Configuring Google Integration

If your school uses Google Workspace for Education, you can import your Google Users, Groups, and Classrooms into School Manager. Once the groups and classrooms have been synced, they can be used as classrooms in Classwize.

Before you start 

You will need a minimum of 15 minutes to complete the configuration. The initial sync can take up to three hours, depending on the size of your directory.

Prerequisites

To enable Google integration with School Manager, you will need: 

1. Your school’s Google domain
2. Credentials for a Google domain account with Super Administrator privileges to enable Google API
3. If using OAuth, your OAuth Client ID and Client Secret.

You must also enable the following Google Sync Permissions:

1. View organization units on your domain.
2. View groups on your domain.
3. View users on your domain.
4. View the email addresses of people in your classes.
5. View your Google Classroom class rosters.
6. View your Google Classroom classes.

Linking your Google Domain

Configuring the integration 

To configure Google user authentication:

1. Log in to School Manager and go to Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Configure Google integration using the settings tables below and select Save.

Required Settings

Optional Settings

Activating the Link

1. Activate the Google integration by selecting Link Credentials on the right-hand panel.
2. You will be redirected to a Google authorization page. It will auto populate the Username in the Administrator field.
3. Select Next, then enter the Password.
4. Select Allow and you will be redirected back to the School Manager interface.

Validating the Link

1. Test the connection by selecting Run Sync.
2. When it’s complete, you will see a message above your settings that will inform you how many groups and users have been imported from your Google domain.

The initial sync may take up to three hours to complete, depending on the size of your directory. You can still use School Manager while the sync is in progress.

If the sync was unsuccessful, Sync Status will display “Failed”. You will also have the option to Run Sync again after 15 minutes.

Google Classroom and Classwize

Once Google is integrated and the sync is complete, it will import all the Users, Groups, and Classrooms from your Google service to School Manager and Classwize. You can let teachers manually sync their Google Classrooms from within Classwize. Teachers and IT administrators can safely sync Google Classroom from Classwize during school hours.

You can provide these instructions to teachers to help them with syncing:

• Syncing with Google Classroom: Explains how to conduct a sync from Classwize and provides basic troubleshooting steps for common sync issues.
• Introduction to Class Types: Explains how to tell which classes are synced.

Enabling Google Login for the Captive Portal

If you would like users to be able to log into the Captive Portal with their school Google accounts, you must enable Google Authentication in the Captive Portal section. To do this, navigate to Authentication > Captive Portal and enable the Google Authentication Method in your Captive Portal.

Manually Syncing the Google Service

Google Classroom automatically syncs with School Manager once a week, on the weekend, between 12:01 AM Saturday and 11:59 PM Sunday in your devices' timezone. However, you have the option to manually sync the two together. If you have made some changes to your users, groups, or classrooms in Google and want to update School Manager.

1. Select Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Select Run Sync.

Google Integration Troubleshooting 

When will syncs run?

Google Classroom automatically syncs with School Manager once a week on the weekend, between 12:01 AM Saturday and 11:59 PM Sunday in your devices' timezone. However, you can manually run a sync if you need to propagate changes before the automatic sync period. You can also let teachers manually sync their Google Classrooms from within Classwize.

I made changes to my classrooms, but I can’t see it in School Manager/Classwize

If you need your changes to appear sooner than the next automatic sync, you must run a manual sync.

Error: 403 Access Not Configured

This error can happen when Linewize services don’t have the right Google permissions. There are three settings that you may need to change: API Access, Age-based access settings or App Access control.

API Access

To enable API access permission:

1. Go to the Google Admin Console > Security > API reference.
2. Select the Enable API access checkbox.
3. Select Save.

Age-based access settings

Check the Google Organizational Unit (OU) where the service account email is configured in School Manager.

1. Sign in to School Manager and go to Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Identify the service account email used for Google sync.

Verify the service account’s OU in Google Admin Console.

1. Go to the Google Admin Console > Account settings > Age-based access settings.
2. Select All users in the group or org unit are 18 or older option.
3. Select Save.

Return to School Manager and revoke and relink your Google domain.

1. Go to Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Select Revoke.
3. Select Link Credentials to your Google domain.
4. Select Run Sync to test linking to your Google domain.

App Access Control

Check App access control has been configured in Google Admin Console.

1. Sign in to School Manager and go to Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Select Link Credentials and you will be directed to a Google Sign In
3. Sign in with the service account email used for Google sync.
4. If you see Access blocked: Your institution’s admin needs to review Login, select Request Access.
5. Go to the Google Admin Console > Home.
6. Select Review apps under App access control.
7. Find Login under Apps pending review, then select Configure access.
8. Select school domain (all users) option for Scope, then Next.
9. Select Trusted option for Access to Google Data, then Next.
10. Select Configure Access, then Confirm.

Return to School Manager and revoke and relink your Google domain.

1. Go to Configuration > Authentication > Google.
2. Select Revoke.
3. Select Link Credentials to your Google domain.
4. Select Run Sync to test linking to your Google domain.

Error: 429 Rate Limit error

This error is caused by sending too many requests to the API within a specified time period. Please contact Linewize Support to help you with the oAuth configuration.

Error: 503 Service Unavailable error

This error is caused by the Google service being unavailable at the time of the sync. While this will typically resolve itself during the next automatic sync, you can try manually syncing later. If this error occurs over multiple consecutive days, please contact Linewize Support.

Error: 403 Classroom Disabled error

This error is typically caused when the Classroom API access is disabled. Enable the API is enabled by:

1. Go to the Google Admin Console  > Apps > Additional Google Services > Settings for Classroom
2. Ensure that the Service Status is set to ON

If the API is enabled and you still receive this error message, contact Linewize Support.

I’m getting an invalid_grant: Bad Request error

This error can be caused by using invalid Google domain account credentials. Please check the credentials you've provided and try again.