Beacon offers campuses the ability to update the system with information via an sFTP folder file drop process. This process can be used to construct a regular data update to Beacon without the requirement of a user to log in and upload a file via the Beacon user interface.
The sFTP folder method is available for the following actions:
Create or Update Users
Campuses can create new users in Beacon by providing basic account information in a .csv file and placing the file, along with a manifest file, into an sFTP directory.
Details on how to populate and import this file can be found here.
Add Profile Photos to User Accounts
If your institution captures student, faculty, or staff identification photos, you may wish to see these displayed on accounts within Beacon. The bulk photo import allows you to provide a compressed file containing institution photos and a mapping file that assigns those photos to specific users.
Details on how to populate and import this file can be found here.
Connect/Disconnect Advisors to Students
Beacon can associate Faculty/Staff members to students to generate a Success Network. These connections allow Faculty/Staff to review information about a student and create notations about their interactions with the student. Sometimes, campuses wish to update these connections on a regular or rolling basis based on new information.
Performing this action will assign users in the "AdvisorExternalID" column who currently have a Student role to a role of Advisor.
When importing a Bulk Connections file a user in the AdvisorExternalID" column with a role of Peer Advisor or higher will keep their current role in the system but will be added to the students Success Network. This import will not lower a user's role in the system.
Using the sFTP folder method allows a campus to update connection associations daily. To accomplish this task a file containing the headers and data below, along with a manifest file, can be placed in the following directory:
/Beacon/BeaconImports
Details on how to populate and import this file can be found here.
A summary of the imported file and any errors are available to download from the Manage Success Network Members section of Beacon:
https://{campus}.campuslabs.com/Beacon/settings/connections/import
For more information about how to send files via sFTP correctly please review our SFTP Data Exchange Instructions.