A Standards Based Data Exchange Network
Jeff Alderson, Director of Pre-Sales Solutions
617-532-3008
jalderson@connectedu.net
April 8, 2009
Who We Are
• Founded in 2002, Privately held corporation
• Team of former K12/Post-Secondary education,
business and technology experts
• First network to integrate with SIS to bridge
K12/Post-Secondary, first to deploy PESC XML
• Industry leader in secure acquisition and
transmission of electronic student records,
applications, and financial materials
• Largest and fastest growing
Going to College/Career Network
• Committed to Industry Standards (PESC, SIF)
A Call to Action
Stated / Visible Market Need
• Many proprietary transcript exchange networks exist
• Secondary and post secondary schools forced to choose a network
• Not all higher education institutions participate on all networks
• Statewide transcript exchange systems can’t deliver transcripts out of
state, or only on a single vendor network
• Existing transcript “hubs” are technologically complex and cost
prohibitive for secondary school participation
Industry / Non-Profit / Vendor Support
• No clear, nationwide, widespread adoption of published standards
• Transcript Vendors open to “coopetition” (PESC Panel, April 2008)
• SIS Vendors remain committed to standards bodies workgroups and
activities but slow to support new standards in products (no APIs)
The Proposed Solution
A Standards-Based Methodology for Data Exchange
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach, over the internet
• Well documented set of APIs with free, open source examples
• A single API for the request, creation, import and export of transcripts and
related documents, used by exchange networks or individual SIS vendors
• Distributed trading partner registry to manage secondary, postsecondary,
industry and other participants (senders and receivers)
• All documents are securely routed to their final destination regardless of SIS or
transcript exchange vendor used
Cooperation Between SIS, Transcript Vendors
• Meets stated goals of “coopetition” between established transcript vendors
• Reduces development time, costs for participating vendors
• Differentiates vendors based on services; not technology or standards used
• Supports an ATM-like model for the routing of data and collection of fees
The Technology
Supported Standards
Security
• WS-Security or equivalents
• HTTPS-Only Connections
• Trading Partner SSL Certificates required
• Trading Partner SSL Certificates required
Formats
• All transactions are XML, SOA-style messages
• Request, response, acknowledgement handling
• Payload in XML message depends on transaction
• Supports any known standard, file or binary payload
Web Services
• Published WSDL for Trading Partner APIs
• API Endpoint URLs stored in Trading Partner Registry
• OS, Platform, Programming Language Independent
• Example code and documentation available
• Could be Open Sourced under GPL
Potential Trading Partners
Transcript Vendors
• ConnectEDU
• Docufide
• National Student Clearinghouse
• National Transcript Center
• Xap
• Others
Post-Secondary SIS Vendors
• Oracle
• SunGard
• Datatel
• Mainframe / Open Source / Others
Direct Participants
• Individual schools or districts (LEAs) or SIS vendors
• Statewide transcript exchange systems
• Statewide longitudinal data systems (SEAs)
• Customized SIF Agent for Trading Partner API
• Individual post-secondary institutions
• International Organizations (RS3G)
• Others
Trading Partner API
Documented API using Web Service Methods
Open Source Examples and Implementation Guide
Non-Profit Sponsorship (Hosting?) of Registry
• A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a
single entity (PESC, for example)
• Initial, root registry should be hosted at a public URL
• Federated registry among trading partners
• More to come from PESC regarding a potential business model
Supported Document Types in API
SIF / SPEEDE / PESC Standards
• PESC XML High School, College Transcripts, Admissions Application, etc.
• SIF Message, Transcript, Student Record, etc.
• SPEEDE ANSI X12/EDI Transcript, Applications, Test Scores, etc.
• PESC XML Batch Containers to support multiple documents in one transmission
• PESC Acknowledgements to support positive delivery of document(s)
Image File Formats
• TIFF, JPG, PNG and other binary image file formats
• PDF (with and without embedded XML data or attachments)
Custom File Formats
• Any XML document with an associated DTD and XSD in a public URL space
• Any CSV, TXT, delimited or flat-file plain text formats with documented schema
• Supports XML Schemas still in development by SIF/PESC working groups
• Supports Proprietary Schemas in use by specific trading partners
Trading Partner Forum
Single Online Location for Exchange Network Activities
• Discussion Forums for Developers, End Users and Network Administrators
• Documentation Repository and Knowledgebase (Exchange Wiki)
• Hosted Root-Level Trading Partner Registry
• Free and open source API code examples
• Working API test harness and test registry for developers
• Account Management console for registered trading partners and end users
• Centralized URL for a Trading Partner Portal
(e.g. http://www.transcriptexchange.net/)
Supported by Participating Standards Bodies, Users
• Potentially hosted by PESC, SIFA or other interested entities
• Code examples, best practices, guides contributed by vendors, end users
• Encourages more widespread adoption of standards by users
• Extends reach of standards movement to other entities, internationally
Trading Partner Registry
Single Registry to Control Partner Authority
• Trading partners marked as authoritative for a given sender/receiver
• Identifies which document types, versions each partner supports
• Proposed schema for registry is platform, database independent
• Registry updates protected by secure web services – partners can only
update the registry for those institutions for which they are authoritative
Registry Replication Amongst Partners
• All trading partners replicate the entire contents of the registry
• Ensures high availability of the entire network in the event of outages
• A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a
single entity (PESC, for example)
Non-Profit Sponsorship and Hosting of Registry
• A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a
single entity (PESC, for example)
• Initial, root registry should be hosted at a public URL