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Software Development Kit

Katherine Lewis

We have had a software development kit as part of our contract for a few years, but no one seems to know what it is for?!! We do not do any Crystal Reports. We do have an API to get our student informed synced into Core - is it possibly used for this? And if so, how can we switch over to SKY API? Any guidance you can give would be appreciated!!

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Comments

Bryna Gleich

Here's the main online help for SKY API for Schools. It includes info for admins, developers, and more. https://developer.blackbaud.com/skyapi/apis/school

There is a User Community that specifically focuses on SKY API too. From there, you can talk with peers at other schools who are using SKY API and with developers who use APIs to build apps. https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/486

For a high level overview of the the differences and uses for SKY API, the SDK, and the older, legacy ON API see https://webfiles.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/education/k12/full-help/content/bb-integrations-sdk.html

In general, you get the SDK for Crystal Reports. I think it comes bundled with the old ON API too. However, if you aren't using Crystal Reports and you don't have anything that's using the old ON API, then you may not need the SDK.

You mentioned that you have an API app to get Student Information synced to Core. If you're using the older ON API, then you probably got the SDK as part of that bundle. I don't think the SDK and Crystal Reports are ever really "unbundled" and sold separately, but your account manager/executive can probably confirm that. As long as your ON API is still in use, you'll get the SDK too.

The new SKY API does not require the SDK and it's not bundled with the SDK. We recommend all new development use the SKY API instead of the older ON API.

If the API you mentioned to get Student Information synced to Core has been updated to use SKY API instead of ON API, then you probably don't need the SDK + ON API bundle anymore and could ask your account manager/executive about dropping the unused bundle.

(I don't work in the sales and implementation side of things, so I'm not 100% sure about the "bundle" stuff for contracts. I work in product development as a technical writer. As such, I'll apologize in advance if I'm wrong about the "bundle.")

Katherine Lewis

Hi Bryna,

Thank you for all the great information. We do not have the internal resources to know how to do our integration with SKY API, but I am hopeful that we could hire a consultant to help us use it. Do you happen to know if any Blackbaud clients use the Banner Information System and sync. information from it to Blackbaud K-12 using the SKY API? If so, I would love to get their contact information so we could use them as a resource as we navigate getting our systems synced properly.

Also, I have another question for you about how the SDK works, so we can keep things running until we switch over to the SKY API. And, I am not a technical person so please bear with me!! The SDK was purchased so we could sync parent and student contact information from Banner to Blackbaud. Now that the integration is set up, can we cancel the SDK as part of our contract and keep the integration in-tact? Or, does cancelling it some how "unplug" something that allows our systems to sync? And, as a side note, we do not use the SDK for crystal reports.

Thank you Bryna for all your help!

Katherine

Bryna Gleich

Good questions!

Now that the integration is set up, the SDK has to stay active for the integration to continue working and syncing. I think of it sort of like how you'd set up a new phone, in that you still need the ongoing data plan to keep "making calls" to share information between yourself and the people/parties you call.

If the integration is upgraded to SKY API instead of ON API, it's as if the phone switched to a new carrier or a new data plan. Thus, you would no longer need the old SDK plan because the new one via SKY API would replace it. All "calls" would go through SKY API instead.

I don't have access to see which schools are using both Blackbaud and Banner Information System and sync, so I can't personally answer that one. I'll forward this forum thread to some people I work with to see if they know.

Hopefully, other members of the user community might chime in if their school uses it though. To get the most attention, you might want to start a new forum thread and put that in the title.

I'd also recommend asking your Blackbaud account person in case they can look that up info.

If not, Banner Information System might know which of their clients use both (and of those, who would be open to chatting about it).

Glad to help!