Common Application first-year SDS data feeds begin in mid-August.
Changes to the Common Application will be reflected in the data feeds for the 2022-23 application year. While the changes are not numerous enough to warrant a new source format, the Common Application has made some changes are described in their Evolving the Application document and detailed in their data catalogs article article for the new cycle.
If you are using the Scheduled Delivery Service (SDS) process through Slate for the first time this year, add the CommonApp source formats from the Slate Template Library.
In preparation for the data feeds that will begin, we have updated all existing CommonApp source formats to inactivate the remap settings and set the Remap As Of Date to 2022-08-05. Until the first file is received, the remap settings will appear blank. Rest assured that source fields that have not changed from last year will appear with the same mappings once a file is uploaded. At that time you can update your remap settings, including making the desired changes described later in this article, and also updating any year-specific items, such as application round, entry term. Once you have updated and confirmed your mappings for this year, you can go into the Source Formats tool to update the Remap Active setting to "Active." Once this is done, all files received on will import using those settings. For testing purposes, make all changes in production, and then refresh your test environment and activate the source format there. If the applications are created as expected, then activate the source formats in production. Please note: documents will not be imported into the test environment.
Common App ID Mapping
The Common App allows for accounts to be rolled over, which means that the Common App ID is not unique to an application.
The Common App ID uniquely identifies a person, so to make it unique for a specific application, the application cycle year is appended to the Slate Common App ID. As of August 2022, -2023 is appended to the Slate Common App ID. Each cycle the year will change and the year value will automatically be updated.
Important!
Do not edit the Common App ID destination. The mapping of the Common App ID ensures that the data and materials are imported to the appropriate record with the necessary timing. It is very important that these fields remain with their default mappings as described below. Other pre-mapped destinations may be edited.
CommonAppProspects and CommonAppSuspects: These source formats import only person-scoped data. So the Common App ID source field is mapped exclusively to the Slate External ID field, which is a person-scoped field used for matching person records during the import process. If the same person is included in a file another year with the same rolled-over Common App ID, Slate identifies that person record as the same person using this data point.
CommonApp: This source format brings in the data file that will create the application. The desired behavior is to match an existing record, if one exists, so the Common App ID is mapped to the same Slate External ID field mapped in the CommonAppProspects and CommonAppSuspects source formats. Since the Common App ID is unique to a person, but subsequent applications from the same person will have the same ID, the Common App ID is not mapped to an application-scoped unique field.
The Slate Common App ID is mapped to the Common App ID unique application-scoped field and the App: External ID field.
Both of these fields are application-scoped and are used to match the appropriate application record during the import process. Subsequent data and PDF files from Common Application use these mapped fields to match the appropriate application.
CommonAppRecommendations, CommonAppPayment, CommonAppWriting, and CommonAppCourses should not have the Common App ID source field mapped. Those files should only import data to the existing application. These files should never create a new application or match a different existing application if the application with the Common App ID does not already exist.
For this same reason, identifying information such as first name, last name, date of birth, and email address should also remain unmapped for Payments, Writing, Recommendations, and Courses, because this data will be imported through the CommonApp data feed.
CommonAppRecommendations, CommonAppWriting, CommonAppPayment, and CommonAppCourses source formats all have the Slate Common App ID mapped to the application-scoped unique fields Common App ID and App: External ID.
