Edit New Student Registration fields and message resources

During configuration, you and your Implementation Consultant can customize Aspen's New Student (Online) Registration to suit your district's needs. For instance, you can:

  • Remove fields that appear on the New Student Registration page templates.

  • Create personalized, district-branded email messages to keep parents and staff informed during the registration process. Email text is contained in message resources.

Removing Fields from New Student Registration Page Templates

New Student Registration page templates contain many fields by default. Some fields could display information that do not apply to your district. You can remove these fields.

There are two styles of field layout in New Student Registration: fields with a gutter style, and those without. The method you use to remove fields depends on the field layout style in Aspen.

Gutter-style fields

Gutter-style fields use the standard <row><column> XML notation. You can identify them by the gray "gutter" to the left of the field, where the field's label appears.

Page with gutter fields.

To remove a gutter-style field from an Aspen page, you need to disable it in the Extended Data Dictionary.

To remove a gutter-style field:

  1. Log on to the District (Root Organization) view.

  2. Select Admin > Data Dictionary > Extensions.

  3. Find and select the Online Registration record (SYS_OLR_001).

  4. Click Tables on the side-tab.

  5. Select the Student Registration table.

  6. Click the Fields side-tab.

  7. Find the field you want to remove, and click to open it.

  8. Deselect the Enabled checkbox.

  9. Click Save.

  10. Select Options > Reload Data Dictionary.

  11. To remove another field, repeat steps 7 - 10.

Fields without a gutter

The second layout style uses a <row><block> XML notation. This layout style:

  • Displays a long question or descriptive text that provides more information than a simple field name

  • Does not display a gray gutter to the left of the field

This style provides more information for the user, but is more complicated to customize. The long message or descriptive text is stored in the Message Resource table.

Example: You do not want parents to view the long sentence below. If you disable the field in the disable the field in the Extended Data Dictionary as described above, the drop-down will no longer appear on the page, but the long sentence label will.

Page with fields that do not have a gutter.

Page with fields that do not have a gutter and instructions to remove them.

To remove an entire section that displays fields without a gutter:

  1. Copy the template.

  2. Remove the text by editing the XML manually. Only a user who is familiar with Aspen's use of XML should complete this process.

To remove a single field that does not have a gutter:

  1. Disable the field in the extended Data Dictionary.

  2. Edit the Message Resource.

Note: To remove a field from the parent's view, but leave it enabled for the registrar to fill in, copy and edit the parent-facing template. If you disable the field in the Extended Data Dictionary, it will be removed from both parent and registrar views.

Editing Message Resources

There are several types of message resources you might need to edit: standard message resources, messages that contain HTML and email notificationemail notification message sources.

To edit a standard message resource:

  1. Log on to the District (Root Organization) view.

  2. Select District > New Student Registration.

  3. Go to the New Student Registration page, and then highlight and copy the text you want to edit.

    Page with text selected.

  1. Select Admin > Message Resources.

  2. Click the filter icon, and then select the Value contains? filter.

    Filter menu, Value contains question mark option.

  1. The Search Criteria pop-up appears. Paste the copied text in the Value field. At Search based on, select All Records. Click Submit.

    Search Criteria pop-up.

  1. On the Message Resources page, select the record you want to edit and then click Details.

    Note: If the district offers New Student Registration in multiple languages, there will be several records to edit. Change the record for each language at the same time.
  1. At the Value field, edit the text as needed. To remove the field label entirely from the page, delete the contents of the Value field.

  1. Click Save.

  2. Page showing Key and Value fields.

  3. Select Options > Reload Localization Cache for users to view the updated field.

    Options menu, Reload Localization Cache option.

Edit a message resource that contains HTML

Some message resources contain HTML code. Examples could include an email, or the table on the Documents tab that lists items a parent must present to the school:

Documents tab listing proof of residency

The HTML for this message resource is stored in key "olrForm.validDocumentsHtmlTable" but can be difficult to edit there (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Message Resources > select the key olrForm.validDocumentsHtmlTable).

<span style="font-size:1.3em">When you visit your school to complete this registration, you must submit <strong>three (3)</strong> of the following for proof of residency:</span> <br/> <table><tbody><tr><td><ul style="margin-left:40px; margin-top:10px;"><li><div style="color:#315505; font-size:1.2em;">Title Evidence <strong ...

You can edit the HTML code more easily from the New Student Registration Preferences side-tab (District [Root Organization] view, District > New Student Registration > Preferences > select the record > click the Email editing sub-tab).

Preferences side-tab with Email editing sub-tab highlighted

To edit a message resource that contains HTML code:

  1. Log on to the District (Root Organization) view.

  2. Select Admin > Message Resources.

  3. Find the message resource you want to edit.

  4. Copy the text in the Value field, and then click Cancel.

  5. On the Preferences side-tab, click Details, and then click the Email editing sub-tab.

  6. Click the Source button.

  7. Paste the HTML from the message resource.

  8. Click Source again. The message appears as users will see it.

    " "

  1. Edit the text as needed.

  2. Click Source again, and then copy the edited HTML.

    Page with HTML selected

  1. On the Preferences side-tab, click Message Rsrcs, and then select the message resource.

  2. Paste the copied text into the Value Long field.

  3. Click Save.

  4. Select Options > Reload Localizations Cache.

Note: If your district offers New Student Registration in multiple languages, repeat the steps for the message resource for each language.

Edit email notification message resources

You can create personalized, district-branded email messages to keep parents and staff informed during the registration process.

Aspen sends an email notification to the student's primary contact when the:

  • Online registration is successfully submitted

  • School accepts the registration

  • School denies the registration

  • Registrar changes the school requested by the parent

When a registrar changes the school selected by the parent, Aspen can send an email notification to specified staff at the new school. (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Tables > select Staff table > Fields > select Receive Online Reg emails field > Enabled)

These email notifications are stored in the New Student Registration message resources (District [Root Organization] view, District > New Student Registration > Preferences > Message Rsrcs). To view them, click the Filter icon, and then select the New Student Registration Emails filter.

Filter menu, Online Registration Emails option.

The following table lists each message resource key, and the event that triggers the email.

Key Notification Event

olrForm.email.submitConfirmation.parent

Message sent to parent/guardian after initial submission of the registration in the Family portal.

olrForm.email.acceptance.parent

Message sent to parent/guardian when school accepts the registration.

olrForm.email.denial.parent

Message sent to parent/guardian when school denies the registration.

olrForm.email.schoolChange.parent

Message sent to parent/guardian when the registrar changes the school they requested.

Note: Some districts have central registration, and do not let a parent/guardian select the child's school. For these districts, Aspen does not automatically send an email message to the parent/guardian when the registrar selects a school during the Review phase.

olrForm.email.schoolChange.registrar

Message sent to designated staff at the new school when the registrar at the school requested by the parent/guardian changes it (due to the family’s address, for example).

 

The body of the email message for each key is stored in the Value field of the message resource. It is recommended that you edit this field by cutting (not copying) the text, and then pasting it in the Value Long field.

Message Resources page with Value and Value Long fields highlighted

To create an HTML email with rich text and/or images, see "Edit a message resource that contains HTML". The purpose of the Email editing sub-tab of the New Student Registration > Preferences detail template is to help you create more personalized, district-branded messages using an HTML editor.

You must select Options > Reload Localization Cache for Aspen for save your changes to message resources.

Options menu, Reload Localization Cache option.

Note: When a parent submits an online registration, a confirmation of submission pop-up appears. Districts can customize this message in the Workflow Definitions. (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Workflows > Workflow Definitions > select Online Registration > Details > Comment field)