D91 Consolidate Contacts at Student 2019.01.23.2

Objective

This plugin adds an option to consolidate duplicate contacts found when looking at a student's profile.

Disclaimers/Known Issues

• PowerSchool has some known issues with consolidation and this plugin does not resolve those. If you perform a consolidation using this plugin and the people are not consolidated, that would have happened whether you used this plugin or not. Please do not report bugs for that.
  • The only bugs that would be mine to solve are those on the student's Contacts page itself.
  • Once you click Consolidate Contacts and are taken to another page, the plugin is not involved anymore.
• No warranties, expressed nor implied, are offered with your use of this plugin. Support is not guaranteed for this plugin. Questions may be posted in the Comments section of this download. Bug reports not listed above should be e-mailed directly to me at allevanc@d91.k12.id.us or you may use the private messaging area of the forum if you prefer.

How to Install the Plugin

You must have PowerSchool 12.0 (or newer) to use this plugin. Contact consolidation was not a part of the system before that.

Feel free to refer to PowerSource article 80644 if you want additional information on installing the plugin. The section of the manual is called Plugin Management.

1. Download the plugin and save it somewhere you can find again shortly. 
2. From the Start page, choose System ► System Settings ► Plugins Management Configuration.
3. Click on Install.
4. Click Choose File next to Plugin Installation File.
5. Browse to the file you downloaded in Step 1 and select it.
6. Click Install.
7. The plugin was installed successfully. should appear at the top. Check the "enable" box for the D91 Consolidate Contacts at Student.
8. Click Enable to complete the installation. You should get Plugin successfully enabled.

How to Update the Plugin

These steps assume that the old plugin is still installed and enabled. If not, the steps may be slightly different.

1. Download the plugin and save it somewhere you can find again shortly. 
2. From the Start page, choose System ► System Settings ► Plugins Management Configuration.
3. Locate D91 Consolidate Contacts at Student in the listing, then click on its name.
4. Click on Update.
5. Click Choose File next to Plugin Installation File.
6. Browse to the file you downloaded in Step 1 and select it.
7. Click Submit.
8. A Loading screen should appear. Depending on how many customizations you have, it may say that for up to 2 minutes.
9. When it finishes updating, you may briefly see a green message about the plugin being updated successfully.
10. A tray should slide open automatically asking if you want to Enable the new version of the plugin. Choose Enable to complete the upgrade.

How to Use the Plugin

1. Search for a student and access their Contacts page.
2. A new column of checkboxes is added to the right as well as a new action item, Consolidate Contacts.
3. For a given contact, check off all of the duplicates and click Consolidate Contacts.
4. If one or more names do not match, a warning appears in case you clicked that by mistake.
5. The rest of the consolidation process is handled by PowerSchool's core consolidation process.

How to Uninstall the Plugin

If you're having issues with the current version, please let me know in the comments tab below. If you decide not to keep the plugin, these are the steps to remove it from your system:

1. From the Start Page, choose System ► System Settings ► Plugin Management Configuration.
2. Find the plugin and click the Delete button on the right.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Last, But Not Least

I hope this helps! Please do me a favor and leave a review (in the Review tab below) if you use my plugin and let me know how it worked for you. If you have general questions, feedback, technical issues, or typos with the plugin or its documentation, feel free to use the Comments tab to let me know. Support is not guaranteed but I'll help if I can.

Thank you!

--Vance M. Allen