Accreditation uses one settings record for your whole Rhythm account. This record includes the Portal contact-role permissions and self-service settings you manage on two separate Setup pages. This article explains when Rhythm creates the record, how each page reads and saves it, and how Rhythm prevents one administrator from silently overwriting another administrator’s changes.
Prerequisites
You need access to Accreditation Setup to open either settings page.
What This Controls
Both accreditation settings pages save to the same record for your account. When you save either page, Rhythm sends back the whole record. It updates the fields on the page you saved and keeps the fields that page does not show from the copy it loaded.
- Your account’s Accreditation settings. Rhythm creates this record automatically the first time any administrator saves either settings page, so you do not create it separately.
- What a signed-in Portal member can read about these settings, which is the whole record, and what they can change, which is nothing.
These settings do not include the accreditation status values themselves, such as Active, Inactive, Provisional, and Candidate. Those statuses are fixed, and you cannot configure them or add more statuses from your account.
Where to Find It
You save Accreditation settings from two Setup pages in your account’s Accreditation Setup area. One page controls Portal access and self-service permissions. The other page controls your account’s other Accreditation settings.
How the Settings Record Is Created and Saved
The first time an administrator saves either settings page, Rhythm creates the one settings record for your account. You do not create the record before then. After the record exists, every save from either page replaces the whole record. Rhythm updates the values shown on the page you are using and carries over every other field from the copy that page loaded.
Warning
Save Changes and similar controls on these pages report success without checking whether the save actually happened. If someone else saved a change after you opened the page, Rhythm refuses your save because your copy is out of date. The page then shows the same failure message it uses when a save does not validate, rather than a message that specifically says another administrator’s change was in the way. If you are not sure your change took effect, reload the page and check for it.
Avoiding a Lost Change
Each settings page loads the record’s stored version along with its values. When you save, Rhythm compares the version you loaded with the version currently stored:
- If they match, your save proceeds and replaces the record.
- If they do not match because someone else saved a change after you opened the page, Rhythm refuses your save. Reload the page, then re-enter your change.
This protects the more common situation where two administrators work at different times. It does not protect two administrators who both save for the very first time at nearly the same moment, because neither save carries a version to compare.
What the Portal Can and Cannot Do
A signed-in Portal member of your account can read the whole settings record. Rhythm does not hide any part of the record or limit the read to a specific school. The Portal uses this record to decide what to show school contacts, based on the permissions you set. A Portal member cannot create, change, or delete any part of these settings; Rhythm refuses every attempt. If your account does not have a settings record yet because no administrator has saved either Setup page, a Portal page treats that the same as an empty settings record.
Warning
If the Accreditations app appears enabled for your account but the app itself does not load, required settings may be missing. This can mean the required settings record, or other required accreditation setup, is missing rather than a navigation or access problem. Have an administrator open either settings page and save it once to create the record if it does not exist yet.
Permissions
You need access to Accreditation Setup to read or change these settings from the Console. No Accreditation permission lets a Portal member change them. Only staff signed in to the Console can.
Validation and Errors
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| A required setting is missing, or a value does not match the expected shape | Rhythm refuses the save as invalid; the page shows an error and keeps your entries |
| You saved from a copy that is no longer current | Rhythm refuses the save as out of date; reload the page and redo your change |
| A Portal member attempts to change any part of the settings | Rhythm refuses the change |
| Contact-role permission settings fail to save for no obvious reason | The settings may still reference a Portal page layout that no longer exists; check and update the page layout reference before saving again |