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Ellucian Colleague Integration Guide
Integrate Ellucian Colleague with enterprise applications through Ethos REST APIs, selected event notifications, institution-specific services, and scheduled workflows.
Ellucian Colleague integration options at a glance
Modern Ellucian Colleague integrations generally use Ellucian Ethos Integration REST APIs to retrieve, create, and update supported resources such as Persons, Students, Courses, Sections, and Registrations. Ethos also provides event notifications for selected resources, although coverage depends on the tenant and resource. Institutions may additionally expose deployment-specific web services, SOAP interfaces, or scheduled file exchanges. Authentication commonly uses API keys or supported OAuth 2.0 scenarios, with tenant-specific permissions and regional base URLs. Martini can consume these endpoints, receive supported notifications, orchestrate scheduled or event-driven workflows, transform resource models, and securely manage credentials.
| Integration point | Supported by Ellucian Colleague? | Common use cases | How Martini supports it |
|---|---|---|---|
| REST APIs | Yes | Ethos Integration REST APIs provide access to supported Persons, Students, Organizations, Courses, Sections, Registrations, and other tenant-enabled resources. They can support retrieval, lookup, and selected create or update operations. | Martini can consume the REST endpoints from workflows, follow pagination, transform responses, apply business rules, and expose APIs that orchestrate controlled Colleague operations. |
| Webhooks and event notifications | Limited | Ethos Integration provides notifications for selected resource changes, such as creation, update, or deletion. Coverage is resource- and tenant-dependent, and an event may identify a resource without containing its full representation. | Martini can expose a REST endpoint or use a workflow trigger to receive supported notifications, retrieve the current resource, deduplicate delivery, and route the normalized result. |
| SOAP and legacy web services | Limited | Some Colleague deployments expose web services or legacy interfaces, but availability, authentication, and recommended usage vary by institution and deployment. | Where documented endpoints and credentials are supplied, Martini can consume SOAP services, transform XML responses, and incorporate them into reusable workflows. |
| Bulk, asynchronous, or batch processing | Limited | Batch or asynchronous processing may be available for selected Ethos resources or institutional interfaces. Required resource and operation support must be confirmed with the institution. | Martini can orchestrate scheduled batch workflows, paginate through resources, control concurrency, checkpoint progress, and handle partial failures. |
| File and attachment exchange | Limited | Institutions may use scheduled file exchanges for selected admissions, finance, or learning-management processes. A universal Colleague attachment API was not confirmed. | Martini can process approved file exchanges when the institution provides the format and transport, then validate, map, and route the contents through workflows. |
| Scheduled synchronization | Yes | Scheduled reconciliation is useful when event coverage is unavailable or when institutions need periodic verification of Persons, Students, Courses, Sections, or Registrations. | Martini can invoke workflows on a schedule, retrieve changed or paginated data, maintain checkpoints, and reconcile target-system identifiers. |
| Authentication | Yes | Ethos commonly uses provisioned API keys and may support OAuth 2.0 depending on the tenant and application configuration. Legacy Colleague services may use Basic Authentication or institution-specific authentication. | Martini can keep API keys, OAuth credentials, tokens, tenant identifiers, base URLs, and legacy service credentials in environment-specific secrets. |
How Ellucian Colleague exposes data and business events
Ellucian Colleague REST APIs
Ethos Integration provides the primary modern REST interface for supported Ellucian resources. Resource availability, properties, operations, pagination behavior, and permissions depend on the institution’s tenant and configuration.
Martini implementation pattern
Martini consumes the Ethos REST API from a workflow, authenticates with tenant-provisioned credentials, retrieves the required resource or pages, validates the response, and maps it into a canonical model or downstream API payload.
Implementation sequence
Ethos event notifications
Ethos Integration supports event notifications for selected resources and operations. Event coverage is not universal, and notifications may identify a changed resource without including its complete current representation.
Martini implementation pattern
Martini exposes a controlled API endpoint or workflow trigger for supported notifications, validates the request, extracts the resource identifier, retrieves the current resource from Ethos, and routes the normalized data after duplicate and business-rule checks.
Implementation sequence
Colleague web services and SOAP
Some Colleague environments provide deployment-specific web services or legacy SOAP interfaces. These interfaces are not universal, and the institution must confirm endpoint availability, authentication, and supported operations.
Martini implementation pattern
Where an institution provides documented services, Martini can consume the SOAP or REST endpoint, handle XML or JSON payloads, transform deployment-specific structures, and combine the result with Ethos-based workflows.
Implementation sequence
Scheduled and batch synchronization
Scheduled reconciliation and institution-specific batch exchanges can supplement event notifications or cover resources without event support. File formats, batch operations, and resource coverage must be confirmed for the deployment.
Martini implementation pattern
Martini starts a workflow on a schedule, retrieves or processes the approved batch input, tracks pages or files, applies transformations and source-of-truth rules, and records checkpoints so the next run can continue safely.
Implementation sequence
Common Ellucian Colleague integration patterns
Pattern 1: Synchronize students with Salesforce
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern when Colleague is authoritative for student identity, academic status, or institutional identifiers and Salesforce supports engagement, advancement, or constituent processes. The flow can be event-led where supported and scheduled for reconciliation.
Integration direction
Example Mapping
| Ellucian Colleague Field | Canonical Field | Target Field |
|---|---|---|
| id | institutionalPersonId | External_ID__c |
| names | personName | Name |
| contactPoints | contactDetails | Email and Phone |
| studentStatus | academicStatus | Student_Status__c |
Martini implementation pattern
Martini receives a supported Ethos notification or retrieves changed Persons and Students, fetches the current resource, normalizes identity and academic fields, applies duplicate and eligibility rules, and performs an idempotent Salesforce upsert. Transient failures are retried with backoff, while validation failures are logged for review.
Martini capabilities used
- workflows
- API consumption
- data mapping
- business rules
- error handling
- scheduled execution
Pattern 2: Provision courses and enrollments in Canvas
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern when Colleague owns Courses, Sections, Terms, and Registrations and Canvas is the learning-management target. It is suited to scheduled synchronization with cross-reference management.
Integration direction
Example Mapping
| Ellucian Colleague Field | Canonical Field | Target Field |
|---|---|---|
| course.id | courseExternalId | course sis_course_id |
| section.id | sectionExternalId | section sis_section_id |
| section.title | sectionName | section name |
| registration.student.id | studentExternalId | enrollment user sis_user_id |
Martini implementation pattern
A Martini workflow retrieves paginated Courses, Sections, Terms, and Registrations, resolves dependencies, maps Colleague identifiers to Canvas SIS fields, and provisions or updates target objects in a controlled order. Cross-reference values prevent duplicates, and failed enrollments can be retried independently.
Martini capabilities used
- scheduled workflows
- API consumption
- data mapping
- pagination handling
- cross-reference management
- retry handling
Pattern 3: Exchange applicants with Slate
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern when Slate manages admissions activity and Colleague is the institutional system for supported Person or Student-related resources. Resource availability and write operations must be confirmed in the Ethos tenant.
Integration direction
Example Mapping
| Ellucian Colleague Field | Canonical Field | Target Field |
|---|---|---|
| applicant.personId | personExternalId | Persons.id |
| applicant.name | legalName | Persons.names |
| applicant.email | primaryEmail | Persons.contactPoints |
| admission.status | admissionStatus | supported Student or admissions status field |
Martini implementation pattern
Martini receives or retrieves Slate changes, validates identity and consent-related fields, searches for existing Colleague identifiers, and calls Ethos or documented Colleague services for supported create or update operations. The workflow returns institutional identifiers to Slate and routes rejected or transient cases to separate handling.
Martini capabilities used
- API consumption
- workflow orchestration
- data validation
- data mapping
- business rules
- error handling
Pattern 4: Reconcile finance and organizational data with Workday
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern where both Colleague and Workday participate in finance, organizational, worker, or supplier processes. The exact objects and direction should be defined by the institution’s source-of-truth model.
Integration direction
Example Mapping
| Ellucian Colleague Field | Canonical Field | Target Field |
|---|---|---|
| organization.id | organizationExternalId | Reference_ID |
| organization.name | organizationName | Organization_Name |
| accounting.accountNumber | accountCode | Workday Account |
| invoice.id | invoiceExternalId | Supplier_Invoice_ID |
Martini implementation pattern
Martini runs domain-specific scheduled workflows that retrieve supported Colleague resources, normalize organizational and accounting data, apply ownership and approval rules, and write to Workday or process approved reverse updates. Checkpoints, idempotent keys, and isolated error queues support safe reconciliation.
Martini capabilities used
- scheduled workflows
- API orchestration
- data transformation
- business rules
- checkpointing
- error handling
Applications commonly integrated with Ellucian Colleague
Ellucian Colleague commonly participates in higher-education integration landscapes that connect student, academic, admissions, finance, identity, and service processes. The exact direction and resource coverage depend on the institution’s Ethos tenant, product configuration, and the APIs available in each adjacent application.
| Application | Scenario | Direction | Martini Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Synchronize student, alumni, constituent, and advancement-related information with CRM processes while preserving institutional identifiers. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → Salesforce | Martini can retrieve Person and Student resources on a schedule or after supported Ethos events, map academic and contact attributes, apply duplicate and eligibility rules, and upsert Salesforce records with retry and reconciliation handling. |
| Canvas | Provision courses, sections, terms, and enrollments for learning-management operations. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → Canvas | A scheduled Martini workflow retrieves Courses, Sections, Terms, and Registrations, maps them to Canvas structures, stores cross-reference identifiers, and processes changes idempotently. |
| Blackboard Learn | Synchronize academic course structures, scheduled sections, and student enrollments with learning-management processes. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → Blackboard Learn | Martini can orchestrate paginated Ethos retrievals, transform course and enrollment models into Blackboard Learn API payloads, apply provisioning rules, and retry transient target-system failures. |
| Slate | Exchange applicant, Person, admissions status, and institutional identifier information between admissions operations and Colleague. | Slate → Martini → Ellucian Colleague | Martini can receive or retrieve Slate changes, validate required identity fields, call Ethos or documented Colleague services, map applicant data to supported resources, and return institutional identifiers for cross-reference. |
| Workday | Coordinate worker, organization, finance, or related institutional data where both Workday and Colleague are deployed. | Workday → Martini → Ellucian Colleague | Martini can route object-specific flows in either direction, normalize identifiers and accounting attributes, enforce source-of-truth rules, and isolate retries so a failure in one resource does not block unrelated synchronizations. |
| ServiceNow | Create service cases or requests using authoritative student and staff identifiers and return case-status information to institutional processes. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → ServiceNow | Martini can retrieve or receive supported Colleague changes, map identity and affiliation data into ServiceNow records, apply case-routing rules, and process selected updates returned from ServiceNow. |
| Microsoft Entra ID | Support account provisioning and lifecycle processes based on student, employee, person, and institutional-affiliation data. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → Microsoft Entra ID | Martini can transform approved Person and Student attributes into identity-management requests, apply affiliation and eligibility rules, protect sensitive fields, and record provisioning outcomes for reconciliation. |
| Ellucian Banner | Exchange institutional information across organizations operating both Ellucian platforms or consolidating data across campuses. | Ellucian Colleague → Martini → Ellucian Banner | Martini can connect each product through its supported APIs or institutional interfaces, normalize resource identifiers and ownership rules, and run separate domain workflows for bidirectional synchronization. |
How to build a Ellucian Colleague integration in Martini
Objective
Establish the Ethos or institution-specific service connection using the tenant settings and authentication method approved by the institution.
Instructions in Martini
- Configure the Ethos base URL, tenant identifiers, and resource permissions
- Store API keys, OAuth credentials, tokens, and legacy service credentials in Martini environment secrets
- Use the documented SOAP or REST configuration when a deployment-specific Colleague service is required
Objective
Select an event-driven, scheduled, or API-led entry point based on resource coverage and operational requirements.
Instructions in Martini
- Use supported Ethos event notifications for resources enabled in the tenant
- Use a scheduler for reconciliation, batch processing, or resources without event coverage
- Expose a Martini API when another application must initiate the integration
Objective
Obtain the current Colleague resource rather than relying on a potentially incomplete notification payload.
Instructions in Martini
- Extract the resource identifier from an event notification
- Retrieve the current Person, Student, Course, Section, Registration, or other supported resource
- Follow pagination and preserve a durable cursor or last-successful timestamp
Objective
Coordinate calls, dependencies, validations, and target-system operations in a maintainable Martini workflow.
Instructions in Martini
- Separate high-volume domains when independent retry and reconciliation behavior is needed
- Resolve dependencies such as Students, Courses, Terms, and Sections before processing Registrations
- Apply source-of-truth and ownership rules before writing changes
Objective
Convert Ethos or Colleague-specific structures into the canonical and target schemas required by downstream applications.
Instructions in Martini
- Preserve Ellucian resource identifiers and institution-specific identifiers
- Normalize names, contact points, statuses, dates, and relationships
- Handle optional properties and version-specific fields without brittle assumptions
Objective
Validate records and determine whether each change is eligible for creation, update, suppression, or manual review.
Instructions in Martini
- Validate required identity, academic, enrollment, or finance fields
- Apply duplicate, eligibility, affiliation, and ownership rules
- Prevent update loops by defining authoritative fields for each system
Common Ellucian Colleague data objects used in integrations
| Object | Typical Use | Common target systems | Martini handling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persons | Represent individual constituents, students, employees, and other people used across institutional processes. | Salesforce, Slate, Microsoft Entra ID, ServiceNow | Martini retrieves or receives supported changes, normalizes identity fields, preserves Ellucian identifiers, applies privacy and ownership rules, and upserts target records. |
| Students | Represent student-specific information, status, affiliations, and relationships used in enrollment and lifecycle processes. | Salesforce, Canvas, Blackboard Learn, Microsoft Entra ID | Martini maps student attributes to target schemas, checks eligibility and affiliation rules, and uses idempotent updates with reconciliation checkpoints. |
| Organizations | Represent institutions, departments, vendors, employers, and other organizations. | Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, finance platforms | Martini applies organization-type and source-of-truth rules, transforms identifiers and hierarchies, and routes only supported fields to each target. |
| Courses | Define academic course offerings and their catalog-level information. | Canvas, Blackboard Learn, reporting platforms | Martini retrieves paginated course data, maps academic attributes, validates required target fields, and records cross-reference identifiers. |
| Sections | Represent scheduled offerings of Courses, including term and delivery-related information. | Canvas, Blackboard Learn, scheduling and reporting platforms | Martini provisions or updates target sections, resolves course and term references, and retries transient target failures without duplicating sections. |
| Registrations | Represent student enrollment in Sections. | Canvas, Blackboard Learn, student-support applications | Martini correlates Students and Sections, applies enrollment and eligibility rules, submits idempotent changes, and handles dropped or deleted relationships according to policy. |
Authentication and security considerations
Tenant-aware authentication
Ethos integrations commonly use provisioned API keys and may support OAuth 2.0 depending on the tenant and application registration. Tenant-specific permissions, regional base URLs, and resource access must be confirmed with the institution.
Credential protection
Store API keys, OAuth client credentials, tokens, tenant identifiers, and deployment-specific service credentials in Martini environment secrets rather than embedding them in workflows.
Privacy and least privilege
- Use the minimum resource and operation permissions required for each workflow.
- Encrypt transport and avoid writing education records, financial data, or sensitive personal information to logs.
- Apply data minimization and institution-approved retention policies.
- Use stronger request validation when receiving Ethos event notifications through a Martini API.
Operational considerations for Ellucian Colleague integrations
Tenant and schema variation
Resource availability, properties, operations, API versions, and event types can vary by tenant and configuration. Confirm the required catalog entries before implementation and treat optional properties defensively.
Pagination and throughput
List operations may be paginated. Martini workflows should process all pages, use controlled concurrency, and respect the institution’s Ethos rate limits, including HTTP 429 responses.
Events and idempotency
Events are change notifications rather than universal database change capture. Retrieve the current resource after an event, tolerate duplicate and out-of-order delivery, and use stable Ellucian identifiers with target external IDs.
Recovery and testing
Use checkpoints, retry with backoff, reconciliation runs, and isolated failed-item handling. Test resource permissions, deletions, missing optional fields, schema changes, pagination, and target-system failures before production deployment.
Why use Martini instead of scripts or point-to-point integrations?
Centralized orchestration
Martini provides a consistent workflow layer for Ethos API calls, event processing, scheduled reconciliation, institution-specific services, and downstream application updates.
Maintainable transformations
Mappings, validation, source-of-truth rules, identifier management, and reusable integration logic can be maintained separately from individual point-to-point scripts.
Operational resilience
- Handle pagination, retries, throttling, duplicate events, and checkpoints in a consistent way.
- Expose controlled APIs when external applications need a stable façade over Colleague.
- Keep environment-specific authentication and tenant settings out of workflow logic.
- Provide structured error handling and operational visibility across related integrations.
Frequently asked questions
Modern integrations typically use Ellucian Ethos Integration REST APIs to retrieve, create, or update supported resources. Selected Ethos resources also provide event notifications, while some institutions use deployment-specific web services, SOAP interfaces, or scheduled file exchanges. The exact resources, operations, and events depend on the institution’s tenant and configuration.
Yes. Martini can consume Ellucian Ethos REST APIs, receive supported Ethos event notifications, invoke documented Colleague web services, and run scheduled reconciliation workflows. It can then map Colleague resources to applications such as Salesforce, Canvas, Slate, Workday, or ServiceNow.
No. A dedicated Ellucian Colleague connector is not required. Martini can use Colleague’s confirmed native integration mechanisms, including Ethos REST APIs, supported event notifications, institution-specific web services, approved file exchanges, and the applicable authentication methods.
Lonti does not charge an additional per-connector or per-vendor fee to integrate Ellucian Colleague. The integration is subject to the provisioned capacity of the Martini environment. Separate costs may apply from Ellucian, cloud infrastructure, or other third-party systems based on subscription, usage, and deployment model.
Ethos Integration REST APIs are the primary modern option for supported resources. Ethos event notifications can support selected event-driven flows, while scheduled workflows provide reconciliation and coverage for resources without events. SOAP, legacy web services, and file exchanges should be used only when the institution confirms their availability and support.
Ethos Integration supports event notifications for selected resources and operations, but coverage is resource- and tenant-dependent. Martini can receive a supported notification through an API or workflow trigger, treat it as a change signal, retrieve the current resource, and account for duplicate, delayed, or out-of-order delivery.
Martini can combine event-driven processing with scheduled incremental or full reconciliation. Workflows retrieve paginated resources, preserve Ellucian identifiers, map fields into canonical and target models, apply source-of-truth rules, and perform idempotent creates or updates. Cross-reference data and checkpoints support repeatable synchronization.
A robust implementation uses validation, controlled concurrency, retry with backoff for transient failures and rate limiting, and separate handling for permanent data errors. Stable Ellucian identifiers and target external IDs support idempotent upserts, while durable event or synchronization records prevent duplicate processing. Martini can also expose an API façade that applies consistent authentication, validation, orchestration, and error responses over Colleague services.
Related Martini documentation
APIs
Security
Integrate Ellucian Colleague with confidence
Use Martini to connect Ellucian Colleague and Ethos Integration with the applications, APIs, and workflows that support your institution. Design a resilient integration that respects tenant-specific capabilities, protects sensitive data, and remains maintainable as systems evolve.