Synergetic
The student information system common in Australian independent schools. The source of truth for who exists.
| Category | SIS |
| Authentication | API token |
| Reaches | Your Synergetic API, on your network |
| Needs an agent | Yes, on managed hosting |
| Demo mode | Yes |
Capabilities
Section titled “Capabilities”sis.getRoster, sis.lookupStudent, sis.getTutorGroup, sis.termDates
Which lights up:
- People, with names, year levels, tutor groups and student numbers.
- Card numbers for the card checker and the kiosk.
- The tutor on file, used by the “ready for collection (tutor)” email.
- Term dates, which cost analytics uses to group spending by term.
The private network question
Section titled “The private network question”Synergetic runs against a SQL Server on the school network. It is marked as targeting a private network for that reason.
Self-hosted on that network: reaches it directly. Nothing extra.
Managed hosting: needs a connector agent installed inside your network.
Getting the credentials
Section titled “Getting the credentials”Synergetic deployments vary more than most, because the API layer in front of the database is often something the school or its integrator set up.
What you need:
- The API base URL. Whatever hostname and path fronts your Synergetic data.
- An API key for a service account with read access to students and staff.
Talk to whoever administers Synergetic at your school. The read scopes you want are students, staff, year levels, tutor or house groups, and card numbers.
Ask for read-only. Plugboard never writes to Synergetic, and a write-capable credential is a risk with no upside here.
Configuring it in Plugboard
Section titled “Configuring it in Plugboard”Admin, Connectors, Synergetic, Configure.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”| Field | Value |
|---|---|
baseUrl |
Your Synergetic API base URL |
demoMode |
Return a small fixture roster instead of calling Synergetic |
Credentials
Section titled “Credentials”| Field | Value |
|---|---|
apiKey |
The API key. Sent as a bearer token |
Save and test. In demo mode the test reports “Synergetic (demo mode)” without calling anything.
The roster sync
Section titled “The roster sync”The roster is synced on a schedule rather than looked up on demand, so a busy service desk is not making a call per lookup.
People are de-duplicated across sources, so a person who also appears in your directory shows up once with both sets of detail.
What a person record carries
Section titled “What a person record carries”| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| External id | Synergetic’s own identifier, used to match on subsequent syncs |
| First and last name | |
| Username | Used at the kiosk when card entry is not available |
| Type | Student or staff |
| Year level | Students |
| Tutor group | Drives the tutor notification email |
| Card number | Used by the card checker and the kiosk |
| Active | Leavers stop appearing |
Try it in demo mode first
Section titled “Try it in demo mode first”The demo roster is four fictional people, and it is enough to exercise the whole pipeline: people appear, the kiosk recognises a card, a repair can be lodged against a person, and the parent portal has something to show.
Doing that before the real credentials arrive means you find configuration problems in the parts you control rather than in the integration.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Connection refused or a timeout | A managed deployment with no agent, or an agent that cannot reach the Synergetic host |
401 |
Wrong API key |
| Test passes, no people appear | The sync has not run yet, or the account has no read access to the roster endpoint |
| Four fictional people appear | demoMode is still on |
| Leavers still showing | Synergetic still has them active, or the sync has not run since they were deactivated |
| Card taps not recognised | Card numbers are not being returned by your API layer. Check the field is included |
Alternatives
Section titled “Alternatives”Sentral and Compass Education implement the same capabilities and return the same person shape, so the rest of the product does not care which you run.