Using Student Communication Tool

Use: For an administrator to create, update, schedule, test and delete student communications from Financial Aid, Student Accounts and Student Financial Services Departments.  Examples of these types of  communications include topics like refunds, deadlines, applications, balances due, loan administration, etc....  This is a complex tool that allows an administrator to target a group of students by querying a database with a custom SQL statement.  It then enables the user to craft an email, using an HTML template that references/uses key fields from the SQL query to populate personal information in the communication. Finally, it allows the user to set specific properties that correspond with site code/development specifications of the site's back end code to send the communication over a specified number of times.  The data entered into this administrative form populates the Student Financial Services database sfs_communication table.

Description: The administrative table, Communication, displays saved communications. The table includes columns for the Name of the communication, the Department from which the communication is sent, the Function of the communication, the Subject Line of the communication, the Message Code which corresponds to the site code, and a column for Actions. The Action column has six linked icons which enable a user to send a communication to all students, edit the communication, send a test message, delete the communication, view the intended recipients of the communication, and schedule communication.  The schedule link connects the user to the add/edit calendar event, which adds an item to the administrative Calendar.

Accessed by:

• Navigate to Student Financial Services Utilities and Reports Site
• In menu on right, click Administration/Reports/Communication

Adding Communication:

• click Add New Communication, this will open a new tab and display form fields to complete under three collapsible headers (Database, Message, Properties)
• under the Database header, there are two fields, Database and Report SQL
  • select Database from the dropdown list of names
  • enter SQL statement to query the selected database in Report SQL, this typically narrows the population of students that the communication goes to or pulls key pieces of information that will be included in the communication (it is likely that the assistance of a developer in Student Financial Services be involved in the writing this query).
• under the Message header, there are six fields: To, From, Subject, HTML Template, Placeholder, and Key Field
  • enter To, this is who the communication will go to, and likely will be a field from the SQL query, like email_address
  • enter From, this is who the communication will come from, likely will the department or person crafting the communication
  • enter Subject, this is the subject line the recipient will see when the email is received
  • enter the HTML Template, this is HTML code that builds the structure of the email correspondence.  Here HTML tags must be used,  in line CSS style using style="" can be used to format the email, and anywhere that the SQL query returns values for specified fields (known as placeholders - see below) like email_address are proceeded and ended with the % symbol (%email_address%). An example of the HTML Template can be found by clicking the edit icon on one of the saved entries in the table
  • enter Placeholder, this can be one or multiple entries and are the named values returned from the SQL query that fill in student specific text in the HTML Template Field.  If there are multiples they are entered as comma separated values with no spaces between (alternate_id,first_name,last_name). As mentioned above, they are included in the HTML Template using this format %alternate_id%
  • enter Key Field, it is the id field for a particular student which is used to track who got the email and then prevents the student from getting the email more than the indicated number of times
• under the Properties header, there are six fields: Name, Department, Function, Unique Identifier, Maximum number of messages to send, and Time interval (days) between consecutive messages
  • enter Name, this the name of the communication
  • select Department from list, this is linked to whom the communication will come from
  • enter Function, typically the same as the name of the communication
  • enter the Unique Identifier, this is the value that is saved as the communication_enum in the database and is referenced in the code as the identifier of the communication that is to go out.  The format for this text no spaces or underscores between words (loanAdjustment, testsend, SAO_balance_due)
  • enter Maximum number of messages to send, this is the number of messages that will be sent each time the communication is scheduled, if it is 1 it will send to one person each time, etc... 
  • enter Time interval (days) between consecutive messages, this is the number of days in between sending the communication to the same person
• click Ok to save
• to view saved communication in table, return to the tab of the Communication table and click the refresh symbol beside the Add New Item button 

Using the Links in the Action Column:  The Action column has six linked icons which enable a user to send a communication to all students, edit the communication, send a test message, delete the communication, view the intended recipients of the communication, and schedule communication. 

• envelope icon, sends the communication to all students determined by the database query
• edit icon, opens an edit dialog to edit the table values
• checkmark icon, sends a test message to the logged in user
• garbage can icon, deletes the table row
• eye icon, allows user to view the list of recipients before sending the communication
• calendar icon, allows user to schedule the communication on the administrative calendar, which is found under the Administration/Utilities/Calendar tab.  The icon opens the add/edit event dialog, where the user can edit and update the communication's schedule.  The dialog includes fields for: 
  • Event Type, Communication should be selected here
  • Communication Event Title, this should auto populate to be the value from the Message Code column in the table
  • Repeating Event, can be checked if user wants to schedule the communication for more than one day, week, or month. Checking the box reveals two additional fields for Repeat Every
    • number input, select the number of days, weeks, or months
    • select day, week or month from dropdown
  • select date/time to start event
  • select date to end event
  • click Ok to save
  • to view communication event on the calendar navigate to Administration/Utilities/Calendar in the right side menu