What's New in v2.1
This documentation serves as an introduction to the changes made for the Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.1. This version is designed to be evolutionary from Data Standard v2.0. Changes are generally conservative and the release as a whole seeks to curtail the impact (e.g., code changes and other technical work) required to support an upgrade to API or bulk exchanges implemented using v2.0.
Many changes in the Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.1 are additive and optional, or affect places in the model not widely used. There are more impactful, "breaking" changes in a few places, but these were generally only made when the impact to the ecosystem would be more severe by not introducing a change.
Enhancements have come via feedback from Ed-Fi community based on real-world implementations. Detailed analysis was performed to ensure style consistency, increase options for extensibility, and to facilitate use of the Ed-Fi Data Standard using alternative loading and data exchange methods.
The sections that follow provide a high-level overview of the changes and enhancements, best practices for implementation, and a list of impactful and substantial data model changes. Type and element changes are shown, along with a rationale for the change and links to additional detail.
Audience
The audience for this documentation are technical professionals and decision makers who have adopted previous versions of the Ed-Fi Data Standard. Those considering Ed-Fi Data Standard v2.1 adoption may find this information useful as well.
Prerequisites
To gain the most benefit from this information, you should already be familiar with the following knowledge areas:
- Ed-Fi Alliance, see here
- Ed-Fi technology, see here
- Representational state transfer (REST) services, see Chapter 5 here
- Extensible Markup Language (XML), see here
- XML Schema (XSD), see here