Using a Master Application Template - Best Practice

There can only be one application designated as the Master Application.

The Master Template is used to create one Master application form that can be used to clone and create all your application forms as well as keep data linked between those application forms.

If you have multiple applications that are similar in most sections, (i.e. General Information, Family Information, Financial Information, Letters of Recommendation, etc.), but a few minor changes in others, it is best practice to create a master application that contains all the necessary sections for all those applications. 

The Master template is required to keep your XML naming consistent across all your application forms and is a requirement when using External System Integrations, allowing applicant’s data to be imported or pushed from one application form to another, using the Applicant/Agency Profile functionality, and for running Institutional Reporting. 

If you have a Master Application Template and need to make an update to a section or question in your application that affects all your applications going forward, you can make that update to the Master Template and then push that change down to the appropriate applications. When you push changes to applications they must be unpublished, with a future deadline date to accept the change.  

Exercise:

• Step 1: Build your Master Template Application by Creating a New Application Form just like you were building any application form.  However, in the General Information Setup select the No Deadline Option as this will not require a deadline date.
  
  Be sure to include in the build of your Master Template every section and every question required for all your application forms, including your Post Acceptance/ Acceptance sections.  Once you clone the Master Template to make your actual application form, you can remove from the cloned version any items not needed for that application’s process.
  
  Note:  When building the Master template, you may also want to include the following items in the build of the template as these will clone, as well, and will keep you from having to recreate them again in each application form: 

1. 1. All Email Templates that are the same messages for all application forms
   2. Any Pre-Qualification Questions that are the same in all application forms.  Remember these can be turned off and on in the actual application General Information setup if not needed in a specific form. 
   3. Request Section instructions, if the same in all applications
   4. Submit a Message, if you are using the same message for all your applications
   5. Text Tabs, create all that is the same across all your applications
   6. Manage Funds/Fund Criteria, if only one application process, and each year the funds are the same from year to year, you can build this into the Master Template, and then in the cloned version remove any funds that are currently not part of that applications process for that cycle.  Add any new funds to the Master before cloning, so that you have them in the Master to clone and they do not get forgotten in the cloned version. 
   7. Proxy Instructions, if same in all applications
   8. Collaborator Instructions, if same in all applications
   9. Review Committee Tasks, if the same task is used in all your application forms.
   10. Any Ad Hoc reports that are pulling the same data in all the application forms. 
   11. Automated Scoring if the same questions and scores are being used in all your application forms include all those that are the same.

• Step 2:  Once you build your Master template application you will need to have your Global Admin set that Application as the Master Template.  (This is only a Global Admin functionality no other role type can perform this functionality) (See: Administration Guide – Administration Dashboard Settings – Set Master Application for more information on how to set a template as the Master template)
  
  
• Important Note: If running Institutional Reports - once the Master template is set in the system, if you change the Master Template to a new template, any existing Institutional Reports built from the old template will no longer work. 
  
  
• Step 3: Use the Master Template to clone your actual applications.  When cloning, select the Master Template in the “Select the Template for an Application”. 
  
  
  
  This will make an exact clone of the Master Template you have built, including all the sections and questions, email templates, messages, and Manage Applications setup, etc. that you have created in the Master Template. 

• Step 4:  When cloning, make sure to adjust the General Information setup to fit the new application (i.e. application name, deadline dates, Instructions, etc.). 
  
  
• Step 5: Make any needed adjustments to the Sections and Questions in your new application.  You can delete any unnecessary sections and questions.  You will also want to make the adjustments for this application in all the other setup items in the Application Settings Dashboard and the Manage Applications Setup that are not required for this application.
  
  Important: Use extreme caution not to change XML names for items that you keep from the Master Template. (See: Importance of the XML name in the Master Template)
  
  
• Step 6: Once you have cloned the applications and made all the required adjustments to them if they are not active and you need to make a universal change to a question or section that was in the Master Template, you will always make the change in the Master Template and then push the changes down to the appropriate applications (See: Pushing Changes from the Master Application)   Remember though that only changes to the actual application form (Sections and Questions) will be pushed, all other items will have to be adjusted in each application.