Creating and Configuring User Flags

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How to Create a New User Flag
• How to Make a User Flag Available to Schools
• Creating Staff User Flags
• User Flag Reports
• User Flag Actions: Configure by School
  • Display a Message on the Class Attendance Screens
  • Email an Email Template (Message) to a Parent User upon Form Submission
  • Display a Popup Message when the User Flag is Set for a Student or NOT Checked
  • Dynamic Publishing of User Flag
• User Flags and Attendance Codes
• How to Use a User Flag to Prevent Attendance Check-in
• User Flags and Discipline
• How a User Flag Can Trigger a Genmessage Event
• The User Flag Importer
• The User Flag Publisher

User Flag Overview

User Flags are booleans.  They represent yes/no questions and can have a value of "true" or "false" ("yes" or "no").

A User Flag can be linked to a small icon that is displayed on the Student Information Bar and in the Gradebook when that User Flag is set to Yes ('true').

User Flags are created and managed on the Setup>Districts>Master District Parameters>User Flags screen:

User Flags for an individual student are located on the Student Data>Modify Student>User Flags screen of the student's record.

User Flags can be set in various ways for students.

• User flags can be manually turned on and off via a checkbox on the students' Student Data>Modify Student>User Flags screen
• User flags can be mass updated with a student list via Student Data>Mass Change
• User flags can be tied to a Document Type in Document Management. (When a User Flag is tied to a Document Type, it cannot be directly turned on or off on the student's User Flags screen.)
• User Flags can also be set via a Form in the Parent Portal Module 
• User flags can also be set by a Custom Question in Open Registration.
  
  

You may also control which User Flags carry over during rollover for students.  This can be set per user flag via the "Allow to Rollover" checkbox on the Setup>Districts>User Flags tab:

How to Create a New User Flag

1. Navigate to the Setup>Districts>User Flags tab.
2. Click the "Add User Flag" button:
   
3. You will get a pop-up that allows you to enter a Code and a Description of the flag you want to create. Enter the info as needed:
   
4. You can also select if the User Flag you are creating is for STUDENTS, STAFF, or BOTH in the "For" dropdown.
5. Other options to consider are - 
   • Document Controlled - When a user flag has this checked, it will appear in the list of user flags that can be automatically turned on based on the presence of a document (or signed document) of a particular document type.
   • Searchable - Flag appears in drop downs to allow students to be searched by whether it is set
   • Show in Gradebook - If this is checked the User Flag will appear in the Gradebook on the Gradebook spreadsheet screen (as long as the Gradebook is configured to allow this).
   • Mass Change Role - Restrict the ability to mass update this User Flag to users with the single selected Role.  User Flags can be mass updated using the Student Data>Mass Change screen.
   • Allow Flag to Rollover - Check this off if you want the user flag to roll over during the summer rollover. Leave this unchecked if you do not want this user flag to roll over during the summer rollover.
   • Seq - The sequence number for the user flag code.
6. Click "Add User Flag" when you are finished and that will create the new User Flag in the system. It will then appear in the list on the Setup>Districts>User Flags screen.
7. After you add it, and after it appears on the list, you can then set a specific ICON for the user flag. Click the ... icon which will open up a new pop-up for you to select from a variety of icons. You also have the option to upload custom SVG icons as well.
   
8. Other options you can check/uncheck on the Setup>Districts>User Flags tab are:
   • Discipline Controlled - This will be checked if a User Flag has been selected for a Discipline Action Code. If controlled by discipline, users will not be able to add or remove the flag manually. It can only be set by the discipline action being given to the student
   • Archive - This will hide the user flags on student if the field is blank and will hide the flag from Parent Portal.
   • Schools - You can click into this option and select the schools that you want this User Flag to appear as an option for:
     
9. Click "Save Screen" when you are finished.

How to Make a User Flag Available to Schools

1. On the Setup>Districts>User Flags tab, you can locate the "Schools" column for the flag.
2. Click into the option and a new pop-up will appear.
   
3. From there, you can check/uncheck the schools as needed.
4. Click "Update" when you're finished.

Alternately, you can check user flags off per school via Setup>Schools>Modify Schools>User Flags.

1. Navigate to the Setup>Schools>(Click into school)>User Flag tab.
2. Check off "Available to School" for the user flag as needed:
3. Click "Save Changes" when you are done.

Creating Staff User Flags

 User Flags may now be set to be used for Staff via Setup>Districts>User Flags.

1. Navigate to the Setup>Districts>User Flags tab.
2. Create or modify a user flag as needed.
3. In the "For" dropdown, select STAFF.
   
4. Click "Save Changes" when finished.

User Flag Reports

• For User Flags, we have Report  21470 - User Flag Report
• You can create Search Result Views via Student Data>Student List>Search Result Views for User Flags. We have an example of one listed in our Search View library as well which you can download and import into your system.
• We have a few report writer reports that you can import into your Genesis system on our Custom Report Writer Report library - for User Flags.
• You can also create your own report writer report at any time.  The data table is StudentUserFlag in the STUDENT group.

User Flag Actions: Configure by School

Parent/Student Web Access visibility and editability can be configured by individual school, as can the set of actions tied to the setting of the User Flag for an individual student.  

The User Flag can be added to or removed from "User Field Groups" for each individual School.

These functions are performed on the Setup>Schools>School Parameters>User Flags screen:

1. Locate the User Flag you wish to customize for the school.
2. Click on the corresponding Edit icon on the right hand side of the screen.
3. This brings up the "Configure for School" dialog.

Setting User Flag Actions

If you edit the flag on the Setup>Schools>User Flags tab, you will see all of the actions you can set:

Visibility and Editability in Parent/Student Web Access

You can control the visibility per flag:

Display a Message on the Class Attendance Screens

If student has this flag, display this message on Attendance (Class and HR) screens:

- Students will appear under the message in the popup

- Virtual and Absent students will NOT appear in the popup

Email an Email Template (Message) to a Parent User upon Form Submission

Display a Popup Message when the User Flag is Set for a Student or NOT Checked

Dynamic Publishing of User Flag

Add/Remove this flag to any student in Dynamic List: This User Flag will be automatically set for Students in selected student list. Student who are not in this list will have the flag removed from them. The flags are updated in the User Flag Publisher task.

User Flags and Attendance Codes

You can modify an attendance code via Attendance>Codes>Modify Code and tie a user flag to the code with the "Assign User Flag" dropdown.
If a user flag is selected, the flag will be assigned to a student when the attendance code is posted to the student for today's date.

The System Utility Task will run each night to add or remove the user flag from the students based on their daily attendance for the day.

If a student has this attendance code for the today, the flag will be assigned to the student. If the student does not have this attendance code for the day, the flag will be removed.

How to Use a User Flag to Prevent Attendance Check-in

An option is available on the Attendance>Check-In>Setup screen to choose a User Flag that, if set for a student, will prevent the student from checking in.

The "DO NOT allow students with this User Flag to check in" allows the choice of one or more User Flags that, if set, prevent the student from checking-in:

If one of the selected User Flags is set for a student, the Attendance Check-In screen prevents the student from checking in:

To select -or deselect - the User Flags that prevent Attendance Check=In, click the 3 lines icon in the parameter's field.

This brings up  the "Select User Flags..." dialog:

Check as many User Flags as needed.  Any one of the selected User Flags, if set for a student, will prevent that student from checking-in.  Click the "Select" button to complete the selection.

The set of selected User Flags can be updated at any time.

User Flags and Discipline

Users now have the ability to tie a user flag to an action.  

You can set this with the "Give this User Flag to students who receive this action" dropdown on the Action code itself via Conduct>Setup>Conduct Codes>Action Codes>Modify Code:

If a student is assigned the action, the student will be given the user flag for the number of days that the student has been assigned the action. Once the last day of the action has been passed, the user flag is removed.

If an action code is tied to a user flag, the flag cannot be manually changed. The assignment of the flag is fully

controlled by the dates of the action for the student.

How a User Flag Can Trigger a Genmessage Event

User Flags can trigger a "GenMessage" Event.   The GenMessage is delivered to the user's GenMessage mailbox and can further cause an email to be sent from Genesis to the subscribing user.

• The "Enabled User Flag for Student" GenMessage Event must be turned on to allow subscriptions to it.
• The user must subscribe to the "Enabled User Flag for Student" GenMessage Event.
• The user's subscription must be configured to select the set of User Flags which will trigger the GenMessage to be sent.

A GenMessage SubScription for an "Enabled User Flag"

The "Enabled User Flag for Student" GenMessage Event can be enabled / turned on to allow subscriptions on the

Setup>GenMessaging>Event

s screen.

1. Go to Setup→GenMessaging→Events
2. Locate the Enabled User Flag for Student Event.
3. Click on the "# users" ( 30 Users) label to bring up the "Access" dialog.

The "Update User Access to Event" dialog controls which users can subscribe to the Event. It does itself create subscriptions.

System administrators (users with Role "sysadmin") always have access to all GenMessage Events.

For other users, to enable them to subscribe, check the checkbox next to their name and click the "Add Access" button.

Subscribing and Selecting User Flags to Track

Step 1:  Locate the GenMessage and Subscribe to it 

1. Go to your WebDesk->Setup→GenMessaging screen.
2. Locate the ": GenMessage in the "Student" group of Events:
   
3. Click the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to the Enabled User Flag for Student GenMessage Event.  The screen will refresh and then you will need to configure which flags you want the Event to be triggered for.

Step 2: Configure & Select User Flags to trigger on:

Once the user has subscribed to the Event, click the gear icon to bring up the "Subscription Options" panel for the selected Event.

1. On the Subscription Options panel the user can select which User Flags a GenMessage should be triggered for - and specify which of the user's identities (as teacher, homeroom teacher, coach, counselor, etc.) students should be selected for.  All of the user's identify types will be listed - and only the identity types the current user has (E.g. "coach" will not be listed if the current user is not a "Coach"):
   
2. Once the configuration has taken place, GenMessages will be sent to the user when a user flag that has been selected is turned on for one of the students associated with the user's checked identities.

The User Flag Importer

What does it do?

The User Flag Importer scheduled task will scan a directory for CSV Files (Comma Separated Values) and import the data inside of them into Student User Flag fields.  

Expected File Format

• The file must be a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file.  
• The first row must contain headers.  The actual header names are ignored during the processing of the file.
• The first column must be the student id.

In this example; each row contains one student id, a user flag code and value to update.   The user flag code MATH must exist in the Setup -> Districts -> User Flags Codes screen or it will not be imported. Y values will add the flags to the students while N will remove them

Example File 1 

STUDENT_ID, USER_FLAG_CODE, USER_FLAG_VALUE

1234, MATH, Y

1235, STSANDY, N

1236, VERBAL, N

This will not affect files under doc management

Configuration Options:

Path on server to scan for files to import

The task will scan this directory for all files.   For every file it finds; it will try to import it.

Delete File After Import

If this option is enabled; the file will be deleted from the directory after it has been processed.

If the file is not deleted; it will be processed over and over again until someone manually removes the file from that directory.

The User Flag Publisher

When run, this task will either add or remove User Flags from students in a particular school based on a Dynamic List.

Setup

Navigate to Setup>Schools>School Parameters>User Flags. If you would like to set auto publishing on a student list, select the MODIFY icon on that flag to proceed.

From the Modify screen, look for the Dynamic Publishing of User Flag section:

Now select a Dynamic List and hit Save Changes.

Note:  You may not use Static Student Lists.  Only Dynamic lists may be used for this publishing task.

After you save, this School User Flag will now be controlled by the User Flag Publisher task.

When it runs, it will give all students who are both in this User Flag's school, and in the Dynamic List, the User Flag. Students not in the list and who are in the school will have this User Flag removed.

If a student is a part of a Dynamic List but is NOT in the school for this School User Flag, they will not be affected by the User Flag Publisher task.