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First run

After the server is running, you finish the install in the browser at /install. The installer has two screens: Installation, where you connect PowerSchool and name your tenant (district), and Add your user account, where you pick yourself from PowerSchool and become the district admin. When you’re done, Tidal PTC syncs your schools from PowerSchool and signs you in.

Who this is for

Section titled “Who this is for”

The person setting up a new self-hosted copy. Cloud districts reach the same screens through a setup link instead; see Setup links.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • The app is running and https://<your-domain>/up returns 200. See Install with Docker, Install on a VM or Deploy to DigitalOcean.
  • The queue worker and Reverb are running. The school sync runs on the queue, and the installer fills in the PowerSchool credentials over a websocket.
  • PowerSchool admin access, to install the plugin.

Connect PowerSchool and name the tenant

Section titled “Connect PowerSchool and name the tenant”

  1. Visit https://ptc.example.org/install, using the domain you will serve Tidal PTC on. The page is titled Installation.

  2. Select Download plugin in the alert at the top. This downloads tidal-ptc-plugin.zip, built for the domain in your browser’s address bar. Its registration URL, single sign-on links and OAuth redirect all point at that domain, so download it from the final domain.

  3. In PowerSchool, install and enable the plugin. See PowerSchool for what the plugin does.

    When you enable it, PowerSchool sends the plugin’s client ID and secret to Tidal PTC. If the installer page is still open, the PowerSchool URL, PowerSchool Client ID and PowerSchool Client Secret fields fill in by themselves. If they don’t, copy the client ID and secret from the plugin’s page in PowerSchool and paste them in.

  4. Fill in the remaining fields:

    • Tenant name: your district’s name.
    • Domain: the hostname people use to reach Tidal PTC, for example ptc.example.org. Tidal PTC finds the tenant by matching the request’s host against this value.
    • PowerSchool URL: the address of your PowerSchool server, for example https://powerschool.example.org.
    • PowerSchool Client ID and PowerSchool Client Secret: from the plugin. Both are UUIDs.

  5. Select Install. Tidal PTC saves the tenant, starts syncing your schools from PowerSchool in the background and shows “Installation complete. Sync has been started.”

Create the first administrator

Section titled “Create the first administrator”

  1. On Add your user account, start typing your name or email in Import SIS User. Tidal PTC searches PowerSchool and lists matching users with their SIS ID.

  2. Pick yourself. The user you select gets full permissions for the district (the district admin role).

  3. Select Add user and log in. Tidal PTC imports the user from PowerSchool, signs you in and takes you to school selection.

After installing

Section titled “After installing”
Section titled “Related”
Tidal PTC by Archboard