Below are some common areas of misconfiguration for status portal widgets/components and their possible solutions. In your troubleshooting, please also review the intended behaviors of Portal Widgets.

If you run into an issue that is not covered in this documentation, please post your question in the Community forums.

Checklist or Checklist by Section Widget is Not Displaying

When the checklist is not displaying as expected on an applicant’s status portal there are a few items you can check.

Checklist Settings

Not all items on the applicant’s internal checklist will display externally. Before troubleshooting the portal, consider the settings for each item.

• Navigate to Database > Checklists. Confirm that all checklist items internally displaying on the applicant record are set to a Type of Public.

• For checklist items in a section of Form, navigate to the form itself and hit Edit to ensure that the form activation date has passed, and the deadline has not passed.

• If any items on the internal checklist have an “Edit” link on them, click the link to confirm whether they have had an effective/expiration date added manually (most likely to apply to Forms):

Finally, read through documentation on the Checklist widget versus the Checklist by Section widget to confirm that you understand their properties. When configuring the Checklist by Section widget, each section needs to be selected in order to display, including the standard section of Financial Aid. The section will not display if the applicant does not have any public, non-expired items in that section on their checklist. In some cases, this means that no widget will display at all.

Decision Code “Hide Checklist” Setting

Navigate to Database > Decision Codes. Keep an impacted application record open in another tab. For all released decisions assigned to the applicant, make sure the “Hide Checklist” setting is set to “Do not hide checklist”, as opposed to “Hide checklist when released:”

The setting of “Hide Checklist when released” is a feature associated with the standard status portal. It will hide the checklist section for that decision code on the record once the decision is released (originally intended for Deny decisions, as pictured above). With a custom status portal, you can control the visibility of the Checklist or Checklist by Section widgets using filters. Adding filters here will allow more control over who can see the checklist widget, and when.

Round “Hidden” Setting

Navigate to Database > Rounds. Make sure that the hidden setting on the applicants’ round is set to “Allow applicants to see their applications in this round”. If the Hidden setting is set to “Hide Applications in this round from applicants”, several components on the status portal, like decisions and checklist widgets, will not appear. The application will also not be appear on the application management portal.

Form Checklist Widget is Not Displaying

First, revisit the items listed above under Checklist Settings. If no forms are effective, non-expired, or public for the applicant, the Form Checklist Widget will not display.

Decision Code “Hide Forms” Setting:

Navigate to Database > Decision Codes. Keep an impacted application record open in another tab. For all decisions that have been released but not yet received, including those with a Type of “Correspondence/Letter,” make sure the “Hide Forms” setting is on the code is set to “Do not hide forms if not yet viewed”:

The Form Checklist Widget will not display until the applicant views every decision with a code set to “Hide checklist if not yet viewed”. This is a feature associated with the standard status portal, and was developed to hide the Reply to Offer of Admission form to ensure that applicants had viewed their decisions before seeing it. With a custom status portal, you can control the visibility of the Form Checklist Widget by using filters.

Decisions Widget is Not Displaying

First, ensure that you are using the Decisions Widget on your status portal. This is best practice and the supported method for displaying your decisions, as opposed to building direct links to decision letters. If you are using the decision widget and it should be displaying but it is not double check the following.

Filter Logic on Decisions Widget

Determine whether there is filter logic on the Decision Widget, as applicants may not meet the criteria for this widget to display. You can do this by opening the Decisions Widget, hitting the cog icon, and inputting an applicant’s person reference ID in the Check Logic pop-out that appears. If the record does not meet the overall filter criteria to view the widget, it should not be displaying. If the record does meet the criteria, review the following sections of this article.

Is Logic Necessary?

The decisions widget automatically appears on the portal when the applicant has a released decision with an active and effective letter. If the decision has an expiration date, it must be in the future for the widget to appear. Though one of the benefits of a custom status portal is the ability to add customized conditional logic to portal parts via filters, the hard-coded behavior of the decision widget is sufficient for most admission processes. In the above screenshot, the filter is presumably redundant.

Decision Letter Effective Date

Navigate to Database > Letter Templates and open any letters assigned to the applicant. The Effective date is the first setting to display. If the date for the template is in the future, the letter will not appear externally to the applicant, even if is assigned and displays internally. If no decisions with effective letters have been assigned to the record, no Decision Widget will appear. As a rule, make sure the effective date of the letter is set to a time/date before the the decision release date.

Decision Letter Assigned to Record

Make sure that the applicant record has a decision to display. If a letter assignment has not been made for the decision code/reason and no default letter template exists, there will be nothing for the applicant to see, so the widget does not display.

Static Content Block with Decision Information is Showing before the Decisions have been Released

When a decision is scheduled for release, Slate treats the decision as “Released.” Always use the “Received” filter and rely on the Decisions Widget to display released decisions to the applicant. After an applicant clicks on a decision letter, the decision will switch to “Received” status and the content filter on “Received” status should display the next time the portal loads, though it may take up to one minute from the moment that the applicant clicks on their decision letter.

Application Selector Widget is Not Displaying

The Application Selector Widget displays applications in rounds which are:

• Not set to “Hidden”

• In an active period

If the applicant has only one application in a round that meets the above criteria, no Application Selector Widget will appear, as there is no other application that they can select. When impersonating as an administrator, however, you will be able to see the Application Selector Widget with all of the record’s applications. To truly test this behavior for the applicant, use a true login.

Impersonating the Applicant Status Portal in a True Login

1. From the right-side menu of the applicant record, right click on the "Impersonate > Status Page" and choose "open in incognito mode"

2. In the new window, log in to Slate when prompted by SSO.

3. Once logged in, right click on the tab you have open and select "Duplicate"

4. In the new tab, click the Logout option in the top right corner and press enter. This should log you out as an administrator.

   1. If there is no “Logout” link, swap “apply/status” with “manage/logout” in the URL.

5. Return to your other open tab and click refresh.

6. You are now be authentically impersonating the applicant and seeing exactly what they would see.

Upload/Download Widget is Not Displaying

If your material upload/download widget is not displaying, navigate to Database > Materials to double check the following settings for each material:

• Access: Set to “Available for upload through student self-service website”

• Student Upload Label: A public-facing label of your choosing must be entered

• Student Upload Population Restriction: no population restriction exists or the applicant you are testing falls into the population set on this item