AP3 Update - New Element Types, Candidate Demographic Form, & Parent 2 on Inquiry

Summary

As of February 12, 2020, a number of exciting new features are available to schools using Admission Portal 3. Based on feedback from cohort schools, we've added a number of new element types, created a way for families to update candidate demographic information in the portal, and built out support for gathering information about parent 2 on inquiry forms. 

Please review the details below, as the user interface of certain portal screens has changed slightly with this update and while we anticipate this to be a welcomed improvement, it may be jarring to some portal users and yield questions for your team.

NOTE: New elements have been added as "Hidden", change the Insert Status and Update Status to begin using them. Likewise, the Inquiry sections for parent 2 are available to add but have not been added to your existing forms.

The Details

New Element Types

Candidate Demographic Form

Portal users are now able to update candidate demographic information directly within the portal by clicking the "Update" link below a candidate's name on the Candidates screen or by clicking the "Update" button on a candidate's card displayed on the redesigned Demographics (Household) screen.

Upon clicking "Update", the families will be directed to the New Admission Candidate form. This form will be pre-populated with candidate information and families will be able to update the elements you configure as updatable. "Applying For" values will not be editable using this form and will still require submission of the Application Change Request form.

Parent 2 on Inquiry

Many of our cohort schools have highlighted the need to collect information about a second parent during the inquiry process - we're happy to announce that this is now possible! There are two new section types available to add on Inquiry forms: Inquiry - Secondary Parent Info and Inquiry - Secondary Address. 

NOTE: In order to support both single and two-parent households, it is critical that you utilize the Section Display element to guide the user experience. Section Display elements are required to be present in the section preceding the secondary parent/address sections in order for the form to insert parent 2 records successfully. Fields in sections where Display = Enabled (Hidden) can be marked required and will only be required by the form processing when the form submitter has made a selection that triggers that section to be displayed. You can see an example configuration in the vcdemo_client database. Please note that the Display value for these new sections should be set to "Enabled (Hidden)".

Using the Section Display Element

The Section Display element is used to guide the user experience of the form submitter. Within the context of gathering information about parent 2 on Inquiry forms, we use this element type to control the display of the new parent 2 sections based on responses from the form submitter. 

The core piece of information used by the Section Display element type is the Data Keypath. Data keypaths are unique identifiers that allow the form to define the sequence of things a form submitter will encounter when completing the form. The Section Display element type uses the data keypath to tie a response option to a specific section, e.g. if a form submitter selects "yes", render the parent 2 section for them to complete. 

In order to find the data keypath for a section, pop out the Sections query located on the top-level detail screen for a form and add the data keypath field to the query. For response options that should not trigger the display of a hidden section, enter any non-blank value that does not match an existing data keypath, e.g. "skip" as used in the screenshot above.

Questions or Concerns?

Please contact your Account Manager with questions or concerns regarding this update.