Spring ’21 is here and we've been busy! We will push Admissions Connect 1.8 to sandboxes on February 25, 2021. The push to production is scheduled to begin on March 9, 2021. Here’s what this major release includes.

Critical Changes

This release includes a new feature for document verification. Existing customers must complete additional setup tasks to use this feature. See the Verify Documents More Easily section for details. 

Changes:

Verify Documents More Easily

The Admissions Connect Document Verification custom permission lets verifiers and other members of your admissions staff verify application documents directly from the Admissions Connect components. When users are assigned this custom permission, they see Accept and Reject buttons when viewing application documents in the Application Checklist and Application Materials Reader components. When rejecting a document, staff members can even leave rejection comments. Previously, to accept or reject a document users had to edit the Status field on the Document Checklist Item record.

To make setup easy, we added the Admissions Connect Document Verification custom permission to the Admissions Connect Verifier permission set. We also updated all the role-based permission sets with Read and/or Edit access to the Rejection Comment and Rejection Reason fields on the Document Checklist Item object. To give other admissions staff this functionality, update their permission set or profile with the Admissions Connect Document Verification custom permission. Also make sure they have Read and Edit permission on Document Checklist Items.

If you're an existing customer and want to use this functionality, complete these tasks.

• Edit the Application Review Lightning record page to remove the existing Application Materials Reader component; we deprecated this version of the component. Then add the newer version of the component to the page. 
• If you set up a reviewer portal, edit the Application Review page in Experience Builder to remove the existing Application Materials Reader component, then add it to the page again.
• Add the Rejection Reason and Rejection Comments fields to the Document Checklist Item page layout. (New customers also need to do this step.)
• Update the Admissions Connect Verifier permission set to include Read and Edit access on the Document Checklist Item object. Then, add the Admissions Connect Document Verification custom permission.
• Update the other Admissions Connect role-based permissions sets to include Read and/or Edit access on the Rejection Comment and Rejection Reason fields for the Document Checklist Item object. To see detailed information for all the unmanaged permission sets, see Admissions Connect Permission Set Details. https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Perm-Sets-Ref

Learn More: Verify Applications https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Staff-Verify-Applications in Admissions Connect Documentation

Add Ad Hoc Documents or Tasks to an Application

Give your admissions staff more flexibility working with application requirements. Configure your Action Plan Templates to support adding ad hoc documents and tasks. Then let your admissions staff know that they can add new Tasks and Document Checklist Items, like PDFs and images, to an applicant's assigned Action Plan. Ad hoc items show up in the Application Checklist and Application Materials Reader just like other requirements. 

To make sure ad hoc Tasks show up in the Admissions Connect components, we added the Basic Task Details field set on the Task object. If you want to display additional Task details, update this field set.

Learn More: Set Up Staff to Assign Action Plans and Action Plan Items in Admissions Connect Documentation https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Requirements-Assign#ariaid-title3

Get Customized Review Feedback

Customize the Application Review Feedback component with your own questions, such as a generic rubric or department-specific questions. Create a fieldset for your questions and then specify it in the Application Review Feedback component's properties in Lightning App Builder. You can also use the component's visibility settings to control which fieldset users see. This functionally also works in reviewer portals.

Learn More: Set Up Application Review Feedback Questions in Admissions Connect Documentation https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Review-Questions

Read About Leads in Admissions Connect

We've got new documentation resources available for those of you who are tracking suspect and prospect data in Admissions Connect. For recommendations on how to configure and use Leads in EDA, check out the Lead https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/EDA-Lead and Model Suspects and Prospects https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/EDA-Model-Suspects articles in the EDA documentation. Also review the import considerations we provide for Leads in Recommended Data Import Sequence for EDA. https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/EDA-Data-Import-Sequence

Import Common App Data and Documents

If you're a Common App member school looking to import applicant data into Salesforce, you can use the Education Cloud Integration with Common App package to help expedite your integration. Use the package tools alongside an ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tool to map and move data into EDA. The package provides batch scripts, built-in error logging, and basic duplication prevention for Contacts, Address, Contact Language, Education History, and Applications.

After the import into EDA is complete, you can configure Admissions Connect to show Common App data and documents for applicants. That way your admissions staff can see all application requirements in one place. 

Learn More: Education Cloud Integration with Common App https://sfdo-docs.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Integrate_Common_App_with_EDA.pdf (PDF) and Work with Applicant Data and Documents Imported from Common App in Admissions Connect Documentation. https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Common-App

Fixes and Enhancements

• We updated the Sequence field to support decimal values, which lets you create new Application Material Mapping records that fit within your existing Sequence scheme. We also updated the Application Material Mapping trigger logic to prevent negative sequence values. You can also find a new default list view called All for Application Material Mapping and Application Material Type records.
• We added a new compact layout for Action Plans. This layout includes a lookup to the Target Record. Now when admissions staff look at an Action Plan record, they can see what Application record it belongs to.
• We added a default Document Checklist Item Lightning record page. This page includes the Files related list to make it easier to upload application documents.
• We updated the search behavior in the Application Response Details component. Now when you search, only sections with a matching field are expanded. In addition, the search now looks at JSON field names and fields in tables for child records.
• We updated the text in the Application Review How To - Admissions Staff prompt to mention that all review feedback fields are saved automatically. If you're an existing customer, consider updating this prompt. For details, see Admissions Connect Default Page Configurations in Admissions Connect Documentation. https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/AC-Page-Ref

Let us know if you have any questions about this release. Do you have suggestions for future enhancements? Click the Ideas tab on the top bar of the Hub and be sure to select Admissions Connect when logging your idea!