A certification program defines one credential in your catalog, such as "Certified Association Executive" or "Project Management Professional." In Certifications, applications, certifications, and fees all connect back to a program.
What It Controls
A program's settings control its name, status, Portal visibility, sort order, program group, certification and application layouts, and any custom field values you track for programs.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup › Programs › Catalog to see every program in your Rhythm account. Select Create Program to add a program, or use Edit or Clone on an existing row.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Blank | Shows the program's display name |
| ID | Letters, digits, underscores, dashes, and vertical bars | Suggested from the name | Sets the program's permanent identifier. You can edit it while you create the program, but it locks after you save |
| Status | Active, Inactive | Active | Retires or restores the program. See Change Impact below |
| Display order | A number | Blank | Controls where the program appears in the Console catalog and on the Portal's Browse Programs page. Programs without a number appear after numbered programs, and programs with the same number sort by name |
| Program group | Any active program group, or none | None | Places the program under a heading when your Rhythm account's Portal browse layout uses list mode |
| This program is visible in the portal | On/off | On | When this is off, the program is hidden from the Portal's Browse Programs page. Members can still open a hidden program from its direct overview link, and signed-in members still see its full details when they read your program catalog |
| Logo | An image | Your Rhythm account's logo | Appears on the program's Portal overview. If you do not set one, the program uses your Rhythm account logo |
| Description | HTML text | Blank | Appears on the program's Portal overview page, not on Browse tiles |
| Certification Page Layout / Application Page Layout / Certification 360° Screen / Application 360° Screen | Any matching active layout or screen, or none | None | Sets which layout or screen the program's certification and application records use. See Configure the Certification Form and 360 View Layout for what each one changes |
| Custom Fields (shown only if your account has program custom fields) | Depends on each field's type | Depends on each field | Stores values on this program record |
Dependencies and Precedence
- A program's Portal overview page isn't edited page by page. The overview uses the program's setup record, especially the Description field above, instead of separate page content for each program.
- Checkout text comes from the application form, not this page. To add text to the checkout screen for a program's application, edit that program's application form and place a text box on the same page as the Collect Order Details component. If different programs use different application forms, update each form separately.
- Text added to the certification program view page is shared, not per-program. That page shows whichever program a member is viewing, including programs you create later. Text you add there appears for every program that uses the page, not just the program you were viewing when you added it.
- Custom field definitions are separate from custom field values. You add or remove the custom fields available for programs under Setup › Programs › Fields, which is a separate setup screen with its own permission. This program form only fills in values for fields that already exist.
- A missing group, layout, or screen reference is refused, not ignored. If you save a program that names a program group, layout, or 360° screen that no longer exists, such as one deleted after you opened the program, the save fails instead of clearing the reference. If the program already references an inactive group, layout, or screen, you can keep that reference; only active options appear as new choices in each picker.
- Display order does not affect every listing the same way. Display order controls the Console catalog and the Portal's Browse Programs page. The anonymous, unauthenticated list of active programs ignores display order and sorts by name.
- Program group only matters in Portal list mode. If your Rhythm account's Certifications Portal browse layout uses tiles instead of a grouped list, the program's group does not change the Browse Programs page. In list mode, programs without a group appear under an "Other Programs" heading.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Marking a program Inactive is fully reversible. It does not stop new applications by itself, because each application process controls that separately. It also does not remove the program from the Portal's Browse Programs page, because This program is visible in the portal controls Portal visibility. It does remove the program from the fully public, unauthenticated list of active programs. In practice, an inactive program can still appear and remain selectable when someone starts an application, so do not rely on Status alone to keep people from applying to a retired program.
Turning off This program is visible in the portal removes the program from the Browse Programs page for everyone. It does not prevent someone with a direct link from opening the program's overview, and it does not hide the program when a signed-in member reads your full program catalog.
Permissions
You need access to Certifications Setup to open the Programs catalog and to create, edit, clone, or delete a program. Defining which custom fields programs carry requires a separate custom-fields administration permission, but filling in those field values does not. A signed-in Portal member can browse programs and read full program details, but cannot create, edit, or delete a program from the Portal.
Validation and Errors
| Situation | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| Name or ID left blank | "You haven't entered a valid value for Name" or "You haven't entered a valid value for Id" |
| A program group, layout, or 360° screen you named no longer exists | The save is refused because it references something that no longer exists |
| Someone else saved the program while you had it open | "This record has changed since you retrieved it" — reload the program and reapply your changes |
| Two people create a program with the same identifier at the same time | The second save is refused as a duplicate |
As you type in the identifier field, Rhythm shows the advisory warning "A record already exists with this name" if another program already uses that ID. The warning does not block Save by itself, but Rhythm still refuses a true duplicate when you save.
Related Tasks
A new program starts with the shared certification numbering pool for your Rhythm account unless you give it its own sequence; see Certification Numbering. The layouts and 360° screens a program can reference are designed under Custom Fields and Page Layouts, then applied to a program's records as explained in Configure the Certification Form and 360 View Layout.