SchoolFront Support

Create Notification Templates with Custom Fields

SchoolFront allows you to create email/PDF templates with mail-merge fields that can be sent to one or more recipients from SchoolFront (recipients must be employees, parents, students, or development donors with profile information tracked in SchoolFront). In addition to being able to pull information from SchoolFront about the recipient into the template before sending the message, you can also create custom fields that can be manually populated at the time of sending. 

Applicable System Roles

• Human Resources
• Administrator

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Create Notification Category(s)
    
2. Create Notification Template(s)

Create Notification Category(s)

1. Log into SchoolFront.

2. In the left navigation bar place your mouse on Manage Notifications and then click Manage Categories in the sub-menu.

3. Click New Notification Category link (green plus icon).

4. Enter a Name for the Category such as "Board Action Notices" or "HR Custom Notices."

5. Describe the Category in the Description field. (optional)

6. Choose the Notification Type of "Human Resource Employees" from the drop-down menu.

7. Click the Insert button.

8. Repeat these steps to create additional categories. 

Create Notification Template(s)

1. Log into SchoolFront.

2. In the left navigation bar go to Manage Notifications and then Notification Templates.

3. Click New Notification Template link (green plus sign icon).

4. Enter a Name for the template.

5. Describe the template (i.e. the purpose of the notification) in the Description field. (optional)

6. Select a Personnel Folder if the notice should be placed in a specific employee personnel folder each time it is sent. 

7. Choose one of the categories you created from the drop-down menu.

   Note: If there are no categories in the system yet, click here to see how to create categories.

8. Click the Insert button.

9. Click the Custom Fields tab. 

10. Click the New Notification Custom Field link. 

11. Create a custom field for each bit of information you want to add to the message at the time of sending. This should include information that cannot be pulled from SchoolFront such as "Board Action Date."

12. Repeat for all custom fields you need in your template. 

13. Click the Notification Builder link. A Rich Text editor will open.

14. Create your notification in the space provided using the formatting and standard word processing tools.

    Note: To add dynamic user information to the notification using mail-merge capability, click the Insert drop-down menu and choose a field. When you actually send this notification, that dynamic placeholder will be updated with information specific to the person to whom the notification is sent.
    
    The fields offered in the Insert drop-down menu are dependent on the Category Type you specified, "Human Resources Employees." the ones at the top are the custom fields you created on the Custom Fields tab. 
    
    

    Example: If you insert " Dear --Recipient First Name--: into your template, when you send the templated notification to Mr. James George, Mr. Dean Agostini, and Mrs. Kathleen Karafonda, the notification they receive will actually read "Dear James" and "Dear Dean" and "Dear Kathleen."

    Warning: If you add a dynamic input and you send the notification to a user for whom the specific data is not defined in SchoolFront, the place that the personalized information would have appeared in the notification received by the recipient will be BLANK.
    
    For example, if you insert --Recipient Cell Phone--. The actual cell phone number of the recipient would be inserted in the notification each recipient receives,  but if they do not have a cell phone number on record in SchoolFront, it would be blank and might not make sense.

    Note: To edit the notification using HTML, click the HTML button at the bottom of the rich text editor. To toggle back to the WYSIWYG / word processor view, click the Design button.
    
    

15. Click the Save button.