VSys One: Volunteer Management Software

Displaying Eligibility Checklists in VSys Live

Eligibility checklists can be shown to volunteers in VSys Live using listing views (these list multiple items of the same type). That can mean just showing the various properties such as type, status, etc. Or you can combine a listing view with a merge template to create something far more awesome:

In the example above, for each required item in the volunteer's "New Volunteer Checklist" eligibility checklist, VSys Live is showing the item's description, status and for incomplete items, an optional hyperlink that they can use to finish that requirement.

There are a lot of moving parts needed to make this happen:

Configuring the eligibility checklist itself,
Creating (or using an existing) merge template,
Placing a listing view where the volunteer can see and interact with it.

If you're not comfortable with HTML and CSS, you should probably use the built-in merge template. It's already set up pretty well and has all of the important details and styling already included.

Configuring the eligibility checklist

In the eligibility checklist's overall setup, we need to set four fields: Overall description when complete, Incomplete, Abandoned, and Ineligible. The values you put here are displayed where in the example above it says "Just a few things left to do" depending on the eligibility checklist's current status for the current volunteer (VSys Live will figure out which of these to use automatically). You can enter plain text or HTML in these descriptions.

Then within each rule, we have a lot more fields to set.

When complete describe as, When incomplete describe as	In the example, VSys Live will show these in the "Status" column as appropriate for the rule's status for the current volunteer.
Don't show this item in VSys Live merge templates	If checked, this rule will not be shown in VSys Live.
Finish link type	If the rule is not met, VSys Live can optionally show a hyperlink that the volunteer can use to complete the rule (or you can send them to some web page with more details). `(none)`: only the When incomplete... text is shown. `Action link`: Links to a VSys Live action link. Use this for example to send the volunteer to the interview lookup tool to schedule a needed interview. `Agreement`: Links to a specific VSys Live agreement. `Application form`: Links to a specific VSys Live application form. `Online training`: Links to a specific online training course. `Page`: Links to a VSys Live page. `Website URL`: Shows a fixed hyperlink that you select.
Finish using VSys Live site	For most link types above, you'll need to select a VSys Live site. (Most organizations have only a single VSys Live site, but since action links, agreements, etc. are specific to each site, someone with more than one site needs to choose which site is being used here.)
Finish item	This can be a specific action link, agreement, online training, etc. Note that when showing this checklist, VSys Live doesn't verify that the volunteer is eligible for the item that you choose here. For example if you select an online training here that the volunteer isn't eligible to take right now, VSys Live will still show the link and the volunteer will likely get an error message if they click it.
URL to finish	For `Website URL` above, the URL that should be displayed. Note that if the URL you enter doesn't begin with "`<a`", then VSys Live will make a hyperlink that points to your URL, and with the text from When incomplete describe... If the URL does begin with "`<a`" then VSys Live will display just your text alone.
VSys Live HTML class	Optionally used to apply special formatting when displaying this rule in the checklist display below.
Detailed description when complete..., Incomplete	In the merge template, used as the text specified by `[[detailstatus]]` below based on the rule's status.
User notes	Not used by VSys; put your own notes here (or to other users) about how and why this rule is set the way it is.

Merge Template

Merge templates work like old-fashioned mail merges. Mostly. In this case they're used to embed values from the eligibility checklist into an HTML template for display. The merge template used here comes in three primary parts: style, body and detail options.

Style

The <style>...</style> in Content is put into the web page just before the eligibility checklist itself is shown. Putting style here is optional, but you're better off using CSS style selectors and values rather than explicitly giving each item its own display formatting. (You can optionally put eligibility checklist styles into your site's CSS.)

Body

The rest of Content works like any merge template: for the overall eligibility checklist, fields such as field[[(description)|(field name)]] are replaced with the corresponding property of the eligibility checklist. Again like any other merge template, right-click to insert fields into your HTML. You've got access to all of the volunteer's details along with of course the fields from the checklist.

In this example we're showing the checklist's type, percentage complete, overall status and then a detailed listing of the items in that checklist with their statuses.

Abandoned	If the checklist's status is `Abandoned`, the Date abandoned, otherwise blank.
Comments	Comments from the checklist itself.
Completed items (friendly)	A list of all of the items in the checklist that are complete, formatted with descriptive text about the rule.
Completed items	A comma-delimited list of the items in the checklist that are complete.
Completed	If the checklist's status is `Completed`, the Date completed, otherwise blank.
Expiration	If the checklist's status is `Completed`, the Expiration date, otherwise blank.
Finish links	For each rule that is not met, makes a hyperlink to complete it (see Finish link type above).
Formatted items	VSys Live creates this text from the individual rules in the checklist. For each rule, it uses the detail options (below) to generate the text for that rule, then it combines all of these rules together.
Missing items (friendly)	A list of all of the items in the checklist that are incomplete, formatted with descriptive text about the rule and how it's not being met.
Missing items	A comma-delimited list of the items in the checklist that are missing or incomplete.
Overall status text	The Overall description when compete, Incomplete, etc. from the checklist setup, automatically selected based on the checklist's status.
Percentage complete	Overall percentage completion for the checklist using the Represents what portion... from each rule.
Person	Name of the volunteer in "`Doe, Jane H.`" format. You'll be better off using explicit fields from the person instead.
Problems	Any issues with the person having this checklist assigned, e.g. if she's not eligible for it.
Started	Start date from the checklist.
Status	Status from the checklist.
Type	Description of the checklist type.

Detail options

To show all of the rules in the checklist, VSys Live uses two "mini" merge templates that get applied to each rule one by one. Click on the Edit options link to see those templates.

In this example we're creating an HTML table row with an HTML class appropriate to the rule's status. Then we're including the rule's description and status in cells in that row. There are no helpful right-click tools here, but these templates are very simple. Depending on whether the rule is complete or not, VSys chooses the appropriate template. Into that template you can insert a few special fields:

`[[description]]`	The rule's Description.
`[[status]]`	The When complete, describe as... or When incomplete, describe as... depending on the rule's status. If a Finish link type is set, this will include the hyperlink as appropriate.
`[[detailstatus]]`	The Detailed description when complete or Incomplete, depending on the rule's status. (Not shown in the example above.)
`[[htmlclass]`	The VSys Live HTML class from the rule itself. Use this to be creative in how different rules are displayed.

Listing View

Now we have our eligibility checklist and a merge template. How do we display it in VSys Live? Using a listing view!

Place the "Eligibility/intake checklists" listing on a page - maybe it's the "My info" page, maybe it's the main page; wherever is appropriate.
Pick As merge with header and footer as Display, and set Source to Logged-in user.
Set Weight and Sort appropriately.
If you check Display even when empty, this listing will be displayed even if the current person has no qualifying checklists. You probably want to leave this un-checked.
Filter which Eligibility/intake checklists types to show here, along with how many can be displayed (0 means "no limit").
Optionally choose to hide completed and/or abandoned checklists. If you only want to show this listing for people with one or more incomplete checklists, leave Display even when empty un-checked, and check both Hide completed checklists and Hide abandoned checklists.
Use appropriate Content header and Content footer HTML. Most of the heavy lifting has been done by the merge template, so the basics shown above are usually enough.
For Record merge template, choose the merge template we created earlier.

Save and enjoy!