A Population is a group of records with like attributes that are assigned a common label in Slate via population rules in the Rules Editor. Populations can include a students degree type, declared major, citizen ship, disciplinary status, etc. and records can be enrolled in multiple populations at the same time.
Records are enrolled in a population when they meet the criteria defined by a population rule. If a record no longer meets the criteria of the population rule(s), it is removed from the population upon the next update to the record.
Populations can be leveraged in many ways in Slate. Some examples include:
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- Being used as filters in queries to easily return records that belong to a selected population
- Serving as the foundation for drip marketing campaigns
- Managing user access to records
Create a Population
Use the following steps to create a population:
- Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Populations.
- Select Insert.
- Set the Status to Active and give the Population a name.
- Set the Scope:
- Person/Application - Records can be added to the population by either a person population or application population rule.
- Person - Records can be added to the population by a person population rule only.
- Application - Records can be added to the population by application population rule only.
- Dataset - Dataset records can be added to the population by a dataset population rule.
- Click Save.
Is that it?
Yes, a Population in Slate is just a label for a group of records. Population rules are used to define and enroll records in the population.
Create a Population Rule
Use the following steps to create a population rule:
- Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules Editor.
- Click New Rule.
- Enter the following configurations in the popup window:
- Name - Give the rule a name that corresponds to the population.
- Base - Choose a base for the rule, 'Configurable Joins - Person' or choose the desired dataset base. Do not use Prospects and Applicants as the base.
- Type - Choose the Type, either 'Person Population,' or 'Application Population,' for the Application Base or 'Dataset Population' for the Dataset base.
- Folder - Select the Folder to keep rules organized. Choose 'Other' to create a new folder.
- Exclusivity Group - Leave this blank (Because records may be enrolled in multiple populations at the same time, an exclusivity group for population rules is most likely not needed).
- Status - Set the Status to "Preview."
- Click Save.
- Choose the filter criteria for the rule to define which records should be enrolled in the population. Common filters for population rules include Student Type, Declared Major, or Academic Integrity Violation prompts.
- In the Action setting, select the population in which the rule should enroll records.
- Review the rule and preview records that will be enrolled in the population using New Query.
- Activate the rule.
- Run a query on the rule and perform a retroactive refresh to enroll records in the population.
Important!
As long as the population rule is active, new records will be enrolled in the population when they meet the filter criteria of the rule. Existing records will leave the population if/when they no longer meet the filter criteria of the rule.
Population Filters
Filters like Population Timestamp Days look at how long a record has existed in a population. The day a record joins a population is considered day 0. If someone joins a population at 11:59 PM ET today, they would be in the population for 1 day at 00:01 AM ET tomorrow. Put another way, the duration doesn't count the total number of hours, but instead the number of unique days.