Certifications includes nine ready-made Portal features you can add to your association’s Portal. Each feature creates its own pages, and most also add a menu entry. Use this reference to decide what you want members, certificants, applicants, and training providers to see before you build your Portal pages. You add these features with your Portal’s page-building tools; the Certifications Console does not list or install them.
The Nine Features
| Feature | Pages | Menu Entries It Creates |
|---|---|---|
| Activities | 5 | My Certification Activities |
| Applications | 4 | View My Applications |
| Credits | 2 | My Credits |
| Certification Directory | 1 | Search Directory |
| Exams & Testing | 5 | My Exams |
| Programs | 4 | Browse Certification Programs, My Certifications |
| Application References | 1 | None |
| Training & Courses | 5 | My Courses, Browse Training Offerings |
| Training Provider Administration | 12 | Training Provider Administration |
Together, these nine features add 39 pages. When a feature includes a menu entry, Rhythm adds that entry under the Certifications section of your Portal menu.
Tip
Application References does not add a menu entry. If you add it, plan how members will get to the page, such as from a link on an application status page, because the Portal menu will not point to it automatically.
A certification application’s Before continuing, I need to add activities and Credits button works only inside the Portal, where it links the applicant to the Activities pages. If someone opens it outside the Portal context, the button can look unresponsive instead of showing an error.
The Browse Training Offerings page and a certification application page serve different purposes and are not interchangeable. Browse Training Offerings is for public browsing, while certification application pages require the visitor to sign in.
What Adding a Feature Does
When you add one of these features to your Portal, Rhythm creates the full set of pages for you, including their addresses and any menu entry listed above. You do not build these pages one at a time in a page designer.
Some pages open a specific record, such as a program, course, course offering, or exam, and need that record’s identifier in the page address. Certifications adds the identifier automatically when it links to one of its own pages, so you only need to plan for it when you link to one of these pages yourself from another place on your site. The certification application process page is one example. You cannot add it as a standalone menu item because it needs a certification program’s identifier to work. Members reach it correctly by starting on the Browse Certification Programs page, opening a specific program, and then choosing to submit an application. Certifications supplies the identifier during that flow.
The Activities feature’s certification activity pages work the same way for a specific activity type. For example, logging a historical exam opens the built-in activity process page for the exam type, at an address that ends with the activity type’s identifier. Certifications builds that link automatically when it sends someone to log that kind of activity, so you would not set it up as a plain menu link.
Certification activity reporting depends on the Activities feature’s supporting components being installed and working correctly. If the activity-reporting page loads empty after someone chooses a certification type, the feature may need to be reinstalled rather than adjusted in display options.
Warning
Do not link directly to a file stored on an activity record using its raw stored address. That address is an internal service location, not a public URL. If you follow it directly or build a Portal link from it, the browser can show a routing error, such as an Angular “Cannot match any routes” message that references the internal path, instead of opening the file.
Adding Pages Later
The feature catalog is the same for every Rhythm account. If Certifications adds a page to a feature you already added to your Portal, your Portal does not receive the new page automatically. Add that feature again to make the new page available in your account.
The columns on a built-in page, such as the My Certifications page, are controlled by that page’s own component, not by your Portal’s page design tools. If you need a column that is not already there, such as a renewal date, your Portal designer cannot add it; you need to request it as a product enhancement.