SIF Settings and Configuration User Interface

There are a number of configuration aspects necessary in order to have Synergetic able to receive and process a SIF request from another system and action the request appropriately.

Access to SIF Settings

The configuration for SIF is now available via a new menu option in Synweb - System Menu called Interface Settings.

To grant users access to see this menu item, permission must be provided via Group/User Security Maintenance to the following item

Resource: API Roles

Security Key: SYS - InterfaceSettings

Using the Interface Settings screen for configuring SIF 

On first entering the Interface Settings screen, you will see a selection field at the top asking to choose an Interface - select SIF from the list of options.

The screen will now show a tree view on the left with the various settings for SIF, with an empty panel on the right.

The tree view will contain parent entries (showing in green text with an > marker) and child entries (showing in black text).

The panel on the right will load and show content based on the selected tree view item on the left. 

In the below example, the Base SIF Settings entry has been selected - this item is a parent entry in the tree view, and so the child items are shown in the panel for the user to see and interact with.

Interface Settings - controls and icons reference list

Base SIF Settings

This section controls the general configuration around SIF.

It contains items and settings relating to:

• SIF Enabled status 
• The current data model (version of SIF) that is used as the default.
• SIF Provider and Consumer Service status and options

SIF Provider Service

This section includes the list of specific SIF objects currently available when Synergetic receives a SIF request from a Consumer for data to be returned by Synergetic (acting as a SIF Provider).

SIF Provider objects

SchoolInfo

 SchoolInfo

StudentPersonal

 StudentPersonal

StudentSchoolEnrollment

StudentContactRelationship

StudentContactPersonal

TeachingGroup

StaffPersonal

StaffAssignment

PersonPicture

StudentAttendanceTimeList

StudentScoreJudgementAgainstStandard

Timetable

TimetableCell

SIF Versions

Each SIF version can contain different objects and data fields within the objects, as the overall SIF standard evolves.  The SIF standard allows for prior versions to co-exist for backwards compatibility.

For instance, one Consumer may be requesting information using SIF 3.4 version objects, while another may request information using SIF 3.5 version objects.

This section of the Synergetic SIF Settings interface lists the currently supported SIF versions, and allows configuration of different Consumer systems and their various object permissions within each separate SIF version.

SIF Consumers

Within a given SIF Version, the particular Consumers (external systems) who will be allowed to request information using this version structure are maintained.

Adding a new Consumer

When configuring SIF for the first time, there will not be any Consumer records and one will need to be created using the Add button:

Pressing the Add button will open the Add New SIF Consumer dialog, to let you enter the name and security details.

Once the details are entered, click the Create button to save and close the dialog.

Important Note: The Application Key and Shared Secret are important fields to set up accurately, as these two values are used in generating the Token value that is necessary for the SIF Consumer to be recognised and authorised to request data and receive a response.

You can use any values desired here, however it is suggested to use appropriate complexity and uniqueness per each Consumer record, for ensuring security of your data.

Once the Consumer has been saved, Synergetic will automatically calculate the Token value based on the entered Application Key and Shared Secret. 

Tip: Clicking the clipboard icon  next to the Token string will copy it to the clipboard for ease in configuring your other Consumer application.

Modifying an existing Consumer

To edit an existing Consumer, select the field and enter your changes. 

If the Application Key or Shared Secret values change, a hint will show noting that the token will no longer be valid. 

Saving the record will cause a new Token value to be generated - this new value would then need to be included within the other Consumer application's SIF configuration.

Consumer Permissions

For each individual Consumer record, specific permissions need to be defined controlling which SIF objects, and what type of SIF requests are allowed to be made by that Consumer.

When viewing the Consumer details panel, click the icon on the right side of the panel to open the Permissions panel for this Consumer.

Each consumer's Permission settings are unique to that Consumer.

In the below example, the "Timetable software" Consumer is enabled for the Current context, and is allowed to request information (Query) for three SIF Objects (SchoolInfo, StaffPersonal, StudentContactPersonal).

In the below example, the "Library system" Consumer is enabled for the Current context, but does not have permission to request any SIF objects.

Mapping SIF values

The SIF specification uses sets of values for each individual element where a specific set of possible values has been determined (eg Address Types, Country codes,  Year Level codes) 

Any SIF formatted message between different systems needs to use these common SIF values, so that every system is able to understand and 'translate' the content of the message in a consistent and reliable way.

This approach requires that the reference values used locally inside Synergetic (stored in various lookup tables) be mapped to the equivalent SIF value.

There are two configuration sections within the SIF Settings screen to manage these mappings - one for Inbound values, and one for Outbound values.

• Outbound - when an external system requests a SIF object from Synergetic, the values are mapped from Synergetic value to equivalent SIF value when sending the response.
• Inbound - when a SIF object is received by Synergetic (sent from an external system), the values are mapped from SIF value to equivalent Synergetic value when processing the object contents.

Not all lookup tables within Synergetic are used for SIF object mapping - only the specific lookup tables that have been identified by Synergetic as needing to be used for supported SIF objects will be shown in the SIF Settings interface.

For each of these tables, the appropriate SIF-Synergetic mapping needs to be selected by the user and saved.

Outbound

Inbound

Mapping interface

On the Outbound or Inbound panel view, click the icon on the right side to open the mapping interface for the selected lookup table.

Within this panel, the appropriate set of value options will be displayed.

• If performing mapping for an Outbound table, the list will be based on the Synergetic lookup tables with Synergetic value on the left side, and possible SIF values contained within a dropdown on the right side.

• If performing mapping for an Inbound table, the list will be based on the SIF reference values with the SIF value on the left side. 

• To set the mapping value, click on the  Edit icon to enable an entry for editing, then use the dropdown control to see and select from the list of all possible options.

Alerts - identifying mapping errors

If a given table has errors within the mappings (due to missing or invalid mapping values) an alert icon and message will appear for that particular lookup table.

Treeview alert: 

Panel alert: 

• Clicking the alert icon will jump to the first entry in the panel view with errors detected.
• The number in the badge will show a count of issues for that item and any children. If there are more than 9 issues found, the number will change to a + symbol.

Mapping panel alerts:

SIF Action Centre message types

New Action Message types have been created for supporting users being informed of certain SIF-related aspects.

Further details of the messages can be seen in Synergetic via the windows client, in the System - Settings Maintenance (Action Centre Message Types) interface.

To manage subscription to these messages, use the Action Centre Types entry in the System - Group/User Security Maintenance interface.