Updating from Previous Versions

The Ed-Fi Alliance provides detail regarding schema changes to assist adopters with the task of updating from previous versions, and solicits input about proposed changes to the data model. Before the official release of the Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.0, there was a Request for Comment (RFC) period that provided the community an advance look at proposed changes and an opportunity to give the Ed-Fi Alliance feedback on the changes and possible pain points.

This valuable input helps keep the Ed-Fi Data Standard relevant to educators and of the highest technical quality.

Care should always be taken when attempting to convert data between versions of any data standard, but this is especially true for the major version Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.0. In many cases, backward compatibility with previous versions of the Ed-Fi Data Standard may require careful analysis due to changes in many entity structures – including the addition of new elements, deprecation of existing elements, and type changes.

To assist in migrations from the Ed-Fi Data Standard v1.2 to v2.0, sample Altova MapForce based XML mappings are available in the Ed-Fi Alliance GitHub repository at https://github.com/Ed-Fi-Alliance/Ed-Fi-Standard/tree/master/v2.0/Samples/Sample%20Mappings. These mapping files should be considered a starting point for an actual migration since each implementation may require dataset specific transformations.

In addition, the Ed-Fi Alliance hosts a free, online Validation Tool at https://validate.ed-fi.org. The Validation Tool provides a secure, user-friendly way to verify XML data files aligned with any version of the Ed-Fi Data Standard. With this release, the tool has been updated to validate files against Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.0 schema.