Running the SDG (v1.0-v1.2)

The SDG is a command-line application that must be run from either the Windows Command Prompt or Windows Powershell.

Data Standard Support

When the SDG is installed, multiple versions are installed for each supported X. The data standard version number is included in the filename of the executable and each version will have its own sample directory. Below is a reference of each Ed-Fi data standard version, the supported Ed-Fi ODS/API version it applies to, the SDG executable and corresponding sample directory.

Ed-Fi Data Standard Version	Ed-Fi ODS/API Version	SDG Executable	SDG Sample Directory
2.2	2.5	EdFi.SDG.v22.exe	C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\v22
3.1	3.1	EdFi.SDG.v31.exe	C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\v31
3.2	3.3	EdFi.SDG.v32.exe	C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\v32

Below are examples provided for your first run of the SDG, which generates a limited set of sample data. From here, this example can be used to build towards your specific data cases. In the examples below, XX will be used to denote your targeted data standard. For example, if you are targeting the Ed-Fi Data Standard 3.1 and EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe is mentioned below, the actual executable will be EdFi.SDG.v31.exe.

Command Line Arguments

Below is a list of currently available command line arguments for the SDG. You can get a list of arguments available to the application by running with the /? switch.

Run in Powershell

EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe /?

Argument	Description	Required	Default
-c / -configXmlPath	Provides the path to the XML configuration file for this run.	Yes	(none)
-d / -dataFilePath	Provides the path to the input CSV data files.	No	.\DataFiles\
-m / -outputMode	One of {"Standard", "Seed"}. See further documentation about Seed Data.	No	Standard
-o / -outputPath	Path where output files should be saved. Note: this folder must already exist.	No	.\ (i.e. Current Directory)
-s / -seedFilePath	Path to an input or output seed file. Used for running in seed output mode. See further documentation about Seed Data.	No	(none)
-w / -allowOverwrite	If provided, files in the outputPath can be overwritten with newly generated data.	No	false

For example, a typical run of the SDG looks like this:

EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe -c C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\SampleConfig.xml -d C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\DataFiles\ -o C:\Temp\SDG\Output\

Outputting seed data:

EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe -c C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\SampleConfig.xml -d C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\DataFiles\ -o C:\Temp\SDG\Output\ -m Seed -s C:\Temp\SDG\SeedRecords.txt

Using seed data as input:

EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe -c C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\SampleConfig.xml -d C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\DataFiles\ -o C:\Temp\SDG\Output\ -s C:\Temp\SDG\SeedRecords.txt

Allowing output files to be overwritten (use with caution!):

EdFi.SDG.vXX.exe -c C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\SampleConfig.xml -d C:\Ed-Fi\Samples\vXX\SampleDataGenerator\DataFiles\ -o C:\Temp\SDG\Output\ -AllowOverwrite

Output

The output of the SDG is a set of XML files that adhere to the Ed-Fi Bulk Data Exchange for XML specifications. These XML files will be properly formatted Interchange files for use with any of the available Ed-Fi Bulk Load tools for loading to an Ed-Fi ODS. The location of these files are controlled by the -outputPath argument (explained above).

For non-student-specific files, the output file name will be {Ed-Fi-Interchange-Name}.xml
- Example: Descriptors.xml
- Example: EducationOrganization.xml
For student-specific files, the output file name will be {Ed-Fi-Interchange-Name}-{SchoolName}-{DataPeriod}-{BatchId}.xml
- Example (with batching ON): Student-Northridge High School-First Six Weeks-0001.xml
- Example (with batching OFF): Student-Northridge High School-First Six Weeks.xml

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