Once the client properties file is opened, you will notice 5 main sections:
- API key
- Partial Sync Settings (only executes additions and modifications) *Recommended for day to day user management.
- Full Sync Settings (requires a full list of all your users - any users not included will be deleted.)
- Student Only Sync Settings (a full sync that only affects students - any students not included will be deleted.)
- Admin/Teacher/Staff Sync Settings (a full sync that only affects administrators, teachers, and staff - any administrators, teachers, and staff not included will be deleted.)
The partial sync, full sync, student-only sync and admin/teacher/staff sync options correspond with the sync options already available when using our bulk management tool inside your eChalk site.
Each section can be configured independently to pull from the same or a separate folder you've set up your SIS to export user data to.
Where To Go
To configure your SIS Sync Client settings, login, click on the district/school tile, and click on Members.
What To Do
1. Click on User Admin.
2. Click on Bulk Management.
3. Click on Sync Client. The API option should display "Disable Sync Client API."
4. Locate the extracted folder titled similar to "bulk-upload-client-win-58.0.0.0-RC"
5. Click on the client.properties file. A text file will open. This text file will contain your district or school settings for the automated SIS uploads. Since SIS data loads have automated this file can be configured once and only should be edited if settings need to be changed.
6. On the API key section, next to "backend.api.token=" paste in the API key that you copied earlier. This key will ensure a secured connection to the eChalk servers.
7. Recall in the SIS Sync Client Prerequisites here the importance of your SIS being able to export data in the proper eChalk format. If your SIS is unable to export data in the format listed here, you will need to paste in the column header mapper plugin below into the client properties file and replace where it says "#client.plugins=" with the following:
client.plugins=plugin.header.mapper
8. Next specify the proper eChalk column headers and what fields they should map to from your SIS, if they are different. For example, first_name is the eChalk column header and it should map to f_name from your SIS; email is the eChalk column header that should map to "e-mail" from your SIS, etc. You can map the column headers in the Partial Sync Settings area, or any of the sync settings areas that you wish to use for the automated loads:
plugin.header.mapper.partial.sync.first_name=f_name
plugin.header.mapper.partial.sync.middle_name=m_name
plugin.header.mapper.partial.sync.email=e-mail
*Find a list of eChalk column headers here.
9. By default passwords for existing users are never updated through the SIS sync client. However, for new users, you can use one of our password generator plugins. To use the password generator plugin, paste the following under the header mapper plugin or replace "#client.plugins=" with the following:
client.plugins=plugin.password.generator
Then in the Partial Sync Settings area, or any of the sync settings areas that you wish to use for the automated loads, you can paste one of the following examples depending on whether you'd like the system to randomly generate a password for each user, specify the same password for all users, or specify the use of a column header as the user's password:
| Example password setting for new users: | |
| Randomly generated password: (i.e. each password is a unique combination of letters and numbers | plugin.password.generator.full.sync.password= |
| Same password for all new users: i.e. all passwords equals welcome123, or just enter any password you'd like after the = sign | plugin.password.generator.full.sync.password=welcome123 |
| Specify a column to use as the password: i.e. all passwords equals custom ID, or any column header | plugin.password.generator.full.sync.password=ref:custom_id |
10. Scroll down to # Partial Sync Settings, and next to "#partial.sync.client.files.path=" insert the path to the folder where your SIS has been setup to export user data to. Insert the folder path after the = sign. This would be the folder where the sync client will monitor on a scheduled basis for exported data to upload to eChalk.
Note: When entering the folder path, make sure to add an extra back slash wherever there is a single backslash. For example, c:\\users\\jjones\\Desktop\\SIS Export
11. When you are ready to start testing, remove the "#" in front of "#partial.sync.client.files.path=", or # from any sync setting you wish to run.