What are User-defined fields?
User-defined fields let you track that little bit of extra information on a student, staff or guardian profile, or for Educational Institutions. Heres some example User-defined fields schools have created:
- Whether students are attending during COVID-19 school closures (Shown in the School Demographics Reports section in this article)
- If a student has access to the internet or a laptop at home
- Favourite colour and other fun personal preferences
- Much much more!
To create and add information into User-defined fields you will need to have the permission of General Admin: Administer permission. If you don't have this permission, contact your office staff or your Arbor Champion. They can follow this guide to give you the right permission.
User-defined fields show in the 'Other' section on the main user profile.
Managing user-defined fields
Go to System > User Defined Fields and click +Add.
In the slide over, choose your settings, then click Create.
- Related to - Select the type of record the user-defined field should be associated with. Select if you would like this field to show on Students, Staff or Guardian profiles, or Educational Institutions. This cannot be changed once the field has been created.
- 'Field Type' - Allows you to choose the type of options the field will allow. For example, choose Boolean to set answers to Yes or No. Your options are String, Long text or Boolean. This cannot be changed once the field has been created.
- 'Field name' - For example 'Ipad serial numbers'.
- 'Identifier' - An optional field that lets you set an identifier for the field that is different to the label used for the field
Your user-defined field will appear in the 'Other' section on the Profile.
To delete a User-defined field, click on the row containing the field and click the Delete button.
Go to System > User Defined Fields and click the user-defined field you'd like to update.
On the next page, you can select all the users to change the field for and click the blue pencil icon to change the value in the field for these users.
For Boolean fields, you'll have the options for Yes or No.
For other types of fields, you'll have the option to update the values of the fields in bulk.
Go to System > User Defined Fields and click the user-defined field you'd like to import values for. On the next page, select Imports from the left-hand menu. You'll be taken to the import page.
If your User-defined field is for:
- Guardians - Select individual guardians, select the guardians of certain student groups this year or select all guardians by leaving the field blank.
- Staff - Select groups of staff with the same role or individual staff.
- Students - Select any student group, such as year group or custom group from past, current or future years.
- Educational Institutions - Select the institutions.
We recommend only selecting student groups from within one year, as the import spreadsheet will not show which year a student belongs to. For example, if you select year 7 from both the 19/20 and 20/21 years, the spreadsheet will show the current registration form for the 19/20 group, and the registration form the students in the 20/21 group will be in next academic year.
When you click Download Template, the file will download to your computer. You'll need to open it.
In the spreadsheet, if your User-defined field is String or Text, you'll be able to put any values into the UDF Value boxes.
If your User-defined field is Boolean, you'll be able to select Yes or No.
Top Tip: Click and drag downwards from the bottom right of a cell to apply the same value to multiple cells!
Once you've added in all the information, return to the System > User Defined Fields page and click the user-defined field you'd like to import values for. Click +Add and select that you are uploading.
Click Browse to select the file on your computer, then click Upload to upload it.
Don't worry that your file has 'fakepath' in its name. This is a completely safe file and this naming convention is used to protect the identity of the computer it was uploaded from.
On the next page, you can review the information you are about to import. You can cancel the upload if you've selected the wrong file or need to make changes or import the details by clicking the Confirm and Import button.
If you've left a field blank in the spreadsheet, we won't be able to import the information for this user (shown as a cross in the example below).
After confirming the upload, the details will show as updated. Back on the System > User Defined Fields> Select User-defined field page, you can see the values have been updated for these students.
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