Page Comparison

_{Last Update: November 17, 2021}

Contents

...

Contents

...

Getting Started with Supplemental Questions

Supplemental questions are optional, extra questions that colleges can configure to display at the end of the on a page within the CCCApply Standard Application and the Noncredit Application, Noncredit, and International Applications.

Supplemental questions are written in XML and validated with XSD. You can create one or more sets of supplemental questions to be added to either your college's CCCApply Standard Application and/or the Noncredit Applicationapplications via the CCCApply Administrator tool. Only one supplemental question set can be active/display displayed at a time. The Configuring Application Supplemental Questions section of the CCCApply Administrator User Guide provides details on importing, updating, and downloading exporting your Supplemental Question XML files.

If you want supplemental questions to display for in both the CCCApply Standard application and for the Noncredit applicationor all three CCCApply applications, you must configure and import an separate XML file files for each application.

...

...

When you have your XML file ready, you import your XML supplemental questions in the CCCApply Administrator and then activate and deactivate question set(s) as you wish.

...

Understanding Active And Not Active Question Sets

...

If Page ID 9 and Page ID 10 had the exact same Effective Date, then Page ID 9 would take precedence as the set with the lowest Page ID number is used in this scenario.

Working with XML

Although working with computer languages can be daunting, you don't need to be an expert to create supplemental questions for your college's student application, and you don't need any sophisticated tools. A simple text editor and a rudimentary understanding of XML hierarchy will be helpful.

If you are comfortable writing computer software, you can of course use the tools that best suit you. Otherwise, create your XML files using your operating system's built-in text editor. On Windows, the text editor is called Notepad, and on OSX, it is called TextEdit.

Most of the contents of your XML file will depend on the questions you want to ask and the responses you expect to receive. For details on creating questions and guiding the student through the application process see Supplemental Questions: Layout And User Experience and Supplemental Questions: Response Elements.

Setting up Your XML File

1. Copy and paste the example starter XML file structure below into your XML editor before you begin creating questions. This text will serve as your XML base and you can use it over and over again for each new supplemental question XML file set.

?xml version ="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SupplementalQuestions xmlns:xsi="http://xmlns.cccnext.org/apply" CollegeId="nnn" CollegeName="My College" ApplicationType="Either Credit Standard or Noncredit">
</SupplementalQuestions>

...

...

After you paste your XML and click validate, the site will ask you to copy and paste a second file. In industry jargon, the file it is requesting is called a schema. You can copy the schema from here and paste it into the validator. The validator then tells you if there are problems with your XML. Although the error messages may still be somewhat intimidating, this particular validator will at least show you in a friendly way where the error is in your XMLwhere the error is in your XML.

Supplemental Questions: Layout And User Experience

...

Both <Label> and <HoverHelp> are used only as child elements of the response elements. The <Label> element can be thought of as the question being asked for a response element, while the <HoverHelp> element can be used to provide further explanatory text when the applicant clicks the Help icon next to the related input field. Multiple <HoverHelp> children are allowed, one for each language your student application supports. The optional <Translations> element allows you to specify English or Spanish language (internationalize) for your questions. You must include at least two <Locale> elements, one with a <lang> attribute of "es" and one without, as well as a message block.

Sample XML: Adding the XML code below to your starter XML from the previous section will create:

• A page header

• Two sections of checkbox questions, each with its own header

• Two checkboxes indented to the right from those above and below

• One check box with hover help in both English and Spanish

...

<Section>

<Header>Are you interested in any of the following extracurricular activities? Check all that apply.</Header>

<Checkbox id="1"><Label>Chess club</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="2"><Label>Athletic sports</Label></Checkbox>

<Indent>

<Checkbox id="3"><Label>As a participant</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="4"><Label>As an observer</Label>

the applicant clicks the Help icon next to the related input field. Multiple <HoverHelp> children are allowed, one for each language your student application supports. The <Translations> element allows you to specify English or Spanish language (internationalize) for your questions. You must include at least two <Locale> elements, one with a <lang> attribute of "es" and one without, as well as a message block.

Sample XML: Adding the XML code below to your starter XML from the previous section will create:

• A page header

• Two sections of checkbox questions, each with its own header

• Two checkboxes indented to the right from those above and below

• One check box with hover help in both English and Spanish

<Header>Tell us more about yourself!</Header>

<Section>

<Header>Are you interested in any of the following extracurricular activities? Check all that apply.</Header>

<Checkbox id="1"><Label>Chess club</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="2"><Label>Athletic sports</Label></Checkbox>

<Indent>

<Checkbox id="3"><Label>As a participant</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="4"><Label>As an observer</Label>

<HoverHelp lang="en">Check this box if you enjoy watching sporting events</HoverHelp>

<HoverHelp lang="es">Marque si te gusta ver los eventos deportivos</HoverHelp>

</Checkbox>

</Indent>

<Checkbox id="5"><Label>Online gaming</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="6"><Label>Martial arts</Label></Checkbox>

</Section>

<Section>

 <Header>Check all that apply to your employment status:</Header>

 <Checkbox id="7"><Label>Overworked</Label></Checkbox>

 <Checkbox id="8"><Label>Underpaid</Label></Checkbox>

</Section>

...

The <HoverHelp> Element

The application will use the <HoverHelp> tag that applies to the currently-selected language. Only English (lang=”en”) and Spanish (lang=”es”, for Español) are supported. The hover help appears when the applicant hovers the mouse over the checkbox.

This hover help from the example above will appear when the page is in English mode: <HoverHelp lang="en">Check this box if you enjoy watching

...

sporting events</HoverHelp>

<HoverHelp lang="es">Marque si te gusta ver los eventos deportivos</HoverHelp>

</Checkbox>

</Indent>

<Checkbox id="5"><Label>Online gaming</Label></Checkbox>

<Checkbox id="6"><Label>Martial arts</Label></Checkbox>

</Section>

<Section>

 <Header>Check all that apply to your employment status:</Header>

 <Checkbox id="7"><Label>Overworked</Label></Checkbox>

 <Checkbox id="8"><Label>Underpaid</Label></Checkbox>

</Section>

...

The application will use the <HoverHelp> tag that applies to the currently-selected language. Only English (lang=”en”) and Spanish (lang=”es”, for Español) are supported. The hover help appears when the applicant hovers the mouse over the checkbox.

This hover help from the example above will appear when the page is in English mode: <HoverHelp lang="en">Check this box if you enjoy watching sporting events</HoverHelp>

...

This hover help from the example above will appear when the page is in Spanish mode: <HoverHelp lang="es">Marque si te gusta ver los eventos deportivos</HoverHelp>

...

Internationalization: The Optional <Translations> Element

...

This hover help from the example above will appear when the page is in Spanish mode: <HoverHelp lang="es">Marque si te gusta ver los eventos deportivos</HoverHelp>

...

The <Translations> Element

The <Translations> element allows you to specify English or Spanish language (internationalize) for your questions. You must include at least two <Locale> elements, one with a <lang> attribute of "es" and one without, as well as a message block.

To ensure your page(s) display in Spanish correctly when the Cambiar A Espanol button is selected, even if the end-user’s browser language is set to Spanish, the college must configure the <Translations> element within their XML code and provide the translated text for each question, label, hover help, and response option.

If your college has already provided both an English and a Spanish version of supplemental questions manually in the XML, you can continue to leave your XML code as is and both language versions of the question(s) will continue to display.

...

To internationalize your custom supplemental questions:

• Add the optional <Translations> element.

• Within the <Translations> element, add at least two <Locale> elements, one without any "lang" attribute and one with a lang attribute of "es".

• Add <Message> element blocks for each code into both of the <Locale> elements.

  • Each <Message> element must have a <code> and <message> attribute with values.

  • The <code> attribute value must match the question's <Label> value.

...

...each has a corresponding <Message code="" message=""/> in the <Translations> element's <Locale> element; the first in English and the second in Spanish:

<Translations>

 <Locale>

 <Message code="main.header" message="Here are some questions"/>

...

 </Locale>

 </Translations>

Response Element: The

...

default Attribute

Depending on your specific circumstances, you can allow the applicant to ignore a given question, or you can require the applicant to provide a response. If you allow a question to be ignored, the system will store a system-default value for the question. The legal default values depend on the response element you specified. When you add a default attribute to a response element, the system auto-answers the question with the default value you specify. When the page appears, the question displays as already answered:

...

Response elements can contain both <Label> and <HoverHelp> child elements to help guide the user through the application process. Certain attributes such as default and required can also be assigned to response elements for guiding the user. See Supplemental Questions: Layout And User Experience for details.

Each type of response element is associated with a group of fields in the database. Responses to <Checkbox> elements, for example, are stored in a group of fields whose names follow the pattern of supp_check_ followed by a two-digit number. There are 50 supp_check fields in the database, from supp_check_01 to supp_check_50. The id attribute you assign to each response element will determine which particular field the response is stored in.

For example, the response to <Checkbox id="42"> will be stored in the field called supp_check_42. When you are ready to download student data to your college's Student Information System, you will use these field names to tell the Download Client which retrieve the data you want.

The following table shows the association between a response element and the supplemental questions database.

...

In the database, a "1" would be stored into supp_yesno_01 if the applicant selected "Yes", or a "0" if the applicant selected.
Image Removed

...

Screenshots

Image 1: Supplemental Questions Summary Table with Edit Action Icon

...

Image 2: Supplemental Questions Summary Table with Export Action Icon

...

...

Version Change Log