Web Options

Web Options is one of the most vital pages in the Jenzabar SONIS system. Along with System Variables, Web Options allows institutions to customize how they use SONIS in ways both big and small. Many utilities and features are turned on and off and otherwise modified from the Web Options page. In addition, registration settings and the various batch folders are controlled from this page. The utilities and features listed below are some of the many that connect to the Web Options page.

The WebList is the menu that appears on the left side of the page in Jenzabar SONIS. The size of this menu can be changed with the WebList size setting. While the page note suggests 24 as the recommended size, for most modern, high-resolution computers, 34 is actually the better value to place in this field.

The Login ID menu allows administrators to choose how all SONIS users will log in to the system. Choose SONIS ID to require users to enter their SONIS ID when logging in or Email Address to require them to use their email address instead. Keep in mind that users without a valid email address in their Preferred Address record will not be able to log in if the email option is selected.

The System-Generated IDs Only option controls how SONIS ID numbers are provisioned. If this setting is active, users will automatically be assigned a SONIS ID number as they are added to the system and no manual creation of IDs will be allowed. The Yes setting is recommended.

If the Two Factor-Authentication box is checked, users will be required to use a second form of identification to log in to the system. This should not be turned on unless Two-Factor Authentication has been properly set up and tested.

This setting overrides the individual Active settings in the Two-Factor Authentication utility.

Use the SSO Methods checkboxes to turn on one or both of the two types of SSO connections. This option is only used for the old SSO Configuration method and is not needed for the newer certificate-based SSO.

Check the Enable View Password box to turn the view password feature on for all portals.

With this option active, each user's password will appear as masked by default, but they can click the eye button in the password field to view what they've typed. This option also applies to internal setup fields in the Admin portal that contain passwords.

The Login Order menu allows users to change the order in which the identity fields appear on login pages. By default, the Login ID field appears first and this is typical for most websites, but administrators can choose to have the password field display first.

The SSO Login Button options allow administrators to choose where the buttons that display when SSO login is active will display on the page. They can either appear above or below the login ID fields. This setting applies to both the old SSO Configuration and the newer certificate-based SSO.

The New PIN Setting controls how new PINs are created when a new user is added to the system. There are three options:

Regardless of the method chosen, users will be asked to create their own unique PIN when they log in for the first time. Visit the Password & PIN Utility for more PIN settings.

The Login Retries setting controls how many wrong attempts are allowed before the user's account is locked. An account can be unlocked from the user's Biographic page.

Check the Withdrawn Log In as Alumni box to allow withdrawn students to access their records through the Alumni portal. If this box is left unchecked, withdrawn students will no longer have access to the Jenzabar SONIS system.

Below the login settings are a group of settings sections that all relate to the way things are displayed on SONIS.

The first is the Status Link Color. This controls the color of the name that's displayed at the top of the page when Name Search is used to select a user. A number of predefined colors are available to choose from. Please ensure that the chosen color has enough contrast from the background color that it can be read easily.

The second display option in this section applies only to the Degree Audit. When a student has not completed a course required as part of their degree, text will appear to show this. Update this field to change what that text says.

There are also two display settings that apply only to the Courses Users page. The first is labeled Display WD Credit Hours.

If this box is checked, courses listed on the Courses summary page that have an enroll code of withdrawn will have the attempted hours listed. If the option is left unchecked, the hours for these courses will display as 0, the actual credits that the student received.

The other Courses summary page display option affects the way the page displays all courses. Check the Display By School Year/Semester box to activate an enhanced view that separates courses by the school year and semester in which they were taken and adds grid lines to make the page more readable.

Though not grouped with these other options, the Display Page Notes setting has a similar function. This setting controls whether the notes that appear at the bottom of the various login pages are displayed or not. If the box is checked, these notes will display globally.

To add a note or edit an existing note, navigate to Login Page Notes: Edit under the Systems menu and select a portal.

The Financial Aid Import Filter was previously used to set the format of the award file that would be imported through the Financial Aid Award Import utility. This utility has been updated to only handle EDExpress files and has been renamed Import EDX. EDExpress users should select the version that your school currently uses. Clients who do not use EDExpress or do not import this data to SONIS can select None or ignore the setting altogether.

The Financial Aid Default Residency Status is used to bulk update the residency status field on the Financial Aid page, which then is used for Gainful Employment reporting. This value should be set to the one that corresponds to the majority of the institution's students and individual students that have a different status can be manually updated on the Financial Aid page. The possible values are the same as used by the NSC Gainful Reporting process. After setting the desired value, click Submit at the top or bottom of the page.

The generate status options allow institutions to automatically create a new module status for prospects that become applicants and/or applicants who become students.

New statuses for prospects who become applicants can be triggered by checking the Application Received box in the Prospect Inquiry Details and submitting the page. Converting prospects to applicants and applicants to students rather than having multiple module statuses for the same person is considered the best practice in Jenzabar SONIS, but flexibility is allowed since some institutions may have reason to retain the old status.

If Do not generate a new status is checked, nothing will happen automatically and administrators will have to create an applicant status manually. If Replace the Prospect Status with Applicant is selected, the user's module status will be converted to Applicant with all records retained. If the Add Applicant to the Prospect Status option is selected, the user will be given an Applicant status in addition to their Prospect status and all records will be copied over.

New statuses for applicants who become students can be triggered by checking the Create Student Status box in the user's Application Record and submitting the page.

If Do not generate a new status is checked, nothing will happen automatically and administrators will have to create an applicant status manually. If Replace the Applicant Status with Student is selected, the user's module status will be converted to Student with all records retained. If the Add Student to the Applicant Status option is selected, the user will be given a Student status in addition to their Applicant status and all records will be copied over.

The Add Campus to Sessions option provides the ability to create an association between a campus and a session.

After checking the Add Campus to Sessions box, navigate to the Sessions table to complete setting up an association.

To allow equivalent courses to be repeated as a grade replacement, check the Auto-Repeat Courses box. When this box is checked, a student taking a course a second time or taking an equivalent course has the grade of the second course substituted for the grade of the first.

Note that using equivalent course as automatic replacements can cause issues if students actually want to take both courses for credit. Replaced courses still appear on a student's transcript, but do not factor into their GPA.

Some institutions may wish to view and edit clearinghouse data in the Programs table. To enable this option, navigate to the Web Options page in the Systems hub and check the Display Clearinghouse Data in Programs box. Click Submit to save the change.

Once the option has been activated, a Clearinghouse Items section will appear in each program in the Programs table. Altering these fields will change what data is reporting to the NSC through the Clearinghouse utility. The fields can be hidden again once they've been filled out and the data will still be reported.

The SONIS system saves previous courses that have been selected for quick access. To see the list of the most recently selected courses, mouse over the Courses+ menu item in the top-nav. The list appears in order with the most recently selected course on top. However, selecting a course from this menu will not change its position on the list.

To change the number of courses that appear in this dropdown menu, navigate to the Web Options page under the Systems hub. Scroll down to the Course Search Save Limit option and edit the number in the field to the right.

To enable the SONIS Deep Linking feature, navigate to the Web Options utility in the Systems hub. Scroll down to the Deep Linking Configuration section. Check the Enable Deep Linking box to turn on deep linking for all admin portal users.

From this same location, administrators can modify the options that users have to control the expiration of links. Administrators can set a Default Delta Days value. If this field is populated, all links will expire after they've been active for the number of days in the field. Users sending individual links will not be able to change this value. To allow individuals to control their own link expiration, leave the field at 0.

If Default Delta Days are not activated, administrators can choose to offer the option to have links Expire by Delta Days, Expire by Date, and/or Expire by Page Visits. If more than one box is checked, users sending deep links can choose one or more options based on their personal preference.

The SONIS system checks link viability in the following order.

A link must pass all four checks before it can be accessed. If an expiration option was not activated, all links will automatically pass that check.

Click the Submit button at the top or bottom of the page to save the changes that have been made and turn on deep linking.

Some institutions may wish to forgo the normal Post to Billing process using the Financials utility and have all tuition charges post to billing or pre-billing during the registration process. To set this up, navigate to the Web Options page under the Systems hub and locate the Registration Settings section. Select either Post to Billing to have registration charges automatically posted to billing or Post to Pre-Billing to have registration charges posted to pre-billing during student registration.

When the Post to Billing or Post to Pre-Billing registration options have been checked, administrators will have the option to Post Courses as the final step in the registration process. These charges will go directly to pre-billing or billing with no additional posting required.

Before the Regent Award timed task can be created, the location of the Regent Award XML files must be set. Scroll down to find the Regent Award Imports (XML) Directory field. Fill in the directory where Regent Award files will be stored and submit the page to save the changes.

The Allow Direct Biographic Information Updates setting controls whether portal users can make updates to their biographical and address details directly or whether these updates must first be approved and imported.

In order for users to have access to make changes at all, the Update Bio page must be turned on in the Portal Menu Utility for the portal in question.

When the Update Bio page has been turned on, users will have access to make changes to their basic biographical details as well as their address. If the Allow Direct Biographic Information Updates option is on for their portal, these changes will be immediately published to the appropriate fields.

If the Allow Direct Biographic Information Updates option is unchecked for the user's portal, once they submit their biographic changes, they'll see a message informing them that the changes have been received but must be processed. These updates are processed through Import Functions.

The session monitor is a diagnostic tool that system administrators can use to see the level of activity on the SONIS system and who is currently logged on. Because it uses system resources, most clients should probably leave it off on a daily basis and only turn it on when it's being used. Check the box and submit the change to turn it on.

To use the tool, navigate to Session Monitor in the Systems hub.

Before Workflows can be used, they must be turned on from the Web Options page. Check the Enable Workflows box and click Submit to save the changes. Workflows will be turned on for all SONIS users with an Administration login.

If the Display WDs in Attendance box is checked, students who have withdrawn from a course will still be displayed in the attendance records both in the Faculty portal for administrators. In this scenario, withdrawn students are marked as withdrawn and no attendance can be added for them. If the box is unchecked, these students do not appear at all.

Exam IDs are designed to allow instructors to grade exams and other course material anonymously. Each student's exam ID is stored on their Biographic page and can be added or updated to a random number with the Generate ID button.

Exam IDs can also be generated using the Registration Exam ID Utility under the Systems menu.

When the Use Exam ID box is checked, students are still listed by their name in the course roster in the Faculty portal, but their name is replaced by their exam ID in the Gradebook.

Once a student's grade in a course has been marked as final, it should not be changed under most circumstances. However, there are occasions when changes do need to be made. SONIS offers the ability to track these changes by archiving them.

Three settings are offered. The first is No Grade Archiving, which turns off the feature altogether. The second is Archive ALL Official Grade Changes, which does what the name suggests, making an archive entry every time a grade is changed after it has been made official. The third is Archive Non-Transfer Official Grade Changes. This setting creates a record for official grade changes only for home institution courses since transfer grades may need to be changed more frequently.

Once grade changes have been archived, they can be viewed through the Grades: Archived Report, which displays each change that was made along with the date and time and the name of the staff member who made the change.

Beginning with SONIS version 3.8, the Biographic page contains an optional Preferred Pronouns field where administrators can specify the pronouns that the user uses. To turn this feature on, navigate to Web Options in the Systems hub and check the Enable Pronouns box. Submit the page to save the change.

By default, this field includes he/him, she/her, and they/them pronouns. To add additional pronouns, navigate to Table Maintenance and Edit the Preferred Pronouns table.

Once the Preferred Pronouns table has been selected, click Add New Record to create a new set of pronouns.

On the following page, enter the pronouns in the Pronouns field and enter a whole number for the Sort Order. The sort order controls where they appear in menus. Click Submit to complete the process.

Users can enter their own pronouns through the Prospect Web Inquiry page or when applying through the Jenzabar SONIS Online Application.

To set pronouns for a user from the Biographic page, simply select the correct pronouns from the Preferred Pronouns dropdown menu and save the page.

Once preferred pronouns have been set, they can by viewed by faculty from their Course Roster or Advisee Listing.

SONIS offers a pop-up calendar feature that allows users to select a date from the calendar rather than having to type it out. Check the Date Field Calendar Pop-Up box to turn this feature on or leave it unchecked to turn it off and require that dates be entered manually.

The Calendar Pop-Up One Click option controls how the calendar pops up. With the option off, users must click a date field, click somewhere else, and then click back on the date field for the calendar to display. With the option on, the calendar appears as soon as the field is selected.

To enable breadcrumbs, visit the Web Options page in the Systems hub. The Breadcrumb Settings section is near the bottom of the page. Click the checkbox next to Display Breadcrumb to activate them. The page also provides the option to make each breadcrumb a link and to choose how many breadcrumbs will display. The administrator can choose to display between one and five breadcrumbs using the dropdown menu. As with other Web Options changes, enabling breadcrumbs will turn them on for all users.

Once breadcrumbs have been enabled, they will display at the top left of every page the user visits, providing a record of the last one to five pages visited. If the Include Breadcrumb Links option has been checked, each breadcrumb will be a link to the previous page visited.

Note that these links will return the user to the active state they were in when they visited that page. For example, if a user searches for a name and brings up that account, make some changes in that account, and then searches for and accesses another account, clicking the earliest breadcrumb will return to the first account selected rather than the most recent one.