Displaying Preferred Names in CommGen Communications
Purpose: This guide explains how to correctly pull a student's Preferred name into a communication—and automatically fall back to the Primary name when a Preferred name does not exist. It also clarifies which BI Publisher fields to use and how the Person Communication Usage settings on the Communication Generation page determine which name type populates your template fields.
Audience: Communication builders.
- ZC CC 3Cs Config
- ZD CC 3Cs Config
- ZZ CC 3Cs Config
- ZZ CC Standard Letter Tbl
College users do not have Correct History access to the Report Definitions page. Please submit a ticket if Correct History changes need to be made to a template, and the appropriate Support team will review and update the Report Definition template accordingly.
Users must have college-specific security roles to access Report Definitions. Users without these security roles will not be able to search for or edit college Report Definitions. Replace ### with your college’s three-digit institution code:
- For edit access to all Report Definitions associated with the college: ZZ Rpt Category ### ALL
- For edit access to Admissions templates: ZZ Rpt Category ### AD
- For edit access to Financial Aid templates: ZZ Rpt Category ### FA
- For edit access to Student Financials templates: ZZ Rpt Category ### SF
- For edit access to Student Records templates: ZZ Rpt Category ### SR
If you need assistance with the above security roles, please contact your local college supervisor or IT Admin to request role access.
You must also set the following SACR Security permissions:
Why Not Use Preferred Name Fields Directly?
- Fields labeled as Preferred Name in the Communication Datasource pull only the Preferred Name type.
- Because most students do not have preferred names on file, pulling these fields directly will often result in blank values.
- For reliable output, use regular name fields (Fld_First_Name, Fld_Name) and let the Person Communication Usage settings (Communication Generation) decide which name type populates the field. ⚠️Name fields must come from the correct datasource folder based on where the name appears in your communication.
CommGen Run Control Setup
- Navigate to Campus Community > Communications > Communication Generation > Process Parameters.
- Under Person Communication Usage, set all three name-type drop-downs (Address Name, Salutation, Extra Name) to Data Svcs Preferred, Pri Name, unless you intentionally need to reference Legal or other name types—which is rare in workflows.
- What this does:
- Inserts the student’s Preferred name if it exists.
- Automatically falls back to the Primary name if no Preferred name is on file.
- Avoids blank name fields (since most students do not have preferred names).
Address Name
- Use for:
- Mailing address block at the top of a letter.
- Address references inside a communication.
- Datasource subfolder:
- rs_PER_ADDRESS
Salutation
- Use for:
- “Dear Jane,”
- “Hello David,”
- Any greeting line
- Datasource subfolder:
- rs_PER_NAME_SAL
Extra Name
- Rarely used. If you do use it:
- Test thoroughly in PCD before sending to Production
- Datasource subfolder:
- rs_PER_NAME_EXTRA
Testing Your Template
- Always test in PCD before moving to Production.
- CommGen behavior varies based on:
- The folders you selected the fields from.
- The Person Communication Usage dropdown settings.
- Whether the student has Preferred, Primary, or Legal names on file.
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