Portal Link Configuration

Overview

Portal Links provide schools the ability to add links to the parent, student, and faculty portal. These links can be anything from external websites to internal reports. Portal Links enable schools to decide when, where, and with whom links are shared.

Adding New Portal Links

Hover over the “Add” button on the System homepage and select the “Portal Links” link. Then, on the “Add Portal Link” screen (see screenshot)

Link Information

• Description: enter the name of the link as it will appear in the portal.
• Link Type: select the type of link from the drop-down menu. The link type indicates what kind of information the Portal Link connects to (e.g., website, Axiom Report, or Veracross documents).

  Note: Links to Veracross custom documents can only be created by Veracross staff. Contact your Account Manager if you would like to create a document Portal Link. Once this Portal Link is added, visibility filters can be managed by the school.

• URL: if the link type is a static link, enter the URL that the link will access.
• Append Hash Auth: check the box to add a username and key to the link’s URL for automatic authentication. A Hash Auth can only be appended to the Admission Portal, Online Re-Enrollment, and Program Registration Veracross Apps.
• Context: select the section on the portals in which this link will be displayed. The context includes which portal the link will be displayed on (parent, student, or faculty) and where on the portal homepage the link will be accessible.
• Column Number: select which column the link should be displayed. For parent and student portals it will be either a 1 or 2. For the faculty portal, it should only be a 1 because there is only 1 column in which links can be displayed. If Column Number isn’t specified, the link won’t appear in the Parent or Student portal.
• Sort Key: use the sort key to determine the order of each link on the portal.

  Note: This field is used in conjunction with the column number field. To organize and order links on the portals, a number must be selected from the dropdown in the column number field and a sort key number entered. For the parent and student portal there are two columns in which links could be added; the column number therefore will be either a 1 or 2. The faculty portal does not have columns, but a 1 must still be selected to allow for sorting of the links.

Visibility Filters

• Display For: select who this link will be displayed to:
  • Everyone: visible to all within the selected Context.
  • Resident Parents Only: visible to only parents who share the same residence as their children.
  • Group Members: visible to only the group specified in the “Group Name” field.
  • Note: “Display For” settings don’t automatically work for every link type, but they do work for all “Static” links.
• Min Grade/Max Grade Level: select the minimum and maximum grade level for which this link applies. The link will only be displayed to those within the specified grade level range.
  Note: Parent Portal Child Links applies to the child’s grade level.
• Group Name: filter link visibility by a specific group. The “Display For” field must be set to “Group Members” in order for the link to display to the group.
  Note: Parent Portal Child Links is based on the parent’s group membership, not the child’s.

Status

• Status: select the status of the link, either enabled, disabled, or testing.
  • Enabled: publishes the link in the portal.
  • Disabled: turns off the link in the portal.
  • Testing: indicates this link should be considered for testing only. The “testing” status does not have any special functionality, but should be used in conjunction with group name visibility filter to assign a particular system group to view the link for testing purposes.

Once the preceding fields have been updated, click “Add Portal Link” to create this new portal link.

Faculty Portal Links

Links displayed on the faculty portal homepage can be either static links or Axiom Report links. Each link type will display in the “School Reports” section on the portal homepage. In order for links to display on the faculty portal, the Context must be set to Faculty Portal Links.

Static Links

Static links connect to sources outside of the portal such as another webpage or a file.

Axiom Report Links

Axiom Report links are created from queries that have been saved to the Faculty homepage shared workspace in Axiom. These links will redirect the teacher to Axiom and display the query information in either results or calendar query type view, depending on preference. Once the query has been saved, a new Portal Link can be added that displays the query as a link on the faculty portal (see steps above).

In order for the link to display, the Link Type must be “Axiom Report” and the Context must be “Faculty Portal Link.” Use the Query tab to select the appropriate query and choose how the information should be displayed (i.e., results or calendar query type). If the query saved to the Faculty homepage shared workspace does not appear in the dropdown, the portal link needs to be created in Axiom or contact your Account Manager.

Visibility options can be set using the “Display For” and “Group Name” filters to control who the link is displayed for.

Note: It is possible to create a query, then copy/paste its URL into a custom portal link, but that method has the disadvantage of requiring the portal user to log in again. This process removes that step and makes the link a direct one with no need to log in again.

Student and Parent Portal Links

Links displayed in the Student and Parent portals are most often static links that connect to information outside the portal such as other websites, files, or Veracross applications. For links to be displayed in the student and parent portal the Context must be set to one of the student or parent portal options.

Student Portal Links		Parent Portal Links
Includes Portal Links and student notices.		Includes general Portal Links, parent notices, and child-specific links.

Publishing Student Files

Publishing has to be enabled in the portal configuration, at which point individual files and links can be published as desired (they can also be batch published using the standard batch updating feature of Axiom).

Enable in the portal: There are two fields to update in the portal configuration.

• Student Files: Set “enabled” to “true. This enables the feature.
• My Children Menu: Set “enabled to “true” if you are using this menu feature in the portal.

Display links and files: Display individual links and files via the Files and Links tabs of student records in Axiom.  They are done on a per link basis, but can also be batch updated via the normal batch updating feature of Axiom. To do update individual files:

1. Navigate to the Links or Files tab of a student record.
2. Update the “Parent Portal Display” field (newly added) to “Published.”
3. Click Update.

Batch Update: You can batch update “Parent Portal Display” field. This could be helpful in cases where you have a certain type of link or student file you want to publish in all parent portals. To do this:

1. Run a Find Person Links or Find Student Files query on the System homepage.
2. Pull in the “Parent Portal Display” field if necessary.
3. Design the query to produce the results needed, e.g., use the file classification or description to narrow down the results.
4. Batch update the “Parent Portal “Display field.

You could also “pop out” the query on the Files or Links tab of a student record, design the query, and batch update.