Ladok Integration

This article describes the integration between Ladok (the Swedish Student Information System used at universities) and Inspera Assessment. The integration is based on AMQP1.0. The university can either set up the queues and integration themselves or they can collaborate with Ladokkonsortiet and use the "LIS-adapter".

Table of content

• Setting up the integration to the "LIS-adapter" as of 2023
  • Setting up communication between Ladok and Inspera
  • Manage student information
• Set up test owner in Inspera assessment
• Add Creator in Ladok as Planner in Inspera
• Add unit to the test in Inspera
• Alternatives for "aktivitetstillfällen"
• Map existing students
• Earlier process (prior to 2023)

Setting up the integration to the "LIS-adapter" as of 2023

This will firstly describe how communication between Ladok and Inspera is to be set up and secondly what you need to do to manage the student information to be sent to Inspera. 

Setting up communication between Ladok and Inspera

In this process we use two way SSL to secure the communication between Ladok and Inspera. The information we need to set up this are:

• insperaReadQueue
  • e.g. : /topic/lis.uu::inspera.lis.uu
• insperaWriteQueue
  • e.g. : /topic/inspera.uu
• ladokQueueDomain
  • e.g. : lis.test.ladok.se
• ladokQueuePort
  • usually port 5671

Based on this information, we set up a certificate for Inspera and return this to the requester.  

In order for the communication to flow, you will need to allow Inspera Assessment IP:s (incoming traffic) to pass your firewalls.

You find the IP address in the article List of DNS names and IP addresses

Manage student information

In order for the students to access their Ladok exams in Inspera you need to make sure information is set up and sent in the correct way and we at Inspera will update the authentication method in Inspera.

1. The university needs to make sure that the SSO includes the Ladok StudentUID upon log in to Inspera 
2. If the university has used Inspera prior to setting up the Ladok integration and there are existing student users they will, most likely, need to be mapped to a "Ladok StudentUID" in order to access previous and upcoming exams. This is covered in detail under Map existing students. 
3. Inspera updates the student login set up to use the Ladok StudentUID as identifer
4. Inspera enables the integration

Set up test owner in Inspera assessment

For tests to be made, there needs to be a test owner connected to the test. Basically this is a regular user account which user ID is used for all the tests coming from your Ladok integration set up.

Set up a user in User administration.

1. Go to User administration
   
2. Click Add user
3. Enter the information and add at least the role Planner 
4. Copy the UserID for this profile (use the URL) and send this to Inspera
   

The means that all tests that are created by this integration will have this user profile as owner. All planners with Extended access can access these tests and add contributors/unit to assign them within the university. 

Transfer of contributors, e.g. graders and invigilators is not part of the integration.

Add Creator in Ladok as Planner in Inspera

If the person setting up the exams in Ladok is also the person working as Planner in Inspera, you may find it useful to activate this feature. What this does is that it adds the creator in Ladok as Planner in Inspera. 

When a user in Ladok sets up a new "Aktivitetstillfälle" with type "Digital tentamen (LIS)" or "Digital Omtentamen (LIS)", this is one of the messages sent to Inspera:

education.activityoccasion.createdby

This message contains as example this information:

<ns0:extensionField>
<ns0:fieldName>education.activityoccasion.createdby</ns0:fieldName>
<ns0:fieldType>string</ns0:fieldType>
<ns0:fieldValue>uni-ID@uni.se</ns0:fieldValue>
</ns0:extensionField>

This value, uni-ID@uni.se, represents the EPPN and is read by Inspera. When the value can be matched against a user profile in Inspera and that profile has the role Planner, this user is added as Planner on the test in Inspera. If the value cannot be matched or if the profile doesn't have the role Planner, then the "test owner" will be added as Planner.

It is you are the university who are responsible to make sure that the user has matching values in their profiles. In Inspera you can find the value on the user profile in the module User administration. 

Add unit to the test in Inspera

If you are assigning tests by organisations/units in Inspera, then these can be added automatically by the information received from Ladok.

Requirements:

• Organisation structure that is to be used must be exactly the same in Inspera as in Ladok 
• The values for externalId on the unit in Inspera must be exactly the same as the value on the organisation in Ladok

When a message for a new test is received by Inspera, the information including organisation is read and when ID's are matched the unit is added on the tests settings. There is more information on the feature in the article Assign tests to Organizational Units.
 

Alternatives for "aktivitetstillfällen"

When a university enables this feature in Ladok, the different alternatives will be set up as stand alone tests in Inspera. So if there are e.g. two (2) alternatives in Ladok, there will be two (2) tests in Inspera. 

Map existing students

If there are previous tests that the students should still have access to after the Ladok integration has been enabled (or more precise that the authentication method has been updated), the student accounts need to be updated to include Ladok StudentUID. This is not needed if the SSO login has been sending this value since it was set up for Inspera. 

We recommend the following process for managing existing student profiles and their test history:

1. The university sets up the SAML assertion to include Ladok StudentUID for login in Inspera. There is more information on this on Sunet's pages: Sunets dokumentation om Ladok StudentUID (in Swedish). 
2. The university informs Inspera in which attribute the Ladok StudentUID is sent (usually LIN) and, if applicable, which prefix that is used for Ladok StudentUID
   Steps 3 and 5 can either be performed by the university or you can contact Inspera Service Desk for assistance in updating the students' accounts in Inspera
3. Export all student profiles with their current SSO-id (POST /v1/fileExport/ with resourceType "allUsers")
4. Map existing SSO-id with the students Ladok StudentUID. If Inspera is to do the update in the system, please prepare a CSV-file in the format: SSO-id, Ladok StudentUID
5. Update students' profiles in Inspera with the Ladok StudentUID 
6. Inspera updates the SSO setup on Insperas side to use Ladok StudentUID as identifier  

Earlier process (prior to 2023)

In order to connect the LIS-adapter and Inspera Assessment, you as customer needed to send the following information to Inspera: 

• Endpoint (host + part)
• Queue name
• Username
• Password

Note: You would need to send information for both reading queue (to get test information) and writing queue (to report results).