SLED (Saved Lists)

Saved Lists are at the core of automated processes in Colleague. At least of my processes. A Saved List is a list of unique identifiers created using the Saved List Editor screen, SLED. I tend to call Saved List “SLEDs,” sloppy language, but I’m sticking with it.

To create a SLED, identify the list you’re working with. I’ve got SLEDS that work with student IDs, student programs, student academic credits, and so on. Build it in Excel. Then open the SLED screen and paste the list in. Be careful to include leading zeroes, and be on the lookout for special characters, spaces, that sort of problematic thing.

Besides being useful on their own, they’re useful in “savedlist alchemy,” boolean arguments to chop up or exclude lists (for example: A list of all student academic credits from the Spring semester, EXCLUDING a list of all student academic courses that have been applied to a program, makes a useful list of courses students have pursued for reasons that are mysterious or misguided. Good stuff!

POWER TOOL: Informer has the ability to use a SLED as a filter (the “get list” argument.) For complex reports it may not be possible to do all your queries entirely within Informer, and this gives you a staging area for sub-reports and reducing database load for frequently used lists.

AMAZING POWER TOOL: …and once you’ve learned to import SLEDS in Informer, you can use Scheduled Reports to export saved lists directly to Colleague. There is huge deep magic in being able to establish conversations between your reporting tool and your database.

TIME SAVER: If you find yourself doing repetitive manual tasks on a large number of students (changing 500 student addresses), you can use the @select trick to speed the process up. Make a SLED, then go to the screen you’re mass updating (say, SACP/Student Academic Programs), and instead of typing in the student’s ID#, enter @Select to import the entire SLED list of student IDs. Update one, then type @@ to move to the next entry.

Bulk Degree Audits: To quickly review a huge number of students, build a SLED containing student program IDs (0637538*WELDING.BA, for instance), and then the batch degree audit screen BEVL will export a massive PDF of all student degrees. The ability to review an entire departments students while eating lunch, huge time saver.