Teams and isams SDS

[KK20]

I have always updated teams manually via the isams SDS reports and SDS portal import for our profile. This isnt too onerous a task as we arent a huge school with lots of changes. Looking forwards, I would like to automate this. I know of the Salamander SDS tool but this has never worked for me correctly, the CSV that it generates via isams API dont even look like the CSV generated by isams manually (which do work).

 

Are there any other players out there apart from Salamander that automate SDS from isams? I know I could call on the isams API and probably write a few scripts to generate the data, then call the SDS powershell but I would prefer a more robust solution! I looked at ruler connect but they are SIMS only I think.

[3s-gtech]

Tried speaking to Salamander? Their support is very good (though they’re ridiculously busy now) even for the free tool.

[KK20]

No, I didn't bother as I would imagine the free tool support was at the bottom of the pile. I did request a quote for the paid Salamander but with the lead time in "months" it wouldn't be worth considering at the moment. I'm happy to continue manually exporting report and updating SDS when sets change or pupils start but was looking for alternatives. We are still "onsite" AD with sync and running hybrid onsite Exchange (with no migrations), no immediate plans to migrate these to the cloud.

[3s-gtech]

Yeah, I got in with the order back in early March, and we're doing the install next week, so it is hectic for them evidently.

 

Just a note that reports produced via SIMS vs those extracted via Command Reporter (the command line tool for automated processing) also differ significantly. Our own software which interacts with SIMS had to be carefully crafted that way to recognise the different format between both. Are you sure that you've selected all of the correct settings in Salamander SDS?

[KK20]

there arent many settings to select on the free tool. This is one example. Salamander pulls this as a header

for school.csv:

DfE Number,School Number,Name

isams report pulls:

DfE Number,Name,Grade Low,Grade High,Principal Name,Address,City,State,Country,Zip,Phone

 

The data in school.csv is also totally wrong as it ignores our preschool and JS - that is warned of though as it does say Salamander cannot extract that information. However, section.csv has even more changes in the header. Salamander:

ID,School DfE Number,Section Name,Course ID,Course Name,Course Number,Course Subject,Term StartDate,Term EndDate

isams:

ID,School DfE Number,Section Name,Section Number,Course ID,Course Name,Course Number,Course Description,Course Subject

 

The other CSVs are also slightly different in headings. I click UK headings for SalamanderSDS and use UK reports in isams. There isn't much else to configure in SalamanderSDS so I decided Salamander wasn't for me and carried on with manually SDS update. Ive had no issues with our teams, teachers and pupils use it, the teams seem to replicate all the changes I make.

Edited June 2, 2020 by KK20

[tajdar]

Try Using ClassLink. They have a Roster Server which imports SDS data from iSAMS, Automatically processes it to One Roster Format and then syncs with MS Teams, Google Classroom, McGraw Hill, Pearson etc. Plus you get a federated Single Sign-on with it as well. You can also use ClassLink to manage your MS AD/Azure and G-Site as well by getting data from iSAMS.

[KK20]

I did my own in the end. The isams API pulls back XML. I simply parsed the XML from the feed into CSV formatted in the way microsoft likes them, then I use Send-CsvFiles with the profile name to upload them. I do this as a daily scheduled task. It has worked perfectly before and after the rollover.

 

The beauty of doing it this way is that I can tack "other jobs" onto the scheduled tasks such as keeping non-class teams up to date with AD groups accordingly (we dont have azure premium so I cant use dynamic groups)

Edited March 2, 2021 by KK20