When the connection with Flint is set, Edlink automatically pulls in your SIS/LMS data. Based on which system you use, and how it's setup, this could be alumni, donors, parents, retired teachers, etc. In order to prevent this, Edlink has Sharing Rules which allow you to control and refine the data shared between your SIS/LMS and Flint. These rules enable you to customize what and data is shared with Flint ensuring that the right information is accessible to at the right time. In this article, we will guide you through the process of setting up and managing Edlink Sharing Rules, helping you to optimize data sharing and improve your overall experience with Flint.
NOTE: Create a test term and keep it set as inactive within Flint to allow for a sandbox environment. This will allow you to make as many edits and adjustments in regards to the integration without any users knowing.
EdLink Background Information
Navigating to Sharing Rules
Log into EdLink
Click on the Integration within your dashboard.
Click on "Sharing Rules" in the top-left corner
Click "Create a Rule"
Note: Sharing rules will share all people and classes that pass a rule.
Logic Categories
Sharing by Class:
- Use this rule when Flint will be used by specific teachers for their individual courses or classrooms. This gives you granular control, allowing teachers to opt-in only the classes relevant to their use of our product.
- This is the most common rule type and is designed to share entire instructional groups.
- Pulls in all classes and students that are in a school.
- When a class is shared, all teachers and students who are enrolled in that class, along with their enrollment records for that class, are automatically shared.
Sharing by School:
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Use this rule when your entire school building will be using Flint, and you want Flint to have access to all students, teachers, and classes within that specific school. This is the broadest level of sharing.
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Shares data based on school designations
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What is shared: The entire school that matches the rule's criteria.
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When a school is shared, all Classes and all People (and their Enrollment records) associated with that school are automatically included.
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Important Consideration: When using "Share by School" rules, it's important to understand that the accuracy of school designations can vary depending on the original data system (LMS/SIS) connected to Edlink.
- What this means:
- Not all systems define "schools" equally. Some data systems, like Google Classroom, don't natively organize data by distinct school buildings. Instead, all classes and users might be associated with a single, overarching entity (e.g., a district).
- In such cases, Edlink will create a generic "District Office" or similar placeholder School object. All data from that source will then be linked to this single placeholder.
- If a "Share by School" rule targets a specific real-world school, but the underlying data source maps all its data to a single placeholder school in Edlink, your rule might inadvertently share more (or less) data than intended.
- What this means:
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Recommendation: If you plan to use "Share by School" rules, you can verify how your district's data is structured in the Edlink dashboard's Data Browser first. This will show you exactly how your schools are represented and help you create a more precise sharing rule.
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Note, although you may have multiple schools in your district, this rule works based on how a school is classified in your LMS/SIS. If you have multiple schools that are all listed under one school in the data source, you will not be able to separate those with a share by school rule.
Sharing by Person:
- Use this rule when you need to share data for only specific students or staff members, perhaps for privacy reasons or specialized programs. This offers the highest level of control over individual data.
- This rule type focuses on individual users and will share the specific person that matches the rule's criteria (e.g., by email, grade level).
- Optional inclusion: You can optionally configure this rule to also share all Enrollment records associated with those specific people, which means their connections to classes will also be shared.
- Can use email addresses, display names, or roles to identify users, among others.
Understanding And vs Or Logic
When setting up sharing rules, it's essential to understand how the system uses "and" and "or" logic.
- Within a single rule: The system uses "and" logic. This means that all conditions within a rule must be met for the rule to apply. For example, if you set a rule that says "Role is Teacher AND Email ends with @school.edu", the system will only apply the rule to users who are both teachers and have an email address that ends with @school.edu.
- Between multiple rules: The system uses "or" logic. This means that if a user meets the conditions of any one rule, they will be included in the sharing rule. For example, if you have two separate rules - one that says "Role is Teacher" and another that says "Role is Staff" - the system will include all users who are either teachers or staff in the sharing rule.
Think of it like a filter: within a single rule, the system is looking for users who meet all the conditions (and logic), but between multiple rules, the system is looking for users who meet any of the conditions (or logic).
Sharing Rules Process
There are four steps to sharing rules.
- Set the Rule: Create a new sharing rule and select "Class" as the rule type. Enter the teacher emails or other identifiers (e.g. role) to generate a list of classes and students.
- BE SURE TO CHECK THE BOX TO ENABLE DISTRICT RULES - otherwise the rule will not be applied.
- Check the Materialization: Changes will not show instantaneously in Edlink. A process called materialization needs to run before the rules are applied and the updated data set is available in Edlink. Depending on the size and complexity of your district's data this can take 30 seconds, 5 minutes, or longer. You can check your materialization progress in the materialization tab (found on the left sidebar of your integration details page). The materialization status will be "Queued" (waiting to start), "Working" (currently processing), "Completed" (rules were applied and are active), or "Error". If this shows as "Error," this means an issue occured. In this case, please reach out to support@ed.link.
- Verify Roles: Once the Materialization is complete, verify that the roles have been assigned correctly. You can do this by clicking on People on the left side to verify that there is something populating under the roles column.
- Review and Refine: Review the rule and refine it as needed to ensure that it is working as intended. You can use the preview feature to test the rule and make adjustments before saving the changes.
Tips for Sharing Rules
Logic Based on Teacher & Staff Email
The easiest way to pull in your teachers and students is by setting a rule at the Class level and adding all of your teacher's and staff emails. The logic will automatically pull all of the students and classes affiliated with this teacher (see image below).
Roles not Populating
If you check the roles under people as outlined in Sharing Rules Part 3, and there are not roles assigned, please follow the steps below.
- Go to Custom Transformations: If roles are not available, go to the Custom Transformations section.
- Create a new transformation: Create a new transformation and select "Infer Roles" as the transformation type.
- Configure the transformation: Configure the transformation to infer roles based on user enrollments. For example, if a user is enrolled in a class as a teacher, they will be assigned the "Teacher" role.
- Save and activate the transformation: Save and activate the transformation. This will allow the system to start inferring roles for users.
- Verify roles: After the transformation has run, verify that roles are being assigned correctly. You can do this by checking the user details and ensuring that the correct roles are being assigned.
Duplicate Classes Showing
If you have a scenario where you have duplicate classes pulling in, this could mean your SIS/LMS is Fall and Spring classes as two different classes. You can set a rule that allows the data to pull in information in segmented timeframes (see example below).
***Disclaimer***
This guide is provided by Flint as a courtesy to help with setting up sharing rules in EdLink. However, each school's SIS/LMS setup is unique, and this guide is generalized. If you require additional help with sharing rules, please reach out to the Edlink Support team <support@ed.link> and copy your CSM.