In the Slate-hosted application, a "widget" manages the collection of grouped data points. For example, an applicant can enter multiple school records, each with its own distinct values for fields such as name, CEEB code, address, and level of study. The standard application pages that collect grouped data points through popup widgets are School History, Employment History, and Activities.

Application form widgets are custom application pages created using forms that replicate the look and feel of the dialogs within the Slate standard application pages. These form widgets allow for customization beyond the available configurations on the standard application pages, including the use of conditional logic to show or hide fields within the widget, and they allow for easy year-to-year maintenance. Fields on application form widgets can be mapped to data on the appropriate tables on the Profile tab of the person record.

Application form widgets can be created to replicate the look and feel of the dialogs within the Slate standard application pages for School History, Employment History, and Activities. In addition, application form widgets can be used to create custom dialogs for Relationships, School Reports, References, and Sports.

When to Use Application Form Widgets

Application form widgets are ideal when a need exists to make numerous edits to the standard application pages. On Slate standard application pages, standard fields cannot be reordered and custom fields will always default to display under the standard fields.

Application form widgets offer additional functionality:

• Standard and custom fields can be labeled and ordered as desired, and can appear conditionally.

• An applicant can add up to 99 responses in an application form widget. This is recommended if multiple submissions are expected.

• Edits to application form widgets can be easily managed through Form Builder.

• Application form widgets are required if partner institutions want to collect data on Relationships, or have an application page specific to Sports.

Custom fields can be added to the standard application pages for School History, Employment History, and Activities by creating custom fields scoped to "School," "Job," and "Interest," respectively. They appear on the appropriate table on the Profile tab of the person record.

Only one application form widget of each type should be used within the Slate application. Widgets will display all records saved on the corresponding data table on the person record. For example, school record information entered in an application form widget to collect high schools attended also appears in a separate application form widget for colleges and universities attended. Instead, one widget should be used to collect all school data in the application.

Application form widgets need special configuration to be seen in the Reader

If you use application form widgets in your Slate-hosted application:

• Auto PDF will not render custom fields from the application form widgets.

• You must create a custom mapped PDF or a Reader Portal to view the widget’s custom fields in the Reader. 

Refer to our Custom PDF and Portals in Reader documentation to learn more about both options.