Connect to Veracross SIS from Google Apps Script

Veracross, Google Apps Script, API, Connect, Utility

This tutorial uses Google Apps Script. If you need to review the Google Apps Script Primer, here it is: Take Me To The Primer

This script simply confirms you have setup your Veracross endpoint/list and you can connect to it.

The first thing you need to do is setup a list inside Veracross that you can access. Here are the instructions for that: https://api-docs.veracross.com/docs/docs/8f8619229c0c4-making-a-data-api-request

If you cannot find this menu, your login is lacking permissions. I had to reach out to their support to get the information to setup the access levels, but then the instructions above worked just fine.

Step 1: Setup a Folder and a Script

As per usual, open Google Drive and make a folder. Inside the folder add a new “Apps Script” file.

When it opens, give it a logical name at the top. And change the code.gs file to “vcconnect”.

Step 2: Get your Client ID and Secret from Veracross

If you followed the steps to setup the list, numbers would have been generated.

The CLIENT SECRET is the longer of the two. Select to edit the script properties.

Paste these into a text file and hold them for the next step.

Step 4: Add the Code

Paste the script below into the Apps Script editor.

function getAccessToken() {
  var apiUrl = "https://accounts.veracross.com/vcdemo_client/oauth/token";
  
  // Replace these with your actual client ID and secret
  var CLIENT_ID = '';
  var CLIENT_SECRET = '';

  // Formulate the payload as a URL-encoded query string
  var payload = "grant_type=client_credentials" +
    "&client_id=" + encodeURIComponent(CLIENT_ID) +
    "&client_secret=" + encodeURIComponent(CLIENT_SECRET) +
    "&scope=" + encodeURIComponent("students:list");

  var options = {
    method: "post",
    payload: payload,
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
    },
    muteHttpExceptions: true
  };

  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(apiUrl, options);
  var json = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());

  Logger.log("Access Token from getAccessToken(): " + json.access_token);

  return json.access_token;
}




const APPSEC_ENDPOINT = "https://api.veracross.com/vcdemo_client/v1/applications"; //this is the sandbox url use your own

function testPermissions() {
  const accessToken = ""; //getAccessToken();

  const options = {
    "method": "get",
    "headers": {
      "Authorization": "Bearer " + accessToken,
    },
    "muteHttpExceptions": true
  };

  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(APPSEC_ENDPOINT, options);

  if (response.getResponseCode() === 200) {
    Logger.log("Permissions check successful.");
    const json = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());
    // If you want to do something with the returned data, you can process the 'json' variable here
    Logger.log(json);  // For now, let's just log the response.
  } else if (response.getResponseCode() === 403) { 
    // HTTP 403 usually indicates Forbidden (no permission to access the resource)
    Logger.log("Permission denied. The provided token does not have access to this endpoint.");
  } else {
    Logger.log("Error: " + response.getResponseCode() + " | " + response.getContentText());
  }
}

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Add your API ID and Secret to the script. This is just for testing, in a full implementation, you would store these as script properties.

Run testPermissions() and see if you get a successful connection. Sometimes with Veracross, I have to run this 3 or 4 times intially to get a connection. I have no idea why.

The next script in this process will be released soon, and it will show you how to write this data to Google Sheets.

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