Activity Calendar Connection
MarkBook reads your school's timetable, disciplines and lesson attendance from the Kinderpedia Activity Calendar. It does this with a key that your school creates in Kinderpedia and pastes into MarkBook. Without the connection, MarkBook still works for grades, but the Timetable, the lesson registers and per-lesson attendance stay empty.
This page is for the person who administers MarkBook and, where needed, school IT.
What the connection gives you
- The weekly Timetable and the lesson window. See Attendance & Timetable.
- Attendance per lesson and per subject, on the Attendance page, on report cards and on the Dashboard.
- The mapping between your MarkBook subjects and the disciplines in the calendar.
MarkBook only reads. It never changes your calendar or your registers.
Before you start
You need:
- The right to generate API keys in Kinderpedia. The screen is available for schools on a premium plan.
- In MarkBook, the permission Developer: API keys and webhooks. Managers have it.
Create the key in Kinderpedia
- In Kinderpedia, open Center Management → Integrations → API Keys Management.
- Press Generate new key.
- Tick the module Activity Calendar.
- Save and copy the key.
WARNING
Kinderpedia shows the key once. Copy it before you close the window. If you lose it, generate a new one.
A key belongs to one school. It works only with the School ID of the school that created it.
Connect it in MarkBook
- Open Configuration → Developer.
- On the card Kinderpedia Activity Calendar, press Connect.
- Check the School ID. It is the school you are signed into.
- Paste the key into API key.
- Confirm.
MarkBook tests the key before it stores it. It refuses a key that Kinderpedia does not accept, and a key that lacks the Activity Calendar module. When the key is accepted, MarkBook shows the school name that Kinderpedia reported.
Read that name. A key from another school can pass every technical check. Only the name tells you it is the wrong one. If the name is not your school, choose This is not our school — remove it.
MarkBook stores the key and never shows it back. The card shows only a short preview, plus the school, time zone, modules, who connected it and when it was last checked.
Statuses
The card shows one of these states.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | The key works | Nothing |
| Not connected | No key is stored | Press Connect |
| The key is missing the Activity module | The key works but has no Activity Calendar module | In Kinderpedia, generate a key with that module, then press Replace key |
| Kinderpedia did not recognise this key | The key was revoked, or only part of it was pasted | Press Replace key with a fresh key |
| Could not reach Kinderpedia | A network problem. Your key is not the cause | Wait, then press Check again. Nothing has changed and nothing was removed |
A school that is connected but has not yet matched any subjects shows no warning. That is normal at the start.
Actions
- Check again tests the stored key now.
- Replace key stores a new key. Use it after a key is revoked.
- Disconnect removes the key. The timetable, lesson registers and subject mapping stop showing data until you connect again. Nothing already saved in MarkBook is deleted.
Link subjects to the calendar
Connecting is the first step. Next, link each MarkBook subject to its calendar discipline, so lessons find their subject. Do this under Configuration → Assessment → Subjects. A subject without a link shows as "not linked to the calendar" on the Attendance page.
The mapping page shows how many lessons each discipline has in a year. This helps you tell apart disciplines with similar names, for example several called "Mathematics". The count appears only for years MarkBook actually read.
How fresh is the data
MarkBook asks the calendar for the week or day you open, so the Timetable and registers are current. Some summaries are kept for a few minutes to keep pages fast: the list of lessons in a term for about 15 minutes, and the discipline catalogue for about 5 minutes. Pages that offer Refresh let you ask for new data.
A register is never kept between requests. A register taken a minute ago appears when you reload.
If a read takes too long, MarkBook stops after about 25 seconds and shows what it has, with a notice that the data is partial. A partial figure is not zero.
Security
- The key is stored for your school only. Nobody in MarkBook can read it back.
- MarkBook sends the key only to Kinderpedia's own public API address.
- Anyone with the permission Developer: API keys and webhooks can replace or remove the key. Give that permission to few people.
- Generating or replacing a key leaves a record in the activity log.
If it does not work
See Common Issues. The most common causes are a key without the Activity Calendar module, a key from another school, and a revoked key.