Overview

District Admins may face issues when importing data at the beginning of the new school year or when data imports stop working unexpectedly during the school year. This includes cases where imports are not running, as well as whenever imports are working but no new data is imported into School Loop.

Workflow

Instructions

Note: You need a District Admin account in order to proceed with the proposed steps and solutions

1. Ensure Sloopy has been correctly configured

In order to enable the SIS data imports, you will need to Install and Configure Sloopy. Once that is done, you may proceed to Automate Data Imports via Sloopy. Be aware that the data from your SIS will need to follow the guidelines in Formatting Data Extracted from SIS for Sloopy.

2. When was the latest successful data import?

Check the status of the latest data import for the affected school. If the latest import was processed recently, more than one business/working day ago, it means that Sloopy may not be running or not reaching School Loop servers.

If it was not processed recently within the previous business day (some districts do not run imports during weekends), it means that the new data is not being exported from your SIS (old data is imported to School Loop) or terms are not configured.

3. Is the latest data being exported from your SIS?

Verify that the Raw data files from SIS are located where they should, match the required format, and contain up-to-date data.

If the information in the files is missing or incorrect, check the scripts (or another tool) you are using to export data from your SIS and fix possible issues.

4. Is the tmp folder present?

From the Sloopy folder, check if the tmp folder is present in the directory - it is required to run Sloopy. If not, create an empty folder named tmp.

5. Has the School Site been rolled?

If you are facing any issue with imports during summer or the beginning of the school year, confirm that your school site is rolled. Schools are usually rolled approximately 10 days before the start of the school year. You can check the First and Last Day fields for the school term; if the first day is within the previous year and the last day is within the current year.

If you need the site to be rolled earlier than 10 days prior to the start of the year, you can Request a Specific Date.

<supportagent>Use this process as a support agent to confirm: Checking if School Site is Rolled</supportagent>

Note that, once the school is rolled, it is necessary to complete all New School Year Tasks.

6. Is the automated task for Sloopy running?

In the computer where Sloopy is installed, a task should have been configured to Automate Data Import via Sloopy. You can check if it is present as follows:

From Windows Search, open Task Scheduler.
Expand the Task Scheduler Library and select the folder where you created the automated task. By default, it is created in the Microsoft folder.
If the task is disabled, right-click on it and select Enable.
If the task is missing, create a new one.

7. Are the terms correctly configured?

Make sure that the terms are configured with the correct start dates (matching the data in your SIS). If the dates are incorrect, schedules for teachers will not be displayed in School Loop.

8. Are imports blocked for the school?

Check if imports are blocked for the affected school; they may be blocked during summer break or holidays by any District Admin. Unblock them to start importing data again.

9. Is port 2025 open?

Port 2025 is used by Sloopy to send data to our servers. To check whether the port has been opened, please follow these steps:

Open Command Prompt.
Run the following command:

telnet import.schoolloop.com 2025

If the port is open and properly configured, the following output is displayed:
```
Trying 72.5.167.171...
Connected to import.schoolloop.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 import.schoolloop.com ESMTP schoolloop.com
```
If the port is blocked, you will encounter the message below:
```
Could not open connection to the host
```
If the latter is the case, you need to whitelist the 2025 port in your District firewall; reach out to your IT department for help.

10. Run Sloopy in debug mode

Update the sloopy.bat file to display logs when it is executed. By default, Sloopy is closed automatically after the process is complete.

1. From the sloopy/<your SIS> folder (steps 1.a-b), open the sloopy.bat file in a text editor.
2. Delete the REM part from the last line in the file. Once updated, the line should be:
  cmd z\ stopme
  
  Note: You may want to remove the last line completely or add REM again once confirmed that the issue is resolved - so that the command window is closed automatically after the process ends.
3. Save the updated file.
If your District is using Infinite Campus software as the SIS to integrate with School Loop and the imports are failing, refer to the Error with Infinite Campus Imports article for possible steps to resolution.

<supportagent>In the case of step 9 above, Support agents might also see the errors "section not in import" and/or "no student sections" in the logs on the school/district's School Loop server's import logs.</supportagent>

11. Testing the import

From the sloopy/<your SIS> folder, run the sloopy.bat file.
Once the process is finished and there are no errors, wait for 3-5 minutes and check that time and date of the last import match the time when you executed Sloopy (in the previous step) - this means that the import was processed by the server.
Then verify that the data imported to School Loop matches the information in your SIS.

12. Raise a Support ticket

If data import is still not working for you, submit a ticket to School Loop Support, including the error messages you have encountered, troubleshooting steps performed, and any recent changes made to the Sloopy configuration.

It would also be good to send the schools' (where import issues are seen) configuration file. More information related to this file can be found in the Installing and Configuring Sloopy for Data Import article.

All the files related to students, teachers, sections, etc. mentioned in the Formatting Data Extracted from SIS for Sloopy article should also be sent for the school/s where the import issues are seen.

Data Imports