What's New in Marketplace Applications

Derek Nichols · March 2021

We have an update to share on four new marketplace applications to help with enrollment applications, bulk notifications, scheduling appointments, and more.Looking for applications purpose built to enhance your schools? Now in the Blackbaud Marketplace, you can browse for those applications with the new “Education Management” app collection. When you select the school collection, it filters the list so you only see apps that are compatible with Education Management. If you filter for “Schools,” you’ll see additional apps that many schools use but which aren’t necessarily specific to Education Management, such as apps for schools that also use Raiser’s Edge.

Last year, we showcased a few newly added marketplace apps including data sync options with Popcicle, SchoolPass, and VisitU. This week we're highlighting even more new apps that help with enrollment applications, bulk notifications, scheduling appointments, digital textbooks, and photo management.

BrightArrow Mass Notification

By BrightArrow Technologies, Inc.

BrightArrow provides a full-featured mass notification solution which provides voice calls, text messages, emails, social media posts and app push notifications. Their solution integrates with Blackbaud products via the SKY API, which allows for automatic synchronization of staff and their constituents' data.

For more on this app, visit the Marketplace page here.

pickAtime Scheduling

By pickAtime

pickAtime is an award-winning software-as-a-service company providing parent-teacher conference scheduling & online appointment services. They offer Single Sign On & direct data export. Parents log in from the Resource board to book their appointments, creating a seamless process for parents.

For more on this app, visit the Marketplace page here.

TextbookHub

By TextbookHub, Inc.

TextbookHub is a cloud-based digital textbook platform for K-12 parochial and independent schools. They help provide all your textbooks in one place for every student, online or offline, for anytime, anywhere access.

For more on this app, visit the Marketplace page here.

Waldo Photos
By Waldo Photos

Waldo Photos is the most advanced photo management platform available to schools. Serving as a digital asset manager, yearbook teaching tool, and powerful marketing vehicle. Waldo Photos has integrated with Blackbaud to provide a single sign on integration, allowing you to seamlessly access both.

For more on this app, visit the Marketplace page here.

Connect an app

Connecting is just the first step in enabling an app to extend the functionality of your Blackbaud solutions. You then need to work with the app publisher to complete their set up steps.

Also, when you connect an app, it does not have access to your Blackbaud data yet. If it wants to access your data, it still needs to ask for consent first. Consent is given on a per user basis and the app can only access data that the consenting user can access.

After you connect an app, you must contact the app publisher for next steps and to discuss fees. No payment is given or promised at the time you connect; it just initiates your interest in that solution.

If you have questions about what data it requires access to or how it works, include those questions when you contact them. And if you ever decide the app isn’t right for your organization, an admin can quickly disconnect it. All permissions are then revoked!

Learn more about SKY API and connecting apps by visiting: https://developer.blackbaud.com/skyapi/apis/school

APIs and authentication tokens (keys & secrets)

We continue to support both of our REST APIs which enable two applications to talk to each other, such as Blackbaud Education Management and a third party partner integration. The two supported REST APIs are the newer SKY API and the “legacy” ON API.
Although many applications in the Blackbaud Marketplace are built with SKY API, a few partners who use ON API are listed there as well. Typically, apps built with SKY API include a Connect options directly in the marketplace, whereas apps built with ON API require you to Contact the partner for connection information.

Remember, any apps build on ON API must use authentication tokens (Keys and Secrets), rather than usernames and passwords, by June 30, 2021. We recently blogged about this transition process: https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/17/7459

If you’re not sure if your instance of an application is affected by the transition to authentication (Keys and Secrets), contact the vendor who developed the application.

If you create a new custom app, we recommend using SKY API , which is being expanded as Blackbaud Education Management is enhanced and which has parity with ON API.