Notification Templates: Custom Fields

Applicable Roles

• HR Admin
• HR Team
• Recruiting Administrator

Prerequisites

Creating Notifications, Categories for Notifications

Contents

Add a Custom Field

Field Display Options

Important Tips/Notes

Add a Custom Field

Navigate to: Notifications / Templates 

1. Select the template you are adding the custom field to by clicking the magnifying glass
   1. If you are creating a New Notification Template and are including custom fields, first follow the instructions in the prerequisite - Notifications: Creating Notification Templates / Create Notification Details section, then continue to step #2 
2. Click the Custom Fields tab

3. Click "New Field"

   *For Custom Fields that are shared throughout multiple Notification Templates, please see: Shared Custom Fields

4. In the "Mail Merge Custom Field Management" pop-up window, enter the necessary information for your custom field (This should include information that cannot be pulled from SchoolFront such as "Board Action Date")

   1. Field Name (Required) - Enter a searchable name for the grid
      1. Custom Fields cannot have duplicate names. If a special character is used within the Custom Field name, it will cause an error and prevent the form from working
   2. Select Custom Field Type (drop-down) All field types will appear as fields to be selected in Template Builder when creating the form and are populated by the user when the form is selected. 
   3. Display Order - Order that the field will appear in when the form is selected
   4. Custom Field Display Name (Required) - This is the custom field name that will display when the user selects this form
   5. Custom Field Description - The description of the custom field (can be the same as the display name)
   6. Default Value - What this custom field is being used for
   7. Mask Option - If the Field you are creating is to a Masked Field, reference: Process Forms: Custom Fields - Input Masks

   

   

Custom List Items are available when the custom field type is:

Checkbox List (Full or Selection) - OR - Radio Buttons:

Custom List/Drop-down:

Field Display Options

Submit (Drop-down): Editable, Editable Required, Hidden, Read-Only

All Approvals: Editable, Editable Required, Hidden, Read-Only

Display Controller Field: Allows for certain custom fields to only be visible based on prior fields answer

• Initial question must be a Custom List / Dropdown
• Display Controller Field is the name of the question that this question will be dependent on

Field Value: the answer (Option in the dropdown) from the initial question that will make the current question appear when selected.

Example: If we wanted all people who own a red truck to tell us the manufacturer, the initial question would be "What color is your truck" where we would provide a dropdown of "Blue, Red, Green". When setting up the manufacturer field, we would set the "What color is your truck" question as the Display Controller Field and set "Red" to the Field Value. ONLY when an end user selects that their truck is red, would they be asked what the manufacturer is.

14. Click Save to complete or Save and Add Another to add more custom fields and repeat steps 4-14 for all custom fields needed in the template (Clicking Cancel will back out of the window and not save your information). 

15. In the Details tab, click Notification Builder

    

16. In the Template Builder, your custom field(s) will be listed within the "Notification Markers" menu selection of the builder

    

    

17. Complete your notification body in the space provided using the formatting and standard word processing tools provided in the Template Builder (reference Creating Notifications for detailed instructions)
18. Once completed, click "Save"

Important Tips/Notes

To add user information to the notification using mail-merge capability, click the Notification Markers menu and select a field. When the notification is sent, that field placeholder will be updated with information specific to the person that the notification is being sent to.

Example: If you insert " Dear --Recipient First Name--: into your template, when you send the notification to Mr. James George, Mr. Dean Agostini, and Mrs. Kathleen Karafonda, the notification they receive will actually read "Dear James" and "Dear Dean" and "Dear Kathleen."

• The fields offered in the Notification Markers menu are dependent on the Category Type you specified, such as "Human Resources Employees". The fields listed near the top are the custom fields you created on the Custom Fields tab.

  

Warning: If you add a notification marker that is specific to the recipient, and you send the notification to that user and their associated data is not defined/missing in SchoolFront, the placeholder for that personalized information will be BLANK 

For example, if you insert --Recipient Cell Phone--. The actual cell phone number of the recipient would be inserted in the notification each recipient receives, but if they do not have a cell phone number on record in SchoolFront, it would be blank and might not make sense.