Slate was tailor-made to handle applications.

Building a Slate-hosted application is a powerful way to manage, streamline, and hyper-personalize the application process. You can also import applications from external sources.

Follow these steps to build out your application:

Phase 1: Initial setup

📝 Steps one through five apply to both imported applications and the Slate-hosted application.

1. Read Introduction to Periods and Rounds.

2. Create periods. A period must be active in order to use the application editor.

3. Create rounds. Rounds should be inactive until ready to go live.

4. Create application-scoped fields, person-scoped fields where necessary, and prompts for prompt-based fields.

5. Create the materials to be collected as part of the application.

6. For imported applications, add & remap application source formats from Source Format Library. If a source format is not available in the Source Format Library, create a custom New Source Format.

7. Add test types to collect test score information.

8. Configure Slate Payments.

Phase 2: Application structure

1. Create Application Page-scoped forms.

2. (Optional) Add conditional logic to forms, where necessary

3. (Optional) Create Page Keys in Application Logic to show/hide entire pages

4. (Optional) Use Application Editor to customize Slate delivered pages

5. (Optional) Use Application Editor to manage additional pages - e.g., Digital Portfolio

6. Use Application Editor to add custom form pages. These pages can all be built in a more sustainable manner using Forms:

   • Custom App Page (Special Use Only)

   • Essays (Retired)

   • Instructional Page

   • Upload Material

7. (Optional) Use Application Editor to add Page Keys.

8. Create submission requirements (hard/soft fails) using Application Logic.

9. Create system email notifications for Slate Applications.

   • If importing applications, system emails will not apply. Create notification emails using Deliver.

10. (Optional) Create custom recommendation/school report forms.

11. Test the application(s).

Phase 3: Checklists, automations, & the status page

1. Create checklist items and assign fulfillment requirements

2. Organize all checklist items into checklist groups

3. Create checklist rules to assign items in checklist groups

4. Add and activate application status rules from the Slate Template Library; adjust as needed

5. Use Application Editor to modify the Slate delivered status page or create custom status portal using the Portal Editor (Optional).

   • The status page settings pertain to a Slate-delivered status page only. If using a custom status portal, edits can be made directly to the status portal using the Portal Editor.

6. Build payment rules where appropriate

➡️ Up next: Introduction to application periods and rounds

Your first step in building your Slate application is understanding how periods and rounds shape your application structure.

📚 Next article in this series: Application periods and rounds