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It is a story about acknowledging how there isn’t one piece of software program that may resolve all of your issues, which is why the extensibility of your methods is so vital.
You simply signed a multi-year contract for a brand new scholar data and studying administration system (SIS/LMS) that does every part you need it to do. It supplies the last word device to convey all of your college software program into one system and permits every part to speak to one another. That is the dream. Naturally, it can take a whole lot of time, coaching, and labor to get it up and working, however as soon as it’s all configured, it can resolve all of your issues. Give your self a pat on the again! You probably did it!
If this has been your expertise when establishing and configuring any software program, cease studying this publish and electronic mail me ASAP what you might be utilizing. As a result of I need to know! If this hasn’t been your expertise—which I think about is true for a lot of, if not all, of us—then hold studying.
One piece of software program can’t resolve all your issues.
You could understand just a few days, weeks, months, or years into utilizing your new SIS/LMS that it doesn’t do every part you need it to do. It doesn’t speak precisely the way you thought it might with the completely different elements in your tech stack. Or your wants have shifted, and it doesn’t supply all of the options you and your college now require. However your academics, college students, and households are happy with it, you signed that multi-year contract, and altering to a special SIS/LMS is mainly as strenuous and labor intensive as constructing a brand new home by your self (assuming you aren’t a contractor and, if you’re, thanks for studying this very non-contractor-focused publish).
Now what do you do? As a thought chief in your college—whether or not you’re a director of expertise, an assistant head of faculty, an educational dean, a database administrator, or one thing else—it’s your job to make sure that you’re selecting the best piece of faculty software program to greatest match the mission and desires of your college. This appears to be like completely different from college to highschool and solely you recognize what works greatest to your setting. However what you do know is that irrespective of the software program, it wants to increase past the bounds of the field it got here in (bear in mind when software program got here in containers?). What am I speaking about?
- Integrations
- Partnerships
- Add-ons
- Connectors
- Extensions
- Studying instruments
- API endpoints
Every of those serves a special function and it’s important that your college software program has a few of these which are rock stable and might seamlessly develop into half your expertise. When you possibly can join outdoors the bounds of your college software program’s code to different software program or expertise, you possibly can lengthen and improve your capabilities. This extensibility is what we’re specializing in right here right this moment.
My API Journey
It was the summer season of 2020, and I used to be sitting in my workplace as certainly one of fewer than a dozen individuals on campus. There have been 1,000,000 eventualities and questions going via my head associated to COVID-19, instructing remotely/hyflex/in particular person, reviewing evaluation methods, evaluating digital studying instruments, sustaining scholar connection and neighborhood, and many others. Along with this, I used to be eager about all of the methods I may make issues higher and simpler for academics throughout what was about to be the toughest instructing 12 months of their lives. Some issues have been apparent, however I knew it was the behind-the-scenes magic that would actually make a distinction.
I went to highschool for music training and, up till this level, had a long-winding street studying tips on how to write code in Google Apps Script. I’d by no means coded something earlier than diving into Google Apps Script just a few years earlier. The objective was the identical then as it’s now: Use it to make one thing work higher. As anybody and not using a programming background can attest, the 2 methods to get going are:
- Discover documentation and getting-started assets someplace on-line
- Search Stack Overflow and see how another person did (a few of) it
My journey utilized each methods. I began out by doing one thing easy, not realizing what I used to be typing and copying and pasting, however studying by doing, breaking it till it labored, and ultimately beginning to comprehend how the string of characters made sense. Through the years, easy scripts took form that developed into extra complicated scripts that grew to become indispensable.
Again to that summer season of 2020, I had a calendar script working that populated scholar and instructor Google calendars with their class schedules. It was constructed as a ardour undertaking that now may by no means be retired. Sadly, it was nonetheless pretty labor intensive on my finish and instantly “stale.” The method required creating a number of Superior Lists in Blackbaud SIS/LMS that detailed course lists and scholar enrollment and exporting them as a .csv file and importing them into my script. Subsequent, the script would run over the course of some days/weeks to populate every part. In fact, by the point every part was completed populating, college students had modified class sections, new programs had been created and dissolved, academics had modified what they have been instructing, and everyone’s calendar was incorrect. This meant manually making an attempt to maintain observe of and make adjustments one after the other hoping to maintain up. It wasn’t nice. What is healthier? “Stale” calendars or no calendars? “No calendars” wasn’t going to fly now that folk had seen the good thing about pre-populated calendars. I wanted to discover a higher approach.
Then the SKY opened…
Fortunately, we had Blackbaud’s SIS/LMS and that is once I found Blackbaud’s SKY API, which had solely just lately been launched for his or her training merchandise. I had no concept what an API was and positively didn’t know one thing referred to as SKY API. Bear in mind, music main over right here. After studying just a little about what it was (an software programming interface) and the way it may lengthen our faculty software program outdoors the field and hook up with different issues, I knew I wanted to be taught extra. So, whereas I waited for all of the COVID-19 hyflex tech {hardware} to return within the mail, I learn each piece of SKY API documentation Blackbaud needed to supply to grasp the way it labored. This meant studying tips on how to use the UrlFetchApp on Apps Script, studying what a SKY Developer account was, making an attempt to wrestle with one thing referred to as a “bearer token,” and a lot extra.
I used to be in over my head, to say the least, looking out in every single place for small breadcrumbs that folk left in Blackbaud’s SKY Developer neighborhood and on Stack Overflow to see if I may piecemeal what I wanted collectively. One publish about fetching to open public APIs right here, a video over there about creating an OAuth service—every little piece helped. As soon as I felt like I had many of the items in place, I nonetheless couldn’t break into the Blackbaud SKY API authorization regardless of a whole bunch of iterations of code. This was a brand new API for Blackbaud, so even they have been nonetheless determining all of the functions.*
Simply once I was about to surrender hope, I bought a break. A tech workforce member from one other college talked about that they’d efficiently linked to SKY API utilizing Google Apps Script! Magic, I inform you! I wanted to know tips on how to get previous this ultimate hurdle. Fortunately, after just a few COVID-19 Zoom telephone calls and a bunch of trial and error, we bought the “Success!” authorization display screen! I bought in! (Props to you if you happen to get the Tron reference)
Limitless Prospects
It felt as if the chances have been countless. I may now lengthen our SIS/LMS past the important performance it supplies and join it with different instruments or methods. From that time on, it was only a matter of willpower to determine tips on how to hit the right endpoints to verify for enrollments in every part and robotically replace the calendars with the right rosters every night time. Identical to that, one thing that went from being “stale” and outdated remodeled to “stay” and at all times updated. I had created a real automated sync just by having the ability to tie into SKY API, permitting me to increase and improve what we wanted in our faculty setting.
If I can go away you with one factor, it’s to focus on that that is an ongoing journey. Have I realized every part about coding in Apps Script and SKY API that I’ll ever be taught? Completely not! There’s a plethora of information on the market that I’ll be persevering with to faucet into and be taught from at any time when I must. Whether or not it’s researching what others have completed, taking part in bbdevdays, re-reading documentation a dozen instances to solely partially perceive it, or reaching out to Blackbaud and others who I do know I can rely on to brainstorm concepts, this isn’t the tip.
You are able to do it, too!
Take into account, my Grasp’s in Music Training didn’t embody writing any code, but I used to be nonetheless capable of get so far right this moment and write this text to share my expertise. How cool, proper? If I can determine it out, you possibly can too, and also you’ll be glad you probably did! How? You can begin by testing this video of my presentation at bbdevdays final 12 months.
Thanks for studying and I sit up for listening to from you quickly!
*Blackbaud’s API assets have grown exponentially since Nick first began with SKY API in 2020. Our API workforce works in collaboration with our faculties to determine expertise companions that serve important features, together with areas like medical information, safety, communications, assembly schedules, calendars, and directories. We’ve additionally developed a OneRoster API and endpoints that college students and oldsters can entry by way of cellular apps. Blackbaud’s SKY Developer Neighborhood can also be thriving due to innovators like Nick. Whether or not you’ve by no means written a line of code in your life or are an skilled developer, we might like to have you ever be a part of us!
The publish Unlocking the Energy of APIs: The SKY is the Restrict! first appeared on The ENGAGE Weblog.
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