Base concept of the generic importer

For importing comma-separated or, more generally, any sort of column-based data in text files, AlekSIS provides a generic importer.

The importer works with so-called import templates. These templates set a field type for each column in a file. With this information, the importer will know how to interpret each cell.

Default templates

For import sources that have already been tested, AlekSIS provides import templates that are readily available.

Right now, the following import sources are supported:

  • Pedasos, a school management solution popular in Northern Germany

  • Schild-NRW, the obligatory school management solution in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany

  • Untis, a proprietary timetable management software (see Importing data from Untis)

These software products either provide hard-coded export mechanisms, or allow the creation of report/export templates to generate CSV-like output.

Custom templates

In addition to the integrated default templates, custom templates can be created by administrators. Creating custom import templates currently requires hand-crafting YAML files that can then be uploaded through the user interface.

However, this feature is currently deliberately undocumented.