If you are taking online applications directly into Student CRM, using Application Active (APS), you can have a separate Applicant Portal for each occurrence.
If you prefer all Application Active (APS) occurrences to be presented in one unified Applicant Portal, you can have that too.
Your establishment can display different Applicant Portal designs to different groups of applicants, for example: you could provide 3 different Portals as follows:
The Applicant Portal tab in APS>Setup>Applicant Portal is where you can design each Applicant portal and can choose between:
Establishment Template (default)
Custom Template (each occurrence can look different)
This allows you to choose the original Establishment Template, so all your Applicant Portals follow the same design guidelines, OR to create a new Custom Template for each occurrence of APS that you have.
Choosing the Establishment Template
Your first occurrence of APS comes with an Establishment Portal template, which is editable only in your Establishment's Card at: Establishment>Applicant Portal. This is to keep your Template safe from any changes made in occurrences. It is always there and you can revert back to it at any time.
By using this Establishment Template, no further changes can be made in this occurrence:
Choosing the Custom Template
This is where you can design your own Portal. This keeps all applications separate.
In your Custom Template, you can change the following elements:
Portal Title
This where you tell your Applicants which portal they're logging into, and also the text that shows in the page title.
Favicon image
This is the small picture which shows on the left of the page title. While it can be any size, please be aware that this image will be shrunk down to 16x16px, so a simple rendition of your establishment's logo would be best.
Logo Image
This is the banner which shows above the Portal Title. As with the favicon, any size banner can be uploaded, but the image will be shrunk down.
Main Image
This is the large picture displaced to the left of the portal login details.
Image Overlay Text
This is the strip of text that appears on a grey background on the bottom left of the login page.
Login Page Message
This piece of text is found under the "forgotten your password?" link.
Button text
This is the text found on the 'login' button. You can change the appearance of the button using Button Text Colour and Button Fill Colour options.
Once an applicant has logged in, they can see your logo, colours etc, but there are also a few extra settings you can customise:
NAVIGATION: New application (APS form)
If you want your students to be able to submit a new application from the portal, then select the form to use here. Please note the form must be published in Web Form Builder before it will be shown in the list.
NAVIGATION: Portal Help articles from (public KLBs only)
This is where you can select an occurrence of Knowledgebase to show in the portal. This lets the student self-serve any frequently asked questions they may have.
NAVIGATION: Contact Us (RAP/ ENQ Form)
Use this dropdown to select a Rapid Response form which feeds into an occurrence of Enquiries so your Student's can contact you if they have questions not covered by your Knowledgebase.
And finally you can edit who any Portal email notifications come from:
Send Portal Message Emails
When sending the student a message into the portal for an application update, the platform also sends the student a reminder message to check their portal. The Send From Name and Send From Email options allow you to specify who this email comes from.
Applicants logging into your portal(s)
In your APS Touchpoints you will be telling each applicant where to log in to progress their application inside your Applicant Portal(s).
They will need to know the URL (1) and their email/password (2). (See the image below):
Establishment Portal URLs: All portals that use the Establishment Portal Template get the same URL - and by using the [xxxSetting.public_portal_urlxxx] merge field in those APS Touchpoints, you know that the correct URL will always by merged.
Custom Portal URLs: All portals that use a Custom Portal Template get a unique URL - and by using the [xxxSetting.public_portal_urlxxx] merge field in those APS Touchpoints, you know that the correct URL will always by merged.
Email and Password: The student did choose their own email and password when they applied (it was on the application form), so they will need to use these. (If they forget it, their password can be reset on the login page).
FAQs:
Q. Is the Applicant Portal responsive?
A. Yes.
Q. Do we have to use the Establishment Template?
A. No. If you want to only use Custom Templates and keep every occurrence separate that is fine.
Q. If I change back to our Establishment Template in an occurrence, is my previous Custom Template lost?
A. No, your custom template is always saved behind each occurrence, so you can change back to it at any time.
Q. If I change back to our Establishment Template in an occurrence, are my previous Touchpoints going to merge in the correct Portal URL?
A. Yes. The old links automatically redirect to the correct Portal login, so you do not need to update your Touchpoints.
Q. Why would my establishment want different portals?
A. Example: If your Business School has a distinct brand and it takes online applications through APS, it would probably not want to use the same template as the rest of your undergraduate applicants. By having a custom portal the Business School can provide its own branding, FAQs, Contact Us form, etc. It also processes those applications separately from the rest of your undergraduate applications.
Q. What if a student applies in one custom portal, and then applies in a different custom portal too?
A. The same email/password combo would work on both custom portal URLs. That student will see one application per portal. Touchpoints for one application will link them to one portal, and touchpoints for the other application will link them to the other portal.
Q. We do have multiple APS occurrences, but we want to set them all to use the Establishment Template, what does that mean?
A. By default all APS occurrences will be using the Establishment Template already, so you don't need to change anything. That means that each applicant will get the same Portal URL merged into their Touchpoints, even from different occurrences, so they can log in and see all their applications across multiple occurrence inside one Portal.