Custom School History Page

Updated June 05, 2023 18:09

Expand-All Collapse-All

In the default Slate-Hosted Application, the school history page (identified by the part ID aca) consists of a pre-made module that allows students to enter their academic history. Two optional modules allow for the collection of course history and school reports.

This article covers creating a custom school history page in the Slate-Hosted Application using a Slate-Hosted Application Page-scoped form. This form can contain multiple widgets; this article will describe the setup for those widgets that mimic the standard page described previously. These widgets are:

- the school widget
- the course widget, and
- the school report widget

An example of a custom school history page on the Slate-hosted application.

Four steps to creating a custom school history page:

1. Create a Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form.
2. Create a widget-scoped form for each widget to be included on the page.
3. Add the widgets to the Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form.
4. Add the Slate-hosted-application-page-scoped form to a Slate application.

Step One: Create the Slate-Hosted Application Page

This form serves as the host for the widgets you'll create later.

Select Forms from the main navigation.
Click New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, configure the following:
- Page Title: The page title will display to an applicant as the name of the page.
- Folder: Keep organized by saving application pages within a clear folder structure.
- Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
Click Save.
Click Edit Form on the right side.
Click Edit Properties. A popup appears.
In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following:
- Scope: Select Slate-Hosted Application Page.
Click Save.

Step Two: Create the Widgets

Required: The School Widget

School Widgets are a great alternative to the standard Academic History page if you are looking for more customization. These widgets allow you to introduce new logic into your form and include customized instructions and custom fields.

Applicant's view of the school widget.

This flexibility is great for tailoring the Slate-Hosted application to your institution's specific needs; however, your version of the school widget should adhere to a few best practices to function at its best:

Best Practices

The form should only map to school-scoped fields.
CEEB must exist on the form for Slate to associate the school on the student record.

To accurately gather school address data, the address field type should be set to Location (no postal code).

Require Level of Study for each school within the application.

Create a School Widget-Scoped Form

Try a Slate Example

Use Suitcase to import our ready-made example School Widget form. Be sure to open and re-save each form field to break any potential cache from the suitcase import.

596d9d57-493b-4e3c-8380-9d4846b5e8d2:slate-examples

Select Forms from the main navigation.
Click New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, enter the following:
- Page Title: Give the form a descriptive title.
- Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
- Folder: Add the form to an existing folder or select Other to create a new one.
Click Save.
Click Edit Form on the right side.
Click Edit Properties. A popup appears.

In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following: Scope: Set the form's scope to School Widget within the section Page Construction Widgets. Click Save.
Configure the widget with the form fields applicants should complete. See example setup opposite. Configure Custom List Fields under Edit Properties. It is necessary to establish one or more exports to appear as the columns in the widget table. Without any exports, no data will show.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

Optional: The Course Widget

The Course Widget can be used to add course-scoped data to Person or Application records.

Configure the widget with the form fields applicants should complete in the application. Additional school filters can be added, as well. Only course data gathered in the Slate application (or mapped upon import as application-scoped) will be displayed within the Slate application.

Applicant's view of the course widget.

Important!

All schools displayed in the Course Widget must meet the following criteria:
- School: Level of Study exists
- School is associated with the person record
At a minimum, course record creation requires mapping to School: Course School and School Course: Name.

Creating a Course Widget-Scoped Form

Try a Slate Example

Use Suitcase to import our ready-made example Course Widget form. Be sure to open and re-save each form field to break any potential cache from the suitcase import.

596d9d57-493b-4e3c-8380-9d4846b5e8d2:slate-examples

Select Forms from the main navigation.
Click New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, enter the following:
- Page Title: Give the form a descriptive title.
- Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
- Folder: Add the form to an existing folder or select Other to create a new one.
Click Save.
Click Edit Form on the right side.
Click Edit Properties. A popup appears.

In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following: Scope: Set the form's scope to Course Widget within the section Page Construction Widgets. Click Save.
Configure the widget with the form fields applicants should complete. See example setup opposite. Configure Custom List Fields under Edit Properties. It is necessary to establish one or more exports to appear as the columns in the widget table. Without any exports, no data will show.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

Course Exports

Customize the columns displayed in the course widget with Course exports. To add course exports:

Navigate to the course-widget-scoped form.
Click Edit Form.
Click Edit Properties.
In the General Settings tab, under Custom List Fields, add Exports for any fields that should be columns in the widget table. These are typically items like Course, Grade and Institution.

If no exports are selected, the school name will display by default.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

Concatenate Export Values

School exports can also be added as a concatenation of the values from the export. Single or multiple exports can be added as a formula, including spaces, commas, hyphens, and more.

See the following example of concatenation in action on an application:

Example 1/2

Example 2/2

Optional: The School Report Widget

The school report widget provides an alternative to the standard application page Academic History's school report module. It lets you employ conditional logic, add user instructions, and collect custom school report-scoped fields.

Applicant's view of the school report widget.

Only map to school report-scoped fields within this widget.

Note: The external school report form is covered in a separate article

This widget-scoped form is the first half of the school report process. Once the applicant enters their school official's contact information and submits the form, Slate sends a separate form to the school official to corroborate the applicant's academic history and offer their own insights. This form, which uses the school report page scope, is covered here.

Creating a School Report Widget-Scoped Form

Try a Slate Example

Use Suitcase to import our ready-made example School Report Widget form. Be sure to open and re-save each form field to break any potential cache from the suitcase import.

596d9d57-493b-4e3c-8380-9d4846b5e8d2:slate-examples

Select Forms from the main navigation.
Click New Form. A popup appears.
In the New Form popup, enter the following:
- Page Title: Give the form a descriptive title.
- Status: Set the status to Confirmed/Active.
- Folder: Add the form to an existing folder, or select Other to create a new one.
Click Save.
Click Edit Form on the right side.
Click Edit Properties. A popup appears.

In the Edit Properties popup, configure the following: Scope: Set the form's scope to School Report Widget within the section Page Construction Widgets. Click Save.
Configure the widget with the form fields applicants should complete. See example setup opposite. Configure Custom List Fields under Edit Properties. It is necessary to establish one or more exports to appear as the columns in the widget table. Without any exports, no data will show.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

Widget Custom List fields

General Settings

The custom list fields in the General Settings tab will display on the widget table when data has been collected.

Merge Fields

Use this tab to add additional merge fields to display on this widget from other places in Slate.

Widget Settings

Schools list query exports are what will display when a student is choosing which school will attach with which school report will display like so.

You can also filter for only specific schools by level of study or degree within the filter section of this tab.

Step Three: Add the Widgets to the Host Form

From the form builder palette, drag in a Widget Table.
Edit the widget table. Select one of the widget forms created in the previous section from the Widget Form list.
Repeat for any additional widgets created. Drag the widget table form fields to reorder on the page.
Add any additional fields or instructions to the form.

Adding a widget form to the host form.

End result with three widgets.

Step Four: Add the Host Form to a Slate Application

Select Database from the main navigation, then select Application Editor.
Choose the /apply/ link for the application base to which the new page should be added.
NOTE: If only one application base exists, only /apply/ will appear.
Click Edit Menu in the upper-right.
Click Add Link. Enter the following configurations:
- Type: Select Custom Form Page.
- Subtype: Select the Slate-Hosted-Application-Page-scoped form you created.
- Label: Enter the name to display as the page link in the application navigation.
Click Save. The new form will be listed at the bottom of the application menu.
Drag this page to where it belongs in the application page order.

The application form widget is now active in the application. Be sure to test that data entered into the widget is saved back to the appropriate table on the Profile tab of the Person record.

Testing

Once you've added your Slate-Hosted Application page to your application, it's important to test its behavior.

Things to look for:

What conditional logic did you have within the page?
Are configured system emails delivered with the submission of these pages?
Is there any application logic (either page keys or hard/soft fails) related to data collected from this page?

These are items worth thinking about and making a plan for outside of Slate to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Tips and tricks:

To quickly check whether a custom list export (either for the widget table or for the school) works as intended, a change must be made to the impacting data.
- For example, to test to see if a custom list export for the school list query is pulling in the correct information, a change would need to be made to the school widget (either inside the application or the person record) to break the cache to display these changes.
If your widget was suitcased, open and re-save all form fields. Suitcasing sometimes creates a cache that prevents form fields from populating as expected.
Once you're confident everything works as intended, bring in a fresh pair of eyes try completing the form: they're likely to find areas that need improvement.