STAC FTP-Site Protocol for External Users
STAC FTP Site
01/12/2001
Name of FTP Server
The address for SED’s UNIX STAC FTP server is ftp.stac.nysed.gov.
Folder Names for Counties
Each County will have its own folder. The folder name will consist of “STAC” followed by the first four characters of the county name. For example, Schenectady County’s folder name will be STACSCHE.
Folder Names for School Districts
Each School District will have its own folder. The folder name will consist of “STAC” followed by the six characters of the district code. For example, Albany City School District’s folder name will be STAC010100.
Folder Names for RICs
Each RIC will have its own folder. The folder name will consist of “STAC” followed by the five characters of the RIC name. For example, RIC30’s folder name will be STACRIC30.
Inbasket & Outbasket
Within each county’s, school district or RIC’s folder will be two sub-folders, “inbasket” and “outbasket”. SED will place all outgoing files in OUTBASKET. The counties, school districts & RICs will place all of their incoming files in INBASKET.
Individual User-IDs
Individual external users that access the STAC UNIX10 directories will each be assigned a userid based on their first initial and the first 7 characters of their last names. For example Pete Kawalski’s userid will be PKAWALSK. John Doe’s userid would be JDOE.
Each of these external individual userids will point to one and only one directory under the STAC folder. For example, if Pete Kawalski worked for Schenectady County, and he signed in as PKAWALSK, he would have access only to the STACSCHE folder. His access rights will allow him only to “put” and “get” files to and from Schenectady’s (STACSCHE ) INBASKET and OUTBASKET folders.
Maintenance of External Individual userid passwords
- All UserID passwords will change every 6 months. If a person is assigned a password 2 months prior to the bi-annual password-change, then their password will still change on the password-change-day.
- One month prior to actual password change, the new passwords are automatically determined.
- A small text file will be generated for each user that will include 2 lines:
*The New userid password
*The date the new password will be valid
Each text file will be zipped and password protected. The password for the file will be the current (soon-to-be-outdated) password. The password protected text file will then be placed in the appropriate OUTBASKET and will be titled to the user’s userid.
- An automatically generated e-mail will be sent to each user telling them:
Your password to SED’s STAC FTP server at ftp.stac.nysed.gov will change on dd/mm/yy. Please visit the FTP site, and look in your folder’s OUBASKET for a file titled to your userid. The file is zipped and password protected - use your current password to open the file. Your new password can be found within this file. Please make a note of it and the date when the new password will be valid.
- When a user forgets his or her password:
- The user will call the designated STAC/FTP-Site administrator. (Wendi Haskell at 474-7116) The STAC/FTP-Site administrator will assign a new password for the user, and then inform the user by phone of the password.
FTP STAC File Naming Conventions
<Sending Entity> + “_” + <4 char SCHL-YR> + “_” + <Type> + “_” + <8 char date> + .zip
- Note that underscores “_” are used to separate the nodes of the file names.
- Sending entity is either county, district or RIC
Four Character County node:
For counties, use the first four characters of the county name. For the two counties with a space, (ST Lawrence and New York), eliminate the spaces, to get STLA & NEWY.
District: Use a “D” + the six digit district code. For example, Albany would be D010100.
RICs: Use the word RIC followed by the RIC number. For example, RIC30 or RIC42.
3. SCHL-YR – Indicate the school-year in a 4 character format: For example: 9697, 9798, 9899, 9900, 0001 etc…
4. Types are:
SUMM = 4410 Educ Summary file – Outbasket only
EVAL-SUMM = 4410 Evaluation Summary file – Outbasket only
SUMM-SCL = School Age Summary File – Outbasket only.
MAIL-SUMM-PRE = A special Pre-School summary file that contains only those records added to the system since the last bi-weekly mailing. Outbasket Only.
MAIL-SUMM-SCL = A special School-Age summary file that contains only those records added to the system since the last bi-weekly mailing. Outbasket Only.
SERV = Service Transaction File.
EVAL = Eval Transaction file
AVL = 410 Educ AVL or School-Age AVL file
EVAL-AVL = 4410 Evaluation AVL
AVL-XXXX
(Used for School-Age AVLs where XXXX = the type of AVL (PRIV, PUB, 4408, CHAP, INCY)
5. Date is in the CCYYMMDD format (so, 01/12/2001 would be 20010112)
6. County example: a 1999-00 STAC-1/3 Service file for Suffolk county that was placed in the Inbasket on 11/11/2002 would be called:
SUFF_9900_SERV_20021111.zip
7. District example: a 2001-02 STAC-1/3 Service file for Albany City Schools that was placed in the Inbasket on 11/11/2002 would be called:
D010100_0102_SERV_20021111.ZIP
8. RIC example: a 2001-02 STAC-1/3 Service file for RIC30 that was placed in the Inbasket on 11/11/2002 would be called:
RIC30_0102_SERV_20020520.zip
Rules for Internal File Names of FTPed SERV and EVAL Files
To date we (The STAC Unit and SED IT Staff) have not released a firm policy on naming conventions for the "internal" or "expanded" file name for the zipped file we FTP back and forth.
As we are now handling more and more of these files, and more districts, counties and RICs are coming on board, the need for standardization has increased. We have had requests that we keep this "internal" file name to eight characters due to issues with DOS restrictions on some systems. Therefore, at least for the time being, we would like to use these guidelines for SERVTRANS files. (The below does not pertain to AVL or Summary files.)
Districts
The internal file name should begin with a D, followed by the first 6 characters of the district LEA (aka BEDS) code. For example, Albany City Schools, with an LEA code of 010100010000, would send a files as:
D010100.txt
RICs
The internal file name should begin with an R, followed by the two character RIC code. Next, include the month and day of the file transmission. For example, RIC 30, sending a file on 04/26, would send the files as:
R300426.txt
Counties
The internal file name should begin with a C, followed by the two character county code. Next, include the month and day of the file transmission. For example, Albany County (code 01), sending a file on 04/26, would send the files as:
C010426.txt
Note:
- SED will always return the file to you with the exact same external and internal file name.
- The internal file names for summary files and AVL files will continue to be the same as the external file name, except for the extension. For example, the internal file name for Albany County 1998-99 AVL file:
ALBA_9899_AVL_20010427.zip would be: ALBA_9899_AVL_20010427.txt