Admins: Optional IT Integrations

Available IT Integrations

Below are common IT integrations that we can set up alongside your IT.

To initiate any of these, please contact [e-mail]. When contacting Penji Support please indicate which integration you would like to set up, for which communities (or school-wide), and who would be the best IT contact. 

Not every community within a school has to have the same data integrations. Data integrations can be turned off or on for a given community, without affecting other communities within the same school. However, SSO is a school-wide integration that will be set up for the entire school.

Single Signon (SSO)

We highly recommend setting this up. Single sign-on allows students to log in through their school credentials to access Penji. An example of SSO can be found in, Students: Setting up Penji (Start Here!).

Setting up SSO will also create a school sharelink. The Share Link can be found on the left-hand side of the admin panel, see below. This link can be used by students/providers to login into web.penjiapp.com. Instead of visiting the website, students/providers can click on your school-specific share link and jump right into the SSO process.

If we opt to set up SSO after Penji has launched at your school, that is okay, although we recommend getting this done before launch. If a student has already accessed Penji before SSO was implemented uses your school-specific sharelink to login, they'll be asked to login through SSO. If the student goes through the website or mobile app to log in, they can either log in through SSO or use their Penji password. New students will always be asked to login through SSO. 

School Sharelink - "Link to School"

The school sharelink will direct users through the general SSO flow. If they were logged in, users will land on the community they were the last active in. If the user is logged out, once they sign in, they will be directed to the community they have joined which is the oldest (the first community created out of the list of joined communities).

Community Specific Sharelink - "Link to Community"

These will link a users DIRECTLY to your community in Penji. If they aren't signed in they'll be asked to log in through SSO and will then go straight to your community. Overall, this is to help reduce the amount of clicks it takes for a student to find and access your community. If the user is already signed in, they will go directly to your community. 

Students

When turned on, we will import basic information about all students at your school/campus, and all students from this import will begin appearing on the Students tab.

Benefits are three-fold: (1) create more complete data for Kiosk Check-Ins, (2) allow logging of sessions for students who haven't logged into Penji, and (3) provides a searchable list of all students. This import combines with any student accounts that already exist.

Note, if the student integration is set up, any information uploaded through the student.csv file (Admin Panel > Students > Manage > Import), will be overwritten by the information contained within the Student SFTP Import. Although students not on the Import will appear on the Students tab in the admin panel, if your community is set to "Use List", only those on the import will be able to use your community. 

Courses

When turned on, this will import all courses offered at your school for the current semester. If you have any custom courses currently listed, this will replace all courses you've uploaded; after that moment, though, you'll be able to re-add any custom courses on top of the import. How to add a course can be found in Admins: Courses (or Topics) Setup.

The courses shown on the admin panel are a collection of "custom courses", uploaded through the CSV file, and the data received from your IT team. Note, editing the course.csv file will only affect the custom courses that were previously imported through the course.csv, not the information within the Course SFTP Import. 

Course Enrollments

When turned on, this import auto-assigns students to the courses they are currently enrolled in, so that they don't have to join these courses when searching for drop-in or appointment times when they are logged in. Note that courses are only auto-populated if the student is signed in within the web/mobile app (courses still must be selected at drop-in kiosks). This import will replace any file you've manually uploaded.

When course enrollments are turned on we have the option to limit a student specifically to the courses they are enrolled in. This feature disables the ability for students to join/remove a course, so students would not be able to edit their preloaded courses. However, a student would also then not be able to add a custom course, for example, "Standardized Test Prep". Custom courses are explained above, in the header "Courses". 

Student Metadata

Import student information, like year, hometown, GPA, academic standing, etc. This data is viewable in our data dashboards. You must specify the fields you're interested in, to Penji and your IT team; IT will confirm if those are possible to include in their export sent to Penji.

Review the article Admins: Manual Upload of Student Metadata, under the header, "Where Metadata is Shown" for a deeper understanding of how this information is displayed in Penji. 

Course Grades

Import student grade data at the end of a semester, allowing for analysis within Penji's data system on engagement by GPA.

Data Export

You can set up automatic Data Exports of the Penji session data, sending it to other systems used for analysis on campus.

Canvas Integration

Penji integrates with Canvas. This can be done in the global canvas navigation or in the course menu navigation. If you would like it in the course menu navigation, you will be able to decide if it is going to be enabled for all courses on campus by default, or if it is an option that instructors must turn on. When contacting Penji, please specify your preference. 

Card Reader Support

Penji can optionally integrate with student ID card readers for use with Drop-In Kiosk.

How Penji Integrates

Integrations Occur via Flat-File SFTP Transfer. Penji hosts an SFTP server that can be used as the medium for transferring one or more flat-files (CSVs) to and from your schools systems. Both your IT team and Penji will set up a recurring piece of code to initiate an export from one system and an import into the other, occurring via SFTP. Many of the above examples run on a 24-hour schedule, keeping the data in all systems fresh.

Once turned on, the standard import for the SFTP Data is automatically once a day around 00:00 UTC (4 PM PST, 5 PM MST, 6 PM CST and 7 PM EST).