call_dialer and automated_email in school/v1/users/emergencycontacts/changed

Eric Eskildsen

@Stephen Boyle / all -

I'm looking for info on a couple of emergency contacts properties in the school API: call_dialer and automated_email. These are returned by the "Users emergency contact changes" endpoint. https://developer.sky.blackbaud.com/api#api=school&operation=V1UsersEmergencycontactsChangedGet .

It looks like they indicate whether a user should be automatically called or emailed. But I can't find where to control them in the front end.

For a school I work with, most of their values for call_dialer are Never. The school doesn't know how that happened. We can't find a corresponding field in MySchoolApp.

I tried adding an emergency contact via a user's contact card to test, but I didn't see relevant fields. See screenshot.

When I fetched the contact through the API, the values of both call_dialer and automated_email were set to Emergency Only.

This KB article says:

Core > Users > Bulk Set Emergency Contacts task can be used to set default Call Dialer options for Emergency Contacts.

But there are no fields to control this in "Bulk Set Emergency Contacts" either that I can see. See screenshot.

I see that the KB article mentions Connect 5….Maybe the fields are only visible for schools with that integration?

Do we have any way to edit these fields' values?

And what would have set these values initially?

Stephen Boyle

The field is in the Post endpoints for emergency contacts.
It's not a field in the Import.
Maybe they had the install at one point that was actually uninstalled.

If they don't have access to the field now via UI. The only way to manage it is by API calls - set it in a Post and retrieve it with a Get.

Stephen Boyle

I'd say, for standard school integrations, No. That field is either no longer is use, or was never in use. It was intended only for partners that robocall users. Legacy partner integrations, at that. If you are working with a school actively using one of those partners still, then they might care about that field.

I don't have a way to tell why their data is a mix of values.

Stephen Boyle

@Eric Eskildsen,

These fields are only available on Emergency Contacts for specific partner installs (Connect5 was one, BrightArrow is another).

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315061#Comment_315061

Thanks Stephen -

If a school disconnects Connect5/BrightArrow, are those fields effectively "dead" … they're no longer used and the school loses edit access to them?

Stephen Boyle

If we uninstalled that partner install, that would happen.

But that never really happens. If a school stops using the partner, there is no trigger on our side to remove the installed partner roles/etc. This is all legacy partner stuff - Pre-SKY API

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315068#Comment_315068

Got it….

Where would a school edit those?

For example, a school has a lot of "Nevers," but we don't see a way to change that in the contact card.

Stephen Boyle

On the Contact Card > Emergency contact tile > Manage phones dialog. When you add a new phone, the Automated call field shows.

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315080#Comment_315080

Not seeing those. Here's one school….

GUI:

Those emergency contacts are marked "Never" in the API:

Editing one of them:

Adding a phone number:

I've checked 2 schools so far. A third checked theirs and said they couldn't find fields for this.

My account had all roles assigned.

Stephen Boyle

The Never value is the default
The field only shows for school with one of those partner installs.

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315086#Comment_315086

We're getting different values. Here's for the school I screenshotted:

Call_dialer	Count
Emergency Only	216
Never	342

School #3 that I mentioned has this:

Call_dialer	Count
Emergency Only	696
Every Time	7
Never	5703

Neither school has the fields that we can see.

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315096#Comment_315096

Thanks Stephen. Sorry to keep bugging you with these. Still trying to understand. Here's what I looked at….

I checked MySchoolApp for 4 schools. All 4 had a variety of call_dialer values in the API. But none had the field in MySchoolApp. Trying to understand how they would have set those values without the field.

I checked 8 schools total in the API. There were the 4 I mentioned plus another 4 other that I don't have access to MySchoolApp for. All 8 had a variety of call_dialer values: Never, Emergency Only, Every Time, etc.

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315096#Comment_315096

I guess my bottom-line question here is, Does this field matter?

It seems like the API data alone doesn't answer that….The values are there, but the field may or may not exist in MySchoolApp. So the school may or may not be using them. Or even know about them.

One school that I talked with had no idea where the values were coming from. They went to emergency contact phones in the contact card and there was no field there.

Maybe this is a question I need to ask each onboarding school? "Are you using this field?"

Eric Eskildsen

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/315107#Comment_315107

Makes sense. Thanks for all the help with this!