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Constituent sync

Updated yesterday

Exchange student information between [College] and CollegeVine through SFTP

Setup

  1. Log into the CollegeVine Agent Platform at platform.collegevine.com/agents by navigating to “Agent Platform” by clicking your profile in the top right corner

  2. Once you click “Agent Platform”, you should see this page

  3. Select Integrations -> New

  4. Name your integration, select Constituent Sync, and input your SSH public key and IP Address (see below how to generate the SSH key)

  5. Set up the Import and Export query on your system. You will see the exact import and export paths in the UI

    • For uploads: This query should include a CSV file with, at a minimum, the constituent's First Name, Last Name and Email address at a minimum.

      • If you want to share additional data columns, please include them in the csv file

      • 💡Tip: You can name your data fields whatever suits you and your team, and can insert the field values directly in the cells.

  6. After sending the csv file via the query - in the CollegeVine Platform, select "Refresh" on the constituent sync. This will pull the file from the SFTP

  7. You will then define the import schedule and map your properties to the existing CollegeVine properties.

  8. Following this, you are all set up for the Constituent Sync!

How to generate the SSH key

  1. Create an OpenSSH formatted public/private key pair:

    1. This is used to authenticate and secure the connection from Slate to CollegeVine.

To generate the key pair, follow these instructions:

For Windows

Download PuTTyGen or ensure you have the most up-to-date version.

  • Go to this website and click the installation option best suited for your machine.

  • The 64-bit x86 or 32-bit x86 options are most common. For Windows devices, to determine if your system is 32- or 64-bit, go to Start > Settings > System >About. Under Device specifications, you can see the System type (64- or 32-bit.)

2. Download PuTTyGen or ensure you have the most up-to-date version.

  • Go to this website and click the installation option best suited for your machine.

  • The 64-bit x86 or 32-bit x86 options are most common. For Windows devices, to determine if your system is 32- or 64-bit, go to Start > Settings > System >About. Under Device specifications, you can see the System type (64- or 32-bit.)

  • Go to your downloads folder (or the downloads button in your browser) and open the installer you just downloaded.

  • Click ‘Next’ on the next two screens

  • Click ‘Install PuTTY files’ and then ‘Install”

3. After installation is complete, open up the PuTTYgen app (note: don’t open the PuTTY app). You can open up Windows Search or your Taskbar to search for your new PuTTYgen app.

4. An empty PuTTY Key Generator window (screenshot below) will open up. Ensure your parameters are set to the following, which should already be the default settings:

  • Type of key to generate: RSA

  • Number of bits in a generated key: 2048

5. Click ‘Generate’ and then move your mouse around the screen below the green bar.

6. When finished, you will see something similar to the screenshot below:

7. Copy the Public Key listed in the top box. Start highlighting at the “ssh-rsa” line and copy all the way to the end of the key.

  • In the example above, we ultimately copied the whole public key:

    • ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCn5OR2hChklveWZxfuBlJ7qv18h7kpPOAwrEQDM9Ie0diQoqnDmx9FfOSYUZErMxqnsVg7dLKRFZgmbf1zTuPZMdFdUC1xe4GJR7u2Yr3EUIlqpNJ88ANN7y3qsZTeWaRjOTx/5Usi2ljDstOfJm/azq695FfAWCmDUiqIKUwOQ1SWZzmjtM3CxTPisIU9ybUYhR+5Q5XNZ/ZdiXSbTTsaaqTqV4FnaprCnZ66Uxpx6lcnmQmrwXHbv/OabHP3FxvNkXHV9xPmLii3ablKRVxFjYrPmv+cParyjtKOoVxtfRoV24ZwmBmZZT5h+iUUBQ7rVj0djFiZG7v0exUkZhc7 rsa-key-20241213

    • This public key is just an example, don’t use this public key because it won’t work for you!

8. We recommend that you save the public key file to your computer for future reference by clicking “Save public key” on the PuTTY Key Generator screen:

9. Now it’s time to save the PRIVATE key portion of your key pair.

  • First, ensure you have NOT entered anything into the “Key passphrase” or “Confirm” boxes — these must be empty.

  • Then go to Conversions > Export OpenSSH Key.

10. When prompted with the PuTTYgen warning “Are you sure you want to save this key without a passphrase to protect it?” click Yes.

11. After you enter a file name and pick a location to save the file, click “Save”. Then navigate to the file (via your desktop or your file browser) and open it to view the contents. When prompted, you can open the file with Notepad.

12. When you open the file, you should see your private key. Highlight the whole key to copy it.

For Mac

Overview: This guide explains how to create an OpenSSH-formatted public/private key pair in PEM type locally.

  1. Navigate to the path you want to save the keys on your local machine on Terminal, ex. saving to Documents folder:
    ​

    cd 
    cd Documents

  2. Paste in the command below, replacing <filename> with what you want the file to be named:
    ​

    ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -m PEM -f <filename> -N ""

  3. The keys are saved to your path as Document files, which will open with TextEdit by default. The public key file is named <filename>.pub and the private key named is <filename>. You can access them by clicking on the individual files.

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