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Notification - Templates - Custom Fields

Dylan B.
  • Updated

Create Notification Templates with Custom Fields

SchoolFront allows you to create email/PDF templates with mail-merge fields that can be sent to one or more recipients from SchoolFront (recipients must be employees, parents, students, or development donors with profile information tracked in SchoolFront). In addition to being able to pull information from SchoolFront about the recipient into the template before sending the message, you can also create custom fields that can be manually populated at the time of sending.

Applicable System Roles

Human Resources

Recruiting Administrator

Administrator

Step-by-Step Instructions - Notification Templates with Custom Fields

  • Log into SchoolFront.

  • In the left navigation bar go to Notifications and then Templates.

  • Click New Notification Template link (green plus sign icon).

  • Enter a Name for the template.

  • Describe the template (i.e. the purpose of the notification) in the Description field. (optional)

  • Select a Personnel Folder if the notice should be placed in a specific employee personnel folder each time it is sent.

  • Choose one of the categories you created from the drop-down menu.

    Note: If there are no categories in the system yet, click here to see how to create categories.

  • Click the Insert button.

  • Click the Custom Fields tab  210.jpg

  • Click the New Field link  211.png

  • Create a custom field for each bit of information you want to add to the message at the time of sending. This should include information that cannot be pulled from SchoolFront such as "Board Action Date."

  • Note: If a special character is used within the Custom Field name, it will cause an error and prevent the form from working. 

  • Repeat for all custom fields you need in your template.

  • Click the Notification Builder link on the Details Tab. A Rich Text editor will open:

    212.jpg

  • Create your notification in the space provided using the formatting and standard word processing tools.

  • To add dynamic user information to the notification using mail-merge capability, click the Notification Markers menu and choose a field. When you actually send this notification, that dynamic placeholder will be updated with information specific to the person to whom the notification is sent.

    • The fields offered in the Notification Markers menu are dependent on the Category Type you specified, such as "Human Resources Employees." the ones at the top are the custom fields you created on the Custom Fields tab.
    • Example: If you insert " Dear --Recipient First Name--: into your template, when you send the templated 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."
  • Warning: If you add a dynamic input and you send the notification to a user for whom the specific data is not defined in SchoolFront, the place that the personalized information would have appeared in the notification received by the recipient 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.


Once your template is built, hit the Save button.

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