How To: Use the Glendale Populated Template

The Ed-Fi ODS / API ships with a sample dataset containing approximately 1000 students. For a variety of reasons, you may want to install a different sample database than the one that ships with ODS / API. This article walks through how set up the Glendale database, which contains approximately 50,000 student records, as your template for a populated database.

Step 1. Update the Config File

The "ApiSettings:PopulatedTemplateScript" key in <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.WebApi\appsettings.json file configures the dataset for the populated template.

"ApiSettings": {
    ...
    "PopulatedTemplateScript": "Glendale"
},
...

This tells Initialize-DevelopmentEnvironment which source selection script to run. If no script is provided, or the name specified does not exist, the Initialize-DevelopmentEnvironment will fail when trying to reset the populated template.

In development environment, you can use secret.json to override this setting to deploy Glendale dataset. In a PowerShell session navigate to <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.WebApi and use user-secret CLI to setup the override. See Configuration Details - SecretManager for more details.

PS C:\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Application\EdFi.Ods.WebApi\> dotnet user-secrets set "ApiSettings:PopulatedTemplateScript" "Glendale"
Successfully saved ApiSettings:PopulatedTemplateScript = Glendale to the secret store.

In non-development environments (usually staging or QA) that also deploys the populated template, you will need to add the same key to the file: <source directory>\Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation\Scripts\NuGet\EdFi.RestApi.Databases\configuration.json.

Step 2. Reset the Populated Template

From a PowerShell session, run the following commands to rebuild the Ed-Fi databases:

PS> Initialize-DestructiveMinimalTemplate
PS> Initialize-DestructivePopulatedTemplate

Once the templates are rebuilt, the Glendale data will be available from the sandbox API. For example, when a new sandbox is created, the sandbox API will load with this data instead of the standard 1000 student set.

The PowerShell script for Glendale source selection can be found in the Ed-Fi-ODS-Implementation repository.

About the Populated Database Templates

There are three test databases available to use with Ed-Fi ODS / API.

Name	# Student Records	Data Shape
Default	1,000	Limited breadth. 1 district, 1 high school
Northridge	25,000	Greater breadth. 1 district, 4 schools
Glendale	50,000	Full breadth. 2 districts, 36 schools