This can be a story about acknowledging how there isn’t one piece of software program that may clear up all of your issues, which is why the extensibility of your methods is so essential.
You simply signed a multi-year contract for a brand new scholar info and studying administration system (SIS/LMS) that does every little thing you need it to do. It gives the final word software to convey all of your college software program into one system and permits every little thing to speak to one another. That is the dream. Naturally, it’s going to take a number of time, coaching, and labor to get it up and working, however as soon as it’s all configured, it’s going to clear up 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 put up and electronic mail me ASAP what you’re utilizing. As a result of I wish 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 preserve studying.
One piece of software program can’t clear up 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 little thing 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 provide all of the options you and your college now require. However your lecturers, college students, and households are happy with it, you signed that multi-year contract, and altering to a unique 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 put up).
Now what do you do? As a thought chief in your college—whether or not you’re a director of know-how, an assistant head of college, an instructional dean, a database administrator, or one thing else—it’s your job to make sure that you’re selecting the best piece of college software program to greatest match the mission and desires of your college. This appears to be like completely different from college to high school and solely you already know what works greatest to your surroundings. However what you do know is that regardless of the software program, it wants to increase past the bounds of the field it got here in (keep in mind when software program got here in bins?). What am I speaking about?
- Integrations
- Partnerships
- Add-ons
- Connectors
- Extensions
- Studying instruments
- API endpoints
Every of those serves a unique objective and it’s important that your college software program has a few of these which are rock stable and might seamlessly grow to be half your expertise. When you may join outdoors the bounds of your college software program’s code to different software program or know-how, you may prolong and improve your capabilities. This extensibility is what we’re specializing in right here at the moment.
My API Journey
It was the summer season of 2020, and I used to be sitting in my workplace as one among fewer than a dozen individuals on campus. There have been 1,000,000 situations and questions going by means of my head associated to COVID-19, instructing remotely/hyflex/in particular person, reviewing evaluation methods, evaluating digital studying instruments, sustaining scholar connection and group, and so on. Along with this, I used to be excited about all of the methods I may make issues higher and simpler for lecturers 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 might actually make a distinction.
I went to high school 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 purpose was the identical then as it’s now: Use it to make one thing work higher. As anybody with no 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 figuring out 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. Over time, easy scripts took form that developed into extra complicated scripts that turned 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 little thing. In fact, by the point every little thing was carried out populating, college students had modified class sections, new programs had been created and dissolved, lecturers had modified what they have been instructing, and everyone’s calendar was incorrect. This meant manually attempting to maintain monitor 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 means.
Then the SKY opened…
Fortunately, we had Blackbaud’s SIS/LMS and that is after I found Blackbaud’s SKY API, which had solely lately been launched for his or her training merchandise. I had no thought what an API was and positively didn’t know one thing known as SKY API. Keep in mind, music main over right here. After studying slightly about what it was (an utility programming interface) and the way it may prolong our college software program outdoors the field and hook up with different issues, I knew I wanted to study extra. So, whereas I waited for all of the COVID-19 hyflex tech {hardware} to come back within the mail, I learn each piece of SKY API documentation Blackbaud needed to provide to know the way it labored. This meant studying tips on how to use the UrlFetchApp on Apps Script, studying what a SKY Developer account was, attempting to wrestle with one thing known as a “bearer token,” and a lot extra.
I used to be in over my head, to say the least, looking all over the place for small breadcrumbs that folk left in Blackbaud’s SKY Developer group and on Stack Overflow to see if I may piecemeal what I wanted collectively. One put up 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 a lot of the items in place, I nonetheless couldn’t break into the Blackbaud SKY API authorization regardless of tons of of iterations of code. This was a brand new API for Blackbaud, so even they have been nonetheless determining all of the purposes.*
Simply after I was about to surrender hope, I acquired a break. A tech workforce member from one other college talked about that that they had efficiently linked to SKY API utilizing Google Apps Script! Magic, I let you know! I wanted to know tips on how to get previous this remaining hurdle. Fortunately, after just a few COVID-19 Zoom cellphone calls and a bunch of trial and error, we acquired the “Success!” authorization display! I acquired in! (Props to you if you happen to get the Tron reference)
Countless Prospects
It felt as if the probabilities have been limitless. I may now prolong our SIS/LMS past the essential performance it gives 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 mechanically replace the calendars with the right rosters every evening. Identical to that, one thing that went from being “stale” and outdated reworked to “stay” and all the time updated. I had created a real automated sync just by with the ability to tie into SKY API, permitting me to increase and improve what we would have liked in our college surroundings.
If I can go away you with one factor, it’s to focus on that that is an ongoing journey. Have I realized every little thing about coding in Apps Script and SKY API that I’ll ever study? Completely not! There’s a plethora of data on the market that I’ll be persevering with to faucet into and study from at any time when I must. Whether or not it’s researching what others have carried out, collaborating 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 accout, my Grasp’s in Music Training didn’t embody writing any code, but I used to be nonetheless in a position to get up to now at the moment and write this text to share my expertise. How cool, proper? If I can determine it out, you may 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 look ahead to 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 colleges to establish know-how companions that serve essential 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 through cell apps. Blackbaud’s SKY Developer Group can 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’d like to have you ever be a part of us!
The put up Unlocking the Energy of APIs: The SKY is the Restrict! first appeared on The ENGAGE Weblog.
