West Kingdom College of Heralds | Awards Lists - Royalty -- How the Recommendations Work

Purpose: This page is aimed at assisting royalty who have never used this version of the Recommendations system before to be familiar with the basics. This is a relatively simple system -- when a recommendation is created using the form on the Awards List site (from the Who's Who or from here), the information is emailed to the royalty, with a copy to the person making the recommendation. However, this information is also stored in a table in the awards database specifically for this purpose.

If You are here, You should see -- in the Awards List menu, a link above the one You clicked to view this page titled simply "Recommendations", or You can bookmark the page to make it faster, or You may have gotten an email with the link to the recommendations page. When You select that (however You get to it -- including the link below this paragraph), You will need to login. If You do not have the username, please contact the Golem Herald, by sending an email (click this link): Email Golem Herald).

The Recommendations Page

If You don't know the username, You will most likely need a password as well. Golem should change the password for You, which will send an email to the standard email address for the royalty (crown@westkingdom.org, or the appropriate address for Your area, including Baronies ...). It won't include the username, just for security purposes. If you also need the Username, be sure to let the Golem Herald know, and a second email will be sent with just the username, and not the password. This is for general security purposes.

The login form is a pretty standard one:

When You login as a "royalty user", this will take You directly to the recommendations screen.

If there are issues with logging in, please contact Golem (see link above). Regarding the bit about "cookies" -- we don't use the standard "browser" cookies -- ones that are stored in the browser's data. Instead we use a table that stores really basic information for up to 30 days, that allows you to not have to enter the username/password each time you come back to the recommendations form. Once 30 days pass, you'll have to login again, and if you come to the site from a different device you may have to login again.

Recommendations

When You have successfully logged in, You should see a screen like the one below (without the red arrows on it). The red arrows on this point to two buttons You can use. The first will take You to the part of the screen with the list of recommendations -- we'll come back to that. The second button will expand a set of instructions, meant to help explain Your options.

If You click the "More Instructions" button, this part of the screen will expand (clicking it again will collapse it), and provide details. If the wording here doesn't exactly match it's because as time moves forward, sometimes new options are added, or perhaps the wording was altered a bit to be more clear.

There is a form under the instructions, which we will look at shortly. Basically the list of recommendations doesn't show all the details, because that format is difficult to do this with. So instead, if You navigate to the bottom using the first button (Navigate to list), You will see a grid display. It should be noted that the example records were created for the purpose of testing everything and not real recommendations. By the time You are seeing this, the recommendations are the real thing.

The Grid/List

The following is an example of what the grid/list of recommendations should look like. There are four buttons (currently) to sort the information. The idea is that if You want to examine one of these recommendations in detail, You can click on it, and it will be placed into the form above.

The Sort Buttons: It should be noted that the code executes pretty quickly here -- at first glance it might not look like anything happened until You've examined the screen in detail. The text that explains how it is sorted should help. The checkbox does need You to click a button, per the instructions given, however once You click that it stays that way until the next time You bring up the screen, or if You change it.

To view a recommendation, click on it. The screen will navigate for You to the top of the recommendation, where all the information is provided.

Recommendation Form

For this example, I clicked on "Amalric de Montfort" ... this takes me back up to the top of the page, and shows a lot of information. Note that while You cannot edit most of what is shown, there are a few items at the bottom You can, if You choose to use them, and we'll explain a bit. Hopefully most of this makes sense without a lot of explanation.

Scrolling down a bit more ...:

This part of the screen includes information about the person who recommended the award, with a button You can click and send an email to them, asking for more detail. If You click the (small green, on the right of the email address) email button, You should see a window pop up for You to add Your questions to.

The edit window there shows the current recommendation, and allows You to to scroll down a little, and enter Your question or questions.

You can either just close the form, which won't do anything, or click the "Send Email" button, which will do as it says. You will receive a copy of the original email, and the person who made this recommendation should receive a copy. (Note the word 'should' in the previous sentence -- we have no control over whether the recommender typed their email address correctly -- typos happen.)

When the email is sent the software will automatically sign it as "The Crowns of the West", or the "Coronets of ..." and the branch, or appropriate titles (heirs are taken into consideration here). This means You don't have to be concerned with adding a signature.

The rest of this part of the form is a bit more detailed. You can add notes which are only there for Your use. You can choose to mark a recommendation as being completed by checking the "Award Given" checkbox -- this is useful if You or Your predecessor(s) have given this recognition -- it lets You know when viewing the list that this has been done. An extra feature here is that if You check this box, and save the recommendation, then the grid will show both the checkbox for "Award Given", but will also highlight the row in yellow. When the recommendation is saved, a note will be added to the "Royalty Notes" that gives the date, the status of the checkbox, and by which user name. This may be useful for a recommendation when You have decided to do or not do something, and then moved on, and Your successors decide to examine things. You can even add a note to that, to explain, if You wish.

The two delete buttons -- one can delete a specific recommendation, but You have to click on it first. The other will delete any rows that are marked as "Award Given". This may be useful to just clear them out of the data. Note that these options only affect the region You are royalty for (so a Baron/Baroness selecting the "Delete Award Given" button will only affect recommendations for Their Barony, and no one else).

For Upcoming Court option is meant to be useful by allowing You to select a set of recognitions You plan on acting on (check the box, save the recommendation). When You save this, the checkbox will appear checked in the grid, and the row's background will be blue. Once You have chosen those You plan on giving, You can click the "Create Court List" button -- this will a) create an email to Your email address, and b) create a CSV file (can be read in Excel or Google Sheets, or ...) with some of the information shown including the "Notes by Royalty" box. The email will be sent, and when that is complete (give it a moment, connecting to a mail server may give a pause in what is normally some fairly fast processing), the grid will be re-displayed and each of the recommendations You had selected will have the "Award Given" checkbox selected, the "For Court" checkbox will be cleared ...

The CSV file: If You need assistance with this, You may contact Golem, or You may have someone on Your court who understands how to work with them. They are meant to assist if You wish to use them, but it is not necessary that You do so. Each set of Royalty may have different means of handling things.

Questions?

If You have any questions, You can send them to the Golem Herald. The Golem Herald is Your Servant, and willing to assist in whatever way possible.