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    <title>DEV Community: ANIRUDH ULABALA</title>
    <description>The latest articles on DEV Community by ANIRUDH ULABALA (@anirudh_ulabala_ea94f489e).</description>
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      <title>DEV Community: ANIRUDH ULABALA</title>
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      <title>How I reverse-engineered the StudentVue SOAP API to build the only study planner that syncs with it</title>
      <dc:creator>ANIRUDH ULABALA</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 04:01:12 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/anirudh_ulabala_ea94f489e/how-i-reverse-engineered-the-studentvue-soap-api-to-build-the-only-study-planner-that-syncs-with-it-180o</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/anirudh_ulabala_ea94f489e/how-i-reverse-engineered-the-studentvue-soap-api-to-build-the-only-study-planner-that-syncs-with-it-180o</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I've been building IntelliPlan — a free AI study planner for students that connects to Canvas, StudentVue, and Schoology. The Canvas and Schoology integrations were straightforward (both have documented REST APIs). StudentVue was a different story.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The Problem
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;StudentVue is used by millions of K-12 students in the U.S. through Synergy's software platform. It's how students check grades, assignments, and attendance at hundreds of school districts. But Synergy has never published a public API.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every student planner I found either skipped StudentVue entirely or required students to manually copy their assignments. The automation gap was real.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Reverse Engineering the API
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The official StudentVue mobile apps (iOS and Android) obviously talk to &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt;. Using a proxy (Charles) to inspect the traffic, I found that the apps communicate via a SOAP-based XML API over HTTPS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The endpoint pattern is:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight plaintext"&gt;&lt;code&gt;https://[district-domain]/Service/PXPCommunication.asmx
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;And requests follow the structure:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight xml"&gt;&lt;code&gt;


      student_username
      student_password
      true
      false
      PXPWebServices
      GetContentOfWebService
      &lt;span class="nt"&gt;&amp;lt;Parms&amp;gt;&amp;lt;ChildIntID&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;0&lt;span class="nt"&gt;&amp;lt;/ChildIntID&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/Parms&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;



&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;The &lt;code&gt;methodName&lt;/code&gt; field is where it gets interesting — there are several methods available:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;Gradebook&lt;/code&gt; — returns current grades and assignment details&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;StudentHWList&lt;/code&gt; — returns the homework/assignment list&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;Attendance&lt;/code&gt; — returns attendance data&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;StudentInfo&lt;/code&gt; — returns basic student profile info&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Parsing the Response
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The responses come back as XML strings inside the SOAP envelope. For example, a &lt;code&gt;StudentHWList&lt;/code&gt; response gives you assignments with due dates, subject names, point values, and completion status — everything you need to build a study planner.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight javascript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="c1"&gt;// Simplified example of parsing the response&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;parser&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="k"&gt;new&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nc"&gt;XMLParser&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;({&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="na"&gt;ignoreAttributes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kc"&gt;false&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;});&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;result&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;parser&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;parse&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;soapResponse&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;assignments&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;result&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;?.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;StudentHWList&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;?.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;StudentHW&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;||&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;[];&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;parsed&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;assignments&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;map&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;({&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;title&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@_Title&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;],&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;dueDate&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@_DueDate&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;],&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;subject&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@_Subject&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;],&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;points&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@_Points&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;],&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;isCompleted&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;hw&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@_IsCompleted&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;===&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;true&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;}));&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  District URL Discovery
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One challenge: every school district has its own subdomain. Students need to know their district's URL. We solved this by maintaining a lookup table of known districts (there are open-source lists available) and letting students search by district name or zip code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What We Built On Top
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once we had the StudentVue data pipeline, we combined it with our Canvas (OAuth 2.0 + REST API) and Schoology (REST API) integrations to create a unified assignment feed. This feeds our AI scheduling algorithm which weighs tasks by urgency, point value, effort estimate, and available time in the student's week.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The result: &lt;a href="https://intelliplan.tech" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IntelliPlan&lt;/a&gt; — the only study planner that works with all three major student LMS platforms, completely free.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The Public API
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to build something on top of IntelliPlan's data, we expose a public REST API in our Pro plan. We also ship an MCP server for AI agent integrations.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Happy to answer questions about the StudentVue integration or the scheduling algorithm in the comments.&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;p&gt;IntelliPlan is free for students: intelliplan.tech&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>education</category>
      <category>opensource</category>
      <category>javascript</category>
      <category>webdev</category>
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