Skip to content
Human resources ⇄ Business productivity

D2l Brightspace to Smartsheet integration — real-time, two-way sync

Keep D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet in sync without custom scripts. Cut weeks of integration work, eliminate silent data drift, and give your team a single, reliable source of truth.

  • SOC 2 and 6 other compliance frameworks
  • POC with real engineers in minutes

Adopted by fast-scaling companies moving mission-critical data in real time

Case study
Migrated from MuleSoft
Case study
Migrated from Celigo
Migrated from Heroku Connect
Migrated from Matillion
Case study
Migrated from Fivetran
Case study
Migrated from Celigo
Why teams connect D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet

Keep the people, teams, and status that Smartsheet and D2l Brightspace share aligned in real time, so a hire, role change, or departure recorded in one reaches the other within seconds.

Each tool in Smartsheet keeps its own list of who can use it: users, members, or agents, along with the team they sit on and whether they are still active. D2l Brightspace is the authoritative record of the same people as employees, with their department, manager, and employment status. When those two are connected only by manual account admin or a periodic export, the work tools drift: new hires wait days for access, team and manager changes never catch up, and people who have left keep standing accounts.

Stacksync syncs Attachments, Discussions and Comments, Users and Groups, Sheets in Smartsheet with Enrollments, Org Units, Grades, Content (Modules, Topics, and User Progress) in D2l Brightspace bi-directionally and in real time. A person added, moved, or offboarded in D2l Brightspace creates or updates the matching user in Smartsheet within seconds, with field-level mapping and conflict resolution in place of spreadsheets and one-off account changes. Where Smartsheet captures details of its own, such as a corrected contact or a login identity, those can flow back to D2l Brightspace in whichever direction you configure.

Because the sync is field-level, each system keeps its own extras; only the shared facts, who a person is, which team they belong to, and whether their access should be on, are held in agreement.

Common use cases

  • 01 Write records from a CRM or ERP into Smartsheet Rows so ops teams manage intake and status in a grid, then push status Cells back to the source.
  • 02 Pull Reports and Sheets into a warehouse for cross-project reporting and dashboards without manual CSV exports.
  • 03 Pull Content user progress and Quiz attempt results into a Postgres warehouse for engagement and completion analytics.
  • 04 Sync Assignment (Dropbox) submissions and feedback into a reporting database or downstream review tool.

Common sync patterns

Onboarding: access ready on day one

A new hire recorded in D2l Brightspace creates the matching user in Smartsheet with the right team and manager already set, so people can start working without waiting on a provisioning ticket.

Offboarding: no standing access after a departure

When someone is marked as leaving in D2l Brightspace, the matching account in Smartsheet is deactivated or flagged, so departures do not leave open access behind.

One employee directory

A person's name, title, contact details, or status corrected in either system updates the other, so both sides stop maintaining separate copies of the same person.

What you can sync between D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet

Representative objects on each side — any object or custom field can map to any target. Schemas are auto-detected; types are converted between the two systems.

D2l Brightspace objects Smartsheet objects How this pairing syncs
Org Units The org structure — course offerings, sections, departments, and semesters; read for hierarchy and created/updated to provision courses from a database. Attachments Files linked to rows or sheets; posting one carries a 10x rate cost, so bulk file sync is throttled to 30 per minute. Org Units is specific to D2l Brightspace and Attachments to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Grades Grade objects, categories, schemes, and per-user grade values in the Learning Environment (le) component; values can be read out and written back onto the gradebook. Discussions and Comments Threaded comments on rows and sheets; read out to sync collaboration history or activity into another system. Grades is specific to D2l Brightspace and Discussions and Comments to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Content (Modules, Topics, and User Progress) Course content structure plus per-user completion; progress is read into a warehouse and topics can be created and updated via the API. Users and Groups Account membership and sharing; synced to keep an HR or identity source aligned with sheet and workspace access. Content (Modules, Topics, and User Progress) is specific to D2l Brightspace and Users and Groups to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Quizzes Quiz objects and per-user attempts and results; attempt data is read out for engagement and completion analytics. Sheets The core container; each sheet has typed columns, rows, and a modifiedAt stamp. Stacksync treats a sheet as a table and syncs its rows two-way. Quizzes is specific to D2l Brightspace and Sheets to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Assignments (Dropbox) Dropbox folders, submissions, and feedback; submission and evaluation data is read into reporting systems and feedback can be written back. Rows Records inside a sheet, each with createdAt/modifiedAt and cells keyed by columnId; the primary unit synced to and from external tables. Assignments (Dropbox) is specific to D2l Brightspace and Rows to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Groups and Sections Group categories, groups, and section membership within an org unit; enrollments are read and written to keep cohort assignments aligned. Columns Define sheet schema and cell type (TEXT_NUMBER, DATE, CONTACT_LIST, PICKLIST, CHECKBOX); read via the API so field mappings can be generated. Groups and Sections is specific to D2l Brightspace and Columns to Smartsheet — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.

How changes propagate between D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet

Each direction of the sync is driven by what the source system can signal and what the destination accepts — detection, delivery, and expected latency below.

D2l Brightspace Smartsheet Sub-second propagation

DetectionD2l Brightspace notifies Stacksync of record changes through webhook events. Polling Valence endpoints with date/bookmark filters, differential Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) bulk exports for changed rows via the Data Hub, and.

DeliveryEach detected change is written to Smartsheet through its API, with automatic retries and rate-limit backoff.

Smartsheet D2l Brightspace Sub-second propagation

DetectionSmartsheet notifies Stacksync of record changes through webhook events. Sheet-scoped webhooks subscribed to *.* events notify on row and cell changes.

DeliveryEach detected change is written to D2l Brightspace through its API, with automatic retries and rate-limit backoff.

Rate-limit considerations

  • D2l Brightspace: Per-caller token-bucket credit scheme; each route costs credits, responses carry X-Rate-Limit-Remaining, and over-quota calls return HTTP 429. D2L can adjust per-route credit costs.
  • Smartsheet: 300 requests per minute per access token; heavy calls like posting attachments cost 10x (30/min). A 429 returns errorCode 4003, back off ~60s.
What ships with D2l Brightspace ⇄ Smartsheet

Connect D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet for flexible, real-time data sync.

Real-time sync, workflow automation, event queues, EDI, and monitoring, for every D2l Brightspace–Smartsheet connection.

Real-time

Two-way sync

Changes in D2l Brightspace or Smartsheet instantly reflect in both systems. No stale data, no manual imports.

No-code + pro-code

Workflow automation

Trigger automated workflows whenever D2l Brightspace or Smartsheet data changes, update records, fire webhooks, or kick off sequences without brittle API scripts.

At scale

Event queues

Handle millions of events per minute without losing a single D2l Brightspace or Smartsheet record.

Observability

Monitoring

Track your D2l Brightspace ⇄ Smartsheet sync health, view errors, and replay failed events in one click.

Trading partners

EDI

Transform legacy EDI complexity into simple database interactions between D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet.

How the D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet connectors work

D2l Brightspace

Integration surface
Brightspace (Valence) REST API split into independently-versioned Learning Platform (lp) and Learning Environment (le) components, plus the Data Hub / Data Export Framework and Brightspace Data Streams
Authentication
OAuth 2.0 authorization-code grant against the D2L auth service (auth.brightspace.com); a registered app holds a client ID and secret with per-scope grants (group:resource:action, e.g. users:userdata:read), short-lived access tokens, and refresh tokens
Change detection
Polling Valence endpoints with date/bookmark filters, differential Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) bulk exports for changed rows via the Data Hub, and Brightspace Data Streams webhooks (xAPI activity events) for near-real-time signals
Capabilities
read · write · webhooks
Rate limits
Per-caller token-bucket credit scheme; each route costs credits, responses carry X-Rate-Limit-Remaining, and over-quota calls return HTTP 429. D2L can adjust per-route credit costs.
D2l Brightspace setup guide

Smartsheet

Integration surface
REST API (v2.0)
Authentication
OAuth 2.0 authorization-code flow, or a raw/personal API access token passed as a Bearer header
Change detection
Sheet-scoped webhooks subscribed to *.* events notify on row and cell changes; otherwise polling on sheet and row modifiedAt timestamps
Capabilities
read · write · webhooks
Rate limits
300 requests per minute per access token; heavy calls like posting attachments cost 10x (30/min). A 429 returns errorCode 4003, back off ~60s.
How it works

How to connect D2l Brightspace to Smartsheet — three steps, no code

Configure and sync within minutes, no code. Whether you sync 50k or 100M+ records, Stacksync handles the queues, infra, and plumbing. Integrations are non-invasive and need zero setup on your systems.

  1. 01

    Connect your apps

    Authenticate D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet with each platform's native method — OAuth, API keys, or service accounts — plus secure options like SSH tunneling, IP whitelisting, and VPC peering.

    • OAuth 2.0
    • SSH tunnel
    • VPC peering
    D2l Brightspace connected
    Smartsheet connected
    OAuth 2.0
    SSH tunnel
    SSL certificate
    VPC peering
  2. 02

    Choose tables

    Pick the D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet objects to sync — Stacksync auto-detects both schemas, including custom fields where the platform exposes them. Sync to existing tables, or let Stacksync create new ones with ideal data types.

    • Standard objects
    • Custom objects
    • Auto-schema
    objects · D2l Brightspace ⇄ Smartsheet
    Customers 12,480
    Sales Orders 8,213
    Invoices 5,902
    Items 1,344
  3. 03

    Map fields

    Fields map automatically even when names and types differ. Stacksync handles transformation and type casting for you, zero configuration required.

    • Auto-map
    • Type casting
    • Transforms
    D2l Brightspace Smartsheet
    Company company_name text
    Email email text
    Amount amount numeric
    Created created_at timestamp
Try interactive demo
FAQ

D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet integration FAQ

SECURITY

Security teams trust Stacksync

As a data company, we understand the importance of keeping your data secure. Stacksync is built with security best practices to keep your data safe at every layer, and is DPF-certified for US, EU, UK and CH data transfers.

Learn more about security
SOC 2 Type II
ISO 27001
HIPAA BAA
GDPR
CCPA
DPF US-EU-UK-CH
→ SECURITY WITH BENEFITS

SSO & SCIM

Let your users access Stacksync from your centralized user management systems. Works with Okta, Azure, Google SSO and more.

Alerts

Immediately get alerted about record syncing issues over email, Slack, PagerDuty and WhatsApp. Resolve issues from a centralized dashboard with retry and revert options.

Secure connection options

Securely connects to your systems with:

OAuth 2 SSH Tunnelling SSL certificates IP Whitelisting VPN gateway VPC peering and more

Related integrations

Every pair below is a real-time, two-way sync. Search all 408 integrations available for D2l Brightspace and Smartsheet.

Popular · 6 of 408
All D2l Brightspace integrations All Smartsheet integrations Browse all integrations
Coworkers laughing in front of a laptop in a casual office setting

Your last integration took months.
Your next one takes a prompt.

Book a demo Tour the platform on your own