How do I exchange information with the US Department of Education?

Institutions, through Student Financial Aid, exchange information like files and messages with the US Department of Education (ED) through the Vocado US Department of Education Gateway (VUG) application.

SFA is updated whenever ED makes changes to any record file layouts.

Before you start

Make sure you save financial aid history files like Institutional Student Information Reports (ISIRs) and National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) with a .dat extension. Common Origination and Disbursements (COD) are XML payloads and must be saved with a .xml extension.

To send and retrieve messages or files, you need a software client to send HTTP requests, like cURL or Postman. You can use any client you're comfortable with as long as you provide the correct user name, password, file, and web service endpoint.

Naming Conventions for SAIG File Types

During the testing and demo phases of implementation, you have to make sure that mock SAIG files adhere to the SAIG Message Class naming conventions defined by the U.S. Department of Education at https://fsapartners.ed.gov.

Note:

If an NSLDS file load is successful using Postman, but the NSLDS data doesn't appear in Administration > FAS Management, review the content of the file and check that it meets all specifications outlined in the NSLDS record layouts from ED.

Post a SAIG File to VUG

Here's an example of issuing a POST command using cURL:

curl -ki -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token value>" --key fasapi -F "file=@/Users/Username/Desktop/student/idap20op-a.dat" https://sfp.ocs.oraclecloud.com/customer/vug/v2/in/publish

Pull a SAIG File from VUG

Here's how you pull information (file) from VUG:

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <token value>" https://sfp.ocs.oraclecloud.com/vug/v2/out/consume?limit=1