Integrate your roster data with Apple School Manager.

Follow our simple checklist Checklist to Get Started with Claris Connect for Apple School Manager ​

Apple provides an in-depth User Guide for syncing data from the SIS to Apple School Manager.  Using Claris Connect will simplify the integration.  Apple School Manager User Guide and Claris Connect for Apple School Manager Guide or claris.com/education/k12/integration/

Apple School Manager is integrating new plug-in features via Claris Connect to enhance synchronization with your student information system (SIS). These enhancements include filtering by schools and terms, and preventing duplicate entries during data import. As a result, less functional SIS plugins are being deprecated.

The new Claris Connect plug-in enables the running of workflows before syncing the roster data to Apple Schools Manager. Workflows include filtering by schools and terms as well as preventing duplicate entries during data import. Plus, Claris Connect offers new integration options, including support for OneRoster®.

Like Apple, Claris believes privacy is a fundamental human right, and it's why Claris Connect is designed to protect your data to the same high standard as Apple. Claris Connect only holds your data while it's processed before syncing with Apple School Manager. Your data is only held with Claris while being processed before syncing with Apple School Manager. In addition, Claris Connect has a SOC-2 Type 2® report and is ISO certified, both reviewed and tested annually. Learn more: Privacy Policy and Terms of Service

Check out the Apple School Manager User Guide. It covers all topics in great detail, and when needed, AppleCare provides support for Apple School Manager. If you need additional help, reach out to Claris directly by filling out the form on the Claris website.

Claris offers online training and certification for Claris Connect, without charge. To learn more, visit academy.claris.com.

We recommend doing a few things before starting your deployment so you have a better understanding of the process and the features provided.
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- Have our simple checklist Checklist to Get Started with Claris Connect for Apple School Manager ​to hand
- Check if you already have an active Claris Connect account and/or project. You might not need to take any action.
- Ensure you have a Managed Apple ID with either a Site Manager or Administor role.
- Consider when is the best time to change the current integration. School breaks or after the end of the school year are ideal opportunities.
- Double-check if you have users and classes already created in Apple School Manager.
- If this is a new integration, you will either need to create a OneRoster API account in you SIS, install and enable the Claris OneRoster plug-in within PowerSchool, or manually prepare and export of CSV files.
- Read the Apple School Manager User Guide.

Apple School Manager supports the most widely used SIS platforms, including PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Aeries, Aspen Follet, Skyward, eSchoolPlus, Synergy, and many more. If the SIS supports OneRoster, then Claris Connect for Apple School Manager will work.

If your SIS platform supports the OneRoster API, you can create a connection in Apple School Manager by choosing OneRoster (Other) during setup. You will need to know the OneRoster API endpoint URL, which will end in /ims/oneroster/v1p1 for OneRoster 1.1 or /v1p2 for OneRoster 1.2. Alternatively, your SIS may support CSV file exports in either OneRoster or Apple School Manager file formats. You can use both formats to upload data into Apple School Manager.

Using OneRoster API in your SIS would be the easiest way to integrate with Apple School Manager.  However, if you have created customizations in the SIS for your data, you should export the data as CSV files with the file names and column header names conforming to the OneRoster standard.

PowerSchool customers who have customized their data over many years of use may need to create customized CSV file exports to ensure that their data is available in Apple School Manager. The Claris Connect OneRoster plug-in simplifies the integration with PowerSchool, but any customized fields, like email addresses, will not be available.

Yes. While Apple School Manager will continue to support your manual upload, you can use the Claris Connect to take advantage of its features to enhance your upload experience.  Contact the Claris team for help getting access to Claris Connect: connect_asm@claris.com

Yes. In Classlink, set up a OneRoster CSV export to an SFTP Server. From Apple School Manager, create a connection by selecting OneRoster CSV. This will provide the SFTP server credentials needed for Classlink.

Apple School Manager supports any SIS integration that supports either OneRoster API or CSV files, or Apple School Manager CSV files. With the Claris Connect integration in Apple School Manager, there are tools for syncing existing user records in Apple School Manager with the new instructors and students in the SIS.

Using the Built into the Directory Sync integration, you should enable the prevent duplicate accounts option. This will ensure any users already created in Apple School Manager from the outgoing SIS or federated ID platform will match with the users coming from the new SIS. You may need to manually delete old classes or locations, which could be duplicated.

Note: Apple School Manager will not facilitate the data transfer between the SIS platforms. The new SIS provider will support with this transfer.

Apple School Manager requires 6 data sources to complete a successful import: Courses, Classes, Rosters, Teachers and Students. All 6 files are required.

Yes. When using OneRoster API SIS platforms, you can choose which schools to include as well as filter instructors,  locations, students, instructors and terms by active status. This ensures you only bring in the most current users and classes into Apple School Manager.

Any Apple School Manager users who have a Managed Apple ID with the role for Administrator, Site Manager, or People Manager can have access to the Directory Sync integration, which displays the sync history. An Administrator or Site Manager needs to set up the integration prior to a People Manager viewing the sync history.

At the end of the school year, you should disconnect the sync, so any changes made over the summer can be completed without being sent to Apple School Manager. In Apple School Manager, you can delete all of the classes in preparation of the new school year. Once the data is ready in the SIS, reconnect and sync the data. This will create all of the classes for the school year and/or the current semester as well as all of the new instructors and students. Apple School Manager will also deactivate any users that have been de-enrolled in the SIS.

Yes. All purchases will remaining available in the locations where they were purchased. You may find that new locations are created, containing the connections to the classes, instructors and students. If this is the case, you may want to rename the original locations with a prefix of VPP for easy identification.

After federation has been set up and enabled in Apple School Manager, no further configuration is required. Any new users created from an integration with the SIS will have a Managed Apple ID automatically created. This will be replaced by the username from the federation IdP.

Once you have a integration set up, you can further enhance the connection with many other popular tools. Either click ... next to your SIS or OneRoster CSV, then select Advanced Settings to go to Claris Connect. Or go straight to https://connect.claris.com, signing with Apple School Manager, then open your SIS to Apple School Manager project. From there, you can add new connectors. For example, you can add a post to a Microsoft Team or Slack channel if the sync errors.

You have access to Claris Connect, and you can create as many other workflows as you like using a multitude of connectors. Learn more here: claris.com/connect.

For schools deploying Apple devices using Apple School Manager, Claris Connect is available at no additional cost.

There is read-only access to the roster data with the OneRoster API connection with the SIS. Claris can not update data in your SIS.

In terms of deployment priority, which should be done first—upload roster data or set up federated sign-on?

The ideal deployment order is:

- Add and validate any domains required in Apple School Manager for the use of creating Managed Apple IDs or for federation,
- Integrate with the SIS.

However, if you already have users, classes, and roster data integrated with Apple School Manager and want to configure federation later, you need to communicate to users any changes for logging in to the account and/or devices.

There is no action required. Access to Claris Connect continues at https://connect.claris.com where you can sign in with your Managed Apple ID. From there, you can create, review, amend, and run flows projects.

Apple School Manager is supported in 39 languages. The language settings are based on the web browsers settings, not the operating system.

If the sync failed to update Apple School Manager, you won’t receive an email from Apple School Manager confirming any changes. The system only sends an email after a completed sync.

You will receive an email from Claris to review the history. Review it in Apple School Manager or Claris Connect.

There are two types of issues: errors and warnings. Errors mean that the sync will terminate and no changes will be applied to Apple School Manager, whereas Warnings are minor and the sync with Apple School Manager will continue.

Errors are typically caused by incorrect SIS or SFTP Server credentials in Apple School Manager, or by a problem with the data that needs immediate attention.

To fix errors, identify the users or classes impacted, fix the records in the SIS, then sync again.

Warning are typically caused by either the instructor or student records that don’t have an email address, or the email address format is invalid. These warnings don’t prevent the sync with Apple School Manager from completing.

To fix warnings, identify the users impacted, update the SIS records, then sync again.

Not having an email assigned to the user may mean that a Managed Apple ID could not be created, the user may not be able to sign-in to a device, or single sign-on with the federated IdP would fail.

To fix this, identify the users without an email address, update them in the SIS, then sync again.I have users created by Microsoft Directory Sync or Google Workspace. Can I sync these users with roster data from my SIS? Users can be created in Apple School Manager either by federation from an ID Platform (IdP), or a full Directory Sync. These users will have an authentication value of 'Federation' if the user record is created after logging in with their federated ID, but will not have a PersonID. In this scenario, an integration with the SIS will match with the users' email addresses and update each user record and apply a PersonID. Should the user data in the SIS have a different email address, then a simple integration would create duplicate user records.

If the user was created with the Directory Sync in Apple School Manager, the user will have a PersonID. An integration is possible, but you need to turn on the prevent duplicate accounts option when creating the integration.

Uploading the ZIP file must contain only the CSV files. If the ZIP file contains a folder of the CSV files, then the integration will fail as the folder is not expected in the ZIP file. Additionally, if you upload the ZIP file using WinSCP as the SFTP client, then, in the Advanced Settings for the connection, Allow Temporary Path needs to be turned on.

The CSV files you uploaded need to match with either the OneRoster standard or Apple School Manager format. Both the file names and column header names must match for a successful sync.

OneRoster files are named:
- classes.csv
- courses.csv
- orgs.csv
- enrollments.csv
- users.csv

Refer to the 1EdTech website for naming standards for v1.1 and v1.2.

Apple School Manager files are named:
- classes.csv
- courses.csv
- locations.csv
- rosters.csv
- staff.csv
- students.csv

File names are case sensitive.

Refer to the Apple School Manager Users Guide for the naming conventions.

Apple School Manager does not support email addresses with apostrophes ( ' ) in them. For example: john.o'appleseed@apple.com.

To fix this, Identify the users impacted, correct the email in the SIS, then sync again.

This is a common scenario where classes have been set up to a specific school location, and the course is set up either for another school location or a school district office. Either the school or district office has not been included in the School filter.

To fix the error, add the school or district office to the Schools filter, then sync again.

Alternatively, the error might be caused by attempting to sync data outside of school term times.  If you are within 30 days of the next school term, try selecting 'Sync Ahead Data by 30 days' in the Active Terms filter.

Apple School Manager or Claris is not changing any data that is provided by the SIS, nor is it writing back to the SIS any data changes.

Apple School Manager requires error-free data for a successful sync. There are three main issues that cause syncs to fail:
- Roster data that relates to an instructor who is no longer active in the SIS.
- Roster data that relates to a student that is no longer enrolled in the SIS.
- Roster data that relates to a class that is no longer active in the SIS.

At some point in the school year, these roster records would have been connected to the class, instructor or student, but have subsequently been deactivated, de-enrolled, or graduated,

The Patch Data option filters out any unnecessary roster records to only match with Active Classes, Instructors and Students.

When changing integration methods (manual CSV uploads to an API import from the SIS), it is important limit the risk of duplicated users that are created.

In Apple School Manager, each user has a unique identifier, known as the PersonID. It's this identifier that connects the users to a location, a class, or a roster. However, when using different integration methods or SIS platforms, these identifiers will change. Therefore, if the integration syncs as is, the users PersonID would not match and two users would be created for the same person. With thousands of user accounts and thousands of Managed Apple ID being created, this would cause further confusion with a Mobile Device Management platform (MDM) and Apple Classroom.

The Prevent duplicate accounts option is designed to match the users from the SIS with each user in Apple School Manager by the PersonID. In this scenario, we would use the email address as the matching criteria.* If a successful match is found, then the PersonID from Apple School Manager is inserted in the data before syncing. This does not change the data from the SIS.

If a match cannot be made for any of the users, then the sync will not complete. The View Reports option in Apple School Manager will highlight the users that were unsuccessfully matched, giving you the opportunity to manually update the data at either end (SIS or Apple School Manager), then the run the sync again.

Duplicate Classes and Location will still be created, but these can be more easily managed or deleted as necessary.

*Note: Other matching criteria are available, including Person Number and Username. Use the Advanced Settings in Apple School Manager or directly in Claris Connect.

To ensure that the Prevent Duplicate Account option continues to function — and not create duplicate accounts in the scenario of users changing their name, email or other details — make the same changes in the SIS and Apple School Manager.

This is specifically important for last names and email addresses, which are the values used in matching criteria.

Can I just delete everything in Apple School Manager and start again?

You can delete almost everything and start over. But before you do, please know:
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- You may lose data. Users with a Managed Apple ID may have a complementary iCloud account where they could have stored projects, assignments or course materials.
- If you have manually created classes for unique education group settings, access to those classes in Apple Classroom will no longer be available.
- The Admin Users, Primary location, and any location where VPP purchases have been made cannot be deleted.

If you still wish to proceed, deactivate and delete the Users first. Do this before the weekend since there is a cache that’s purged on Sunday. This frees up the Managed Apple ID for use again and disconnects the iCloud storage.

Then, delete classes and any locations that are allowed.

You can then sync data again after the weekend.

When Apple School Manager creates new users, a Managed Apple ID is applied to the user. You can specify the format and domain for the Managed Apple ID, for example: johnny.appleseed@apple.com. However, if the user is created with the Managed Apple ID of johnny.appleseed.1@apple.com, it is because the user already exists and has either been deactivated or deleted.

This may not be a problem if federation with a IdP is to be configured, as the federated user name would overwrite the Managed Apple ID, for example: johnny_a@apple.com.

A user is deleted after 120 days of being deactivated in Apple School Manager, unless manually deactivated and deleted. If the sync of the new user matching the PersonID has been deleted before the weekend cache purge, it’s possible this orphaned user is still being updated behind the scenes and not visible in Apple School Manager.

To resolve this, contact AppleCare.

On occasion, you may find that minor data changes to a user in the SIS that are not reflected in Apple School Manager. Do not delete the user — that’s not the correct approach. Instead, change the user’s email in the SIS and sync the data, which should update the email in Apple School Manager. Next, change the email back to its original value in the SIS, then sync again. These steps should provide the updates to the user with other changes. Contact AppleCare if you need further assistance.