Displaying Content from CM

• Catalog Reindexes
• Catalog Configuration
• Dates

Content from Curriculum Management (CM) is synced with Catalog on a daily basis, and will display items based on the configuration set for your institution. The following will help explain which items will display within your Catalog.

Catalog Reindexes

Each morning your catalog will automatically be re-indexed. During this process, any new items that have been approved or items that have been modified will be picked up and included in the catalog. 

In the event you have made changes to your catalog that must display immediately and can not wait until the reindex the following morning, you can reach out to our Support team to request that a catalog reindex be performed manually for you. A reindex may take up to 30 minutes to process once started.

Catalog reindexes are only completed for Active and Future catalogs. Any catalogs that are Archived will not be automatically reindexed; typically these stand as a previous record and do not receive regular updates. If any changes are made, they will need to be reindexed manually by reaching out to support.

Catalog Configuration

Each institution will have a unique configuration for their catalogs which will be used to determine what items from CM will be allowed to display. This configuration is typically established as part of implementation, although it can be adjusted by reaching out to our Support team if needed.

The configuration works by establishing a set of rules, and items must pass each rule listed in order for it to be able to display in the catalog.

A common use case is to differentiate between a Graduate and Undergraduate publication. In this scenario, you may have a field on your form titled 'Academic Level'. This is commonly a radio gadget, and provides an either/or option. If you want to ensure that only courses that have the 'Undergraduate' option selected for this field will display, then we would provide a statement to the configurator that looks like this:

{
     "field": "academicLevel",
     "itemType": "courses",
     "operator": "is",
     "value": "undergraduate"
},

Based on this statement, a course MUST have the option for undergraduate selected for the Academic Level selected. As long as this is true, the course would be allowed to display. 

Multiple statements can be used - so you can indicate that the level must be undergraduate and that they must fall under a certain department to narrow down the items that will be allowed to display. 

The simplest, most common configurations include rules that specify the status and acceptable date ranges - but most schools also include rules to distinguish level or other factors depending upon their catalog use case.

Dates

In addition to setting up rules to define which items will display, you'll need to configure the dates to determine when an item is allowed to display. There are two fields that can control when items are allowed - Catalog Activation Date or Start Date, and then there are two options for configuring the dates.

The most common way to establish the dates is to use a configuration like this: 

 {
     "field": "catalogActivationDate",
     "operator": "lte",
     "value": "$$endDate"
},
{
     "field": "dateEnd",
     "operator": "gt",
     "value": "$$startDate"
} 

In this case, an item will display so long as:

• the Catalog Activation Date is less than or equal to the end date of the catalog

  • AND

• the end date of the item is greater than the start date of the catalog

Here is an example of how that might work for an item with an effective term of Spring 23 - Winter 23:

Catalog Activation Date:	1/1/23
Catalog Start Date:	1/1/23
Catalog End Date:	12/31/23
Displays in catalog?:	YES

In this example, the Catalog Activation Date of the item is less than or equal to End Date of the catalog (1/1/23 occurs before or on the start date of 1/1/23), and the end date of the item is greater than the start date of the catalog (The Winter 23 term happens after 1/1/23)- so it is able to appear in the catalog. 

The other way this can be configured is to use the $$__NOW option - which changes the setting to be based off the current date, rather than the start date of the catalog. This would change the configuration to look like this:

 {
     "field": "catalogActivationDate",
     "operator": "lte",
     "value": "$$__NOW"
},
{
     "field": "dateEnd",
     "operator": "gt",
     "value": "$$startDate"
} 

In this case, an item will display so long as:

• the Catalog Activation Date is less than or equal to today's date

  • AND

• the end date of the item is greater than the start date of the catalog

Here is an example of how that might work for an item with an effective term of Spring 23 - Winter 23 and imagine the current date is 3/15/23:

Catalog Activation Date:	6/1/23
Catalog Start Date:	1/1/23
Catalog End Date:	12/31/23
Displays in catalog?:	NO

In this example, the Catalog Activation Date of the item is not less than or equal to today's date. When the statement is false, the item will not appear in the catalog. Once the date of 6/1/23 happens, the item will be allowed to appear in the catalog at this time.

Catalog Activation Date

The Catalog Activation Date is the recommended way to control when your items will appear in your catalog. Adding this field to your forms allows you to specify the exact date that an item should appear giving you the most control of your content. 

The Catalog Activation Date is not the same as the Start Date/Start Term/Effective Term of an item. The primary difference is that Catalog Activation Date is used to indicate exactly when an item shows in the catalog, and the Start Date/Start Term/Effective Term is used in CM to indicate when an item is actually active. 

You may choose to use a Catalog Activation Date that happens prior to the actual start of an item's effective term so that you can display it early for students to review.

• Example 1:
  • A catalog has a Start Date of 1/1/22 and an End Date of 12/31/22. A course has an Effective Term of Winter 2022 - Spring 2022, and a Catalog Activation Date of 1/1/22. This course will display in the catalog the same day the catalog becomes active (1/1/22) with no addenda. 
  • The new version of the same course is effective Summer 2022-Fall 2022. If it has a Catalog Activation Date of 7/1/22, then on this date it will replace the previous version with addenda to indicate that updates have been made. 

• Example 2:
  • A catalog has a Start Date of 7/1/22 and an End Date of 12/31/22. A course has an Effective Term of Winter 2022 - Spring 2022, and a Catalog Activation Date of 1/1/22. This course will not display in the catalog, because the end date for this course happens before the catalog becomes active.
  • The new version of the same course is effective Summer 2022-Fall 2022. It has a Catalog Activation Date of 6/1/22, which occurs before the start date of the catalog. This allows the second version to appear in this catalog, without addenda.

• Example 3:
  • A catalog has a Start Date of 1/1/22 and an End Date of 12/31/22. A course has an Effective Term of Summer 2022 - Indefinite, and a Catalog Activation Date of 1/1/22. This course will display the same day the catalog becomes active, even though the effective term does not start until the Summer. This allows you to display the course prior to the effective term, in the event you need to allow students to review the upcoming courses.

Start Date

The Start Date/Start Term/Effective Date (a field that uses the dateStart API key) is used to note the version of an item within CM. This refers to the version in the upper corner - and it is a required field. Although this can be used to determine when an item appears in Catalog, it is strongly suggested to use the Catalog Activation Date instead as it offers more precise control over when an item is available.

• Example 1: 
  • A course has a start term of Winter 2022-Fall 2022, and the selected catalog has a Start Date of 01/01/2022 and an End Date of 12/31/2022. As the term specified falls between the Start and End date of the specified catalog, this item would display within the catalog.

• Example 2:
  • A course has a start term of Summer 2022-Fall 2022, and the selected catalog has a Start Date of 01/01/2022 and an End Date of 12/31/2022. As the term specified falls between the Start and End date of the specified catalog, this item would display within the catalog when the catalog becomes active.