Importing Photos into PowerSchool 

Site admins can import photos into PowerSchool only after creating a Map file to link pictures to students and placing the files in to a flat zipped file.

Preparing the Import Map File

Before importing pictures into PowerSchool, you will need to prepare the pictures and the import map file. A data report to send to your photography company can be found at Start Page> WELS Custom>Photo Data Export. Use a tab-delimited text file that includes the Student_Number field from the Students table and the name of the picture. It is recommended that this file be created in a spreadsheet application and then saved as a tab-delimited text file. Do not use comma delimiters, and do not save the file in its "native" format; Excel and other spreadsheet applications often save special formatting information in their files which can prevent the file from being properly read by PowerSchool (Please seeKB articles 6865 , 8037 and 11081 for more information).

Example: A student has a student_number of 12345, and his corresponding picture is 67890.jpeg; the first record in your import map file will look similar to the following:

12345     67890.jpeg

In this example, the Student_Number value is in the first column, and the name of the image file is in the second column.

Notes:

• Make sure that if the image file name is using leading zeros like 0067890.jpeg that the map file also contains the leading zeros.
• Make sure the image file names matches the image file name as documented in the map file.  For instance, if your images have the JPEG extension, use JPEG and not JPG in your map file. The file name is case sensitive.
• Remove any extraneous columns from the spreadsheet when importing, all that is needed is two columns, one for the Student_Number and the other for the name of the corresponding picture.
• Staff/Teacher import requires the "TeacherNumber" value from the "Teachers" table and the name of the corresponding picture in two separate columns. To list the TeacherNumber field, go to the start page and click on the staff tab. Next, click on teachers under browse staff. This will list all the teachers and give you the functions button. Click on functions. Click quick export and enter TeacherNumber, hit return, and enter lastfirst. Now click submit. This will list the teacher's numbers and their last and first names for reference. You can use this to create your map file.
• If you are using Lifetouch, log in to your Lifetouch portal account, click Image & Data Managment in the top menu, select All of the students (right above the first picture), click the Available Action drop menu, click Download, from the Format menu click PowerSchool and then click download. This will create and download the zip file and the IDLink mapping file you need as described below in the Importing the Pictures section of this article. Your pictures are already prepared.

Preparing the Pictures

Image files must be in the JPEG/JFIF format (Please see KB article 9830 for more information), with a file extension of .jpg or .jpeg.

It is recommended that the image files be 200 pixels wide by 300 pixels high.

All student photos should be in a flat zip.  All staff photos should be in a flat zip file separate from the student photos. Important : Other file types such as .sit are not valid.  The file must be in the .zip format.

The map file should be separate from the flat zip file, and should be formatted as described in the previous section.

Photos must not be in a subfolder in the zip file. Make sure to verify the zip software you are using does not place the files in a subfolder.

Importing the Pictures

1. Navigate to Start Page > Data and Reporting > Data Management > Student and Staff Photos
2. Click Import Pictures. The Import Pictures page appears.
3. Indicate the group for which you want to import photos by choosing either Student or Staff.
4. Enter the file path and name of the zip file or click Browse to select the zip file.
5. Enter the file path and name of the mapping file or click Browse to select the mapping file.
6. Choose Student/Staff Number from the pop-up menu.
7. Click Upload. The Import Photos Results page displays a summary of the processed records and any failures.