Parchment (Transcripts)
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Parchment (Transcripts)

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Article Summary

About Parchment

Parchment is a vendor that, on behalf of institutions, sends official transcripts either electronically or by mail. Campus Cafe customers must contract directly with Parchment for this service. Parchment customers can then opt to connect Campus Cafe to Parchment to facilitate the generation and sending of official transcripts from Campus Cafe to Parchment for order fulfillment. 

The Campus Cafe to Parchment connection relies on students or alumni making the transcript request through the Parchment Storefront, which can also collect a transcript fee. The request is then sent to Campus Cafe, which generates a PDF of the Campus Cafe official transcript and sends it to Parchment, which, in turn mails or sends electronically the transcript.

The connection does not support placing a request link within Campus Cafe. It also does not support using the Parchment API.

Configure Parchment FTP Account

To create an FTP account for your institution Parchment will request a SSH public key. Contact Campus Cafe support and request a key and then provide that key to Parchment. Wait until Parchment has confirmed the FTP account is created before proceeding.

Parchment XML File Request Information

While setting up your account, Parchment may request how to complete values in the XML file sent to Campus Cafe that contains the transcript request information. Campus Cafe supports the below parameters and values. All three must be present in the XML file.

  • DeliveryMethod with value of Electronic
  • ElectronicFormat with value of PDF
  • ElectronicMethod with value of ServiceProvider

Create Activity Tracking Template to Record Transcript Request

Campus Cafe applies an activity to a student to record a Parchment transcript request. Institutions must create an activity tracking template for this purpose.

Refer to Creating Activities to create the activity. The activity may be associated with any member and named anything. Once created, note the Header ID number for future reference.

Configure Campus Cafe to Parchment Connection

  1. Navigate to Admin > Web App Config
  2. Complete the values below Parameters
ParameterValue
PARCHMENT_EMAILAn email address to receive errors encountered by the connection. Separate multiple emails with a comma
PARCHMENT_LOCAL_IDENTITY_LOCATIONCampus Cafe Support will input this path.
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_HOSTParchment's FTP hostname or IP address. Provided by Parchment.
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_KNOWN_HOST_KEYCampus Cafe Support will input this path.
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_PORTParchment's FTP port. Provided by Parchment.
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_REQ_DIRECTORY_PATHThe path to the specific folder on Parchment's FTP server that stores transcript requests. Provided by Parchment. Include a / before and after the folder e.g. /outbox/ 
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_RES_DIRECTORY_PATHThe path to the specific folder on Parchment's FTP server that stores transcript request responses. Provided by Parchment. Include a / before and after the folder e.g. /inbox/
PARCHMENT_REMOTE_USERNAMEThe username for the Parchment FTP server. Provided by Parchment.
PARCHMENT_TRK_TEMPLATE_HEADER_OIDThe header ID of the Campus Cafe activity tracking template used to store a record of the transcript request.

Identifying Students

Campus Cafe relies on information sent from Parchment to locate the student's record in Campus Cafe. 

The following criteria is used to match a Parchment request to a specific student. Name match is on full name (including punctuation) but case insensitive. 

  1. First name/last name/last 4 digits of Social Security Number OR
  2. Last name/date of birth/last 4 digits of Social Security Number OR 
  3. First name/last name/last 4 digits of Social Security Number

If the search results in anything other than one student, then a response is returned to Parchment and manual intervention through the Parchment system is required to match the student.

The student ID field is not used in identifying students.

Holds

In Campus Cafe students may have holds that block the release of an official transcript. Any hold configured to restrict permission 408 will prevent a transcript from being sent to Parchment. 

When the student with a hold places an order, Parchment will process the request. Campus Cafe will identify the student has a hold about 30 minutes later and return this information to Parchment. Parchment, in turn, will notify the student the order is unable to be fulfilled due to a hold. The method of the notification is based on preferences set in the institution's Parchment account. 

Transcript Background

The official transcript background image must be transparent such as a .png image.

Turn on Connection

Contact Campus Cafe to request the connection is activated. By default, the connection will run every 30 minutes.



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