Information regarding file structure, contents and format.
CSV file naming convention
The name for the CSV file used in Integrations will be:
<school code>_<file type>.csv
The fields are as follows:
- is an arbitrary code to quickly denote the institution - typically an abbreviation of the institution name, you can choose your own as long as it is unique (will be verified with your Implementation Manager)
- is “course-info” for the course data and “student-info” for the student data.
Note that the fields in the file name are separated by underscores ("_").
An example of a file name is:
McGill_student-info.csv
Timing of imports from the SFTP server
The CSV file containing your student information is transferred to Ready Education using SSH File Transfer Protocol Server (SFTP).
To access the server and transfer data, your integration contact will provide you with:
- the URL or address of the SFTP server
- a username and password to gain access.
The node regularly updates stored data throughout the day, therefore files can be transferred at any frequency. The required minimum is one update per 24-hour period, to keep the data minimally up to date for students.
Booleans Supported
You can use the following Boolean values when transferring data throughout the Ready Education integration system:
- 1 / 0
- True / False
- Yes / No
- Oui / Non
Text Delimiters and Qualifiers
The data file used in an integration with the node should follow a specific format but can be modified to make integrations easier. Speak with your integration contact to request support for format differences.
- Text fields must be separated by a pipe character ("|").
- The contents of any text field should be enclosed within double quotes.
- Double quotes should be escaped using a backspace (")
- ODIN will handle return carriages ie. line breaks, do not escape them using '\n'
Here is an example of three fields together on one row of a sample data file:
"Robert's Apples"|"Oranges and Lemons"|"Grapefruit"
"Bananas, a string with \"double quotes\" in it"|"More Fruit!"|"Field with a
line break in it"|"More Fruit"
File Content
Each file should contain (student and course data) should contain all the data (not a delta from the previous file). The data should span across the current semester, previous semester and next semester. The node will automatically ensure the data in the Ready Education DB is consistent with what is in the latest file.
If you are omitting certain data, include the column but use an empty string as the value ("").
You should include file headers and use the data field's label as the header name (eg. "student_unique_id"|"course_unique_id"|"name"|"gender")
Return carriages should be escaped as to not affect the parsing of the file. You can replace the return carriage with '\n'