{"id":2658,"date":"2015-12-27T16:29:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T16:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentclearinghouse.info\/help\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=1723"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:19:27","slug":"naming-compressing-your-files","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/knowledge-base\/naming-compressing-your-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming &#038; Compressing Your Files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-open-sans-font-family\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\">Naming Your File<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Colleges and Universities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Users can name their files in any way that helps them identify the type of data within the file. The National Student Clearinghouse recommends the following guidelines in filenames:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1. Include your OPE ID and school branch codes (if you do not have a branch code, use \u201c00\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2. Use an optional two- or three-letter extension to identify the type of file layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>For example:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8220;00123400.CLR&#8221;<\/strong> is from school code 001234 branch 00 in Clearinghouse standard file format<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u201c00123400.EDI\u201c<\/strong> is from school code 001234 branch 00 in EDI Transaction Set 190 Version 5010 format<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u201c2001Grads00123400.txt\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0is a text-tab delimited file used to send StudentTracker inquiry requests from school code 001234, branch 00<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3. Use unique filenames when uploading multiples files at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FTP does not force unique file names when multiple files are uploaded with the same file name. Rather, the first file is deleted after the second file is uploaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-ht-blocks-messages wp-block-hb-message wp-block-hb-message--withicon is-style-alert\">To avoid inadvertent deletion of files when uploading, be sure to use unique names to identify separate sets of data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>For Example:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u201c00123400_SUMMER_SOT.CLR\u201d<\/strong> and <strong>\u201c00123400_FALL_FOT.CLR\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While FTP only restricts the characters \/ and \\ from being used as part of the filename, we recommend only using valid Windows NTFS characters as part of the filename.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-ht-blocks-messages wp-block-hb-message wp-block-hb-message--withicon is-style-alert\">We do not recommend using the following characters: \/ \\ \u201c &lt; > | : ? * % &amp; !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">High Schools and High School Districts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your file name should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Include your high school\u2019s ACT code or (for districts) your district\u2019s\u00a0NCES\u00a0code.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>For example:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8220;123456Graduates2010.CLR&#8221;<\/strong> is from high school ACT code 123456 in Clearinghouse standard file format<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-open-sans-font-family\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\">Compressing Your File<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can compress your file to minimize\u00a0FTP\u00a0transmission time. The Clearinghouse uses\u00a0PKZIP\u00a0version 2.02 T to uncompress files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-ht-blocks-messages wp-block-hb-message wp-block-hb-message--withicon is-style-info\">If you plan to use a compression utility that may be incompatible with PKZIP, contact <a href=\"mailto:secureftp@studentclearinghouse.org\">secureftp@studentclearinghouse.org<\/a> for assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn best practices for naming and compressing files to prepare them for Secure FTP transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ht-kb-category":[73],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-2658","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-secure-ftp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/2658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/2658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2902,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/2658\/revisions\/2902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.studentclearinghouse.org\/dataexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}