Slate Standard Enrolling Students Portal
  • 17 Nov 2023
  • 5 minute read
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Slate Standard Enrolling Students Portal

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Article Summary

Slate provides a standard Enrolling Students Portal that can be imported using Briefcase and edited in an institution's database. This portal is configured to display different content and provide a different experience for applicants enrolling at the institution. 

Best Practice

A good understanding of the Portal Editor is necessary to edit this portal.

Portal Configurations

The Portal comes with configurations that will need to be edited after Briefcase Import.

  1. Click Edit the top right corner of the Portal.

  2. Under XML Configuration, adjust the profile_update_form. This should be updated to be the GUID of the profile form in your database.

    Portal XML Configuration

  3. If desired, you can update the missing_photo_url to the link of the image that should appear when a student has not uploaded a profile photo using the profile form.

The Enrolling Students portal by default uses tabs and a redirect. The redirect query should be reviewed, as each institution will have their own decision codes. This redirect should be configured such that any applicant who is not enrolling but tries to access this portal will be redirected automatically to the status portal. 

  1. Under Queries, click the Redirect query.

  2. Under Exports, click the redirect subquery and adjust the nested subquery filter to select the desired decision.

    Redirect Query Filter

Tip

For more information about Redirects, see Portal Redirects. If you would like to display an error message, rather than redirect the applicant, you can remove the redirect query and methods and instead use Access Filters.

Editing the Profile Form

In addition to importing the portal via Briefcase, you will also want to import the associated profile form. This form allows the student to upload a photo and is accessed from the Profile tab within the portal.

The Profile form can be edited after import. To add additional questions to the profile form: 

  1. Click Forms in the top navigation bar.

  2. Select the Enrolling Student Profile form that was imported via Briefcase.

  3. Add any additional mapped or form fields desired.

Important!

Do not remove the existing Profile Photo text box unless you do not want students to upload photos. This field has custom script to allow users to upload an image. The directory view will also need to be updated if you opt to not use photos.

Note that a profile form is not required on the portal, and institutions can choose to not have this form and remove the tab and directory photos from the portal. 

Editing the Queries

Once the Enrolling Student portal has been imported via Briefcase, the exports can be customized to return the data points to display in the portal. In addition to the redirect query mentioned above, there are several queries that may be edited.

Enrolling Student Info

This query pulls information about the applicant logged into the portal. Please include any exports you would like to use as merge fields in the views.

Directory Results

This query returns a list of other enrolling applicants, with the additional option to filter the results based on application major. You will want to review and adjust several parts of this query.

  1. Under Queries, click the "Directory Results" query.

  2. Under Filters, click the "Has Released Enroll Decision" subquery and adjust the nested filter to select the desired decision.

    Directory Results Decision Filter

  3. Under Filters, click the "Major Selected" custom SQL snippet. This filter looks at the field "app_major." Adjust this field ID to match the desired field ID in your database.

    Majors Selected Filter

Tip

To learn more about parameters, which allow you to pass in variables into a query, please see Filter-based Searching in Portals.

Major Prompts

This query returns a list of prompts to be used when searching the directory.

  1. Under Queries, click the Major Prompts query.

  2. Under Filters, click the "Prompt Key" filter and select the desired prompt key.

Can I filter on data points in addition or instead of major?

Absolutely! You'll just need to adjust the parameters in the Directory Results query, and you might need additional prompt queries if you are planning to have multiple filters.

Editing the Views

You may also edit the views to display any additional data points added to the queries, or remove items, or reformat in a different visual layout, etc. The standard Enrolling Students portal contains multiple views. You can edit the Homepage framework, the content within each tab, as well as the pop-up when clicking on a student in the directory.  

Important!

Remember that any data point used as a merge field in a view must be in the associated portal query.

The Enrolling Students portal uses the Checklist by Section widget. This allows users to only display checklist items from a particular section, which can be useful for displaying enrolling checklist items without also showing the admissions checklist. 

Portal Methods

The various methods in the Enrolling Students portal include GET methods, which call data from queries and display them in views.

Since this portal uses tabs, most methods will have actions. The methods without actions are called immediately upon accessing the portal. 

Important!

There is a redirect method for the default action (no action), as well as every tab action (home, profile, directory), to ensure that regardless of what tab an applicant tries to access, if they do not have access to the portal, they are redirected accordingly.

Testing

To test the Enrolling Students portal, you will need to have an example applicant with the desired decision code (ex. Enroll). If you are including the directory search functionality, you will also need to create several other enrolling records for testing. Additionally, if you are using the redirect, you will want to also try accessing the portal with an applicant who is not enrolling to ensure that the redirect functions as you intend.

To view the portal, use the Impersonate button and select the desired application for your test case. 

Once in the portal, ensure that you see the expected information displaying for the enrolling student. Test any directory searches, updating the profile form, and any pop-ups you may have edited. You can always return to the Portal Editor to make any changes to the queries and views as desired.

Important!

Only impersonate one applicant at a time.

If you need assistance after testing, please detail what steps you have taken and what you would like to or expect to see, but currently do not. As always, include screenshots and links to example applicants.

Additional Customizations

The standard Enrolling Students portal can be updated in various ways, depending on your institution's process. Some possible customizations include:

  • Including a redirect on their status portal to redirect to the enrolling portal

  • Adding a welcome video, music, or other interactive content

  • Use additional widgets on the portal, such as the decisions, payment, and/or materials widgets

  • Link to additional resources or forms applicable to enrolling students 


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