This lesson will guide you through the setup and use of Custom Forms within Illuminate. This allows an administrator to customize a form, and publish it for use/data collection in the Parent Portal. These are typically used for Online Registration and/or Student Demographics, but can be used for other forms such as T-Shirt Sizes, Parent Volunteer Events, and more.
These tools are specific to returning and existing students. Please do not use these tools for new students. For data collection and forms for students new to your District or LEA, please visit Pre-Registration (New Students) for more information.
Where to Start
1. Click on the Admin Cog Wheel.
2. Select Manage Custom Forms.
Create (Manage) Custom Forms
You will be taken to the Manage Custom Forms page.
1. To create a Custom Form, select Create New Form.
2. Give your form a Name.
3. Add a Description about the form you are creating.
4. Is Locked? Select Yes or No. If Yes is selected, only the user who created it will be able to edit or delete it.
5. Click Create and Continue >. You will be directed to the next step of Manage Fields, or creating the form.
Manage Fields
1. New Page- Each page has appropriate Field Groups and Fields that are tied to their home in Illuminate. For example, when you select Contacts Page, the field group and fields are connected to the Contacts table and information.
More About New Page Options
Selecting a General Page provides a variety of general student information including Student Custom Fields, or fields that are not provided by Illuminate but important enough for you to collect. Visit Student Custom Fields if you need to create a few of your own.
Field Groups available in support of General Pages include Student Basic Information, Student Langauge, Student Special Education, ISE District Info, and Student Custom Fields.
Illuminate provides a Contacts Page where fields are tied directly to the Contacts table for students.
Field Groups and Fields are automatically provided and even some are defaulted to be included in your Contacts page when you select Add Fields.
Warning: If enabling the editing of Contacts in Custom Forms, it is suggested that:
-Verbiage is provided that any contact edits should not result in full name changes to avoid data inaccuracies. It is also recommended to provide instructions to parents to contact the site, should a contact need to be deleted.
-When reviewing responses, it is recommended to use the Custom Form Audit Logs to ensure no existing contact has had the name change, to reflect a new contact.
Illuminate provides a Health Immunization Page where fields are tied directly to the Health table for students.
Field Groups and Fields are automatically provided, just select and Add Field(s) to the form.
Illuminate provides a Health Caution Page where fields are tied directly to the Health Cautions table.
Field Groups and Fields are automatically provided, just select and Add Field(s) to the form.
Illuminate provides a Health General Page where fields are tied directly to the Health General table.
Field Groups and Fields are automatically provided, just select and Add Field(s) to the form.
While we provide many fields for you, everyone has different uses and needs for using Custom Forms. By using Student Custom Fields, you can create the additional fields you need.
Once custom fields are created, they are available for Custom Forms within the General Page as a field group.
2. Depending on the page selected, Field Groups and Fields may be available.
3. Click to select the Checkbox of the fields you want to add to the form.
4. Select Add Fields to add selected fields to the form. You can also remove fields from here as well.
5. Fields will be added to the page.
6. Depending on the field and your data collection needs, field options include Moving the field (up or down), making the field Required, and/or Read Only, so parents cannot edit but only see current values.
7. Hover over the widget, to have the ability to Remove or delete the field from the form.
8. Add a Text Block to customize the form even more, adding links and additional formating.
9. Always Save when changes are made to your form.
10. To add a new page, select New Page.
11. Once multiple pages are added, rearrange the order of the pages by select Move Left or Move Right.
12. To review how the form is going to look, select Preview.
13. If this page is not needed or made in error, select Delete.
Using features available in the Textblock tool is a great way to customize your form even more! Add details, information, even translations, to make your parents and custom form experience even better! You can:
- Use basic Word Processing formatting tools such as copy, paste, font sizes, justification, and paragraph alignment
- Link external resources such as district webpages, CA EdCode documents, or other resources to best assist the process
- Create textblocks to sit at the top or bottom of the forms to support parent navigation
- Create textblocks to sit above or below fields, if the field is not as self-explanatory where the fields house the answer
- Use textblocks in support of other languages and translations
Once created, the Textblock becomes a field in the form that can be rearranged.
An Attachment Group is a way to designate a space in the form (at the bottom of the page) for parents to attach files to the form. To create an attachment group:
1. Select Add Attachment Group.
2. Create a Label for the group such as Proof of Residence.
3. Add Details to better explain which documents should be made available in this group.
4. Select Save.
5. Once the group has been created, it is saved to your form and located at the bottom of the page.
6. If necessary, you can Delete or remove the group from the form.
7. When needed, you can created another group by choosing Add Attachment Group.
14. To update the title or description, select Edit Form.
15. To begin creating more forms or return to the Manage Custom Forms overview page, select Manage Forms.
Manage Custom Forms Overview
The Manage Custom Forms Overview page displays a list of all forms that have been created. This list will show details about the forms created such as Name, Type, and Custom Form tools.
1. Select the Name of the form to quickly access the Edit form page.
2. To return the manage fields screen to edit the form, select Manage Fields in the Actions menu.
3. Other tools available in the Actions menu include Preview, Duplicate, Delete, Manage Recipients and Manage Responses.
4. Under Recipients, you can also click any number total to manage responses.
NOTE: You will NOT be able to edit fields if data has already been submitted!!
Preview Tool
Using the Preview tool, those with permission can view the form easily from the Manage Custom Forms Overview page. Practice navigating and see how its looking, or continue editing and refining until ready to send.
Once a form has been sent it can no longer be edited nor can pages be deleted from the form.
Next Steps
Next, you will want to Manage Custom Form Recipients. See the help document Manage Custom Form Recipients.