Set Up Roster: Simple File Format

–   The top row of each file (row 1) contains the headings for each column; this row must be retained exactly as is (quoted identifiers recommended) and not overwritten.

–   Required fields must be populated.

Note: The requirements for a given field may depend on the user role (student, teacher, class) of the row being populated. Example

Refer to the Simple File Format (SFF) Template File Details topic of your selected file for field-specific requirements.

–   The completed file must contain the correct number of fields, and all fields must remain in the correct order.

–   Commas must be used to separate the fields, but commas cannot be used within any field without quoted identifiers.

–   We recommend that quoted identifiers be used around all headers and fields.

–   Fields that are not required may remain empty, but even empty fields must be retained using commas. Do not use a space for an empty field.

–   If your users access HMH Player®, the username must be globally unique (such as email, if the email field is populated for all users).

Warning: If planning to roster to ThinkCentral or Holt McDougal Online, be aware that once a username is set, it cannot be changed. To change existing usernames in the database requires a mass purge of all the user accounts for a given role and then an import of a new file with the edited usernames. For further details, see Data Impact of Changing Usernames.

–   If the data in your system utilize special characters, then you must use quoted identifiers and save your CSV file as a UTF–8 file before importing. (See Encode Files as UTF–8 for details.)

–   All data must be included at the time of the import; this is known as "BULK" or "snapshot" rostering. Bulk or snapshot data means that you have all users, all classes, and all rosters you want seen in the system included in each and every import. Any data that was included in a previous run but is missing from the current run will be deactivated.

–   To populate the ORGANIZATIONID field, see Locate MDR PIDs.

The zipped file must include all of the prepared CSV files and must be named according to the following rules:

–   Valid Values: alphanumeric (A–Z, a–z, 0–9), dashes ( - ), underscores ( _ )

–   Must not contain special characters (except dashes and underscores)

–   For SFTP site file submissions (automated imports), spaces are not allowed. (Import Management accepts zipped files with spaces, but the SFTP site does not.)