Student Information System (SIS) integration helps administrators integrate course, user, and enrollment data with Blackboard Learn. Data may come from various sources and in varying formats. SIS integration provides an easy way to upgrade to Blackboard Learn from another Learning Management System (LMS), such as CE or Vista by supporting the same data feed format generated by those systems for exchanging data. SIS integration also allows system updates to be delegated to other Blackboard administrators, allowing flexibility to be built into the system.
The SIS Framework is a Building Block-extensible framework that provides common functionality to all integrations while facilitating integration creation, configuration, and management within the Blackboard Learn Administrator Panel. The principle is based on a separation of functionality. The SIS Framework provides the UI-based create, configure, and operation/maintenance capabilities, and the Integration Types (based on Building Blocks) provide the logic specific to each SIS integration type.
This enables the SIS Framework to support a mix-and-match approach to integration while also enabling multiple instances of an integration type. This provides a great deal of flexibility in building out SIS integration solutions as it provides the ability to address integration needs from the simplest to the most complex.
An additional capability available to all integration types is on-the-fly data mapping. This enables custom mapping of incoming data objects to Blackboard Learn data objects. This mapping ability allows you to apply custom scripts (javascript) to incoming data. In the case of the Snapshot Flat File integration type, you can apply custom header mappings to match existing data formats to Blackboard formats. (This enables ANGEL clients to more readily adopt the SIS Framework.)
All integration types can receive data over the wire by directing data to the integration URL. This is useful in the context of Enterprise 1.1 and Snapshot types, as they are now capable of wire data transfer and file based data posting.
