Slate Standard Alumni Interviewing Portal
- 12 Sep 2024
- 8 minute read
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Slate Standard Alumni Interviewing Portal
- Updated 12 Sep 2024
- 8 minute read
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- DarkLight
- PDF
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Slate provides two Alumni Interviewing Portals that can be imported using suitcase and edited in an institution's database. Each portal is configured to use dataset records for alumni information and application records for student information. Depending on which portal you choose, you can allow alumni to assign themselves to interview students, or you can designate specific alumni as “captains” that assign interviews to other alumni.
Steps to build an alumni interviewing portal:
Create an alumni dataset and add relevant fields and rules.
Create an application-scoped field to store interview assignments.
Create relevant forms, including the required assignment and interview report forms and the optional profile form.
Import the Suitcase and update the portal configurations.
Test the process before launching.
Step One: Create Alumni Dataset
Prior to building the portal, an institution must have created a custom dataset for the records that will be using the portal. Throughout this article, we’ll refer to this dataset as Alumni Volunteers. If a dataset like this doesn’t yet exist in your database, follow the custom dataset documentation to create the dataset before continuing.
Alumni Geomarket Field
Your dataset must have a field that represents the geomarket(s) where the alumni volunteer lives, or lives close to. This field will be used to determine which applicants should be shown in the assignment view. It can be set to either Single Value or Multiple Values, but it must use the “geomarket” prompt key.
You can choose to add this field to an alumni profile form, but it may be simpler to use a rule to assign this field.
Alumni Role Field
If you’re using the portal with assignment by captain, this field is required. It should use a prompt value to indicate if they are a captain/chair or a regular interviewer. In the context of this article, captains have the ability to view other alumni volunteers in their interview area and can assign interviewees to these volunteers.
Step Two: Create Interviewer Field
There is only one required application-scoped field: the interviewer assignment field. This must be a related dataset row field, which links the application record to a specific Alumni Volunteer dataset record.
Create a new field.
Select the Application scope.
Choose an ID and Name for the field.
Set the Field Type to Related Dataset Row.
Leave it as a Single value field.
Select the Alumni Volunteers dataset.
Step Three: Create Forms
There are two required forms: the form that assigns an alumni volunteer to an applicant record, and the form an alumni volunteer fills out after conducting the interview. There is also the option for a profile form that would allow the alumni volunteer to update their own information in the portal.
Since these forms all depend on the custom dataset, they are not provided in the Suitcase and must be built from scratch.
Assignment Form
This application-scoped form only needs one field, which will allow for the assignment of an interviewer.
Create a new form with a descriptive name (like Alumni Interviewer Assignment Form) and set it to Confirmed/Active.
In Edit Form > Edit Properties, set the Scope to Application.
Remove all of the default form fields.
Add a Text Box field .
Map it to the Alumni Interviewer field (using the GUID destination).
Select a Layout of Table.
Your mapping should look similar to this screenshot, except that the GUID in the Autosuggest will match the GUID of your custom dataset.
Interview Report Form
This form is filled out by the alumni volunteer after the interview takes place. It will also be an application-scoped form, and will contain the questions you’d like each alumni volunteer to answer. We recommend using unmapped form fields.
Alumni Profile Form
This optional form can be added to the portal to allow alumni volunteers self-service access to change their information. The scope of the form should be Alumni Volunteers (or whatever dataset name you chose).
Step Four: Import and Customize the Portal
Once the portal has been imported via Suitcase, you’ll need to update the portal with a few pieces of information that is unique to your database. If you’re using the captain version of the portal, you’ll need to update the portal queries. And finally, you can optionally update the views to customize the portal to your institutional needs.
Updating the Portal Configuration
There are two configurations that must be updated: the Scope and the XML Configuration.
When viewing the portal configuration, click Edit in the top-right corner.
In the Scope setting, select Dataset.
Once the Dataset setting appears, select the name of the dataset you created. It will populate the Dataset and Security settings.
Scroll to the bottom of the popup to view the XML Configuration:
This portal makes use of portal variables, which allow for certain pieces of information to be stored centrally and then used throughout various queries and views. Update each variable as follows:
interviewer_field_id: The ID of the application-scoped Related Dataset Row Field that stores the alumni volunteer interviewing the applicant.
alumni_location_field_id: The ID of the dataset-scoped field that stores the geomarket(s) where the alumni volunteer is located.
applicant_assignment_form: The GUID of the application-scoped form used to assign interviewers.
interview_report_form: The GUID of the application-scoped form used to report after an interview.
rounds: The Name of the rounds of applications that should be displayed in the portal (not the Short Name). Use a pipe-separated list. For example, if the “Fall 2024 FR” and “Fall 2024 GR” rounds should be shown, set this variable to
Fall 2024 FR|Fall 2024 GR.
Updating the Queries (Captain Portal Only)
If you are using the version of the portal where alumni volunteer captains are assigning interviews to other alumni volunteers, you will need to update or recreate two queries: the “Alumnus Information” and “Interviewers” queries.
These queries are built on the “Dataset Row” base, which contains all dataset records in your database. This base was used because it’s a standard CJ base, meaning it can be imported through Suitcase without errors. However, it’s missing exports and filters for the custom fields on any individual dataset.
You can still access custom fields by using the “Field Values” join inside subquery exports and filters. Or, you can rebuild these queries using the Alumni Volunteers base that was generated when you created your custom dataset.
Important!
If you choose to rebuild these queries, remember to associate them with the appropriate methods and match the Node and Parameter settings from the original queries.
Regardless of which approach you choose, you’ll need to make the following updates:
Alumnus Information Query
In the “Alumnus Information” query, there must be an export called “captain” that returns either a Y or an N, depending on whether the logged-in alumnus has the captain/chair role. This should be an existence subquery export that filters on the alumni role field you created earlier.
Interviewers Query
The “Interviewers” query needs to be filtered down to just Alumni Volunteers records. You can do this by selecting your custom dataset in the existing “Dataset” filter, or by simply recreating this query using the Alumni Volunteers query base. If you recreate the query, make sure to recreate the “Alum Lives in Same Location as Captain” subquery, which compares the location field of the logged-in alumni volunteer with the location of each alumni volunteer in the dataset.
Modifying the Portal Views (Optional)
You may also edit the views to display any additional data points added to the queries, or remove items, or reformat in a different visual layout, etc.
Important!
Remember that the merge fields in each view must exactly match the names of the exports in the associated query.
Default View
This view contains the portal tab framework, as well as social media and a link to a profile form. The link to the profile form should be updated to link to the dataset scoped form in your database. The Volunteers tab is surrounded by Liquid markup such that only records with the role of "Captain" will see this tab. Adjust the Liquid markup as needed for your process.
Tab: Home
This view contains the alumni volunteer’s assigned interviewees and their statuses. Feel free to edit the tables to display the desired data.
Each row in the tables contains a link to a pop-up that will display more information about the interviewee.
Tab: Assignments
This view appears only for captains. It contains a list of interviewers in the captain's area and a list of applicants in their area. Feel free to edit the tables and associated queries to display the desired data.
Pop-Up: Applicant Detail
This view is used for the pop-up after on an applicant either on the Home tab or the Volunteers tab. Liquid markup is used to conditionally display the embedded assignment form or a link to the interview report form, depending on whether the applicant is being assigned or is already assigned. Feel free to add additional details to this pop-up by updating the merge fields and associated queries as desired.
Testing
To test the portal, you will need to have an example dataset record to impersonate the portal with. (If you are using the captains version of the portal, make sure the captain/chair role is assigned and you have several other example volunteer records for assignment as well.) You will also need to create a few application records in the interview area.
Tip
Check that all the rules necessary are active and that you have run a retroactive refresh if necessary so that all of the records for testing have the appropriate interview area populated on their record.
To view the portal, go to the internal portal URL, click "Impersonate", and select your test volunteer record.
Once in the portal, ensure that you see the expected interviewees and interviewers. Click on different interviewees to view the pop-up and test saving an assignment. You can always return to the Portal Editor to make any changes to the queries and views as desired.
Test the entire interview process, including:
Interview assignment by captain or volunteer
Interviewers can see their assignments
Submitting the review form
Any communications associated with the process
Additional Customizations
The standard Alumni Interviewing portal can be updated in various ways, depending on an institution's process. These can include:
interviewing both applicants and inquiries
interviewing only those records who request an alumni interview
adding an alumni directory
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