📚 Part of the series Application Building Phase I: Core components

A Slate material is any document stored with a record.

Material types are used to categorize the various kinds of documents and store them on records. Some examples of materials include transcripts, letters of recommendation, and essays.

• From the admissions office perspective: In addition to providing a way to store electronic documents, material types also make it possible to read these parts of the application in the Slate Reader. Material types determine the way documents appear to readers.

• From the applicant perspective: Applicants can see that a specific material was received on their Applicant Status page. Furthermore, material types are needed in order to generate the specific checklist items required for an application to be considered complete.

Slate accepts the following file types for custom material uploads: .doc, .docx, .odg, .odp, .odt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .wdp, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, and .tiff

How materials arrive in Slate

Materials can be added to a person’s record in the following ways:

Applicant Status Portal

The applicant uploads materials via the Applicant Status page. These may be materials that are assigned to the student record via checklist rules.

Physical drop-off, scanning

A student mails or drops off the materials. Operations staff would then scan the materials and assign it to the student record.

Upload Dataset

The documents are loaded into Upload Dataset, for example, via a CommonApp feed. These materials would be mapped by a Slate user and assigned to the appropriate student record.

Slate.org

Documents shared through Slate.org can be received and assigned to applicant records as materials. Slate.org can be used to share information regarding applicant data between undergraduate admission offices and high school counselors, independent counselors, and community-based organizations.

📖 Further reading: Slate.org Application Sharing Settings

Creating a new material

To create a new material:

1. Go to Database → Materials.

2. Select Insert.

3. Configure the following basic settings (full list described in the next section):

   • Status: Set the Status to Active.

   • Key: Provide a unique identifier for the material. Typically this would be similar to the name of the material. For example, Resume might be listed here as "resume".

   • Name: Give the material type a name.

   • Access: Decide if applicants should be able to upload this material through their Applicant Status page. Applicants will see an upload button and can send any document that has the Access setting, “Available for upload through student self-service website”. Otherwise, uploading ability is limited to Slate administrators only.

   • Group: Leave this set to Default Group.

4. Select Save.

🔔 Important!

• Never create a material with a prefix of sys: unless you are configuring approved document export materials. The only materials with a sys:  prefix that should be created are listed in the linked article.

• Databases may be provisioned with the materials sys:transcript, sys:transcript_official, sys:school_report_stream and sys: reference_stream. Never delete these sys: materials, and never change their keys.

Material settings

Status

Set the status to 'Active' for materials that should be available for use.

• Active materials are available for selection externally on an application or form.

• Inactive materials will only be available administratively. Inactivated materials will continue to store data associated with them.

Key

This is the code that Slate will use to store fields in the database. It is best practice to create this key in all lowercase with no spaces or special characters other than an underscore. Once set and in use, do not change the key. It is stored in the database and is not visible to most administrative staff.

Name

The name of the material will be visible administratively and externally. It is acceptable to change the name, even if data already exists for the field.

Export Value

Configure up to 5 export values for a material. Export values can be used in exports to external systems, including an SIS.

Scope

Designate the scope of the material. There are several material scopes: Person/Application, Dataset, Reference, School Report, School, and Test.

• Person/Application - This scope should be used if materials should be associated with either a person (Folio) or an application.

• Dataset - This scope should be used if a material should be associated with a particular dataset. For example, if a dataset contains Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and each has its own Program Overview type of material, then the material scope for this particular Program Overview material would be Dataset. An uploaded Program Overview would have information specific to a particular CBO within that dataset.

• Reference - This scope should be used if a material should be associated with a particular reference. For example, on a recommendation form, if a reference should be able to upload specific notes about an applicant, and those notes should be associated/assigned to the reference uploading them, the scope to be used for this material is Reference.

• School Report - This scope should be used if a material should be associated with a specific school report. Similar to the Reference scope, if a school official wanted to provide any additional supplemental documentation on a particular school report, then you would use the School Report material scope to associate these supplemental materials with a specific school report.

• School - This scope should be used to associate materials with a particular school. For example, if custom transcript materials should be assigned to a specific school, these transcript materials would use the School scope.

• Test - This scope should be used to associate materials with a particular Test.

Dataset

When the scope of the material is Dataset, select the dataset with which the material is associated from the dropdown menu.

Access

Set the access of the material to 'Admin only,' or allow for upload on a student self-service website.

Student Upload Label

Include a label that will appear on the Status Page for materials set to 'Available for upload through student self-service website,' if desired. This is often used to designate official documents from copies.

Student Upload Order

Set the order of the dropdown for materials available for upload on the Applicant Status Page.

Student Upload Restriction

Restrict a material upload to a specific population on the Status Page. If desired, select a Population to which the material should be restricted.

Checklist Display Label

Include a Checklist Display Label to display the material on the Applicant Status Page Checklist with a material icon if desired. The Checklist Display Label informs the student that a material has been received, regardless of whether there is a rule to add it to the Checklist.

Note: Updating this label setting will remove the green checkmark that appears for other materials in the checklist.

Group

The Group setting will default to the 'Default Group' when a new material is created. If materials are assigned to the 'Financial Aid' group and added to an applicant's record, they will display under the Materials section of the Financial Aid tab on an applicant's application.

Custom Permission

Restrict the ability to view particular materials by setting a custom permission. If left blank, those with permission to view the materials tab on the student record will be able to see the interaction; those with permission to view an application will also be able to view the materials.

Material Metadata

Associate a Material-scoped form with a Material via the Material Metadata dropdown. This allows a form to be completed when editing or uploading a material of this type via the Batch Acquire interface. The Material-scoped form can include form fields mapped to various system fields, such as person, application, and material-scoped destinations.

➡️ Up next: Uploading materials

You’ve created the materials that will store applicant documents and associated them with records. Now, we’ll learn how that association process works.

📚 Next article in this series: Uploading materials