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Auto-Update Tags

Joshua Walker

January 22, 2019 21:49

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I've got the best idea you've heard this week. Guaranteed. You've probably already thought of it though, but that's ok.

So when I run a search/filter (e.g. I pull all students taking DE courses in the Spring 2018-2019 term who are not auditors) and then I tag them (DE Credit Spring 2019), it would be amazing if I could make that tag auto-updating as an option. So whenever I use that tag (click it, etc.) the same search I ran initially is run again so the data is up to date.

Currently, since students are adding / dropping, whenever I use a tag like the example above I have to delete the tag, redo the search and re-tag the list in order to be sure it's up to date.

Wouldn't it be awesome if in addition to "Tag Results" you could "Auto-tag Results" or something. Basically it would be a 3rd type of tag (maybe it's similar to system tags, but I don't know how they work under the hood).

I know it's a great idea. It's like you found a unicorn today. You're welcome.

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6 comments

• 2
  
  Joshua Walker August 04, 2022 20:05

  BTW - I still think this is a great idea that would be sooooo useful. I didn't think the idea up myself; we used a tool called "Donor Tools" and they did this with something they called "Smart Tags" and it was wonderfully useful.

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  Adam Sentz August 08, 2022 23:57

  Joshua Walker - Automations can already add/remove tags so it just seems like we need a couple more filter options (enrolled in term, not auditing) and you could do this. 

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  Joshua Walker August 09, 2022 00:10

  Adam Sentz - perhaps I don't understand automations well. Can you explain how automations would do this?

  It's also possibly I didn't explain myself clearly either. I'll probably be able to tell which it is by your explanation of how automations could do this. Thank you for the response!

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  Joshua Walker August 09, 2022 00:21

  Adam Sentz - I just reread the automation Knowledge Base article and I don't think it really gets at the functionality. Maybe I'll explain it differently.

  One thing we do frequently is run a Data Slicer report and then tag the results; then we use that tag for other useful stuff. However, if that report was something that can change, every time I want to use the tag I have to go back to the Data Slicer, run the report again, tag again, then I can use it. My suggestion is that when you run the report in Data Slicer, instead of adding a tag, instead you add an "auto update tag" or "smart tag" and what that means is that "any time in the future that you see this tag, it means that user *currently* meets the criteria of the Data Slicer report that was connected to this smart tag." The key word is *currently.*

  Example: I want to see all the enrollments for new students starting Fall 2022. The Enrollments report doesn't have an "Entrance Term" filter, so what I end up doing is using the Data Slicer to tag all the "Entrance Term" = "Fall 2022" students as "Fall 2022 Students" and then I go to the enrollments report and use the tag. Every time I want to get those enrollments, I have to untag and then re-run the Data Slicer report and retag them (If I don't do the untag, I might keep people on the list who have dropped off, which doesn't matter for this example, but would for others).

  Now, I'm sure there's a way you might tell me that I could get what I wanted without going through that process (which would be awesome btw), but I hope it illustrates the point. If I was able to go to Data Slicer and run that report and give it a "smart tag" of "Fall 2022 Students" and then when I went to the Enrollments report, I could filter by that smart tag and never have to worry that the list of students who are tagged is out of date.

  I hope that helps!

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  Joshua Walker August 09, 2022 00:24

  Here's the help page for the tool that I used to use that had them and they were SUPER helpful: http://donortools-www.herokuapp.com/userguide/reporting/smart-tags

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  Adam Sentz August 09, 2022 20:55

  Because of the number of things in Populi that would potentially be used to trigger changes it wouldn't be technically feasible to do this in real time, but they could probably be updated once a day. Seems like that would still be a big improvement; you'd just have to be aware of that one caveat.