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

Good Morning,

New Server version 11X > All fields have been migrated > EPP Demo Modify
5.0.4 has never been installed

I manually created the extended table because I have additional fields to
add later on.

I have updated both guardian and admin portal custom pages to point to the
extended table of U_CLG_EPP since they were pointed to the old custom pages
and since their was no remap I need the enabledemoupdate field to look at
the extended table.

So my question is

How do I update this tag which is in guardian_header.eppdemo.leftnav.footer.txt
to pull from the extended table?

#btn-demographic-update a {background: url(/guardian/iconDemographicUpdate.png)
no-repeat;}

(I believe this Line is where the Icon decides to appear or not appear)
~[SetPostValue:enabledemoupdate=~(f.table_info;table=students;dothisfor=
all;field=enabledemoupdate;*id=~(curstudid);fn=value)]

$j(document).ready(function(){
var l = $j('div#nav-main > ul');

~[if#isstudent.isstudent][else#isstudent]~[if#1.pref.
demographic~(curschoolid)=1][else#1]~[if#2.~[gpv:
enabledemoupdate]=1]l.append('

  • ~[text:psx.htmlc.guardian.
    epp.demo_change]
  • ');[/if#2][/if#1][/if#isstudent]
    });

    I have enabled the check under ~([students.U_CLG_EPP]enabledemoupdate)
    for the student to be a 1 value. But the image does not appear under
    guardian login.

    I can however go to the URL directly under guardian login and the page
    appears.

    thanks!

    Shannon Cochran

    We have been using the EPP for quite some time and are now noticing that the grade history screen is not disp[laying correctly...I have two tab bars displaying with years. The lowermost bar allows me to click on a percent and takes me to an assignment detail page. It only seems to work for the years we used the legacy PT Gradebook. Last year we switched to PTP and those assignments are not displaying. Does anyone have the similar issue or a possible resolution?

    We are experiencing the same issue. Historical grades detail does not show for sections using PT Pro.

    I have successfully installed the EPP however I am not sure how to "turn off" the discipline icon. Is there a way to turn this off so it is not viewable on the Parent portal?

    We too have noticed that the EPP Grade History is not reflecting PTP history. All of our middle schools are on PTP, so none of that is showing, and our elementary and high school are split - some high school classes show the history and some don't.

    We are also noticing that the assignment comment score is no longer indicating there is a comment, or allowing anyone to read it. If an assignment had a comment the score would become a hyperlink and the comment would display when clicked on it. Now all scores reflect like 89/100 with no indication that there is a comment. This must have changed with going to PS11 as our teachers said it all worked last year. This is only in the student/parent portal in the grades and attendance tab after clicking on a student score. It is on the class score detail page.

    Is there a resolution?

    I set U_CLG_EPP.ENABLEDEMOUPDATE=1 to one student and now I get a validation error:
    Plugin Content Validation Results
    Validation Errors
    Resource Type Schema Extension
    File Name u_clg_epp.xml
    Message Table name U_CLG_EPP_DEMO_CHANGE defined in two xml files

    Any idea what I need to do?

    We are also experiencing issues because the EPP doesn't access PT Pro data.

    This looks like it'll require a revision of the queries in those EPP pages, so they reference the new PT Pro tables.

    One of the original creators mentions this issue here: https://support.powerschool.com/post/74347

    Has anyone done work on this? Is it planned to be updated? Thanks!

    The following files were removed from PowerSchool 11. Many of these files are referenced in the /scripts/mobile/android-theme.css file, which is used in the mobile version of the public portal. These files no longer correctly load on the android mobile version of the site. Has anyone else run into this problem with PowerSchool 11, and if so, did you find any solutions?

    web_root/images/mobile/android/cancel.png
    web_root/images/mobile/android/droidsans.ttf
    web_root/images/mobile/android/list.gif
    web_root/images/mobile/android/list.png
    web_root/images/mobile/android/loading.gif
    web_root/images/mobile/android/panelTitle.png
    web_root/images/mobile/android/thumb.png
    web_root/images/mobile/android/toggle.png
    web_root/images/mobile/android/toggleOn.png
    web_root/scripts/mobile/android-theme.css

    Thanks,
    Nathan

    Our administrators want to allow the demographics update changes to populate directly into PS, without the holder fields or approval. First of all, is there a customized page created without the approval feature. And second, is there any documentation to convince them of 'best practice', to not allow this? :)
    Thanks,
    Patti

    You've probably already convinced them, so I'll provide this semi helpful comic
    https://xkcd.com/327/

    But simply explaining that parents often make typo errors on things like phone numbers, capitalization, street address formatting, etc should help.

    Jason & Brian - do you have any timeframe for the update to include PT Pro tables. Specifically I'm trying to fix the 'score detail' option. Thanks for any info!

    Nancy Kowalchik

    After my update from 11.0.4 to 11.0.5 my epp is not displaying custom screens correctly. I thought I would try deleting my old version of EPP (4.1) and installing new EPP (5.0.2). I was able to install but it will not enable. I receive the following error message:
    u_dyn_students_1.xml: Cannot remap field Emerg_Phone_2 in non custom field table Students.

    Any clues??

    When trying to enable Enhanced Parent Portal Demo Modify 5.0.5 I receive the following error:

    U_SchoolStaffUserFields.xml: Cannot remap field fedethnicity in non custom field table SchoolStaff

    5.0.4 was working and after updated to the latest 5.0.5 I cannot enable the plugin.

    Any assistance would be appreciated.

    Thanks

    Hi! Trying to find a way to remove the ability for students to see their course requests for next school year and ran across this! Confused, though, as to whether it removes access for students - or just for parents. Thanks!

    I've just installed epp 5.0.2. I installed it on our test system and it's fine. In our production system, it's not. Grades and Attendance is enabled for school #1. If I'm on that screen and switch to my student in school #2 that does not have that screen enabled, I still see it. My PowerSchool versions are different (test has 12.0.1 and production has 11.0.5) but all else is the same.

    In test, when I switch to my student in school #2, I get the home_not_available screen. Any idea why I'm not getting that screen in our prod system?

    I have installed Enhanced Parent Portal and attempted to enable it but received the following error...

    u_dyn_courses_1.xml: Cannot remap field excludefromhonorroll in non custom field table Courses
    u_dyn_students_1.xml: Cannot remap field State_ExcludeFromReporting in non custom field table Students

    Version:
    12.0.0.2.1338974

    How do I resolve? Thanks.

    Chaney Jamison

    Did you ever resolve this? I'm getting a similar error.

    Malissa Brock
    Anderson School District 5
    PowerSchool Data Manager

    The Demographic Update Notification is no longer displaying on the admin\home.html screen for us. It only shows when a student is selected in the more2.html navigation menu.

    I fixed my own issue...I realized that the extended table my instance of PS uses for the parent_verify field is different than the one called for in the EPP Parent Demo of the admin_nav_menu_left_css.eppdemo.leftnav.footer.txt file.

    I am getting String key was not found! for most of the pages now. I think this just happened so I think it may have been a PS update. Any thoughts on a fix.

    We're having the same issue as well across the board with String Key errors all over the place. We are on PS version 11.0.5.

    Since we were migrated to the Azure server String Key Not Found for EPP. I am on version 12

    We are getting the same String Key Not Found Error since the migration to Azure. Does anyone have any updates about this?

    I heard from a user group that the fix was to reset the server. I just conducted a server reset and the issue is resolved.

    That worked! Thanks so much!

    We are on PS12 and just installed these plugins. I can't seem to figure out how to get the Enhanced Parent Portal Demo Modify to show up on the parent portal. It is unchecked (enabled) at the district level and I can't find any additional settings for it at the school level. Can someone enlighten me please?

    Lori Ansell
    St. Francis Catholic High School
    Sacramento, CA

    Hi Lori,
    For any student where you want the parents to be able to view and edit the demographics, you'll need to check the appropriate box on the Parent Demographic Change Custom Screen. It is at the top next to the "If this box is checked, any guardian can see demographics data and request changes (potential legal issues!)" line.
    Alternately, you can use the student field value change option to change many students at once. The field is U_CLG_EPP.ENABLEDEMOUPDATE and 1 will check the box for students.

    The 5.0.2 version of the plugin seems to be making a false assumption about page links.
    The default mobile settings page is now called Mobile Browser Settings and uses a url of mobile_browser_settings.
    The plugin is customizing a Mobile Settings page with a url of mobilesettings.
    The page fragment for the Parent Portal Settings page is looking for the mobilesettings page, meaning it is never displayed anymore.

    We have been unable to Approve parents changes through Demographic Verify. I tried installing the
    EPP Demographic Modify 5.0.5 Plugin add on, but I received an error that some of the files already exist. Do I need to completely uninstall the old versions and reinstall the EPP Plug-in? I see that others have posed the same question, but I haven't been able to find any responses related to the issue. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

    Tammy Nye

    We have a bug that's affecting a few of our students and parents:

    Setup:
    School A has Grades and Attendance disabled
    School B has Grades and Attendance enabled
    Student enrolled in school A
    Student has a remote enrollment class in School B
    Student (or parent) logs in and goes to grades and attendance.

    Expected behavior:
    Student can see grades for their class in School B

    Actual behavior:
    Student can see grades for their class in School B for a fraction of a second, then it disappears.

    Other information:
    Bug is probably in web_root/guardian/home.epp.leftnav.footer.txt, lines 20-22, though I'm not familiar enough with plugin development to actually fix it.

    Let me know if there's a better place to report bugs. Also, it was great meeting you at PSUG-NE, Jason, I learned a lot from your classes.

    We are working on our registrations extremely early this year, and are struggling to find the cause of our issue. When EPP is enabled, our sophomores can not see the course registrations screen to register for their classes. All other grades are fine. We found (working with PowerSchool) that the cause was a plugin and confirmed by turning off EEP- the screen showed up again. Problem being, we would really like to have EPP turned on so that students can see graduation progress. Any suggestions? Thank you! (We are on the most current version of PowerSchool)

    I made sure that I clicked view only for the Class Registration, however, when I log in as a parent to the parent portal the parent has complete access to request courses and click submit. I thought that the view only worked in the past.

    Stephanie Kilburn
    District Student Database Specialist
    Amity Regional District #5
    Woodbridge, CT

    We recently switched for the first time from using custom web root to Custom Page Mgmt. We re-installed EPP 5.02 which had always worked great for us. Now we are finding that in order for EPP to work, we must turn OFF customization on System Settings-> Customization's. This has the effect of turning off all non-EPP customizations. How is it that EPP is working in the reverse of all other customizations? Any assistance is GREATLY appreciated, as we are at a standstill.

    Carol Cornell
    District Data Administrator
    Lynbrook Public Schools, Lynbrook NY

    Under Scheduling Setup there is an option to Allow student to submit requests with a checkbox. This worked wonderful last year but does not appear to be working this year. We are on 11.0.5.3. Is there a setup that is wrong?

    Doug Robertson

    I've been EPP 5.0.2 since 2017. I disabled it today to check something and when I try to enable again I get this error:

    U_Dyn_SpEnrollments_1.xml: Field name SpEnrollments.U_Dyn_SpEnrollments_1.DCID field name is not valid

    Malissa Brock
    Anderson School District 5
    PowerSchool Data Manager

    Hi Guys,

    I have my test server on v12.X and found that the demo change does not show on the admin side. Is there something I should be changing?

    Further update:
    I upgraded to 19.4.X and now I get everything to work but in order to access the approval page on the admin side I have to right click on the custom page and open it up in a different window. So I think it may be colliding with another page. Any suggestions?

    Doug Robertson

    Is there an updated version of this customization?

    Sahar

    We love your EPP customization but we have run into a snag with hiding Next Year Schedules doesn't work with the new feature in v.12 where you can suppress the enrollments for specific terms from the Parent and Student portal as well as the Mobile app. We had to disable the EPP plugin to make this other feature work. We would love to be able to use both :)

    Any chance that demo update will eventually allow updates to PS 12 contacts?

    Is the demo update add-on been worked on to support the new contacts in PS?

    PSCB is developing a PSCB - Custom Parent Portal plugin. A beta version will be published in the near future. We have no plans to include a demo update version now or in the future.

    --
    Rob Staats
    PSCB Development

    I understand that the Page Fragments need to be removed I just am not sure exactly what to remove can you help me out?

    Thank you

    Terry Morrow

    I removed all files associated with the old plug in and am attempting to re-install 5_0. I get:
    Plugin file contains a filet that already exists: web_root/guardian/nextyearschedule.html
    Plugin file contains a filet that already exists: web_root/guardian/bulletin2.html
    Plugin file contains a filet that already exists: web_root/guardian/honorroll.html
    I've searched high and low and can not locate these files. Any suggestions on where else I can look?

    To delete the files you listed, navigate to the web_root/guardian location using Custom Page Management (CPM). You should see the files listed in the guardian folder.

    Note the EPP plugin is not fully compatible with PowerSchool versions 12.x or 19.x. As result the EPP plugin is no longer fully supported on the PDS site.

    I would suggest you consider installing the PSCB - Custom Public Portal Plugin v2.0 plugin.

    --
    Rob Staats
    PSCB Development

    Thank you for answering Rob. It's really weird, but I know where to look and it's not visibly there. Any-who, the Custom Public Portal Plugin v2.0 plugin does not have demographic updates, correct? Would you recommend something else to support that?

    The Custom Public Portal Plugin v2.2 plugin does include the demographic updates option.

    Many school districts are opting to use third party applications to manage demographic and contact information. eCollect, which was recently acquired by PowerSchool, has proven to be a popular choice among current Powerschool users.

    --
    Rob Staats
    PSCB Development

    Hello,
    Our Oracle database was just updated to 12.2 and now the Enhanced Parent Portal plugin has created this String Key Error in PowerSchool. When I log into PowerSchool as a parent, String Key Error is showing all over. Is there any update on this plugin or update that can be made in the code? Plz advise and thanks. Yvonne

    The Enhanced Parent Portal plugin is no longer supported on PDS. You should consider installing the PSCB - Custom Public Portal 2.3 plugin

    --
    Rob Staats
    PSCB Development

    Hi Rob,

    It seems that the new PSCB bundle does not provide the "demographic update" module, is there any plan to put this to the roadmap?

    Thanks
    Colin

    PSCB has no plans to include the "demographic update" module in PSCB - Public Portal plugin. Most districts are now using third party programs to manage registration and democratic updates.

    --
    Rob Staats
    PSCB Development

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