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Automated Common App Integration

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Using the Automated Common App integration

TargetX has provided the ability to import Common Application data into the TargetX CRM for over five (5) years. As the CRM has evolved, we have developed many products that allow our clients to process student applications. As clients start processing and reading applications in the CRM, there is a need to provide the ability to import Common Application attachments as a supplement to the data. These attachments include applications, recommendations, writing supplements, transcripts, etc. The attachments are delivered by the Common App in PDF format.

We now provide the tools and templates necessary to automate the importing of Common Application data and PDF attachments. Follow the instructions below to set up your Informatica process to import these attachments.

How Does it Work?

The use case for this process is straightforward → grab the Applications.txt file and PDF zip files from the Common App SFTP site, import the application data, and attach the PDFs to the TargetX CRM Application records. Our Automated Common App Integration process works in the following order:

  1. Several Informatica Data Synchronization Task (DSS) Tasks will copy the Applications.txt and all .zip files from the Common App SFTP site to a new, local directory.
    • CommonApp YY-YY Get Attachments v1.0
    • CommonApp YY-YY Unzip Attachments v1.0
    • CommonApp YY-YY Copy CA Data v1.0
  2. The standard CommonApp YY-YY import will run to import all application data in the CA_Data.txt file.
  3. A FileIO Informatica Mapping Configuration imports the attachments, from the local directory, to their respective CRM Application records. This is based on the Application Key field having the Common App ID as its value.
    1. ​The Mapping Configuration includes a preprocessing command that:
      1. ​Deletes the .xml files from the local directory. These are not used in the process.

TargetX Standard Configuration

We will reference the following information throughout this documentation in the event that you have customized your local Informatica directory structure. If you have customized the standard Informatica directory structure, provided by TargetX, you will have to make the updates accordingly.

  • Root Informatica Path → C:\Informatica\TargetX
  • Dropbox Directory Path → C:\Informatica\TargetX\dropbox
  • ​Standard Common App data file name → CA_Data.txt
  • Common App Attachments Directory Path → C:\Informatica\TargetX\commonapp_sds

Server Recommendations

To support the Common Application process, we recommend your server has 50 GB of available disk space.

Importing the Common App

The below information is intended to provide an overview on how to import the Common Application data files using pre-delivered templates.

  • For those wishing to automate the Common Application import and/or import documents and attachments.
  • For information specific to the current year's Common Application import, including changes to the standard template, see Common App Release Notes.

Standard templates are provided for those looking to import the Common Application data files. Available for use are:

  • Application Task Flow - imports application data fields
  • Recommendation Task Flow - imports recommender and school data fields

To request the template be migrated into your Informatica instance, please contact your support team by submitting a case. After requesting the import, we recommend that you join the Common Application Chatter Group in the CRM Community to stay up-to-date on changes and announcements, and to connect with other member schools.

Note: While internal testing was conducted prior to releasing the imports, test data cannot capture all use cases or account for all institutional business processes. We recommend that you do extensive testing before importing full data loads from the Common Application. 

Global Template 

You must search for and use the "TargetX Global Template" available in the Common Application Member Portal. There is one template for the Application task flow and one for the Recommendation task flow. 

All standard data fields from the Common Application are included in the Global Template, although not all are mapped. 

Member specific questions are not included in the TargetX Global Template. To ensure institutional specific custom questions are included in the import, you must add the fields to the template in the Member Portal. It is recommend that you create a copy of the TargetX Global Template before adding your Member Screen data fields. This modified template is what will be used to generate the source file for importing into the CRM.

The import runs off a .txt file. No conversion to .csv is required. Please be sure the data file name is CA_Data.txt, otherwise the task flows will be unable to process the source file. 

Application Task Flow 

The Application Task Flow includes 13 Mapping and Mapping Configuration tasks mapping to the following objects:

  • Account
  • Contact
  • Application
  • Enrollment History
  • Extra Curricular Activities
  • Relationships
  • Test
  • Essays

Recommendation Task Flow 

The Recommendation Task Flow includes tasks for the following objects:

  • Enrollment History
  • Recommendations

NOTE: Mapping the Ratings from the Recommendations requires Recruitment Manager 2.53 or higher.

The flow includes tasks for the School Report data from the School Report (SR), Mid Year Report (MR) and Final Report (FR). The Optional Report (OR) is not included, but can be added if desired by cloning and editing one of the other school report tasks and adjusting the mappings to point to the OR. 

The School Reports will overwrite each other in a progressive order, so if the Mid Year Report is received after the School Report, it will update the data provided by the initially submitted School Report.

Recommendation Ratings from the Counselor's initial School Report Recommendation are included in the mappings. Additional data provided in the Mid Year, Optional and Final Reports are not mapped. To map these values, simply delete the filter on the Counselor Recommendation Task. 

Best Practice Suggestions 

  • Only use the tasks in the provided flows that are required for your business process. If you do not use all of the tasks, you may delete them from the flow.
  • Updates to default values, mappings, and changes to expressions may be required. Please evaluate all mappings to ensure they are accurate for your CRM and business process.
  • Please test multiple scenarios before importing a full data file to ensure data is imported as desired.

Common App for Linux users

Instructions for users who have the Informatica Secure Agent installed on a Linux machine:

If your Informatica Secure Agent is installed on a Linux server, the tasks for copying and renaming the Common App txt files will fail due to a permissions issue with renaming. Below are the steps for updating your tasks:

  1. Remove the CommonApp YY-YY Copy CA_Data v1.0 task from your Common App taskflow.
  2. Edit the CommonApp YY-YY Unzip Attachments v1.0 task
    1. On Step 6 Schedule, add a post-processing command to copy the txt files.
    2. Sample Command: 
cd /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/commonapp_sds && cp -u *CA_Data*.txt /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/dropbox/CA_Data.txt && cp -u *CA_Rec_Data*.txt /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/dropbox/CA_Rec_Data.txt && cp -u *TR_Data*.txt /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/dropbox/TR_Data.txt

The above command is an example. You will need to update the directories in the command based on the location of your commonapp_sds and dropbox directories. The command provided also copies all 3 Common App txt files (CA_Data.txt, CA_Rec_Data.txt, TR_Data.txt). If your GET task is not retrieving a CA_Rec_Data.txt or TR_Data.txt file at this time, you will need to remove the appropriate part of the command to prevent the task from failing.

  1. Edit the CommonApp YY-YY Local to Salesforce v1.0 Windows task 
    1. On Step 6 Schedule, update the pre and post processing commands based on Linux commands and directory structures.
    2. Sample Pre-Processing Command:
 cd /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/commonapp_sds && rm *.txt && rm *.zip
  1. Sample Post-Processing Command:
cd /u01/app/Informatica/TargetX/commonapp_sds && rm *.pdf
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