Directory Overview

Overview

Portal Directories are customizable records within Veracross that allow schools to define exactly whose information they need to have access to and what information is viewed within that configured Directory. Directories are configured based on the most common constituent groups found within schools: students, households, and faculty/staff. Each of these constituent groups represents a possible Directory Type from which many different Directories can be built. Using these basic types, schools can create directories for any group of people they want.

• Read more about directory preferences.
• Read more about how directories relate to the school year and “rolling them over” in conjuction with the Close School Year process.

Directory Organization

Schools have the power to create directories using specific Directory Configuration records to create a directory of a particular group of people. This may include anyone from a basic Faculty/Staff Directory, to something specific within that directory type such as all After-School Care Staff Directory. This is done by organizing Directory Configuration records in two ways: Directory Type and Directory Category.

The Directory_Admin security role is required to manage directories, specifically to gain access to the directory-related links on the Portal Admin homepage.

Directory Type

Every directory will have an assigned Directory Type. This defines the “who” of the directory; which group of people within the school the directory should pull from to display information. A directory can be one of three types:

• Student Directory: every entry within the directory is fundamentally a student.
• Household Directory: every entry is a household, including adults and children.
• Faculty/Staff Directory: every entry is a single person, faculty or staff.

General Directories

General directories are uncategorized general directories. The exist on a single (“flat”) level of organization and can be a useful tool for a school to provide one or more general school-wide directories (e.g., “All Students”) as a single simple way to display information about people. If a school desires this simple way, no additional directories are required.

Directory Category

Directory categories are a way of organizing directories. For example, many schools will choose to create various student-centric directories by grade level. To configure this directory, the Directory Type would be set to “students” with the specific Directory Category set to “students by grade level.” This means that a directory can be created with a list of students from each grade level. Directory Categories should be used in conjunction with the other configuration criteria on the Directories Configuration record.

Directory Categories are school-defined and are specific to the Directory Types.

Configuration

Navigate to the Portal Admin homepage to access the three Directory links in the lower right.

Directories are built and configured using the Directory Configuration record, representing a single directory. Directory configuration involves thinking about the following questions:

1. Who should be included in this directory (Directory Membership)?
2. How should members appear in the directory?
3. Of the members in a directory, what information should be displayed about them?

By answering the above questions, schools will find they have a lot of flexibility and control over how directories are configured and displayed to their end users.

Configuration Tab

Configure display options for each directory type on the Configuration tab of the Directory Type detail screen. Click “Value” and then the magnifying glass icon to pull up different options. The “Value Description” field displays the option that has been selected. The “Notes” column displays information about the field.

Some examples of configuration options are:

First Name Display: Select how the first name should be displayed. Choose from four options:

• Value 0: First Name
• Value 1: Preferred Name
• Value 2: First Name (Preferred Name)
• Value 3: Preferred Name (First Name)

Address Display Format: Select how addresses should display. Choose from three options:

• Value 0: Hide Address
• Value 1: Show City, State, and Country
• Value 2: Show Full Address

See the Configuration tab of each Directory Type to explore different configuration options.

One option within the Directory Type: Household record configuration page is to add the Nearby Households Directory. Unlike other option on the configuration tabs, this option displays a new directory on the page. Schools may elect to display this directory and may set the distance range for what is considered “nearby.”

Note that Last Name is not configurable, and cannot be hidden if the directory entry is shown.

Directory Membership

Membership within a directory can either be dynamic or manual. Dynamic membership is controlled by the filter criteria specified on the Directory Configuration record. Manual membership involves hand-picking exactly who should be included in the directory and is often used when there is not a specific group that defines who should be included in a directory.

Dynamic Membership

To create a Directory where membership is controlled automatically according to a set of criteria, start with Directory Configuration record. Define the directory type first to establish the primary constituent group that this directory is for, students, household, family, or faculty/staff. If a change is made to dynamic criteria, or a person’s information is updated that would add or remove them from a directory, the membership is updated in nightly scripts. It can be manually refreshed via the following Action menu option on the Directory detail screen:

• Refresh Dynamic Directory Membership: Refresh dynamic membership for the particular directory.

In the input grid enter the following information:

• Filter Group: combines multiple layers of filter criteria to account for exceptions to criteria rules. Note that each row in the input grid represents a set of criteria for how the directory is organized. For criteria that should be grouped together, such as exceptions to criteria, enter the same Filter Group name so the system knows to group that information together. Criteria within any group (1-10) are ‘AND-ed’ together and the overall group logic is ‘OR-ed’ against the overall group logic of any other groups if used. Criteria within the ‘Any Group’, however, is ‘OR-ed’ together and exclusion criteria exclude from all groups.
• Filter Criteria Type: either include or exclude. This accounts or exceptions to the criteria specified and is used in conjunction with the values set in the “Filter Value” and “Directory Category” fields.
• Filter Category: specifies what criteria is used to determine who displays in the directory according to the set Directory Type. Categories include campus, school level, grade level, profile code, and more depending on the Directory Type set.
  • Student and household directory types: campus, school level, grade level, student group, resident status, gender, homeroom (student type only), advisor (student type only), profile code.
  • Faculty/Staff: school level, department, faculty type, role, profile code.
• Filter value: used with “filter criteria type,” determines how the filter category is or is not limited (for example, in a student directory type defined by filtering category grade level, a filter value would be the specific grade level).
• Value description: the explanation of who will be included in this directory as a result of the criteria specified.

Enabling Directories in Portals

Directories can be enabled in the portals on two levels: by more specific directory type (e.g. Students in Grade 1, Middle School Students) and by directory tabs (i.e. Student, Household, or Faculty/Staff).

Specific Directory types may be added on the portal record page under the Directories tab. For each category of directory present, there will be a corresponding tab in the portal. For example, if an Upper School Students directory is added to the student portal, a tab called “Students” will be present on the directory homepage in the portal.

In the event that a particular type of directory is not going to be used in a given portal – e.g. the student directory not being available in the student portal – the tab may be hidden. To do so, all directory types of that nature must be removed. In this example, all student-related directories should be removed from the active directory section on the portal record. The tab itself may be removed by navigating to the Directory record (accessible from Portal Admin homepage, select the type under the General Directories section, pop out the query in the Portals Search section). On the portals tab, move portals that should not display to the Available Portals section.

Manual Membership

Manual directories have a hand-picked membership.

Display and Refreshing Options

When users update their directory information or display preferences in their portal, the updates are immediate throughout all directories.

Changes made through Axiom are handled in nightly scripts but can be manually refreshed via two Action menu items on the Directory Type detail screen. Note that the updates must be refreshed for each Directory Type (Student, Household, Faculty/Staff):

• Refresh Directory Entries: Refresh updates to directory information (e.g., phone number, address)
• Refresh Directory Member Preferences: Refresh updates to display preferences

Dynamic directory membership is also updated in the nightly scripts, but can be manually refreshed via the following Action menu option on the Directory detail screen:

• Refresh Dynamic Directory Membership: Refresh dynamic membership for the particular directory.

Public Notes

Public notes — those that appear to portals users — can be added in three places: on the Directory Type landing page, on the Category Landing page, and on an individual directory. Use these fields to include information about the directory type, category, or directory as needed.