Migrating Contact Properties to Application Properties

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Outcomes allows you to import data from other sources to use as Contact Properties. For example, you may have another system that assigns ID numbers to your recruits. You can include this data in your contact imports so that it is available to use in Outcomes. On occasion, it may be useful to migrate data from Contact Properties to Application Properties, where the data can serve as a custom field available to display on your Application Summary or include in exports.

This article helps with the following questions:

How do I migrate data from Contact Properties to Application Properties?
How can I import data into an application?
How can I display Contact Properties on an application?

Using JavaScript, you can build an enhancement in Outcomes that accomplishes all these things.

This advanced configuration allows you to make fields from your Contacts available in your Application Summary, Exports, Reports, Filters, and other areas. This is done by:

Building the Contact Properties using the Applicant contact type. These properties will contain the data that you want to add to your applications.
Creating one or more Custom Properties using JavaScript that pull in the Contact Property data.
Populating the Contact Properties via import, or some other method.

Creating the Custom Properties

Once you have built your Contact Properties that will house the data you want to migrate to your applications, you can create one or more custom properties that use JavaScript to migrate the data. To do this:

Start by configuring your custom property.
In the settings for the new property, select a Data Type that matches the output you expect to get from your Contact Property mentioned above.
In the Expression area, add the following code.

applicant?.contact_property_key

To make this code work in your environment, replace contact_property_key with the key from your Contact Property.
If necessary, repeat the steps until you've created a custom property for each data point you want to migrate into your application properties.

Finding the Keys to Use

To make this code work in your environment, you'll need to replace the key used in the example above with the appropriate key from your Contact Property. To find this key:

Navigate to Contact Types in the Contacts section of the Settings Menu.
Click the type of Contact you are working with. Typically, this is Applicant.
From the Contact Type settings, review the Contact Properties section to find the property that you'd like to migrate to your applications. Click to review its settings.
From the Edit Property window, find the property's Key.

You'll use this key to replace the sample text, contact_property_key, listed in the code snippet above.

Importing Data into Application Properties

Outcomes offers several import options to bring in data from your external systems. This feature can be leveraged to import the data of your choice into application properties by following the steps outlined above. In summary, you'll need to:

Create Contact Properties to contain the data you are importing.
Create Custom Application Properties using the JavaScript above, which brings in the data from the Contact Properties you've created.
Design a file upload or integration that will import this data with your contacts. The JavaScript code will migrate this data into the Application Property.

For example, if you have an internal ID that you want to migrate to your applications in Outcomes, you'll first need to add a Contact Property for this data. Then, build an Application Property using JavaScript that references your contact property (e.g., applicant?.internal_id). Lastly, bring in your data to populate the Contact Property. The internal ID included in your imports will then appear in the Custom Property you created in your applications. You can then choose to display this data as desired.

Displaying Contact Data in the Application Summary or Sidebar

In Outcomes, you can move fields to the Application Summary or to the Application Sidebar. This allows you to quickly locate key information on an application. To move your contact data into one of these areas:

Navigate to Settings and click Application Summary View in the Application Review section. From here, you can review which fields are currently placed in the Summary or Sidebar.
Click the edit pencil to make changes.
From here, locate the Custom Properties you created on the left under Available Fields. Click and drag to place them along with the Summary Fields or Sidebar Fields.
The fields now appear accordingly on each application, allowing you to locate them quickly.

In addition to displaying the Contact Properties on your applications, you can also use the new field(s) you created alongside other applicant data on the Applications Grid, in exports, or in filters.