November 2022: On behalf of the Ed-Fi community, we are pleased to announce the release of Data Import v2.0.0. For more details see What's New.
Overview
Data Import is a tool that simplifies the loading of CSV data to the Operational Data Store (ODS) of the Ed-Fi ODS / API. The import handles domains where vendor integration to the Ed-Fi APIs is inchoate or nonexistent from legacy data sources such as state assessment systems. The system works by providing methods to extract information out of spreadsheet-based CSV data files, and transform and load to the Ed-Fi ODS / API.
The Data Import tool is a multi-project C# .NET solution. It has a web administration panel in ASP.NET to view data and job status, and .NET command-line server components to process data. Data Import is compatible with Ed-Fi ODS / API v2.5 and higher, and also Ed-Fi ODS / API v3.1 and higher.
Primary features of Data Import include:
Obtain CSVs via SFTP, FTPS, web site, or manual upload
Map CSVs to Ed-Fi API endpoints and map CSV columns to Ed-Fi attributes
Populate CSV row data into an Ed-Fi ODS / API based on mappings
View import job status and other details
Data Import is a tool that is designed to accommodate local education agency (LEA) or school district sized data, typically with source files in the range of 40-100k rows. For state education agency (SEA) sized data that range in the millions of rows, other enterprise-grade ETL solutions may be better geared to solve data ingestion needs.
Licensing
The Data Import tool is licensed through an Ed-Fi License.
Documentation
Documentation for Data Import is available online.