📚 Part of the series Application Building Phase II: The Slate-hosted Application

The Application Editor is the place to make high-level changes to your applications, like renaming and reordering pages. To customize those pages, see application pages.

Find the Application Editor in Database → Application Editor.

Application bases

In the Application Editor, you’re met with a bulleted list of application bases, each of which appears as a link. The default Slate-hosted application base in Slate for Admissions databases is /apply/.

The bullets indented under each application base represent application rounds.

When your database is first provisioned, there is only one round: [Your University] Application. Rounds only appear in this list if they’re associated with an active period.

📖 Add new rounds

/apply/

Selecting the default application base /apply/ brings you to the /apply/base.xml configuration page.

On the /apply/base.xml overview page, you’ll find two large groups of application pages: menu pages, and non-menu pages.

Menu pages

The first group are menu pages. These are application pages that have corresponding sidebar menu links in your application.

Depending when your database was provisioned, you may see different information in the Module Description column.

Newer databases feature Custom Form Pages—replacing standard application pages—for nearly every page in the Slate-hosted application. These provide more options for configuration than the pages they replaced. If you don’t see these, you can create them.

Adding or editing an application menu page

When you add an application page, you’ll see a long list of Type options to choose from. Many of these, while not labeled as Deprecated, are no longer the recommended method by which to collect applicant information.

Newer databases remake these pages using forms, and if you don’t see these forms in your database, you can create them yourself, or, in many cases, import them using Suitcase. See the articles for each type of custom application page for Suitcase IDs that you can copy into your database.

To add or edit an application menu page:

1. Select Edit Menu.

2. Select Add Link to introduce a new page to the application, or select Edit on an existing one.

3. Configure the following settings:

   • Type: A high-level setting for the application page that should only be modified in special cases. Types include:

     • Activities: Identified by part ID act. This was the original default activities/interests page. Has since been replaced with a custom form page in newer databases.

     • Application Management (Home): Identified by part ID default. You can replace the default application management page with a portal.

     • Certification: Identified by the part ID certify. This was the original default signature page. Has since been replaced with a custom form page in newer databases.

     • Custom App Page (special use only): A long-deprecated page type that predates the ability to add custom forms to the application as pages. If you find any application pages in your database with this type, follow this guide to replace them.

     • Custom Form Page: Displays a custom application page. Presents a Subtype list, from which you can select a form with the Slate-hosted application page scope.

     • Digital Portfolio: Identified by the part ID upl?portfolio. Lets applicants upload media files.

     • Employment History: Identified by the part ID job. This was the original default employment history page. Has since been replaced by a custom form page.

     • Essays (deprecated): Replaced by the material uploader form widget.

     • Instructional Page (deprecated): Replaced by the Instructions page.

     • Personal Information: Identified by the part ID per. This was the original default personal information page. Has since been replaced by a custom form page.

     • Photo Upload: Identified by the part ID pho. Like the Digital Portfolio page, this page lets applicants upload images.

     • Recommendations: Identified by the part ID ref. This was the original default reference page. Has since been replaced by a custom form page.

     • Review Page: Identified by the part ID review. Lets applicants review their application before submission.

     • School History: Identified by the part ID aca. This was the original default education history page. Has since been replaced by a custom form page.

     • Status Page: Identified by the part ID status. Displays the fulfillment status of applicant’s checklist items. Can be replaced with a custom applicant status portal.  

     • Test Scores: Identified by the part ID tes. Lets applicants upload test scores.

     • Upload Material (deprecated): Replaced by the material uploader form widget.

     • Video Capture: Identified by the part ID vid. Lets applicants record video essays. Can be replaced with the video capture form widget or with AI interviews.

   • Label: Enter the text that appears both in the application editor under the Menu Description column and to applicants in the sidebar menu as they work through the application.

   • Page, Round, and Period Key: Enter keys in these fields to limit the display of the application page to a specific applicant population, round, or period, respectively.

4. Select Save.

📖 Slate-hosted application pages

Reordering application menu pages

To reorder application menu pages:

1. Select Edit Menu.

2. Drag an application page to reorder it.

3. Select Save when you’re done.

   

    

Non-menu pages

The second group of application pages in the application editor are the non-menu pages. These are pages that aren’t accessible to the applicant from the sidebar menu, including the application landing page, the login and logout pages, password reset pages, and more.

📖 Further reading: See a breakdown of each Slate-hosted application non-menu page

Editing application page settings

Select an application page item to arrive at a configuration page:

The options available on this page vary with the application page.

In the Configuration Group list, you’ll find a General Settings item (and other items, depending on the application page).

Select General Settings to find a list of page configurations.

Adding an application base

Depending on your application structure, you may need more than one application base; for example, if your database shares both an undergraduate and graduate application.

You can add application bases by cloning the /apply/ application base file. Among other things, having multiple application base files gives you the flexibility to create different rounds for each base.

📖 Create a new application base

➡️ Next up: Application creation form

Learn how to let applicants create and submit applications with a form.

📚 Next article in this series: Application creation form