RenWeb data to finalsite data(default mapping is provided). 4. Test data integration and verify data is being uploaded correctly. 5. Initiate scheduled data feed. Appendix A Data Items Faculty & Staff data items fieldname Importid staffid datatype Varchar Integer required True True fieldname FirstName FirstName fieldname MiddleName MiddleName fieldname LastName LastName pg 2 of 10
fieldname NameSuffix Suffix fieldname Gender Gender fieldname Email ( School ) Email fieldname Phone ( School ) WorkPhone fieldname Job Title Occuptaion fieldname Username UserName fieldname Password Password Parents fieldname importid ParentID datatype varchar Integer required true True fieldname HouseholdID AddressID datatype Integer Integer fieldname FirstName FirstName fieldname MiddleName MiddleName pg 3 of 10
fieldname LastName LastName fieldname NameSuffix Suffix fieldname Gender Gender fieldname Email1 Email1 fieldname Email2 Email2 fieldname Phone_Home HomePhone fieldname Phone_Business WorkPhone fieldname Phone_Mobile CellPhone fieldname Job Title Occuptaion fieldname Username Username pg 4 of 10
fieldname Password Password Households fieldname importid AddressID datatype varchar Integer required true True fieldname Address1 Address1 fieldname Address2 Address2 fieldname City City fieldname State State fieldname Zip Zip fieldname Country Country Students data items fieldname importid StudentID datatype varchar Integer required true True fieldname HouseholdID AddressID datatype Integer Integer fieldlength 4 10 pg 5 of 10
fieldname FirstName FirstName fieldname MiddleName MiddleName fieldname LastName LastName fieldname NameSuffix Suffix fieldname Gender Gender fieldname Email Email fieldname Username Username fieldname Password Password fieldname ClassOf ClassOf fieldname CurrentGrade GradeLevel fieldname BirthDate BirthDate pg 6 of 10
datatype Date Date Class data items fieldname importid (concatenated value) classid datatype varchar Integer fieldname classname Title fieldname facultyid StaffID fieldname facultyid2 StaffID2 fieldname location RoomID fieldname period Section Required False False fieldname schoolyear schoolyear fieldname schoolcode schoolcode Enrollment data items fieldname importid classid pg 7 of 10
fieldname importid StudentID Required False False Additional Notes: Family Logins While RenWeb supports family logins, a single login assigned to both parents, finalsite supports only a per-user login. If the school wishes for both parents to login to finalsite portals, each parent must be assigned a unique login. Appendix B Web Services RenWeb Web Services Version 2.0 There are five basic groups of RenWeb Web Services. 1. Faculty - all teachers 2. Parents - all parents of enrolled students 3. Students all enrolled students 4. Households all households of enrolled students 5. Classes & Enrollment all current course sections and corresponding rosters 1. Faculty Faculty all teachers Web service name: Faculty.asmx FacultyMember is a Data Transfer Object (DTO) that is send via SOAP to web service user. FacultyMember int staffid; string FirstName; string MiddleName; string LastName; string NameSuffix; string Gender; string Email; string HomePhone; string WorkPhone; string CellPhone; string Username; string Password; Methods of Faculty web service GetByModifiedDate 3. Parents Parents all parents of enrolled students Web service name: Parents.asmx Parent is a Data Transfer Object (DTO) that is send via SOAP to web service user. Parent public int ParentID; public int AddressID; public string FirstName; public string MiddleName; public string LastName; public string NameSuffix; pg 8 of 10
public string NickName; public string Gender; public string Email; public string Email2; public string HomePhone; public string WorkPhone; public string CellPhone; public string UserName; public string Password; Methods of Parents web service GetByModifiedDate 4. Students Students all enrolled students Web service name: Students.asmx Student is a Data Transfer Object (DTO) that is send via SOAP to web service user. Student int StudentId; int AddressId; string FirstName; string MiddleName; string LastName; string NameSuffix; string NickName; string Gender; string Email; DateTime BirthDate; int GradeLevel; int ClassOf; string AdvisorID; bool Username; string Password; Methods of Students web service GetByModifiedDate 5. Households Households all households of enrolled students Web service name: Households.asmx Householdis a Data Transfer Object (DTO) that is send via SOAP to web service user. Household int AddressId; string Address1; string Address2; string City; string State; string Zip; string Country; Methods of Households web service GetByModifiedDate 6. Classes & Enrollment Classes & Enrollment all current course sections and corresponding rosters Web service name: Class.asmx Class pg 9 of 10
int ClassID; string Title; string Name; string Section; string SemesterID; string SchoolID; string SchoolYear; string StaffID; string StaffID2; string RoomID; string SchoolCode; Enrollment int ClassID; int StudentID Methods of Classess web service GetByModifiedDate GetClassRoster Appendx C Web Service Methods finalsite uses the following RenWeb web services for all RenWeb data integrations: <webserviceurl>/households.asmx <webserviceurl>/students.asmx <webserviceurl>/faculty.asmx <webserviceurl>/parents.asmx <webserviceurl>/classs.asmx finalsite uses the methods described below: Profile data getbymodifieddate (on students feed) getbymodifieddate (on faculty feed) getbymodifieddate (on parents feed) getbymodifieddate (on households feed) Academic data getbymodifieddate (on class feed) getclassroster (on enrollment) pg 10 of 10