Application settings and notifications – Populi Knowledge Base

Application settings determine how your application will "act". Will it be available online? Will you charge a fee for it? How will it be connected to academic info? And so on... Application notifications let you set up how various people—the applicant, school staff, and others—will be informed about updates made to a particular application.

You can change an application's settings at any time. Feel free to design it first and work through the settings later.
Keep in mind that changes made to application forms will not affect any applications that have already been started. Your changes will only affect applications started after you save the settings.

Application settings

To change an application's settings...

Go to Admissions > Settings > Application Forms.
Select the application you'd like to change from the list. (Or, obviously, you can add a new application form or clone an existing form).
You'll see all the application's settings in the right column. Click a setting name to edit it. See details for individual fields below.
Make sure to save your selections!

Published

Application forms begin in Draft mode; they're only accessible to users who can edit the form. Select Yes or click Publish to make this application available to leads.

After you do this, the Embed Code setting will appear at the bottom of the list (see below).
At this point, leads can start this application if you add it to them manually, send them the form link directly, or if they access it on a web page in which you have embedded it.
To let leads select it from the initial application form, you'll need to enable the Show Online setting.

Show online

Select Yes to include this application in the drop-down on the initial online application form.

That form includes a visual captcha panel that appears only when there is a suspicious level of traffic hitting the forms. Odds are excellent that your applicants will never see it.

Text messaging

Check Yes to give the applicant the option to verify the phone number she provides and use it for text messaging.

Require Address

Check Yes to include required fields for street, city, state/province, and country fields in the initial form.

Programs

Select an academic program from the drop-down and click Add. When you accept a lead who completes this application, he will be put in this program. You can also use program as a report filter. Click to remove a program. If you don't select a program, this application will be tied to the default program (as determined by an Academic Admin in Academics > Programs using the Make default program setting).

Term

Select which academic term Leads may choose to begin their enrollment if accepted and click Add. Click to remove a selection. You can choose:

Next term: the applicant will automatically be listed for the next academic term from the date they start the application.
Individual terms: choose individual academic terms for your applicants to choose from.

Enrollment

You can restrict this application to Full-time, Half-time, and/or Less than half-time students (or some combination thereof). By default, applications are limited to full-time students.

Allow undecided

Select Yes if you want to allow applicants to select Undecided on the initial application form's program selector.

Fee

If you wish to charge an application fee, select a fee from the list. The amount will auto-fill; feel free to edit it if need be. You can also choose whether to require the fee at the time the application is Started (that is, when she submits the initial form) or at the time she Submits it (when she finishes the entire application and submits for your review).

Redirect URL

After submitting the completed application form, the applicant sees a review copy of his application. You can also redirect the applicant to another web page when he submits the form. Enter the URL of the page to which you'd like to send the applicant, and after submitting the application, he'll be taken to the URL you enter here.

Default Localization

If your school has set up a Localization that covers the interface and other text used in applications, you can select it here. Application fields won't themselves be translated—so if, for example, you're aiming an application at Spanish-speaking leads, you should compose the application fields in Spanish and then also select a Spanish localization in this setting.

Embed code (and QR Code)

The embed code lets you include the application in any web property—your website, a newsletter, Facebook, etc.

Select one of your Lead Sources from the drop-down.
If you've set up a discount code that applies to this application, you can select that. It will attach itself to the application URL, and when a lead starts the application using this embed or QR code, the discount will automatically be applied.
When you do that, the embed code in the text area will modify itself to reflect your selections.
Copy and paste the embed code into the html of the page—wherever it is—in which you'd like to include it.

Below the embed code you'll have an option to get a QR code for the application form. People can use their smartphone's camera (or a QR scanner app) to scan the code and go directly to the application.

Click Get QR Code.
Modify the code's appearance as desired—you can change the color, add/remove the Populi logo, change the size, and change the module types.
When you're ready, click Download.
An .SVG file will download to your computer. You can then incorporate the QR code into any kind of printed matter.

Application Notifications

Application notifications let you set up automated emails that are sent when a particular event occurs. For example, you could email all academic admin and financial aid users when an application status is set to Accepted.

There is one built-in notification: the Initial Email that goes to the applicant after they start an application. You can use it as-is or click to edit it.

Adding a new notification

To add a new notification:

Go to Admissions > Settings > Application Forms and select an application (or create a new one).
On the form's page, click the Notifications view.
Click Add Notification.
Select the event and the notification. For the notification:
- If you pick specified address, you will enter email addresses for specific people who'll receive the notification.
- If you pick primary address, you will select types of people (e.g. "all academic admins", etc.) who'll receive the notification.
Click Save. You'll see a new panel for your notification.
Enter/select the recipients. For Specified... notifications, enter email addresses; for Primary... notifications, click and make your selection from the drop-down.
Enter a subject. Click to insert a variable. A variable is a bit of code that Populi will replace with real information (e.g. Applicant's Name <>><>> Jimbob Roberts) when it sends the notification.
Optional: select CCs and BCCs.
Compose the notification in the text editor. Click to insert variables.
The link button in the WYSIWYG editor lets you link to external URLs (e.g. your school's website) as well as to selected internal Populi URLs. Make sure to enclose these URLs in {{double brackets}} if you use them:
- {{APPLICANT_URL}}: Only use this in emails to the applicant; this leads to the applicant's view of his application.
- {{APPLICATION_INTERNAL_URL}}: Goes to the admissions staff view of the application.
- {{APPLICATION_READ_ONLY_URL}}: Goes to the read-only view of the application.
- {{LEAD_PROFILE_ADMISSIONS_URL}}: Goes to the applicant's Profile > Admissions view.
These internal URLs only work if the applicant has been linked to a person in Populi.
When you're done crafting the notification, click Save.

Done with settings and notifications? Time to design the application!