Release 8 – August 27, 2023

   Organization-level Change Deadline and Program Availability Rules

This enhancement must be approved by the CAS association or UniCAS client for use in the next cycle. CAS association and UniCAS clients: contact your Account Manager for more information or to enable this feature.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

Question rules allow you to define how applicants interact with questions and answer options. The Change Deadline and Program Availability rules can now be built at the organization level, meaning that they can be applied to some or all programs under an organization. This enhancement saves you time, as you can configure a Change Deadline or Program Availability rule once for an organization instead of multiple times for each program you offer.

Be aware that organization-level Question Rules must be built on Extended Profile or organization-level questions only.

Configuration Portal

A new Organization Rules section appears when editing organizations in the Configuration Portal. From this page, you can add a Change Deadline or Program Availability rule and select which programs you want to apply it for. By default, all programs will be selected, and you can remove any that you don’t want the rule to apply to.

   Internal-only CAS Custom Questions

This enhancement must be approved by the CAS association or UniCAS client for use in the next cycle. CAS association and UniCAS clients: contact your Account Manager for more information or to enable this feature.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

If a CAS has a custom question in the first three quadrants (i.e., Personal Information, Academic History, and Supporting Information) or Extended Profile section, then the question can be configured to be internal only, meaning that that question and its answers will not be sent to other portals such as the CAS API, WebAdMIT, and Outcomes. This enhancement allows CASs to continue to collect data while restricting who can view it. To request reports on the data, contact support.

Analytics by Liaison

You can still access internal-only questions and answers in reports if they are custom questions mapped to Analytics. Check with your account manager for details.

Applicant Portal

Applicants can answer internal-only questions and view their responses in the full application PDFs they download from the Applicant Portal.

CAS API

Internal-only questions and answers are not accessible in the CAS API.

Liaison Outcomes

Internal-only questions and answers are not accessible in Outcomes.

WebAdMIT

Internal-only questions and answers are not accessible in WebAdMIT or the full application PDFs you download from the Applicant Details page.

   Annual Fall 2023 Lookup Updates

This enhancement is automatically available for use by all CASs and participating programs. No action is required on the part of any association, school, or program. Contact a member of your account team for more information.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

Many fields in the Applicant Portal contain predefined answer values that applicants can select; for example, the Country and County fields both have predefined answer values. These values are housed in shared "lookup tables." Periodically, we update these tables to include additional response options.

These lookup table updates impact the following portals, some of which you may use. If you created a "crosswalk" from our portals to your local data in your SIS/CRM, you may need to update this crosswalk for the newly added options. For guidance on optimal implementation of the new values, review the Shared Lookup Table Updates page.

• Analytics by Liaison
• API
• Liaison Outcomes
• WebAdMIT

   Instructions on Transcript (Coursework) Entry Page

This enhancement must be approved by the CAS association or UniCAS client for use in the current cycle. If activated, this enhancement is available for all participating programs. CAS association and UniCAS clients: contact a member of your account team for more information or to enable this feature.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

When applicants enter their coursework on the Transcript Entry page, they can view instructions on the main page, but not on the page where they manually enter their coursework details. With this enhancement, instructions can now be added to help guide the applicant as they enter their coursework details. This improves the applicant’s experience as they can more easily be alerted to best practices, tips, and links to the Applicant Help Center.

Applicant Portal

Applicants can view instructions where they enter their coursework details.

   CAS API Subscription Sends Text File for Failed PDF Generations

If a PDF generation fails, the CAS API Subscription now sends a text file that contains metadata about the PDF, including a GET URL to fetch the PDF directly.

See the API technical reference page for more information.

   CAS API Subscription Returns Error Message for Duplicate Subscriptions

If your subscriptions have semantically-identical subscription path template values, then the CAS API Subscriptions will now better detect these duplicate subscriptions and display an error message.

See the API technical reference page for more information.

   Header Properties for Document Import Processor (DIP) Manifest for File Data

The Document Import Processor (DIP) manifest now includes the following header properties for file data:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Foreign Flag

See the API technical reference page for more information.

   New PDF Type That Omits Race and Ethnicity Data

The CAS API now offers a "Reviewer" PDF type that omits the Race and Ethnicity panel. To enable this new PDF type:

• Use "reviewer" for the pdfType query parameter in the GET Application PDF API endpoint.
• Use "reviewer" for pdfType in the responseOptions parameter in the POST Subscription APIs.

See the SCOTUS Affirmative Action Decision: Race and Ethnicity Implementation Guide and the API technical reference page for more information.

   New Batch Action Menus

Liaison Outcomes offers several grids that allow you to complete batch actions. This functionality is available when working with Applications, Contacts, Reports, Tasks, and other areas of the software. With this update, these batch action menus have been enhanced to make them more prominent and easier to work with. They are also adaptable so that longer menus will be entirely visible.

   Messages Can Be Resent from Messaging Tab in Contacts Section

From the Messaging tab of a contact record, you can now resend messages you've sent within the last 90 days. To do so, click Re-send Message.

   Enhanced User Exports

Outcomes allows you to export user data in several formats. With this enhancement, you can create advanced user exports, designing them with custom filenames and schedules. You can access user exports from the Settings Menu by clicking Exports in the Import/Export section, or via the batch actions menu from the Users page.

   Applicants Can Create a Sharable Link to Their Application

While working in the Student Portal, an applicant may want to share their application with a parent or another third party who can view their progress and submit a payment for them. With this enhancement, applicants can create a shareable link for this purpose. While creating the link, applicants receive an access code that the third party will be required to use to gain access to the application. The third party will see the overall progress of the application, but not its details (e.g., personal information). If the application is complete, the third party can also review and pay the application fee. Applicants can later revoke access to their application by adjusting the Share My Data toggle.

   Performance Enhancements

In recent years, the complexity and quantity of data within our models have notably expanded. However, this growth has led to slower loading times for clients working with extensive datasets. To address this, our latest release introduces a revamped data infrastructure that harnesses the power of BigQuery. Operating as a serverless, organized data repository, BigQuery excels at swiftly handling substantial datasets with advanced analytics. This enhancement significantly curtails load times across the platform.

   New User Experience

Behind the scenes, we're working on an overhaul of the Othot application. The user interface has remained largely unchanged for the past seven years. Because designs can become stale over time and workflows tend to grow in inconvenient ways, we're currently working to reimagine the user experience and have built out the scaffolding for the updated interface. Over the next few releases, we'll continue building out new workflows, and we'll collect your feedback to ensure we're meeting your needs and improving your experience with Othot.

   Other Enhancements and Bug Fixes

In each release, we enhance existing features, expand functionalities, and address software bugs. Noteworthy highlights from this round of updates include:

• Added the ability for Models to now support Student Aid Index changes.
• Resolved an issue that prevented filtering and pivoting of Top Impact columns.
• Fixed a forecast query issue that occasionally overestimated future impacts.
• Addressed an issue causing sensitivity page exports to become stuck.
• Fixed a problem where data did not always export properly from the Insights grid.

   Application Review

Version 2309.0

• A new page, Application Review Settings, allows you to enable a trigger to set the Application Review Completed Date. For more information, see Configuring Application Review Settings.
• Date triggers only update Null values so existing data is not overwritten for the field Application Review Complete Date.

   Online Application

Version 2309.3

• The School Picker sorts values alphabetically.

   Recruitment Manager

Version 2309.0

• Date triggers only update Null values so existing data is not overwritten for the following fields: Application Submit Date and Application Fee Received Date.
• New settings are available in Recruitment Manager Preferences for Auto-Update EH Name, Auto-Update Test Type and Auto-Update Test Name, Set App Fee Received Date, and Set App Submitted Date. For more information, see Configuring Recruitment Manager Preferences.
• Two deprecated workflows, Contact Created, and Duplicate Contact, display help text indicating the workflows should no longer be used, so users can easily identify deprecated workflows.

   TX Forms

Base Version 2309.3

• When creating records from a TX Form, you can select a Record Type so that data for different types of records is saved correctly. For more information, see Working with Record Types.
• The school picker functionality in TX Forms has been updated to Autocomplete questions so that the lookup field for any object can be used as a type-ahead selection question instead of only Account lookups. For more information, see Working with Autocomplete Fields.

   TargetX Resolved Defects

Application Review (Version 2309.0)

• (CL-1895) Application Review Scorecards correctly display formatted text, required fields, and font colors. Previously, numerous display issues affected the Scorecard.

Engage (Version 2309.0)

• (CL-1964) Custom text for Added to Queue SMS Message and Advisor Pickup SMS Message save properly when a new Engage Room is created. Previously, the custom text would only save after the initial creation of a room.

Events (Version 2309.3)

• (CL-1973) Custom questions with picklists allow users to deselect values. Previously, when a user selected a value from a picklist, they could not deselect it.

Online Application (Version 2309.3)

• (CL-1959) The Salesforce fields for Gender Identity and Pronoun are now available when building Online Applications. Previously, you could not include these fields when building application forms.
• (CL-1960) Text on Elements aligns consistently. Previously, text on Elements was indented following Attachments.
• (CL-1976) When reordering elements in a new form, buttons in Form Builder are enabled. Previously, the buttons became unresponsive when elements were reordered using drag and drop. 

Recruitment Manager (Version 2309.0)

• (CL-1956) When creating two identical ad-hoc requirements, populating the same requirement ID twice, separated by a semicolon to NewRequirment, creates two identical checklist items on the application. Previously, ad-hoc requirements would not create checklist items.
• (CL-1956) When creating ad-hoc requirements on multiple applications in a single action, the checklist items are created on all the applications. Previously, only one of the applications had the new checklist items created.

TX Forms (Base Version 2309.3)

• (CL-1955) Events TX Forms no longer generate an error once saved. Previously, Events TX Forms attempted to validate URL redirects and prevented you from saving with the error “Redirect is not an accepted URL format.”

   Program Automatically Selected in Templates for CASs with One Program per Organization

This enhancement is for CASs that have one program per organization, and it must be approved by the CAS association or UniCAS client for use in the current cycle. If activated, this enhancement is available for all participating programs. CAS association and UniCAS clients: contact a member of your account team for more information or to enable this feature.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

Some CASs are built where schools offer only one program per organization (e.g., AACOMAS, ADEA AADSAS, PharmCAS, etc.) or most organizations only offer one program (e.g., ATCAS, CASPA, OTCAS, etc.). If you participate in either one of these CAS types and only have one program, then WebAdMIT can automatically activate features for your single program. Note that if your organization offers multiple programs within a CAS, then this feature does not apply to you.

When you create templates where you must select a program (e.g., Local Statuses, Custom Fields, etc.), then your program will automatically be selected. Additionally, if you create a new admission user account, your program will automatically be selected. This enhancement alleviates the work of selecting your single program when you create admissions users or features.

This enhancement also allows you to create features in WebAdMIT before either your program is moved to production (i.e., live in the application) or a Transfer Settings is run, as your program will automatically be selected once your program is moved to production.

This enhancement was inspired by user feedback.

   Reorder Scoring Components

This enhancement is automatically available for use by all CASs and participating programs. No action is required on the part of any association, school, or program. Contact a member of your account team for more information.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

The Scoring feature in WebAdMIT allows you to score and rank applicants based on institutional rating policies. With this enhancement, you can now reorder the scoring components within a Scoring Model, and your sort order appears on the Scoring Manager and Applicant Details page. This allows you to specify how you want the scoring components to be listed (e.g., chronological within the admissions review process, priority, etc.).

This enhancement was inspired by user feedback.

   Admissions Uploaded Document Fields in List Manager and Export Manager

This enhancement is automatically available for use by all CASs and participating programs. No action is required on the part of any association, school, or program. Contact a member of your account team for more information.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

If desired, you can upload documents to the Applicant Details page, which are stored under the Documents panel. For example, you can upload supplemental documentation sent directly to your admissions office instead of through the CAS. With this enhancement, you can now use the List Manager and Export Manager to query and export data about these uploaded documents. This may be helpful if you want to quickly identify applicants that you have uploaded documents for. The new fields are:

• Admissions Uploaded Documents field category
  • Admissions Uploaded Document Name
  • Admissions Uploaded Document Upload Date

This enhancement was inspired by user feedback.

   Batch Add Applicants to Clipboard from List Actions

This enhancement is automatically available for use by all CASs and participating programs. No action is required on the part of any association, school, or program. Contact a member of your account team for more information.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

When using the List Manager, you can apply batch actions to quickly update applicant information, such as assigning Assignments or changing Local Statuses. With this enhancement, you can now batch add applicants from a list to the Clipboard (a personalized, ad hoc list) using the Add Checked Applicants to Clipboard action. This allows you to quickly identify applicants via the List Manager and then pull out select applicants for further review in your Clipboard.

This enhancement was inspired by user feedback.

   Additional WES GPA Fields

This enhancement is automatically available for use by all CASs with an electronic WES integration. No action is required on the part of any association, school, or program. Contact a member of your account team for more information.

Disclaimer: on rare occasions, a new feature or enhancement may be moved to a future release or otherwise subject to change.

Some CASs have an electronic World Education Services (WES) integration, where applicants can submit their official WES foreign transcript evaluations to the CAS. With this enhancement, WES now sends the following additional GPA fields, which you can view on the GPA Overview panel on the Applicant Details page, List Manager, and Export Manager:

• WES GPA for Non-Accredited Religious Study
• WES Hours for Non-Accredited Religious Study
• WES GPA for Non-Recognized Post-Secondary
• WES Hours for Non-Recognized Post-Secondary

This enhancement confirms that you have access to all of an applicant’s WES GPA information.