Beginning with version 7.5+, Astra Schedule supports the exporting of academic and/or event related activity data to be consumed by digital signage, HVAC, or other systems that need calendar and scheduling data.  Because the needs of these systems vary from site to site, the output format and content must be customized to meet the needs of each institution.  These customizations are performed within an export "spoke" file that contains the export queries, output format desired, content format desired, and any other special instructions or filter parameters.  Instructions in the spoke file include:

 

•Output

 

XML, text, or Excel
 

•Data type

 

Academic Sections, Events, or both
 

•Data format
 

•Destination

 

FTP URL or absolute path
 

•Date parameter

 

"Today", specific date, or date range
 

•Other filter parameters

 

Only export events of a certain type

 

The frequency of the activity export is determined by the export job schedule, and can be configured to run periodically, or remain completely manual.  See Import/Export Jobs for more information on creating and scheduling a job.

 

The configuration of import/export spoke files can be a fairly complex task.  Two example files are provided in the base Astra Schedule installation as a starting point, and to illustrate some of the possible options.  The first file, CalendarExportExample.xml, shows how to gather section and/or event data from the new activities view and export to a flat file.  The second file, SignageExport.xml, was designed specifically to target the Ariadne signage system by ASI-Modulex and is pre-formatted to export event activity data in the format required by that system.

 

If custom spoke file development is desired or required, please contact your Ad Astra account manager to discuss a service agreement.