User Guide EASY

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ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SOLUTION FOR YIELD

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY), developed for the

Salesforce community by Maryville University, is a “builder” for

applications across the enterprise. It is designed to be a user tool,

so departments can have and control their own, unique

application. It is made available at no charge through the

generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant.

EASY User Guide 
 
 
Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY) 
Open-sourced by Maryville University 
through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant 
2 
 
Table of Contents 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 4 
OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 5 
Audience ............................................................................................................. 5 
What is Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (Easy)? ...................................... 6 
Why use EASY? .................................................................................................... 9 
APPLICATION ADMINISTRATOR .............................................................................................. 12 
Navigating the Applications App ........................................................................ 13 
Introduction to Creating a Dynamic Application ................................................. 14 
Application Control – Create an Application ....................................................... 16 
Requirements .................................................................................................... 18 
Requirement Items ............................................................................................ 20 
Create Requirement Items ................................................................................. 21 
Properties of Requirement Items ....................................................................... 22 
Document Uploads ............................................................................................ 23 
Question Groups ............................................................................................... 24 
Related Objects ................................................................................................. 25 
Questions .......................................................................................................... 27 
Question Dependencies ..................................................................................... 32 
External Requirement Items .............................................................................. 34 

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

Intended Programs ............................................................................................ 35

Term Controls .................................................................................................... 36

Previewing Requirements .................................................................................. 39

THE APPLICATION EXPERIENCE ............................................................................................... 40

Application Creation .......................................................................................... 40

APPLICATION CHECKLIST ........................................................................................................ 44

APPLICATION ADMINISTRATOR VIEW AND REVIEW .................................................................. 46

Administrator View ........................................................................................... 46

Application Review ............................................................................................ 47

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ...................................................................................................... 48

Storage .............................................................................................................. 48

Data Integrity .................................................................................................... 49

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY) is first, and foremost, a community-driven

open-source solution. While contributors are too numerous to name, specific credit does need

to be acknowledged and goes to the following community members for their inspiration,

support and participation:

• Algonquin College: Laura Campbell, Doug Wotherspoon and Nash Zgonjanin

• Cornell University: Rebecca Joffrey, Laura Landphair and Rob Parker

• Oregon State University: John Henry

• Pepperdine University: Terry Utter

• Providence College: Colleen Whelan

• University of Miami: Deborah Duran, Nina Gomez-Fernandini and Florence Parodi, along

with their Sierra-Cedar partners led by Kara McIntyre

• Amjad Ayoubi, Tulane University

• Wayne State University: Eric Bowman, Jeff Dunn, Mihn Ha, Daren Hubbard and Robert

Thompson

EASY wouldn’t have been easy at all without the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory

Council. The members of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 terms provided invaluable input as EASY was

transformed from Maryville’s solution to one that any school could install and use.

On that note, credit goes to Ryan Gudis and Kyle Schmid from Huron Consulting Group. Under

the leadership of Nicholas Zinser, Huron’s Salesforce Consulting Director for higher education,

Ryan and Kyle served as the brilliant developers who brought to life the “user tool” philosophy

behind EASY.

Last, but not least, EASY exists because of the leadership and support of Maryville University.

Critical support spanned the university, from Doug Glaze, CTO, and Steven Mandeville, CFO, to

the members of the Enrollment Management team and the entire Maryville Salesforce Steering

Committee. Special thanks to President Mark Lombardi, who is setting the industry template

for transforming higher education and just happens to be the Salesforce champion at Maryville.

He invested in and supported the grant work by Kathleen Lueckeman, Chief Innovation Officer,

who served as PI for the grant and whose community activity ensured the input necessary to

produce such a robust solution.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

OVERVIEW

AUDIENCE

While this User Guide contains step-by-step instructions intended for end users (application

creators/administrators), it is intended equally for System Administrators to learn about use

cases and best practices for the Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY). Before you

proceed to the Installation and Configuration Guide, we recommend that you review this User

Guide first.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

WHAT IS ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SOLUTION FOR YIELD (EASY)?

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY) is a “builder,” which is designed to be a user

tool so departments can control their own application. It’s an extension of Salesforce’s

approach to “democratizing” software. That is, the same way that Salesforce democratized

software by separating declarative functionality from coding, EASY democratizes declarative

and user functionality, separating application and question/requirement setup from

administrative setup of fields and picklist values. The latter most often are associated with

IPEDS and/or SIS fields in global picklist sets, minimizing the initial and support work required

by system administrators.

That means users control most of the functions of the solution rather than having to heavily

rely on the IT department for updates to existing questions or new applications. The user tool

approach, then, equates to empowerment for departments.

The solution includes an unmanaged package (the EASY Package), resource documents (such as

this guide) and code via the Salesforce Foundation GIT repository. This guide shows you the

best practices for using the EASY Package. Below are some of the ways that EASY empowers

departments while taking advantage of the robust Salesforce platform, starting with a short

description of each tool that comprises the solution.

Application Control Tool: With this functionality, you can create multiple, distinct applications.

While most departments will need only one application for admission, EASY is an enterprise

solution so any department can use the solution for their own application needs.

The requirements determining the need for separate applications include asking whether there

is a need:

• for a different look and feel for each application.

• for different questions to create an application (e.g., an application for admission may

ask whether the applicant is a freshman, transfer or graduate applicant while an

employment application would never ask that question).

• to have different a status when an application can be submitted (e.g., one application

allows applicants to use the “submit” button only when all requirements are fulfilled

while another allows applicants to submit an application that is incomplete).

• to allow one application to have a cancellation and/or withdrawal process while another

does not allow such processes.

If the answer is “yes” to one of these questions, it likely would be better to use the Term

Control Tool to set up a unique application.

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Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

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Requirements and Requirement Items: This is the primary “builder” tool of the application.

Staff can create application requirements, add filters to each requirement to ensure they

display only to the intended audience, build conditional questions with logic dependencies,

lookup other objects and store information associated with the application on related objects.

Staff can create questions that are formatted for text, radio buttons, checkbox, date, email and

a long list of other formats – a function traditionally available only to system administrators and

not departmental users.

There are further controls in this builder. For instance, staff can set when Requirements and

Requirement Items display on the application by selecting the status during which they should

show. Staff also can set whether and during which status an applicant can edit their response

(answer). This gives the school the ability to lock down answers so they cannot be changed.

Even better, the school can display requirements when an application has an admission

decision, post-admission requirements to accommodate commitment and yield processes

which usually accomplished through separate forms or systems. This functionality allows

students to stay in one system to complete post-admissions processes.

Streamlined Account Creation: Since many schools feel that applicants are discouraged if they

have to create an account first before creating an application, EASY offers an account creation

process to help the applicant feel as if an application is being started rather than creating an

account. Importantly, the account creation process must include the filtering questions

required to determine the correct applicant type, and it can have as many or few questions as

the school prefers to include in this section. At the culmination, the applicant creates a

password to be used to access the application in subsequent visits.

Checklist: Complementing the Application Creation functionality, the Checklist is the list of

Requirements and related Requirement Items with a visual indicator of fulfillment. The checklist

is visible to applicants, which means applicants don’t have to call or email to ask whether the

school has received a document (like an official transcript) or an external requirement has been

fulfilled (e.g., a letter of recommendation has been received).

Application Review: This is the reader function in EASY. Because answers to questions and

uploaded documents are separate records, the reader brings all of the application information

onto one screen. For added convenience, the fields used to document the reader’s review of

the application are included at the end of the Application Review screen, making it easy to read

and review the application by clicking one button.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

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Term Controls: EASY includes the ability to control when applicants can apply to programs

through various filters. At a high level, you can define when an application opens/closes for

each term. Furthermore, you can add-in term controls for specific populations (i.e. an earlier

application close date for international students).

Note: The EASY solution also includes the Interactions for Student Recruitment solution, open-

sourced by the University of Miami. This is a staging table for matching purposes and it

automatically creates related records. It was included in the EASY solution to ensure

applications are matched to Contacts and update existing records like Opportunities. More

information on Interactions for Student Recruitment is available on the Salesforce Foundation

GIT repository and in a Power of Us Hub Chatter group. The EASY solution has altered the

Interactions solution, taking it from a recruitment solution to an enterprise solution by ensuring

it works with this enterprise application solution.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

WHY USE EASY?

Since it’s often easier to understand the benefits of a solution by putting it into context, this

next section uses a persona to help explain EASY.

Persona

Emily is an admissions director at Connected University (CU), where Salesforce is used to

customize an online admissions application tool. Specifically, Emily oversees admissions for the

undergraduate population. Despite being one office, undergraduates range from traditional

freshman to transfers and adult learners. Moreover, these applicants can be in-state residents,

live in any state in the nation or hale from any country in the world. For that reason, Emily

needs an application that serves a variety of applicant populations.

Admission Process

CU has a central admission process but receives input from select programs and from readers

outside the department. That is, most undergraduate applicants select an intended major as

their program but are, in reality, applying for admission to the university. However, some CU

undergraduate programs allow direct entry and have specific admissions requirements on top

of the university’s standard requirements for admission. Those programs review applications

and make admissions recommendations to the centralized admissions office. Likewise, alumni

volunteers are to read applications and make recommendations on admission.

Post-Decision Process

Emily’s former application process required separate forms for processes after an admission

decision is made. These include an intent to enroll form and a housing application.

Since CU’s administrators installed the EASY package, Emily has the flexibility to customize the

undergraduate admissions application to fit the needs and requirements specific to

undergraduates.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

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Benefits

For the university, the tool allows the university to:

• Create Requirements to have over-arching categories

• Create Requirement Items to have questions and uploads within each Requirement

category

• Add filters to Requirements and Requirement Items so the categorized questions and

uploads are applicable to everyone or to specific populations

• Use lookups to other Salesforce objects to allow applicants to interact with them (e.g.,

allow applicants to search for their high school/college/university in the Account object)

• Brand the application

• Create an application that has filtering questions as part of the Account creation process

• Dynamically display requirements based on answers to filtering questions

• Display a real-time Checklist of Requirements and Requirement Items that displays the

status of each Requirement Item

• Select during which status, if at all, a Requirement Item can be edited by the applicant

• Determine which status the application must be in for the applicant to submit it

• Determine which status during which a Requirement and its Requirement Items are

displayed on the application to accommodate its yield and onboarding processes.

For applicants, the tool allows applicants the ability to:

● Start an online admissions application, answering questions, uploading documents and

requesting others to submit requirements on their behalf (e.g., letters of

recommendation)

● Save and return to the application to complete it

● Send a reminder to people they selected to provide a letter of recommendation

● View their progress on their application via a Checklist

● View requirements that are fulfilled by others (e.g., when an official transcript is

received and staff fulfill the Requirement Item via an upload, a checkmark appears by

that Requirement Item)

● View the status of their application status in real-time

● View and complete new requirements based on their application’s status (e.g., admitted

students can have new requirements – like a housing application – that they can

complete without having to login to a different system or submit other forms)

EASY User Guide

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Open-sourced by Maryville University

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Among other things, Emily’s office has functionality that allows:

● Applicants to search/select/create schools and employers when submitting previous

schooling/employment information

● A staff member to review and approve schools/employers (Accounts) created by the

applicant or associate the newly created record (Account and Contact) with an existing

record to avoid duplicates

● Admissions staff to control which questions/requirements apply to which population by

a variety of filters

● Admissions staff to control which questions are mandatory and which are optional for

different programs and/or applicant types

● Admissions staff to employ logic (and/or operators) to define questions that show/hide

based on answers to other questions

● Admissions staff to define various types of questions (picklist, radio, text, text area,

phone, email, date, date/time, number, currency, percent, url, checkbox, multi-select

checkboxes, document upload, etc.)

● Admissions staff to define historical questions about an applicant that can be used

across multiple application submissions (e.g. education history, employment history,

criminal history, etc.)

● Admissions staff to see internal-only Requirements and Requirement Items that are not

displayed to the applicant

● Admissions staff to open/close applications by Application Term dates, by level and/or

by program

● Admissions staff to modify admissions applications

● Admissions staff to use an administrative view to access the same view the applicant

sees

● Data submitted as part of the application to be associated with objects other than the

Application. In this way, the data can be re-used in subsequent applications, eliminating

the need for applicants to provide the information multiple times (e.g. this could include

education history, employment history, test scores, criminal history, etc.)

● Applicants to cancel an application

● Applicants to withdraw an application after an offer of admission

● Readers to easily review applications and associated materials

● The application to work with or without Salesforce Communities

● The application to work with or without Salesforce.org Higher Education Data

Architecture (HEDA)

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

APPLICATION ADMINISTRATOR

This section describes how EASY empowers departments so they do not have to heavily rely on

Salesforce system administrators to create new or edit existing application questions. For

clarity, this document uses the term “application administrator” to describe staff who have the

appropriate permission to create applications, differentiating them from “system

administrators.”

The application administrator’s key responsibilities that are covered in this section include (but

are not be limited to):

• Create a distinct, branded application

• Set controls around when an application opens and closes

• Set controls on when an application can be submitted, cancelled and/or withdrawn

• Set the status of an application when it is submitted, cancelled and/or withdrawn

• Create/edit records in Salesforce

o Requirements

o Requirement Items

o Intended Term of Entry

• Review records in a staging table that were created by the applicant and need approval

prior to creation

o Contacts

o Accounts

• Fulfill Requirement Items

• Enter admission decisions

Other permissions will allow staff members and volunteers to use the solution’s tools to:

• Review submitted applications

• Enter an application review record

Note: Access to these different functions do not have to rely on one application administrator.

Permission sets ensure some staff can create Requirement Items while others can use the

Application Review Tool and still others can approve new records prior to their creation.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

NAVIGATING THE APPLICATIONS APP

The rest of this guide assumes that users are aware of how to navigate in the Lightning UI,

though (naturally) EASY works with both the Lightning and Classic UI.

After installation, you can access EASY via the App Launcher in the Lightning UI or via the App

Picker in the Classic view.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

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INTRODUCTION TO CREATING A DYNAMIC APPLICATION

Now that you know users do not have to rely on a system administrator to create or update an

application, it’s time to define and follow step-by-step instructions to use the tools. Creating

records and sections within applications will evolve as the application process changes but the

core areas include:

Application Control

• The Application Control allows for the creation of the application template.

Organizations can customize the application with specific branding and color schemes.

Requirements

• The Requirement’s object is set to outline and manage the requirements for each

application.

Requirement Items

• Requirement Items are sub-categories that hold questions, uploads and related object

Checklist items. Multiple Requirement Items can be added/used on a single

Requirement. For an organized applicant interface, each Requirement Item is its own

“page,” making it easy for the applicant to navigate among groups of questions, uploads

and related objects.

Question Groups

• Question Groups are used to create one or many questions that are associated with a

Requirement Item.

Questions

• These are the individual questions that applicants are expected as part of the

admissions requirements process. Questions are displayed on the checklist with a visual

indicator to mark fulfilled requirements.

Uploads

• As with any Upload functionality, this allows applicants to upload a document in any

format allowed by the school.

• For flexibility, Uploads have an optional checkbox that includes a Text Area textbox to

appear on the same screen as the document upload feature. In this way, you can allow

applicants to provide information, provide context for or answer a question associated

with each upload.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

Filters

• Filters are available on both Requirements and Requirement Items. This allows you to

categorize the Requirement, Requirement Item, and Question so they can be

personalized for the applicant and customized to the program.

• Filters are picklists of categories and are set up by a system administrator after

installation. Even though a system administrator must maintain picklists associated with

filters, these are lists that rarely, if ever, change. They are things like your target market

– freshman, transfer, graduate, etc. – and applicant characteristics like resident/non-

resident, domestic/international, etc. That means these values are set up one time and

only need to change if you add target markets or some compliance requirements

change that necessitates an update of the picklist values.

The next section includes instructions on using the tools.

EASY User Guide

Enterprise Application Solution for Yield (EASY)

Open-sourced by Maryville University

through the generosity of a Salesforce.org Force for Change Grant

APPLICATION CONTROL – CREATE AN APPLICATION

The Application Control Tool allows schools to have multiple, distinct applications that are

uniquely branded with controls around whether a term/program question is included and a

cancellation/withdrawal process is offered. Note: While EASY does not require schools to allow

cancellations or withdrawals, the Application Control Tool provides the functionality to

automate this process, perhaps for the first time ever.

Click on ‘New’ to create a dynamic and branded application for your organization.

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Open-sourced by Maryville University

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Complete the following fields:

• Application Control Name (required): Internal name of the application control

• Active checkbox: activate the application control

• URL Parameter (required): organizations can personalize the URL that leads to their

application

• Arrow Color: use HEX code http://htmlcolorcodes.com/; don’t include “#”; 6 digit code

(progression arrow)

• Button Color: use HEX code as indicated above (save, submit, cancel, withdraw buttons)

• Button Text Color

• Line Color: color of lines separating each section

• Link Color: hyperlink color

• Logo Static Resource: Name of the static resource in Salesforce that holds the logo

image. Create a static resource by going to Setup>Static Resources. This image’s size will

display as-is on the application, so it may need to be adjusted to fit.

• Logo Static Resource Path: zip folder that contains static resource (may or may not be

used)

• Text Color

• Allow Submit From: when to allow the submit button to appear; values are controlled by

the “Application Status” picklist value set

• Submit Status: the status when the application is submitted

• Allow Cancel From: what application status(es) to allow the cancel button to appear

• Allow Withdraw From: what application status(es) to allow the withdraw button to

appear

• Cancel Status: the status when the application is cancelled

• Withdraw Status: the status when the application is withdrawn

• Default: sets this application control as your organization’s default; this will be used if no

URL parameter is specified

• Application Start Status (required): the status of the application when started

• Hide Term/Program checkbox: the ability to hide the term and program fields when

creating an application (used primarily for non-admissions applications)

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Open-sourced by Maryville University

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REQUIREMENTS

The Requirements object is used to organize Requirement Items and are displayed as section

titles on the application. Requirements have the following fields and filters, which dictate when

and to whom the Requirement is displayed on the application:

• Name: Internal name of the Requirement

• Label: Title that will show on the application as a “section” of the application (Name

field shows if this is left blank)

• Active: Whether or not the requirement is active

• Display Order: Order in which the requirement is displayed relative to other

Requirements on the Checklist

• Application Status: The status(es) under which the requirement appears (values

controlled by the “Application Status” picklist value set)

• Viewing Requirement: When checked, the applicant must view this requirement before

submitting an application, even if no part of the requirement is actually required for

submission

• Application Control: The application control record associated to the requirement

• Show on Application Creation: Controls whether the requirement is on the application

creation process or as part of the overall application; this is typically used for basic

identifying information about a student and, importantly, for filtering information

• Application Creation Display Order: Controls whether this requirement shows before or

after the Term/Program questions on the Application Creation page. If left blank, it

defaults to before.

• Internal Only: Controls whether the requirement can only be fulfilled by an internal

Salesforce user (e.g., official transcripts)

• Internal Only Show on Checklist: When checked, an Internal Only requirement will show

on the checklist to display the status to the applicant

• Filters: Value(s) that restricts the conditions under which a requirement appears; if no

value is specified, the requirement will appear for all applications

o Applicant Type: Values controlled by the “Applicant Types” picklist value set; field on

Application is called “Applicant Type”

o Student Type: Values controlled by the “Student Types” picklist value set; field on

Application is called “Student Type”

o Delivery Type: Values controlled by the “Delivery Types” picklist value set; field on

Application is called “Delivery Type”

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o Citizenship: Values controlled by the “Citizenship Types” picklist value set; field on

Application is called “Citizenship”

o Residency: Values controlled by the “Residency Types” picklist value set; field on

Application is called “Residency”

o Degree Type: Values controlled by the “Degree Types” picklist value set; field on

Program is called “Degree Type”

o School/College: Values controlled by the “School / College” picklist value set; field on

Program is called “School / College”

o Intended Program: Values controlled by records in the “Program” object; field on

Application is called “Intended Program”

Select the “Requirements” tab from the top navigation bar.

On the Requirement object’s home page, you will be shown the Recent Requirement Names.

Click “New.”

Enter the name of the Requirement, enter the display order and select the Active checkbox,

select the application status, application control, set the filters (optional), and click the Save

button.

EASY User Guide

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Open-sourced by Maryville University

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REQUIREMENT ITEMS

A Requirement Item is a holding object that organizes Question Groups, Uploads and Related

Objects within the Requirement. Requirements Items have their own record type. To ensure

Requirements Items are, likewise, dynamically personalized to the applicant and customized for

the program, the same Filters that are on a Requirement also are available on each

Requirement Item.

Requirement Items show as sub-bullets on the application checklist under each Requirement.

Additionally, they each appear as a single-screen within a Requirement “carousel.” This breaks

the application down into smaller section for the student to complete. It also helps the

application with mobile-friendliness.

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CREATE REQUIREMENT ITEMS

Under the “Related” tab of a Requirement, click “New” next to the Requirement Items related

list. Requirement Items can be a Document Upload, Question Group, or Related Object.

EASY User Guide

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Open-sourced by Maryville University

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PROPERTIES OF REQUIREMENT ITEMS

All requirement items have the following properties:

• Name: internal name of the requirement item

• Label: label that displays on the application. Name is used if this is left blank.

• Requirement: lookup to the Requirement that item is associated with

• Active: whether or not the item is active

• Display Order: order in which the item is displayed on the application relative to other

items that are part of the same Requirement

• Required: multi-select picklist of the application status(es) this item is required for; this

is controlled by the “Application Status” picklist value set

• Editable Application Status: multi-select picklist of the application status(es) this item is

editable for; this is controlled by the “Application Status” picklist value set

• Instructions: displayed to the user at the top of the page; HTML is allowed in this field in

order to support hyperlinks and other formatting

• Internal Requirement Item: lookup to a related item that can only be completed by

someone other than the applicant (i.e. recommendation letters or official transcripts)

• Internal Only: if checked, item can only be fulfilled by an internal user (i.e. official

transcripts)

• Internal Only Show on Checklist: if checked, the status of an Internal Only requirement

item will display on the checklist to the applicant

• Internal Only Applicant Instructions: displayed to the user at the top of an Internal Only

requirement item in lieu of the questions/fields that make it up; HTML is allowed in this

field in order to support hyperlinks and other formatting

• Viewing Requirement: when checked, the applicant must view this requirement item

before submitting an application, even if no part of the requirement item is actually

required for submission

• Filters: these function in the same manner as the filters for Requirements (see above)

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DOCUMENT UPLOADS

Document uploads have these additional properties:

• File Types: extension(s) allowed for this upload; if none are selected, all extensions will

be allowed; this picklist can be edited by going to the File Types field on the

Requirement Item object in the Object Manager

• Allow Text Entry: if checked, users will be able to enter text in a long text area field in

addition to uploading a document.

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QUESTION GROUPS

Questions are added to Requirement Items with the Question Group record type. This allows

related questions to be grouped together within a Requirement Item (i.e. the Contact

Information requirement item might include questions for phone numbers, emails, and

addresses). Question Group Requirement Items don’t have any additional properties associated

with them. All the questions are defined using the Question object (explained further down in

this document).

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RELATED OBJECTS

Related Object Requirement Items are used to populate an organization-specific object that is

related to either the Application or the Contact. This is useful for sections of an application that

have zero-to-many answers (i.e. Enrollment History or Employment History). Additionally, when

the object is related to the Contact, the application will display existing data to the applicant.

This prevents the applicant from having to fill-out the same information on multiple

applications.

Related Object Requirement Items come with the following additional properties:

• Related List Object: object that the data is populated into; picklist controlled by a system

administrator

• Related List Object Master: object that the Related List Object is related to; options are

“Application” and “Contact”

• Related List Object Master Field: API name of the lookup or master-detail field that ties

together the object and the master object

• Related List Where Clause: SOQL where clause to limit the types of records that

populate in the application’s auto-complete field if this object looks-up to another

object (i.e. Employment History lookup to Account)

• Holding Record Id: Salesforce ID of the record to temporarily tie the new related object

record to if the object looks-up to another object and an existing record is not found (i.e.

new company not already in Salesforce); more details on this below

• Required Number of Children: minimum number of responses required to fulfill this

Requirement Item (i.e., at least one former school required for Enrollment History)

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• Maximum Number of Children: maximum number of responses allowed (e.g. no more

than three former employers for Employment History)

Many of these fields are used when the related object you’re using is a junction object between

Contact or Application and another Object (e.g. Employment History being a junction object

between Contact and Account). When this is the case, EASY supports type-ahead functionality

to dynamically search for existing records (e.g. existing companies in Salesforce). Sometimes, an

applicant may not find what he/she is looking for. In this case, the applicant would need to

create a new record. EASY will suspend creation of the record and provides a review/approval

page for application administrators to use in order to avoid duplicates and ensure clean data.

Details on how new records can get created are in the section below.

Note: Your system administrator will have to help get these objects created. Each object that

can be used with EASY must have a specific set of fields created. Details on these fields are in

the technical guide. Additionally, your administrator will have to give the community

permission set and/or profile access to any fields/objects exposed to the application as part of

Related Object Requirement Items.

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QUESTIONS

Each Question Group can have one or more questions that are associated with it. To create a

new question, go to the “Related” tab on the Requirement Item detail page and click “New”

next to the questions related list. You’ll see a screen that looks like this:

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This screen is where you choose the type of field you want the question to be:

• Address: this will display all the standard fields for an address according to your

Salesforce settings. If state/country picklists are enabled, they will display here.

Otherwise, state/country will appear as text fields.

• Checkbox: this is a simple checkbox that can either be checked (true) or unchecked

(false)

• Currency: currency in the user’s locale, limited to two places past the decimal

• Date: date formatted in the user’s locale

• Date/Time: date and time represented as one field formatted in the user’s locale

• Email: text field with email address formatting enforced

• Number: number field with maximum of 14 places to the left of the decimal and 4

places past the decimal

• Percent: percent field with maximum of 4 places to the left of the decimal and 4 places

past the decimal

• Phone: text field that is formatted as a phone number

• Picklist: drop-down list of values that a user can select a single value from

• Picklist (Multi-Select): list of values that the user can select multiple values from

(displayed as a series of checkboxes)

• Radio: list of values that a user can select a single value from (useful over a picklist when

each value is long)

• Reference: Represents a lookup or master-detail field (i.e. lookup to Account)

• Static: static text that displays in place of a field

• Text: single-line text box

• Text (Encrypted): single-line text box that is encrypted when stored

• Text Area: multi-line text box up to 255 characters

• Text Area (Long): multi-line text box up to 32,768 characters

• URL: text field that is formatted as a URL

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Each of these Question types have the following attributes:

• Question Name: internal name of the question (not displayed to the applicant)

• Requirement Item: the Requirement Item that this question is a part of

• Label: the label of the question that gets displayed to the applicant

• Active: if checked, this question is active and displayed on the application

• Display Order: the order in which this question is displayed relative to other questions

within the same question group

• Required: the application status(es) that this question is required to be complete for

• Application Status: the application status(es) that this question displays on

• Editable Application Status: the application status(es) that in which the applicant can

edit his/her answer to this question

• Help Text: text that gets displayed below the question to assist/futher explain the

question

• Contact Field: API name of the field on the Contact you want responses to this question

to be mapped to (this is not required). Note: Whatever value the applicant puts in this

question (including null) will overwrite this field on Contact.

• Application Field: API name of the field on the Application you want responses to this

question to be mapped to (this is not required)

• URL Parameter: name of the URL parameter that allows for dynamic prefill of a question

• Filters: these function in the same manner as the filters for Requirements (see above)

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In addition to these, some Questions have more specific attributes:

• Placeholder: placeholder text for free-text fields

• Length: maximum character length for text fields

• Picklist Values: valid list values for picklist and radio fields

• External Email Field: check this box if this question is being used as the email address for

an external requirement (e.g. the email for a recommender)

• Static Text: this is the text that is displayed as part of a Static Text question type

• Related Object Field: if this question is part of a Related Object Requirement Item, this

holds the API name of the field on the related object that this question maps to

• Name Field API Name: if this question is a Reference question, this field specified the API

name of the field on the related object that gets displayed to the applicant during the

typeahead (defaults to the standard Name field if blank)

• Display as Picklist: if this question is a Reference question, checking this box will display

the question as a picklist instead of a typeahead

• New Reference Field: if this question is part of a Related Object Requirement Item,

checking this box makes the question part of a new record that gets created if an

existing record is not found for a junction object

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• Hardcoded Value: if this question is set to display and has a Hardcoded Value, the value

will be populated automatically instead of displaying the question to the applicant

• Lookup Object: for Reference questions, this stores the API name of the object that the

reference field points to

• Lookup Where Clause: for Reference questions, this stores a SOQL WHERE clause that

will limit what records get returned in the type-ahead search

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QUESTION DEPENDENCIES

EASY supports showing/hiding Questions based on an applicant’s answers to other Questions.

The logic for this is stored in two places: on the Question itself and in an object called Question

Dependency. Each Question detail page has a section called “Question Dependency

Information” with two fields:

• Dependency Logic: this specifies whether to use AND or OR logic when evaluating the

Question Dependencies (AND is used if nothing specified)

• Dependency Behavior: this specifies whether to Show or Hide this Question when the

Question Dependency logic evaluates to TRUE (Show is used if nothing specified)

Once you set up your Dependency Logic and Dependency Behavior, you’re ready to create a

new Question Dependency. To do this, go to the “Related” tab on the Question you want to

show/hide and click “New” next to the Question Dependencies list. You will then be asked to

choose a Record Type for the dependency:

• Checkbox: choose this if the controlling question is a checkbox

• Multi-Select Picklist: choose this if the controlling question is a multi-select picklist

• Picklist: choose this if the controlling question is a picklist or radio button

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Once you choose a Record Type, you’ll be presented a screen with two fields:

• Controlling Question: this is a lookup to the Question that controls this Question

• Value: this is the value that the controlling question has to equal for this dependency to

evaluate to TRUE

You can create any number of Question Dependencies for a single Question. The Question will

then show or hide based on the Dependency Logic and Dependency Behavior fields.

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EXTERNAL REQUIREMENT ITEMS

Each Requirement Item can have an “external” Requirement Item associated with it. This is a

Requirement Item that an external user (non-internal and non-applicant) fulfills (i.e. letters of

recommendation).

To create an External Requirement Item, create a new Question Group Requirement Item and a

new “Email” Question with the “External Email” checkbox checked. Then, add any additional

Questions you want to ask of the applicant (i.e. recommender name, organization, etc.). After

this, navigate to the “Related” tab of the Requirement Item and click “New” next to the

External Requirement Items related list. You can then build-out this Requirement Item as you

would any other.

When the Requirement Item is fulfilled from the applicant-side, an email is generated with a

unique link for the external user to click and fulfill the requirement. This link is de-activated if

the applicant ever changes the email. Applicants can remind external users to complete the

requirement by clicking a button on the application. The original request is controlled by the

“External Response Requested” email template and the reminder request is controlled by the

“External Response Reminder” email template.

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PROGRAMS

EASY comes with a Program object to manage what programs applicants can select for their

application. Each program lets you filter at both the program level and the term level. Most of

the filters at the Program level work in the same manner as Requirements, Requirement Items,

and Questions (see above); however, there are a few more filters involved:

• Hide Applicant Type: program will not show up for the applicant type(s) selected

• Hide Student Type: program will not show up for the student type(s) selected

• Hide Citizenship: program will not show up for the citizenship(s) selected

• Hide from Application: program will not show up for any application

• Number of Applications Limit: applicant will be limited on number of applications

he/she can start based on selected value (no limit by default)

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TERM CONTROLS

EASY provides various ways to open/close application periods for different populations and

programs. The first level of term control is on the Academic Term object:

The application can be opened and closed for a particular term based on the Activate

Application Date and End Application Date fields. To open/close the application for a particular

term based on specific populations and/or programs, navigate to the “Related” tab for a term

and click “New” next to “Intended Program Terms”:

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Here, you can control the open application periods based on a population/program. This object

has a number of fields that let you control who can apply to a program and when:

• Intended Program: the program that is being controlled

• Academic Term: the term that can be applied for

• Activate Application Date: date in which the application is opened

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• End Application Date: date in which the application is closed

• Filters: filters work in the same way as in the sections above; however, if any Intended

Program Terms exist that allow someone to apply for a given program/term on a given

date, then that person will be able to apply

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PREVIEWING REQUIREMENTS

EASY has built-in functionality that allows application administrators to preview the

requirements they’ve built. To do so, navigate to a Requirement and hit the “Preview” button.

This will bring up a page that shows a preview of what an individual requirement looks like for

different types of applicants/applications. Users can select values from various “filters” at the

top of the screen and see how it affects the requirement at the bottom. The filters displayed

here are controlled by the “Application Preview Filters” change set on the Application object,

which can be customized by a System Administrator. While this feature is a great way to

preview what has been built, we recommend testing the requirement with a test user before

going live.

Note: Question Dependencies and Related Object Requirement Items are not supported by the

preview functionality. Please use a test user to preview these features.

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THE APPLICATION EXPERIENCE

Applicants will be using the dynamic application to create and manage their applications within

the organization’s community. As delivered, it has two main experiences – application creation

and a checklist. Since the application “portal” can be used separately as a Visualforce page or in

as its default in a Salesforce Community, you can build an entire applicant experience around

EASY.

APPLICATION CREATION

To begin the application process, applicants first must navigate to the community where

applications will be initiated. The URL will be created and managed by your organization,

usually the IT or Marketing department. They will use the URL parameter that was created in

the Application Control stage to create the application’s URL.

New Application = Create an Account

From here, the student will begin an application. This replaces the standard “create an account”

requirement for most application solutions. There are very few hard-coded questions that are

included with the New Application function and it includes only those needed to create an

account: First Name, Last Name, Email, and Password. Additionally, you can control whether or

not you want to ask for Program and Term via the Application Control Tool. All other fields and

questions shown on this portion of the application can be added as Requirements and

Requirement Items. Importantly, you will want to include filtering questions in this section to

ensure your checklist items are customized for the applicant.

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Below are sample requirements and requirement items that an applicant could see when

completing the application.

Name (first and last are required for account creation)

Birthdate (helpful for matching purposes)

Email and Phone Number(s) (don’t forget to ask about SMS!)

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Mailing Information

Radio Button Question(s)

Drop-Down

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Conditional Question(s)

These questions can be asked based on answers given to previous questions. In this example, if

“Transfer” is selected, additional questions appear to give more detail into the student’s

application.

Password Creation

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APPLICATION CHECKLIST

Once the applicant creates an account to start an application, he/she will be taken to the

Application Checklist. This is where the applicant can see what requirements he/she has

completed and what still needs to be done. By clicking on the Requirements links in the

checklist, the applicant will be able to complete the Requirement Items (e.g., questions,

uploads, etc.).

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If the applicant clicks the “Back” button, he/she will be taken to the Application List, where all

applications for the applicant are listed. This is also where the applicant is taken after logging-in

at a later date. From here, the applicant can click on existing applications or create new

applications. The applicant can click the “New Application” button to apply for another

Intended Term of Entry and/or Intended Program.

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APPLICATION ADMINISTRATOR VIEW AND REVIEW

ADMINISTRATOR VIEW

The solution provides an Administrator View that allows staff to view an application the way an

applicant sees it, with a few exceptions. First, administrators can see all requirements available

to the applicant regardless of the application status. This allows administrators to

submit/change requirements without restriction. Additionally, administrators can see and fulfill

the “Internal Only” requirements (e.g. letters of recommendation, official transcripts, etc.) for

requirements that applicants either cannot see or cannot fulfill themselves.

To get to the Administrator View, click the “Admin View” button at the top of any application.

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APPLICATION REVIEW

The Application Review feature is the native “reader” feature of the solution. Instead of having

to open individual records to review the application package, the Application Review function

brings together all of the application data and links to all uploaded documents in one view.

Moreover, the Application Review allows readers to document the information used in review

(ranking, rating, decision recommendation, etc.). These fields are included at the bottom of the

Application Review screen so readers can view and review the application in one EASY

interface. The fields shown here can be easily managed by your System Administrator through

the “Application Review Header” field set on the Application Review object.

To get to the review page, click the “Review” button at the top of any application.

Tip: You can add the Application Review object and the summary created by the Application

Review button in a console for side-by-side reading. To learn more about Lightning Consoles,

visit the Salesforce Help documentation for Salesforce Consoles.

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OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

STORAGE

Because Requirements are categories of an application under which Requirement Items

(questions/uploads) reside, the answers and documents submitted – called Requirements

Responses – create separate records. Each Requirement Response (answer/document

submission) is a record in the system. To minimize the use of storage, schools may choose to

map some or all responses to fields on the Application object instead of having them create

Requirement Response records. This is done via the “Application Field” field on Question.

Additionally, EASY provides a way to automatically archive all these extra records as an

attached file on the Application itself. Details on how to do this are provided in the technical

documentation. Your System Administrator will be able to help you set up a process to archive

applications.

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DATA INTEGRITY

Most school admit that their student information system is rife with duplicates and most have

learned that data integrity must be closely guarded to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen

with Salesforce. To assist with this, the solution:

• Offers a checkbox called “New Reference Object” which, along with the use of the

Object Lookup function, provides applicants who cannot find the record they want by

searching with the ability to create a new record. However, that new record is pushed to

a holding table of your choosing to allow you to approve the creation of the record. It

also allows you to make changes to the record before creating it or to relate it to an

existing record. For example, if an applicant cannot find the school from which they

graduated, they are allowed to enter the school (in fields you create as Requirement

Items) and, instead of creating a new record for that school, it is pushed into a holding

table for review. In that way, you can review it, fix mistakes an applicant may have

introduced and then create the new record. Likewise, it allows you search for and find

the school the applicant should have selected and associate the application data with

the existing school to ensure you are not introducing duplicates in the system. This is

even more important when a school has a partnership that includes a corporate rate

and applicants enter an employer name that is a subsidiary, but not the name of the

corporation with which the corporate rate is related. With the New Reference Object

and holding table, you can associate the application with the correct employer to ensure

you know which applicants are associated with partners and are entitled to the

corporate rate. To get to this page, click on the “Related Object Review” tab.

• Includes a staging table that manages submitted application data to match to existing

records, create new records and, when it’s unclear whether a record is new or a match,

it suspends a record for review. This staging table is courtesy of the University of

Miami’s open-source Interactions for Student Recruitment solution.

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