Groupcall Xporter | 2010
Network Manager SIF Information Pack
Page 1 of 8
Xporter Edition
This information applies to all editions of Groupcall Xporter provided with the Groupcall SIF Agent.
Version Control
1
Date
2010-11-23
Author
Tim Verlander
Groupcall Xporter Support
Notes
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
Contents
Xporter Edition ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Version Control ....................................................................................................................................... 1
What is Xporter, what is SIF and why is it being installed? .................................................................... 3
SIF and non-SIF enabled Xporter ............................................................................................................ 3
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How does SIF work? ................................................................................................................................ 4
SIF Security .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Agent Connection ............................................................................................................................... 5
Data Security ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Auditing ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Common Questions ................................................................................................................................ 6
What rights does Groupcall Xporter need on my MIS system? .......................................................... 7
Does my system support Groupcall Xporter? ..................................................................................... 7
Where should I install Xporter? .......................................................................................................... 7
We already have Groupcall Xporter, do I need to install it somewhere else? ................................... 7
Will Xporter increase my server workload? ........................................................................................ 7
How can I see what Xporter is doing?................................................................................................. 7
Couldn’t other data be requested by SIF? .......................................................................................... 7
Where else is SIF used? I’ve never heard of it. .................................................................................. 7
Where can I go for further information? ................................................................................................ 8
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
What is Xporter, what is SIF and why is it being installed?
Groupcall Xporter is a versatile data extraction tool and can take information from a wide variety of
systems, including the most common School MIS systems, and present it to other systems in a
standardised format. Those standardised formats include a long-established data standard called
SIF.
Groupcall Xporter is used by a wide number of different vendors, including cashless catering,
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payment systems, library systems, attendance reporting software andPage
local3authorities.
It’s quite
possible that your establishment already has an installation of Xporter, and this installation can
simply have the SIF agent added to it without affecting what it already does.
SIF stands for Systems Interoperability Framework and is a standard for data movement; both in
terms of the data structure and formatting, and in terms of the underlying secure transport. SIF is
an established UK standard and similar SIF standards are used in both America and Australia. You
undoubtedly have a number of security-related questions about the transport of data, and these are
addressed the SIF Security section.
The reason for installation is that your local authority, or an education systems provider, has
purchased or provided software that uses SIF as the standard for data movement. The most
common reason for this is to provide aggregated attendance recording across 14-19 partnerships.
However, other reasons can include integration of systems such as Cashless Catering, Learning
Platforms, user account provisioning and so on.
SIF and non-SIF enabled Xporter
Groupcall Xporter comes in both SIF and non-SIF versions. Having Xporter installed doesn’t
necessarily mean that you have the SIF-enabled version. To see if an Xporter installation is SIFenabled just open the Xporter Management Console on the computer where Xporter is installed and
see whether there is a SIF section, if there isn’t then you have the non-SIF version of Xporter.
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
How does SIF work?
Because SIF is a standard, not an application, a SIF infrastructure needs several supporting
applications. Every data source and destination must have a SIF Agent, such as Groupcall Xporter.
To join the agents together so that they can communication a component called a Zone Integration
Server (ZIS) is used. A ZIS is usually provided by a managed service provider and is contracted by
either your local authority, regional broadband consortium or by an education systems provider.
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SIF contains different types of SIF Objects which contain a specific area
of information,
the most
common objects are:






SchoolInfo: Provides the establishment number of the school and the name
SchoolGroup: Provides the groups defined in the school MIS
LearnerPersonal: Provides information on learners
LearnerSchoolEnrolment: Links LearnerPersonal records to SchoolInfo records
LearnerGroupEnrolment: Links LearnerPersonal records to SchoolGroup records
LearnerAttendance: Provides attendance records
Typically a destination SIF agent will request only a subset of an object. For example:




Learners with a specific enrolment
Attendance for a given time period
A school group with a specific name
Learner information for a specific individual.
To obtain data a destination SIF agent will request a SIF object from the Zone Integration Server for a
specific school. The Zone Integration Server will then work out which Groupcall Xporter agent to
contact and request the object. The ZIS is configured only to allow certain objects to move between
certain agents.
MIS
Groupcall
Xporter
Groupcall Xporter Support
ZIS
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Destination
Agent
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
SIF Security
Agent Connection
A SIF agent connects to a ZIS using SSL. The SIF agent transmits a specific agent name which the ZIS
won’t allow connection without. The ZIS usually also requires that the agent transmits a separate
SSL certificate to demonstrate its validity. This means that you can be sure that any system
connected to the ZIS is verified and permitted to connect.
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Almost all SIF deployments work by a pull mechanism; that is the agent connects to the ZIS and
checks for any messages. In a pull configuration the ZIS never attempts to actively connect to the
agent and therefore no incoming firewall changes are required.
SIF pull messages can travel via a proxy server but, because of their SSL nature, the contents cannot
be directly inspected.
Data Security
For each agent, the ZIS will only allow certain objects to pass to it. This can happen at the object
level or lower down. An example of Object –level protection would be that a staff payroll system
might not be allowed to request or receive LearnerPersonal objects. An example of lower-level
protection might be that an application that works with students in care would only be allowed to
receive LearnerPersonal objects where the Learner is marked as In Care.
In both the scenarios above neither application should ever request information to which it isn’t
entitled, to do so would exceed the legally enforceable Data Agreement for the collection and use of
the specific data.
Auditing
Groupcall Xporter provides auditing in the SIF Log, which shows messages received via SIF and the
responses returned.
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
Writing Data
Some deployments of Groupcall Xporter can write information from SIF agents back into your MIS
system. This will only be allowed if it was explicitly enabled during Xporter installation. Write back
in SIF applies only to very specific objects and the most common is LearnerAttendance for 14-19
Partnerships.
Groupcall work very closely with SIF partners that utilise write-back support and, if your installation
6 of 8provider that will be
is to be write-enabled, you will be provided with information from thePage
software
making the write requests.
Typically systems that allow write-back do so to provide efficiencies around both staff workload and
safeguarding (such as off-site attendance recording). Unless you know that your deployment is to be
a write-enabled deployment, you should obviously not enable write-back during the installation.
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
Common Questions
What rights does Groupcall Xporter need on my MIS system?
To address any questions about the security rights of Xporter against your MIS system, from which
Xporter retrieves the required data, please see the MIS Recommended Security Settings document
located at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Does my system support Groupcall Xporter?
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Groupcall Xporter supports Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
onwards. 64 bit platforms are supported.
Where should I install Xporter?
Groupcall Xporter is best installed on your MIS server, to minimise complexity of connecting to your
MIS system.
We already have Groupcall Xporter, do I need to install SIF elsewhere?
No you don’t; Xporter installers automatically detect existing installations and upgrade them to the
latest version during install. The installer will also preserve the job that the existing installation was
carrying out and will share the same MIS credentials.
Will Xporter increase my server workload?
Xporter is an efficient application and works by running reports against your MIS. Because of this it
causes no more impact on your MIS than running a typical MIS report. To ensure that any impact is
minimised, most SIF systems collect data overnight to minimise any possible impact.
How can I see what Xporter is doing?
The Groupcall Xporter Management Console has a SIF log that shows all messages being received
and transmitted.
Couldn’t other data be requested by SIF?
The combination of legal data agreements and ZIS security are designed to prevent this happening.
Because the SIF agent only connects to the ZIS, validates all SSL certificates and doesn’t receive
messages from anywhere else it would be a very significant effort to spoof SIF requests.
Where else is SIF used? I’ve never heard of it.
In the UK SIF is used by a significant number of education providers, local authorities and regional
broadband consortia. It is the established standard for movement of education data in the US and is
being implemented in Australia.
SIF was established in the UK by Becta and is endorsed by them as the standard for education data
movement in the UK.
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/
Groupcall Xporter | 2010
Where can I go for further information?
Groupcall recommends that, in the first instance, you should contact the company that supplied
Groupcall Xporter to you as they will know most about their software, the data extracted and how
the data is transmitted and used.
If you would like to know more about the SIF standard, including information about other education
products that are SIF enabled, then please visit http://www.sifinfo.org/uk.
Page 8 of 8
Groupcall Xporter Support
Tel: 0208 502 7344
Email: xporter.support@groupcall.com
Latest Xporter First-Line Support Procedures at http://www.groupcall.co.uk/download/firstline/