msar v0.7.1

msar

(Formerly myschoolapp-reporting)

Snapshot course data in Blackbaud's MySchoolApp LMS

This tool was developed to collect the data necessary to generate analytics about how teachers and students are (or are not) using the LMS. It operates by either a) making calls to the old Podium DataDirect front-end API (where possible), or by capturing the data from the updated SKY UX front-end API as it page views are loaded. It does this by using Puppeteer to control Chrome and script all of these interactions. Essentially, you can think of it as "what would happen if I logged in as an admin, clicked around a lot, and took copious notes."

This is a command line tool that depends on Node.js and its (included) npm package manager. You need to install Node for this tool to work.

The result of taking a "snapshot" of a course or LMS instance is a JSON file of as much data as can be collected (or as requested).

Install

You likely want to install this globally:

npm i -g msar

However, you could also sandbox it (and its dependencies) in a directory:

mkdir path/to/workspace
cd path/to/workspace
echo "{}" > package.json
npm i msar

Usage

This tool uses a command-and-verb model, in which you invoke the command (msar: MySchoolApp Reporting) and give it a verb with the arguments that are desired. The command is invoked using the Node command runner npx. For example:

npx msar snapshot --all https://example.myschoolapp.com

At present the following verbs are implemented:

• snapshot the course data for one or more classes from the LMS to a JSON data file.
• download the supporting files for an existing JSON snapshot file.
• inbox analytics

For each command, the --help (or -h) flag provides usage instructions:

npx msar snaphot --help

To capture the course information for a single course:

npx msar snapshot https://example.myschoolapp.com/app/faculty#academicclass/12345678/0/bulletinboard

Documentation

• Snapshot Format
• Cookbook of useful data manipulation tricks

Known Issues

• Actual error-generating issues are tagged bug
• All other issues are questions or improvements
• Issues are tagged by command: snapshot, download, inbox