An Application Form Invitation Type is a named group of people who are offered an Application Form, defined by the kind of person it invites and a filter combination that decides who qualifies. A form has at least one invitation type, and a form that serves different groups, such as returning students and newly admitted students, has one invitation type per group. The page is found under Admin > Applications > Application Forms > Invitation Types and requires the Website Full role.
To create an invitation type, enter the Invitation Name in the New Invitation Type section and click Save and Choose Filters. The type is saved and its edit window opens.
Invitation Name is the name shown to the family in the Type column of the CMS Widget - Application Invitations widget and to the school on Application Form Invitation.
The edit window has the following settings.
Description is the name of the invitation type.
Invite is the kind of person the type invites: Students, Inquiries, Households, or Teachers. Inquiries is used to offer the form to accepted applicants, as described below.
Filter Combination lists every active Search Component with a check box for each of its filters. A person is invited when, for every component with at least one filter checked, they pass at least one of the checked filters. Filters checked in one component are alternatives, and the components are all required. Leave every check box clear to invite every person of the kind chosen in Invite. Review Filter Combination.
Example: To invite the students of one campus who are entering any of the contract stages, set Invite to Students, check the campus filter in the Campus component, and check each contract stage in the Stage component. The grid then shows Students who match St. Vincent and (MD1 or MD2 or CS6).
Note: The check box lists offer only filters that have been shared with a Website role on the Saved Filter's Filter Roles page, and only filters about people (students, inquiries, households, household members, teachers, or the logged-in user). Filters about other records, such as courses or invoices, cannot decide who is invited and are not listed.
A Current line in the edit window explains what the type does today when it invites everyone of its kind, when its filter combination has been deleted, or when it still uses a saved filter from before filter combinations. Saving the window replaces that older saved filter with the filters checked above.
Accepted applicants: to offer the agreement to applicants the school has accepted but not yet enrolled, add an invitation type with Invite set to Inquiries and the filter that finds them, for example the school's Ready for Contract inquiry action in the form's Academic Year with Applicant status. Create a new Saved Filter for the Application Form rather than reusing a filter from the (Re) Enrollment Contract, share it with a Website role, and add it to a Search Component so that it is listed here. Then set Accepted applicants: pre-enroll profile on Application Form Details, and keep a student invitation type on the same form whose filters match Pre-Enrolled students. Each accepted applicant of the parent's household is listed on the CMS Widget - Application Invitations widget with a Start button, and Start enrolls the applicant as a Pre-Enrolled student and opens the student's agreement. An applicant whose student already has an invitation on the form, or already holds the form's Signed (PDF) Action Type or decline action type for the year, is not listed, so a child never appears twice.
The grid lists every invitation type of the form.
Invitation Type is the name.
Who Is Invited describes the type in plain words, for example Students who match Grade Level - 5 and Has Financial Aid, Students who match St. Vincent and (MD1 or MD2), All students, or No one new: the filter combination was deleted. A warning is shown under the description when the type needs attention:
- A filter in this combination changed since a date: a Saved Filter used by the type was edited after the type was saved. New invitations already follow the changed filter; the warning reports how many invitations were issued before the change and kept. Click Mark reviewed once the change has been checked.
- The filter combination this type used was deleted, so no one new is invited: edit the type and check its filters again.
- Choose a filter combination: the type still invites by a saved filter from before filter combinations. Edit the type and check its filters.
Edit opens the edit window. The delete icon is shown only while no invitation has been created from the type.
Invitations are created from the type in two ways.
- Automatically: whenever a parent opens a page that holds the CMS Widget - Application Invitations widget, every open form (a form whose End Date has not passed) checks the people of the parent's household against each invitation type, using its filters as they are at that moment, and creates an invitation for every person who qualifies and does not have one yet. The form's Proration % is applied.
- By hand: on Application Form Invitation, the school selects a student and the invitation type and saves.
Note: A student who qualifies for two invitation types of the same form receives one invitation, for the first type that matched. Keep the filters of the types on one form mutually exclusive.
Note: Invitations already issued are kept when a filter or the type's filter combination changes. Review the warning in the Who Is Invited column to see whether earlier invitations still fit.
Note: The filter combination decides who is invited; it does not decide what the family pays. Prices are set on the widgets and varied by Application Form Overrides.