The Parent and Child form method occurs when your district has the need to create multiple forms to send to multiple destinations, that aren't reliant on each other for approval or completion; or you have a need to send forms with certain information/limited information to certain departments/destinations.
Terminology:
"Parent" form - This is the originating form, often referred to as the "Original" form
"Child" form - This form is created with information off of the parent form, often called an "Offshoot" form
The basic concept in using Parent and Child forms is that you are creating a form and then taking whatever content you need from the parent form and essentially "copying" the parts you need into a child form.
Applicable Roles:
- Administrator
- HR Admin
- HR Team
- Business Office
Pre-requisites:
Form Management - Process Forms – SchoolFront, Defining and Editing Form Categories – SchoolFront, Using the Template Builder (Forms & Notifications) – SchoolFront
Creating the Parent (or original) Form:
The form category determines where the form will be initiated from. If it doesn't exist, you must create a new one. Navigate to Process Forms - Form Category Managment:
Click "New Form Category" if the form category is not already listed on the Form Categories grid. If your form is listed, simply click the magnifying glass to edit the form (for instructions on form category editing, click here):
Select the form type from the drop-down menu, type the name of the form, enter a description and click "Insert":
Next, navigate back to Process Forms in the left navigation menu, then click on Form Management:
Select "New Process Form" from the Form Management grid:
Enter the Details of the Form
Form Name* - (Required) Be sure to indicate here whether this is the Parent/Original form
Select the Process Category from the drop-down menu (this determines where the form can be initiated)
Enter Form Description
Check the box for "Enabled"
Select the appropriate Destination Personnel Folder from the drop-down, as this is where the form will go into the employee's personnel folder upon completion
Select the appropriate "Task Profile on Complete" from the drop-down menu
Enter display options, and click "Insert"
Create the Body of the Form
Now that the details of the form have been entered, it's time to create the body of the form with sections at the top and bottom for district logos and information, and notification markers. To do this, click on "Template Builder":
In the template builder, you can insert your district logo and create the form as you normally would and use the Notification Markers button to use the existing fields. When complete, click "Save".
If the form requires custom fields, click on the custom fields tab to create new/unique fields, then go back to the Template Builder to add them to the form.
Add approvers and email rules (for further information on these topics, please see: Process Forms: Approvers – SchoolFront, Process Forms: Email Rules – SchoolFront)
Creating the Child (or Offshoot) Form:
The first step in creating the Child form is to copy the Parent form. In the details section of the Parent form, click on Copy Process Form:
The form will copy immediately, and you will now be working in the copied form. Click "Edit" to change the form name and to indicate that it is a child form:
Repeat these steps for as many Child Forms as you intend to have, ensuring to rename each to reflect the purpose of the form, and to indicate that it is a Child Form. Once the Child forms are all copied and re-named, then they can be customized.
Customize/Edit Child Forms:
Select the Child Form you've copied and renamed, and click "Template Builder":
In the Template Builder, delete anything in the template that will not be included on the Child Form and click save:
Click on the Custom Fields tab and click the Red X to delete any custom fields that will not be included on this form (that you deleted from the actual form in the first step):
Add Approvers and Email Rules and repeat the entire process for each Child Form.
Creating Form Relationships
Once the Parent and Child forms are completed, the forms need to be tied together through the "Form Relationships" tab on the original Parent form:
From the Form Relationships tab, click the "New Form Relationships" link:
Change the radio button at the top to "Potential Children", and check box(es) for any Child forms listed and click "Save & Close" and you will now see your Child form(s) listed under the form relationships tab of the Parent form: