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Ed-Fi API Platforms

The Ed-Fi Alliance publishes the Ed-Fi Data Standard, which models a broad spectrum of commonly exchanged and shared K-12 education data. Two Ed-Fi Alliance implementations bring the Data Standard to life as a relational database and a companion REST API:

  • Ed-Fi ODS / API (versions through 7.x) is the established implementation, tuned to the security and performance needs of K-12 organizations and the education technology vendors who serve them. The ODS uses Microsoft SQL Server or PostgreSQL as a database platform, and the API is written in C#.
  • Ed-Fi API (v8 and later) is the next-generation platform. It is not an incremental update to the ODS / API, but instead replaces the Ed-Fi ODS / API and ODS Admin API with two new services, the Ed-Fi API and a Configuration Service, built on a new relational storage model (also on SQL Server or PostgreSQL) and deployed using Docker images.

Both platforms are vendor neutral, meaning that the client applications may be written in any language. See the Ed-Fi ODS/API and Ed-Fi API v8 FAQ for a detailed comparison, roadmap, and migration timeline.

Please see the Ed-Fi Technology Suite Supported Versions for an overview of which Data Standard version(s) are supported by a given Ed-Fi API or ODS / API version.

Use the dropdown version control below to select which platform and version's documentation you wish to view. Both the legacy Ed-Fi ODS / API (7.x) and the new Ed-Fi API (8.x) are available: