Analysis · PlicGo / Captura School Portal

Analysis: PlicGo / Captura School Portal analysis

SSI/Strawbridge's incumbent portal (rebranded from PLIC Go! to Captura School Portal). This is the closest competitor to what we're building. Inventory below is derived from screenshots of a live demo project (Demo 25_26, 14 subjects) and a sample rendered layout PDF.

Top-level information architecture

A project (e.g. Demo 25_26) has four primary tabs:

  1. Subjects — roster of people in the shoot, plus duplicate detection and directory export.
  2. Download Exports — bulk data exports in either standard SIS formats or studio-authored custom formats, with a downloads history.
  3. Print Layouts — ID-card-style print layouts that bind subject fields + images into a 4-step print wizard ending in an async PDF render.
  4. Files — file requests + uploaded files for the project.

1. Subjects tab

All subjects view

Card grid, four columns. Each card shows the subject's name as the title, a portrait image, and a compact three-row metadata table: Student ID, Teacher, Grade. Header row offers filters by Teacher, Grade, Images (presumably "has / missing"), a sort dropdown defaulting to "Last Name, First Name", a free-text search, and an "Added Since Date" picker. Sub-tabs above the grid: All Subjects, + New Subject, Download Subject Directory, Find Duplicates.

PlicGo all-subjects grid showing 14 subjects with portraits and three-row metadata.
All Subjects view — 14 of 14 subjects, filterable by teacher / grade / images, sortable, with full-text search.

New Subject form

Two-column form with ~30 fields, mostly free-text. The field list is illustrative of how broad the school-photography subject schema needs to be: this is not "first name, last name, photo".

Fields observed: Sequence Number, Record Number, Yearbook Pic, Custom 5, Custom 9, Home Phone, Address, State, Library ID, Prefix, Student ID, Track, Teacher, Last Name, First Name, Job Type, Shoot #, Actual School, Packages, Code, Proof #, Zip, City, Cafeteria ID, Date of Birth, Position, Period, Home Room, Grade, School #, School Name.

PlicGo new subject form showing approximately 30 fields in a two-column layout.
New Subject form. The field set spans identity, demographics, school-system IDs (Cafeteria/Library/Student), yearbook/marketing flags, and operational metadata (Sequence/Shoot/Period).

Schema design implication

Many fields are SIS-system-specific (Cafeteria ID, Library ID, Track) and not universally present. Our subject schema needs a stable core + an extensible "custom fields" mechanism. The number of Custom 5/Custom 9 slots hints that the incumbent uses fixed-position custom columns rather than truly dynamic ones.

Find Duplicates

Field-picker UI. The user adds the fields to match on (defaults shown: First Name, Last Name, Student ID). The "Add a field" autocomplete suggests it accepts any subject field. Results render below — in the demo project, "No duplicates found."

PlicGo find-duplicates view with field picker (First Name, Last Name, Student ID) and No duplicates found state.
Find Duplicates is exact-match on the user-selected field set. No fuzzy / phonetic toggle visible.
Close-up of find-duplicates field selector with three chips.
Selected fields render as removable chips; new fields added via autocomplete.

Download Subject Directory

Single required selector — Group By. Dropdown options observed: Teacher, Grade, Last Name, First Name, Job Type, School #. Save / Cancel actions. The output (not shown) is presumably a paginated PDF directory grouped by the chosen field with name + portrait per row.

Group By dropdown open showing six grouping options.
Subject Directory: one required selector, six grouping options.
Subject Directory form expanded with Group By dropdown.
Form layout for Download Subject Directory.

2. Download Exports tab

Top bar

Two controls always on screen: a "Choose Export Format" dropdown and a primary "Download" button (with a wrench affordance for per-format options). Below, three sub-tabs: Downloads (history), Standard Formats, Custom Formats.

Downloads history

Table of past exports: Chosen Format, Subjects (count), Date Exported, Created By (linked to user), Status (large green progress bar + "Completed a month ago"), and per-row download / delete buttons. An "Auto Refresh" checkbox sits in the header — implying exports are async jobs with progress polling.

Download Exports history table showing PowerSchool, Genesis, Named Images by Name with Folder Sort entries.
Exports are async jobs. The history persists with creator attribution and a per-row redownload button.
Downloads sub-tab close-up showing three completed exports.
Status column carries both a state badge and a relative timestamp.

Standard Formats — 25 entries

Vendor-supplied formats keyed to common SIS or campus-services systems. Each row has a single download action.

List of 25 standard export formats.
Standard Formats sub-tab. 25 vendor-keyed export targets.
Full list of 25 standard formats
  1. Admin Plus
  2. Alexandria
  3. Aries by Eagle
  4. Aspen VA SIS
  5. Destiny by Follett
  6. EduPoint Synergy
  7. Fastlane 2000
  8. Fast Track
  9. Genesis
  10. Infinite Campus
  11. JMC
  12. Lunchbox
  13. Meals Plus
  14. Mealtracker
  15. Name Images with Student ID
  16. Name Images with Student's Name
  17. Nutri-Kids
  18. PowerSchool
  19. PSPA Yearbook (LEGACY — Replaced by SPOA)
  20. SASI XP
  21. Skyward
  22. SMS
  23. SPOA School Software Universal Export
  24. Star Base
  25. WinSnap

Custom Formats — 45 entries on this account

Studio- (or possibly customer-) authored variations on the standard formats. Per-row affordances are download and duplicate (the icon next to download), and a "+ Create a custom export" button in the header.

List of 45 custom export formats, many keyed to specific schools or vendors.
Custom Formats. Note "DO NOT DELETE" markers — production studios annotate format names with operational guardrails.
Full list of 45 custom formats
  1. 320×400 Named Images
  2. AltoonaStudentFullSize
  3. AltoonaStudentLastFirstFullSize
  4. Asure ID (Do not Delete)
  5. Blackboard Website Images
  6. Data Only
  7. Destiny by Cafe ID
  8. Destiny by Library ID
  9. Destiny-River Heights DO NOT DELETE
  10. EduPoint Synergy JPEG
  11. EduPoint Synergy PNG No Zero Padding
  12. ExtraHighRes with Folder Sort
  13. FACTS
  14. Focus
  15. Great Falls Student IDs
  16. Harmony
  17. HighRes by student_number
  18. HighRes for Media
  19. High Resolution
  20. High Resolution PNG
  21. Infinite Campus by Cafeteria ID
  22. Infinite Campus by Library ID
  23. Infinite Campus Forsyth Co GA Faculty Only by Name
  24. JMC
  25. Name by JPEG for Presentation
  26. Named Images by ID No Data
  27. Named Images by Name with Folder Sort
  28. Named Images by Student ID with Folder Sort
  29. Named Images with Student ID 480×640
  30. Named Images with Student Name XL
  31. Named Image with folder chosen at time of export
  32. Name Images with Student ID PNG
  33. Olathe Public Schools — Website — DO NOT DELETE — 2.4.22
  34. PLIC Elements Export
  35. Power School Richland 2
  36. PSPA Henrico
  37. PSPA Plus Job Type
  38. PSPA Yearbook by Name
  39. Raptor
  40. Roll-up IDs ONLY
  41. Skyward By 5 Digits
  42. Skyward by Cafeteria ID
  43. Skyward by Library ID
  44. Skyward to 6 Digits
  45. Skyward to 9 digits

What "custom" probably means

Looking at the naming patterns, custom formats appear to be a (data-mapping × image-naming-rule × folder-grouping × subject-filter × file-format) tuple. They're not arbitrary code — they're a structured form. "Skyward to 6 Digits" implies a left-padded student-ID rule on top of the standard Skyward format. "Olathe Public Schools — DO NOT DELETE — 2.4.22" implies versioned, school-scoped overrides.

3. Print Layouts tab

Gallery

Two sub-tabs: All Layouts and Recent Prints. A folder selector at the top scopes the gallery to a particular layout set (e.g. 1 - Digital Services PVC Single Print IDs 25_26, containing 4 layouts). Each layout tile is a thumbnail (e.g. Strawbridge High School FAC ID, 2.125 × 3.375), a name, dimensions, and a "Select Layout" button.

Layout gallery showing four ID-card layouts at 2.125 x 3.375 inches.
Print Layouts gallery. Layouts are grouped into folders; each is a fixed-dimension template with merged subject fields and images.

The 4-step print wizard

After selecting a layout the user goes through a vertical-stepper wizard:

  1. Preview Layout — confirms the chosen template with a stand-in subject ("John Doe" / placeholder photo).
  2. Select Subjects — the same subject grid as the Subjects tab, with Select All / Select Filter Results / Select Page / Exclude variants. Two trailing sections: Group Prints By (default: Grade) and Sort Prints By (default: Last Name, First Name).
  3. Check for Duplicate Subjects — same field-picker as the Subjects tab's Find Duplicates, surfaced inline as a guardrail before printing.
  4. Confirm and Print — submits an async render job.
Print wizard step 1: Preview Layout with John Doe placeholder.
Step 1 — Preview Layout.
Print wizard step 2: Select Subjects with 0 selected.
Step 2 — Select Subjects, with bulk select operators and group / sort controls.
Print wizard step 2 with 3 subjects selected.
Step 2 — selection indicator updates live as subjects are picked.
Print wizard step 3: Check for Duplicate Subjects.
Step 3 — Check for Duplicate Subjects gates the print on a clean dedupe pass.

Async render

Submitting "Confirm and Print" opens a modal: "Your layout render is being prepared for download. This may take a few minutes." A progress bar advances with a "running — Completed page 0 of 3"-style status. The output is a PDF with one page per layout instance, grouped/sorted per the wizard settings.

Download Rendered Layout modal showing a running render at Completed page 0 of 3.
Async render with a progress modal. Implies a job queue, page-by-page progress reporting, and a downloadable PDF artifact.

A sample of the produced PDF is preserved at sample-render.pdf (2026-05-18, Strawbridge High School FAC ID, Demo Services).

Layout authoring (not visible in screenshots)

The screenshots only show consumer use of pre-authored layouts. The fact that custom-named layouts exist (school-specific names, custom dimensions, embedded studio branding, placeholder strings like %Position%) strongly implies an admin-side layout editor elsewhere in the product. That editor is in scope for Phase 3 of our roadmap and is the single largest unknown in this whole project.

Field-placeholder syntax

The sample PDF and the step-1 preview both render %Position% verbatim where the binding didn't resolve. This tells us the template language is interpolated %FieldName% tokens, evaluated against the subject row, with no resolution → literal output. Our layout authoring tool must support the same convention if we want layout portability with incumbent assets.

4. Files tab

Two sections: Files Requested (pending file requests from the studio to the customer) and Files Uploaded (anything the customer has attached to the project). Both render an empty-state with a single line of copy in the demo project.

Files tab showing Files Requested (none pending) and Files Uploaded (none attached) empty states.
Files tab in an empty project. Maps cleanly onto the Geskus task-driven file-request pattern.
Files tab in an earlier project snapshot.
Same UI from an earlier capture.

Cross-cutting observations