The PowerSchool documents are not very good for figuring things out on your own. Here is a good starting point that will hopefully get you headed in the right direction. Or, at least get it so you can start getting some data out via API.
1 - You need an xml file to load in as a Plugin for PowerSchool. See the attached SamplePlugin.xml file (I had to rename it with a .txt extension because it would not accept an .xml file). The plugin file is super simple but critical for you to access data via API. Think of the Plugin as creating the API in PowerSchool.
2. Go to "Plugin Management Dashboard" and install this xml file. This creates the endpoint for you to access data. Make sure to mark it as Enabled.
3. Click on your new Plugin, and then click on "Data Provider Configuration". This will give you the "Client ID" and "Client Secret" for accessing your API which is created by your Plugin.
You can now make API calls. Let's use Postman for example. Here are the steps to get that setup.
1. You need to get a Bearer Token to be able to make API calls. Here is the POST statement for Postman to get your bearer token.
POST: https//yoursite.powerschool.com/oauth/access_token
In the "Authorization" tab set Username = Client ID. Set Password = Client Secret (from step 3 above)
In the Headers tab set "Content-Type" to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8"
In the Body tab enter: "grant_type=client_credentials"
When you send this request you should get back a document that looks like this:
{
"access_token": "ce8815eb-b28f-40aa-bd9b-5f0a8dfa1813",
"token_type": "Bearer",
"expires_in": "1814654"
}
The Bearer Token will remain the same for about 30 days or until you click "Regenerate Client ID and Secret" in the Data Provider Configuration screen for your Plugin in PowerSchool. In your application you can then save this token in the database or some other mechanism
2. Now you can make an API call to get data for a single student. Here is how you do that in Postman using a GET request. I'm including a couple expansions and an extension to get more student data. You can look at the PowerSchool API documents as a reference of how to get more expansion sets or extension sets of data. Oh, the student ID below of 123 is the DCID in the PowerSchool database. Each student has 3 ID numbers: "Student Number" (the ID you are used to using for a student), Student "ID" (which is the PowerSchool assigned ID), and "DCID" (which is assigned by the Oracle Database). The APIs usually use the DCID for accessing students. So, if the API call doesn't return a student, make sure you know the DCID of a student so you can retrieve that student's information.
GET: https://yoursite.powerschool.com/ws/v1/student/123?expansions=demographics,contact_info&extensions=s...
In the "Authorization" tab select "Bearer Token" and set "Token" to the "access token" you received in step 1 above.
In the "Headers" tab set these 2 values: "Content-Type" set to "application/json" and "Accept" set to "application/json".
You should get back a document that looks something like this:
"student": {
"@expansions": "demographics, addresses, alerts, phones, school_enrollment, ethnicity_race, contact, contact_info, initial_enrollment, schedule_setup, fees, lunch, counselors, global_id",
"@extensions": "c_studentlocator,s_stu_crosslea_x,u_ecollect_screening,u_ecollect_enroll,u_ecollect_essentials,s_stu_crdc_x,s_stu_x,activities,s_ut_stu_crdc_x,u_students_extension,s_stu_ncea_x,s_stu_edfi_x,s_ut_stu_x,studentcorefields",
"_extension_data": {
"_table_extension": {
"recordFound": true,
"_field": [
{
"name": "pscore_legal_gender",
"type": "String",
"value": "M"
},
{
"name": "homeless_code",
"type": "String",
"value": 0
},
{
"name": "pscore_legal_first_name",
"type": "String",
"value": "JAMES"
},
{
"name": "pscore_legal_middle_name",
"type": "String",
"value": "T"
},
{
"name": "pscore_legal_last_name",
"type": "String",
"value": "KIRK"
}
],
"name": "studentcorefields"
}
},
"id": 123,
"local_id": 900012345,
"state_province_id": 1234567,
"name": {
"first_name": "JAMES",
"middle_name": "T",
"last_name": "KIRK"
},
"demographics": {
"gender": "M",
"birth_date": "2005-03-01",
"district_entry_date": "2010-02-11",
"projected_graduation_year": 2023
},
"contact_info": {
"email": "studentEmail@gmail.com"
}
}
}
I hope that gets you started in the right direction to get data from PowerSchool APIs.
As you go along and want to get more customized data, you will create a more complex plugin that contains queries that run on the server-side to get the data you want.
There are a few projects in github that you can look at. However, start with the above and get Postman working first. This gives you the key components to at least get APIs working. Then you can move on to exploring other things specific to what you want to do.
I had a problem attaching the SamplePlugin.xml file - even renaming it to .txt. So, here it is inline:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin xmlns="http://plugin.powerschool.pearson.com"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://plugin.powerschool.pearson.com plugin.xsd"
name="Your Plugin Name"
version="1.1"
description="Description of your Plugin for PowerSchool">
<oauth></oauth>
<access_request>
<field table="messagekeymap" field="languageisocode" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="schools" field="high_grade" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="schools" field="low_grade" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="schools" field="school_number" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="sections" field="dcid" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="dcid" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="first_name" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="gender" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="grade_level" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="id" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="last_name" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="lastfirst" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="student_number" access="ViewOnly" />
<field table="students" field="global_id" access="FullAccess" />
<field table="students" field="student_username" access="FullAccess" />
</access_request>
<publisher name="Your Name">
<contact email="your_email_address@gmail.com"/>
</publisher>
</plugin>
