We are using an older version of Gibbon so maybe this problem has been solved meanwhile.
It’s a problem that comes up regularly at the beginning of every term and is related to the student application form for a siblings.
Some parents fill the public application form, while they have already been registered as users. Wouldn’t it be convenient to allow changes under “Manage Applications”, e.g. assigning the student to an existing family?
In some cases parents submit a form with all data filled in writing. In those cases “Support staff” fills the form instead of a parent. Here too, we have a similar situation if the parents are users already and the student should be assigned to an existing family, which is not possible.
Our current fixes for issues related to siblings are rather messy. It’s also related to the fact that the admin is the only one having access to user and family data, so he can e.g. create a student user manually and assign it to an existing family or delete a double entry and reassign it to an existing family.
Are there any ideas how we could improve things in regard to sibling applications? Maybe I didn’t figure out an easier way yet?
Yes, this is an issue that has largely been solved for newer versions, with one case that’s still in the works (see below):
Parents applying for the first time can submit sibling applications: any application after the first one is linked together, which only creates one family on acceptance.
Staff can also link sibling applications together before accepting them, for the cases where they’ve been submitted separately.
In Manage Applications, there’s a New Application button (v15+) which lets staff enter an application on someones behalf: either a blank application, or selecting to link it to an existing family or student.
Parents with existing students can login before they submit new applications (this has existed for a while, but is worth reminding parents to use it). This links the application to their account.
There is a case that isn’t ideally handled yet, which is one you’ve mentioned where parents fill in the public form and already have a student, or for students who are returning to the school. I do have a set of tools that let staff attach an application to an existing family, but I haven’t had a chance to test & submit them to the core yet. Hopefully for v18! Until then, re-connecting the family relationships & deleting the duplicate family is the best option.
Hope this helps!
I do highly recommend upgrading to the newer versions, both for the new features and the bug fixes
I had a closer look at Gibbon v16 and the changes are cool!
For new parents to submit more than one new sibling application is definitely helpful and will help us in the future.
I’m also glad to see the significant improvements in “Manage Applications” allowing staff to submit applications as well. Anyway, the issue here is that in our setup “support staff” is not allowed to make changes in there. It’s solely our two admins who review, accept or reject applications. Is there maybe an alternative way?
I do miss the ability to change the family or parents of a submitted application in “Manage Applications” in cases where family and user data is already available. Or did I miss something here?
I’m wondering about the purpose of the new db field gibbonAppicationFormHash in table gibbonApplicationForm.
I believe this is related to the possibility to add more than one sibling to one family. However, why couldn’t field gibbonApplicationFormId be used for this?
Is it maybe to prevent access to data using the student application form? If gibbonApplicationFormId would be used instead a user could access previously recorded data by trying out various id’s via url, right?
Yep, the hash is used in the link that is emailed to parents, which allows them to continue submitting sibling applications. It’s more secure than a raw ID for the reasons you mention, and they’re also not logged in at that point so it keeps their own application url obfuscated.
I had a closer look at Gibbon v16 and the changes are cool!
For new parents to submit more than one new sibling application is definitely helpful and will help us in the future.
I’m also glad to see the significant improvements in “Manage Applications” allowing staff to submit applications as well. Anyway, the issue here is that in our setup “support staff” is not allowed to make changes in there. It’s solely our two admins who review, accept or reject applications. Is there maybe an alternative way?
I do miss the ability to change the family or parents of a submitted application in “Manage Applications” in cases where family and user data is already available. Or did I miss something here?
