Enhanced Parent Portal

Note: EPP currently does not support PowerTeacher Pro based sections. As a result the scores page page fragments may need to be removed to show assignments correctly.

Districts not utilizing the new pages added via EPP should evaluate if the stock PowerSchool SIS features are sufficient. Starting with PowerSchool 9.2 the core application provides controls to disable functionality which is also honored by the Mobile App. These settings can be found under Start Page > School Setup > Parent/Student Access.

Version 5 released! This update includes 3 major improvements:
1. Localization of all the new pages. Future updates should include other language packs as well.
2. Separation of the Parent Demographic Change files into its own plugin. This will allow you to make modifications to that page without future EPP core updates overwriting your changes
3. Database Extension table created for the demographic modify fields included.

Please install as a plugin even if you plan on using custom/web_root for your files. This will allow the localization tags and db extension to install. You may still install the web_root files within the zip to your custom/web_root if that method of customization is desired.

IMPORTANT - PowerSchool no longer allows students to edit their own student record. Because of this 1x Class Registration ONLY works when logged in as a Guardian. Students will have full Class Registration ability if 1x is enabled. I am unsure of what version this happened in, just fyi.

This is a new Parent Portal with more options for student screens.

Allows a school or district to show or hide icons on the public portal. The solution now cleans up the automatic e-mail page options when those options are hidden from normal view and displays a message when the grade & attendance page is hidden. Incorporates Roger Sprik's customization that allows a student to submit course requests just one time.

Stock PS pages that you can control;
Grades and Attendance
Score Detail
Score Detail Setup (Traditional or Traditional and Standards)
Historic Grades
Historic Attendance
Email Notification
Teacher Comments
School Bulletin
Class Registration
Balances
My Calendars

Added pages by EPP that you can control;
Grad Progress
Graduation Progress Setup (Grad proggress or Grad planer)
Demo Update
Honor Roll
Test Scores
Next years schedule (for in building grade changes)
Discipline Log
Access Log
Fees
School Info

V 1.0 - 2.X Changes included in documentation.

V3 (6/30/2011)
PowerSchool 7 Edition

  • Updated ALL pages for PS 7 UI changes
  • Added an option to select at the school level if the Graduation Progress or Graduation Planner is used. By default Graduation Progress is used
  • Added an option to select the use of the stock Scores page or if you would like to use a scores page that that combines Traditional and Standards Assignment scores
  • Custom links on the left hand side in the guardian pages do not have icons at this time if you were looking for them. :)
  • Removed Willington example for initial release

V 3.0.1 (7/4/2011)

  • Thanks to Joshua Schoeneck for modifying the EPP 2.x images to make them PS 7 compatible. Images for the links are now included

V 3.1 (8/16/2011)

  • Updated guardian_header and guardian_header_yui wildcards to correctly redirect on first logon. Also fixed unclosed span tag
  • Updated admin\schoolsetup\portals.html to correct first logon screen
  • Updated eppdialyredirect.txt to correctly redirect on first logon
  • Updated guardian\parentdemographics.html javascript to capture the Guardian name using a change in the FTL file
  • Added guardian\bulletin2.html so users can be directed to the bulletin on logon
  • Added \ftl\guardian\studentList.ftl. Added a hidden input to enable JS to capture the Guardian’s name easier

V 3.1.1 (9/8/2011)

  • Updated \guardian\scores.html fixed un-named if’s that cause all sections assignment scores to show.

V 3.1.2 for PS 7.0.1+ (11/8/2011)

  • Updated guardian_header and guardian_header_yui wildcards. The random icon (demo update, class registration) not showing when it should when switching students should be fixed
  • Updated \guardians\Scores.html added the ability to see the Weighting of final average. (Thanks MT @Shelby for all the help testing)
  • Updated admin\schoolsetup\portals.html to add on/off for the showing of the weighing
  • Updated the following files to correct the “String Key Not Found!” on 7.0.1+
    • Luncbal.html
    • Teachercomments.html
    • Termgrades.html
    • Requests.html
    • Requestform.html
    • Autuemailsetup.html
    • Scores.html

V 3.1.3 for PS 7.0.1+ (11/8/2011)

  • Updated scores.html and tgscores.html. The scores pages were not correctly handling assignments there were not published. This has been corrected

V 3.2 (1/13/2012)

  • All pages were touched in some way
  • Fixed issue where Class Reg’s submit button was off the screen
  • Fixed UI issues that become apparent on several pages after the PS 7.1 upgrade
  • Added the ability to remove the download grades link used for Alleyoop and other websites
  • Added term weighting to the Grades History Score page
  • Added standards grades to Grades History Score page
  • Removed some code from the bulletin2 (first page of day) file that will hopefully clear up the error some people were getting. I never got the error in testing

V 3.3 (2/29/2012)

  • Fixed UI issues on ppstudentasmtlist.html
  • Added link to home.html for previous page if scores page is not disabled
  • Added mobile version of the parent portal. Files in \guardian\mobile\
  • Added mobile detect code to home.html to redirect to mobile version of the portal
  • Updated tgscores.html and scores.html to fix future assignments not showing issue
  • Updated guardian_header and guardian_header_yui files to include version information. New clickable link will be added to the bottom of the page
  • Updated all guardian files to add version information

V 3.3.1 (4/12/2012)

  • Updated redirect code on pages to handle if parent is denied access but student is allowed access
  • Fixed comment/section description wrapping issue
  • Class Request page now shows the next_schools name instead of the current schools name
  • Added a full year list schedule to the bottom of the My Schedule screen

V 3.3.2 (7/30/2012)

  • Updated district\home.html to include 7.2 data validation
  • Updated wildcards to include 7.2 code
  • Added Teachers Comments page back in to prevent students from bypassing the wildcard security

V 4.0 (8/27/2017) BETA

  • Updated pages to be compatible with 8.0+
  • This download is currently not in plugin form!
  • Existing users should remove existing customized versions of /admin/district/home.home and /admin/schoolsetup/home.html. This version adds links using page fragments

V 4.0 (8/28/2014)

  • Plugin Version
  • Uses page fragments on all Pearson pages rather than customizing directly
  • Added page fragments in the /admin/schoolsetup/portals.html page so you can add new on/off switches without customizing the customization. This allows you to take future versions without redoing your customization(s)
  • Replaced /admin/district/home.html and /admin/schoolsetup/home.html with page fragments. If you have older versions you can now remove these custom pages.
  • /admin/students/more2.html now has page fragment to insert link
  • Replaced /admin/students/schedulesetup.html with page fragment. Please remove custom page if it exists from previous version of EPP
  • Replaced /wildcards/guardian_header.txt and /wildcards/guardian_header_yui.txt with page fragments. Please remove custom page if it exists from previous version of EPP.
  • Replaced customized versions of standard PowerSchool pages in guardian portal with page fragments. Please remove custom page if it exists from previous version of EPP.
    • /guardian/autosemailsetup.html
    • /guardian/home.html
    • /guardian/requests.html
    • /guardian/requestform.html
    • /guardian/schoolinformation.html
    • /guardian/scores.html
    • /guardian/teachercomments.html
    • /guardian/termgrades.html

V 4.0.2 (10/21/2014)

  • Fix for the scores page issue in some setups
  • Update page fragments to do different things when 7.x vs 8.x to account for the change from tables to lists

V 4.0.4 (02/12/2015)

  • Fix for the admin student menu issue that caused the link to show up multiple times
  • Add in link that will show in the upper left side of the admin home menu if there are any updates from the parent portal to be acted on. The link will go away once all have been completed.

V 4.0.5 (03/04/2015)

  • Fix for menu items not showing when Account Preferences is not an option for the user
  • Fix for request form. Previously would auto redirect if the checkbox value was True instead of 1. Now checks for either 1 or True.

V 5.0.0 (07/27/2015)

  • Localization tags added to all pages so that schools can localize any EPP page as needed. Future updates should include more language translations as they are being worked on right now. This modification was sponsored by Orleans Public Schools.
  • Fix for 8.3 - My Schedule page. Will not use built in schedule page if 8.3 or later and the EPP schedule page if the version is earlier than 8.3
  • Move demographics modify page into it's own plugin. This will allow you to update that section without future updates of EPP overwriting your changes
  • Migrate demographic update custom fields to a new database extension. All pages were updated to use the DB Extension. This should improve performance.

V 5.0.2 (08/20/2015)

  • Added DB Extension for 1 field in the schedule setup page
  • Update the schedulesetup fragment to use the new db extension field
  • New plugin for demo modify to fix the missing options in the portals menu and to change the fragment on the home page to use the DB Extension to speed it up

V 5.0.3 (09/11/2015) *Demo update only

  • Fixed the localization tag in html pages. Localization code existed, the tag was incorrect (thanks to cboyle for pointing it out)
  • Remove /admin/javascript/parentdemo.js
  • Update /admin/students/parentdemochange.html to have javascript inside. Update fields and buttons to use cleaner methods. Previously had not updated how the page works since v3. (thanks to vinit for pointing out how old the code was)
  • Update /admin/students/studentpages/parentdemochange.html to properly include the frn (thanks to cboyle for pointing it out)

V 5.0.4 (09/29/2015) *Demo update only

  • Fixed the approve buttons on the admin side
  • Added custom insertion points in /admin/students/parentdemochange.html and /guardian/parentdemographics.html. Insertion point is called pdsdemochange.footer. Thanks to those at PSUG-MI 2015 for the suggestion.

V 5.0.5 (10/25/2017) *Demo update only

  • Fixed performance issues by making home page query more efficient.
  • Removed pre 8.0 support
Sponsor: 
Orleans Public Schools

Customization:

Contributor: 
Brian Andle
Jason Treadwell
Matt Freund
Roger Sprik
Images: 
Plugin: 
Y
CPM Import Friendly: 
Y

Comments

We have been using and loving EPP for years. We are on 7.9 PowerSchool and CPM. Can you remind me which custom page I need to edit to add a note to the Parent Portal login screen?

Barbara Thomason
Peninsula School District
Gig Harbor, WA

The custom screens are not available for the students using the new plug-in version. It appears that page fragment is only adjusting the guardian.left_nav not the student.left_nav. Is this by design?

Lisa Shiskin
District Data Specialist
Monroe Public Schools
Monroe, CT

Lisa,

Look at my posts above http://www.powerdatasolutions.org/comment/2008#comment-2008 and the fix I implemented http://www.powerdatasolutions.org/comment/2016#comment-2016

It sounds you are having the same issue I had.

Thanks - worked perfectly

Lisa Shiskin
District Data Specialist
Monroe Public Schools
Monroe, CT

The APPROVE button on the demographic verify page does not work for all the items. Not sure what is wrong with the script which does that.

Thanks.
Jeff

I have added the EPP to our test server, we are using PS 8. I have noticed that checking the box for Next Year's Schedule does not remove the choice on the parent portal. I have also looked at one of our servers that were using the EPP and then got upgraded to PS 8 and Next Year's schedule was checked and not showing, but if I go in now and uncheck the box, Next Year's Schedule will still not show up in the parent portal. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? So far I have only noticed it on the Next Year's Schedule option, the other options appear to be working correctly. Is there a tweak I need to apply to make it work?

Melissa Tront
St Joseph County ISD

Hello There,
Did I miss something?
I just installed the EPP and am noticing that the Demo Update link is missing from the parent portal. I am seeing a lot of comments here about referring back to the install instructions about enabling this enhancement for students.
I only see a .pdf for the EPP Guide (don't see anything in this file in regards to enabling Demo Update). Am I missing something?

BethAnne Krupa

Oop, figured out what I was missing. Please disregard my prior plee for help. Love this enhancement!!!

BethAnne Krupa

When any school clicks on the red text of: Address Verify, it doesn't take them to the demo page. How do I fix that?

I installed the plug -in and activated it
Parent portal show nothing different
What did I miss

I've installed the EPP 4.0 using CPM and the scores.html page is not displaying correctly for parents and students. When they click on a grade for the current marking period, there's a white gap at the top of the page, and the titles, such as "Class Score Detail:" are all vertical. That is, the first line has the "C", the second line has the "l", etc... All the content is there, but isn't formatting properly. I had installed customizations using the web root folder until about a year ago. Could some file there be interfering with this formatting?

I am also having the problem with the scores.html screen showing a lot of vertical text. (comment by noyest@region18.org on 9/26/14). This is happening for my middle school students, but not for the high school students. Is there a resolution to this problem?

Mary Creed-Pallone
Nelson County VA Public Schools

I have added the grade history screen and graduation screen to my custom/web root/guardian folder, but neither of the screens are showing any data. Our district doesn't use the PS Administrator customization.

Congratulations - all the problems we had displaying standards data are fixed. Everything seems to be present and correct here. Well done!

Murray Smith

Where exactly does this go if I want to see when parents have submitted changes without going to each individual student? I tried putting it on the admin/home page without success.

~[tlist_sql;select CASE WHEN sum(ps_customfields.getstudentscf(id,'parent_verify'))> 0 THEN 'Address Verify' END alink from students where schoolid=~(curschoolid)]~(alink;t)[/tlist_sql]

just an FYI 4.0 beta holds a date year of 2017

"V 4.0 (8/27/2017) BETA"

Hi Mary,

I contacted Jason Treadwell and he sent me a file he'd been working on to replace the score.html one that I had (and you have now). That version solved our problem. Please email me and I'll send you a copy if you want to try it.

I would like to get that html file. I have emailed you at noyest@region18.org.

Mary Creed-Pallone
Nelson County VA Public Schools

noyest has provided me with the file from Jason that fixes this problem. It is a replacement for scores.epp.leftnav.footer.txt. If I knew how to post it I would do so...but perhaps Jason should do that rather than me anyway.

Thanks for the help...and thanks for continuing to support EPP!

Mary Creed-Pallone
Nelson County VA Public Schools

I posted the update now that we have multiple confirmations that the fix works and doesn't cause other problems. Version 4.0.2 has the fix in it.

Jason Treadwell
Custom Solutions Specialist
jason@powerdatasolutions.org
www.powerdatasolutions.org

How can I change the attendance from showing meeting to daily?

Is there a way that I can copy the icons so that I can insert them into an instructional document? I found gif files in CPM for the Pearson ones, but the bundle appears to contain only icons and for some reason there are two of the same thing in each file...not a programmer and not sure why. I don't know how to cut just one out to use.

Mary Creed-Pallone
Nelson County VA Public Schools

I need to remove the code from showing the discipline log to parents. I have turned off on the parent portal settings. In the older versions, I also removed the page from the guardian folder and removed the code from pulling it, but with the page fragments, I'm not sure where to go to edit out. We use the discipline log entry page on the admin side for admin notes and I don't want it ever to accidentally be visible to parents.
Thanks so much.
Love the EPP
Susie B

I found the page. It must have taken a while to show up in CPM so I could remove the discipline.html page. I'd still like to remove the code from the side navigation bar. Would that be in home.epp.leftnav.footer.txt?

Hello everyone. Having problems with the icons showing on some of the pages but not all and my school bulletin link won't work at all.
Can someone point me in the right direction to fix these?
Thanks

UPDATE: I figured it out. I still had pages from the old EPP in cpm.

HELP! We followed the directions carefully and did this on our test server first. Now on the production server we can't even log-in. We are getting an error message:To sign in to PowerSchool, you must use a browser that supports and has JavaScript enabled.

Does anyone know how to fix this?????

Hi all, I installed the EPP 4.0.2 on our PS 8.1.1 dev box. I am only seeing stock pages. I've tried many of the "fixes" listed above, re-installing, clearing the custom webroot, etc. What am I missing? I had version 4 non-plugin previously. I followed the instructions for this situation (which I can't find right now)Thank you, Judi Carlson

I lie. I was thinking of SQLREPORTS4 when I said I had version 4 non-plugin previously. Too many updates installed today. I believe I had version 3.4.

I know it must be something dumb that I am doing but I have removed all the Vers 3 files AND the Vers 4 files. Reinstalled the plugin, rebuild custom pages, shutdown the server, etc. I still cannot see the pages.

I am trying to figure out how to add All Grades History to the parent portal - not just the history for current year. I would also like to allow parents to see Discipline records for their students. Any tips how I might do that? The Parent Portal Settings page makes it looks like I should be able to but it's not working.

I managed to figure it out - deleted the old portals.html file (left over from CPM) then I imported the Plugin version and everything works as it should. It did create a duplicate URL on my School setup page but I removed that in PS Administrator and now only one shows up. Works perfectly.
I have made sure that Disciple is not checked on the Parent Portal Settings page but I still don't get the option for Discipline log when in Parent Portal. There's no icon or link for it showing up.

Bonita Coleman

I have been working with the EPP_4_0_2 on my test server using the old web_root. We just upgraded test server to v8.1.1. I am trying to fix custom pages before we upgrade live server on December 29th.
I am having trouble figuring out how to make changes to the guardian_header.epp.leftnav.footer.txt and guardian_header_yui.epp.leftnav.footer.txt.
We only allow students access to the one screen with grades & attendance. I need to have the ability to turn off some of the canned ones for students only. The parents have access to more, but not all screens, so I am able to uncheck within PowerSchool those screens.
I can't figure out how to make changes to these txt screens to only allow students the one screen. Any help is most appreciated!

When I click on the Class Registration page while in as a parent I get "There are no course requests for this student." If I turn off customizations the page works fine. I have looked for old pages and have removed them but I cannot seem to make it work. The Student Schedule Requests setting is set to "Edit Full". I am stumped and hope someone will show me the simplicity of my problem.

This has been resolved by cleaning out the Custom Web_root folder. I do appreciate all you help and support.
I went back to make sure the student can submit requests and the scheduling page settings are correct. The only way it seems to work is if I turn off customizations.

I did notice onto student "Scheduling Setup" page I have "Allow Students to Submit Requests" two times with two corresponding checkboxes??

Thanks, Jim

We have installed EPP 4.0.2 on PS 8.2 on our test server. Love the page fragments!

We also have "Allow Students to Submit Requests" two times with two corresponding checkboxes on the Scheduling Setup Page.
And, also we have the "Parent Portal Setting" showing up twice on the School Setup page.
Haven't figured out why yet.

We are using CPM but had some lingering files in the web_root folder that caused the "Allow Students to Submit Requests" and some other things to show up twice. Works perfectly now.

Jim,
Are you able to keep the customization on and still have ability to register? We are having the same issue and I am not following you on if you have resolved the issue. if you did and are still able to have the EPP customization turned on...how did you fix it?

Thank you
Kary

I just installed the plugin for EPP 4.0.2 hoping to solve the problem with Class Registration displaying "There are no course requests for this student", instead of allowing the entry of the student course requests.
Student Schedule Requests setting is set to "Edit Full" and the correct setting is in PowerScheduler.

If I disable the plugin (instead of turning off customizations as noted above), it works as it should. We had upgraded to PowerSchool 8.2.0 prior to installing the plugin. We were having the same issue using the pre-plugin version of EPP.

PLEASE HELP. We need to open this to parents/students in just a few days. At least the plugin can be disabled if that is the only solution, which is much better than having to shut off all customizations, but then we lose all the functionality of the EPP.

After I submitted the above comment, I remembered that an earlier comment mentioned there were two "Allow student to submit requests" on the Scheduling Setup page. We also have that same double occurrence on our Scheduling Setup page, put none of the students were checked. I updated the field Sched_AllowRequests to be set to 1 for the students concerned (our 8th graders) and the Class Registration page now works.

I looked at the page fragment for scheduling setup and it looks correct and the page itself does not show any customization (I deleted it prior to installing the plugin), so I do not know what is causing the row to show up twice (both now show checked on after I updated the field).

Also, I wanted to know if it is OK to convert the Sched_AllowRequests to a database extension field? I have been converting our custom fields one by one because we are deleting the ones we don't use anymore. I assume it would be OK since it would have converted if I had used the mass migration.

we are having the same issue...what do you mean by: I updated the field Sched_AllowRequests to be set to 1 for the students concerned (our 8th graders) and the Class Registration page now works.????

Thank you
Kary

Where exactly do we put the code:

~[tlist_sql;select CASE WHEN sum(ps_customfields.getstudentscf(id,'parent_verify'))> 0 THEN 'Address Verify' END alink from students where schoolid=~(curschoolid)]~(alink;t)[/tlist_sql]

The red words "Demographics Verify" shows up on a student's page in duplicate 11 times. It is listed under Demographics, but also under Emergency/Medical, Family, Health, etc.

I fixed it by simplifying the page fragment code to:

<script>
$j("ul#std_information li:eq(4)").after('<li><a~[if.~(parent_verify)=1] style="color:#FF0000;font-weight: bold"[/if] href="studentpages/parentdemochange.html?frn=~(studentfrn)">Demographics Verify</a></li>');
</script>

Does anyone know if there is a customization that shows the year to date attendance on the Grades and Attendance Screen in the parent portal? Currently it is showing only Current Term's attendance and we need our parents to see the entire attendance for the class. (start to finish of the course). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

hi - ever since I upgraded to 8.2 I have had a few parents complain that they sign onto the PP and then are kicked off a few clicks later. I've had the parents refresh the screen and try another browser. I can replicate this on my computer using their logins. I have EPP 4.0.2 installed. Any ideas? Thank you, Carolyn

Good Morning,

We are having issues with viewing our Parent Portal screens.

when the parent logs in, they see everything we want them to (set in the admin PP screen)
when the student logs in, the student does not see all the screens (even though it is set on admin PP Screen)

What setting am i missing? is there different settings for students and parents to the public portal?

Can I get access to and download the Parent Portal 3.1.2 package again?

I am able to copy the "studentsched.html" from the parent login and when logged in as a student i can paste and view the studentsched.html screen.

So the navigation icon doesnt show for student.

Thoughts
J

Full disclosure - I am not an html expert, so I may be way off base. Someone with more knowledge than me can validate or refute this.

It appears that EPP 4.0.2 and PS 8.1 has an issue that when Student Schedule Requests is set to View Only on the Parent Portal Settings screen that parents can still make request changes. In looking at the page fragment for requestform.html (requestform.epp.leftnav.footer.txt) it doesn't appear that there is any logic to send the user to requests.html if the pref.schedule#### = 0 (which is the value for View Only). I've added the following snippet of code to the page fragment and it seems to restore the functionality.

~[if#1.pref.schedule~[gpv:nextschool]=0]~[redirect:/guardian/requests.html?schedulerequestyearid=~(schedule.yearidfuture)]
[/if]

I just updated the admin/home coding at the end of the description and made it into a page fragment I called home.epp_demographics_verify.content.footer.txt . I know it works for version 8 and hope it works for version 7.11+. It will add the words 'Demographic Update Submitted' in red only when a parent submits changed demographic information right after Stored Selections on the admin/home screen and stays hidden the other times. The code is below if others wish to use it or add it to the EPP files.

<!-- Add Demographics Verify Link -->
<script>
~[if.~[version] >= 8.0]
$j("#storedSelections").after('<a ~[tlist_sql;select CASE WHEN sum(ps_customfields.getstudentscf(id,'parent_verify'))> 0 THEN '<a href="students/home.html?selectstudent=parent_verify=1"><font color="#FF0000"><b>Demographic Update Submitted</b></font></a>' END alink from students where schoolid=~(curschoolid)]~(alink;t)[/tlist_sql]</a>');
[else]
$j(".searchButtons a:last").after('<a ~[tlist_sql;select CASE WHEN sum(ps_customfields.getstudentscf(id,'parent_verify'))> 0 THEN '<a href="students/home.html?selectstudent=parent_verify=1"><font color="#FF0000"><b>Demographic Update Submitted</b></font></a>' END alink from students where schoolid=~(curschoolid)]~(alink;t)[/tlist_sql]</a>');
[/if]
</script>

When a student logs in to EPP to schedule, they see an error message "There are no course requests for this student". I have checked to see if I left any pages fragments in CPM as we are using the 4.0.2 Plug-in and I do not see any. We are on PS version 8.2 (the latest version)

Even changing the setting from Edit Full to 1x is not working.

When I turn the customization off, it works. Therefore I know it is something with the EPP.

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