Overview

Enable external verification page for benefits is a company-wide setting that controls whether a special, public web page is made available for checking the current status of a person’s identification card issued by the institution. This card, referred to in the system simply as a Card, is typically issued to _Students_, Teachers, Employees, and Parents (Guardians), and can be used as proof of active membership, for example to access certain services, facilities, or privileges offered by the institution. These privileges are referred to in the system as Benefits.

When this setting is turned on, anyone who reaches the verification page, for example by scanning a QR code printed on or linked to a physical card, can see whether that card and its holder are currently active and in good standing, without needing to log in to Classter. When the setting is turned off (the default), the page is not available, and visitors only see a message stating that access is not permitted.

In short, this setting acts as the master on/off switch for exposing a simple, no-login status check of a person’s card to people outside the institution’s Classter portal, such as canteen staff, security personnel, or external partners.

What This Setting Does

When Enable external verification page for benefits is turned ON:

• The external verification page becomes reachable by anyone who has the link or scans the associated QR code, without requiring a Classter username or password.
• The page displays a simple result: a clear Active status (shown in green) if the card and its holder are currently valid, or an Inactive status (shown in red) if not.
• Depending on what your institution has chosen to display (see the related setting External verification page properties for benefits below), the page can also show a limited set of identifying details, such as the person’s photo, name, mobile phone, an identification number, location, card number, or educational program.
• For _Students_, if your institution has chosen to include financial status information, the page can also flag whether the student has an outstanding special due balance that has not been resolved or exempted.
• Every time someone opens the verification page for a card, the system keeps a record of that check, so the institution has a history of when and how often each card was verified.

When Enable external verification page for benefits is turned OFF (the default):

• The verification page is not available to anyone. Instead, visitors who follow the link or scan the QR code see only a short message explaining that they do not have rights to access the page and should contact the institute administrator.
• No card status, personal details, or financial information is shown to anyone through this page while the setting is off.

Where It Is Used

This setting is found under: Admin Settings > Basic Customization > Card Settings section, alongside the other settings that control how identification cards behave (such as card ID formats and card expiration rules).

Unlike most settings, this one does not change anything inside the regular Classter portal menus. Instead, it controls a separate, external page that is normally reached from outside the portal, most commonly by scanning a QR code printed on, or linked to, a physical card. It takes effect the moment someone opens that link or scans that code: no Classter login screen appears, and the result (Active/Inactive plus any selected details) is shown directly.

In practice, this page is meant to be used at the point where a Benefit is granted, for example at a canteen counter, a school gate, a library desk, or an external partner’s premises, so that whoever is checking the card can quickly confirm it is valid before providing the service or discount tied to it.

Business Logic / Behavior

• Master switch, off by default: unless an administrator explicitly turns this setting on, the external verification page is not available to anyone, and no card or personal information can be checked through it.
• A card must already exist: only people who have already been issued a Card (Students, Teachers, Employees, or Parents) can be checked through this page. There must be something to verify before the page can show a result.
• Active means both the card and the person are in good standing: the page shows Active only when the card itself is currently valid (not expired and not otherwise deactivated) and the underlying person’s record is also active. If either the card has expired, has been deactivated, or the person’s record is inactive, the page shows Inactive, or in the case of an expired or invalid card, a specific message that the card is not valid or has expired.
• Optional financial warning for students: if your institution has chosen to include the special due balance information (via the companion setting described below), a student whose card is otherwise Active but who has an unresolved special due balance, without an approved exception, will see an additional warning on the page alongside the Active status. This lets whoever is checking the card know that, although the student is enrolled and active, there may be a financial matter to follow up on.
• Automatic setup on save: as soon as this setting is turned on and saved, the system automatically prepares everything needed in the background so the verification page works immediately for anyone with the link, no further technical configuration is required from the administrator.
• Field visibility is controlled separately: turning this setting on does not, by itself, decide what personal information is visible. That is governed by the companion setting External verification page properties for benefits, described in the Notes section below. By default, only the institute’s name and logo are shown, no personal details, until that companion setting is adjusted.
• Every check is logged: each time the page is opened for a given card, it is recorded as a Benefits check, giving the institution a way to review how and when the page has been used.

Example(s)

Example 1 – Canteen lunch benefit at a K-12 school

Meadow Hill Primary School issues an identification card to every _Student_. This same card also works as a canteen benefit card: enrolled students are entitled to a subsidized lunch. Cafeteria staff, who do not have Classter accounts, need a simple way to confirm a card is valid before serving a meal. The school administrator turns on Enable external verification page for benefits, and configures External verification page properties for benefits to show the student’s photo, name, and card number. From then on, when a cafeteria staff member scans the QR code on a student’s card, a simple page opens showing the student’s photo, name, and card number, together with a green Active banner, confirming the child is enrolled and entitled to the subsidized lunch benefit.

Example 2 – Partner discount at a Higher Education institution

Sunrise Business College partners with a nearby gym to offer its students a discounted membership as a benefit of enrollment. Every student receives an ID card with a QR code. At the gym’s front desk, staff scan the code on their own tablet, which opens the external verification page directly, without needing any Sunrise Business College login. The page shows whether the card is currently Active, letting the gym confirm on the spot that the student is currently enrolled and eligible for the discounted benefit, without exposing any other information about the student.

Example 3 – Flagging a financial matter for a student

At Meadow Hill Primary School from Example 1, the administrator later decides to also include the special due balance field in External verification page properties for benefits, so that unpaid balances tied to the lunch benefit are visible to canteen staff. When a student named in the system as a dummy example, Alex Turner, has an unresolved special due balance, the verification page still shows Alex’s card as Active, but adds a visible warning next to the status, prompting the cafeteria staff to inform the school office rather than deny the meal outright.

When to Use

When to Enable

• Your institution issues identification cards that also serve as proof of eligibility for a Benefit, such as a subsidized meal, a facility access pass, or a discount with an external partner, and that Benefit is granted by someone outside the Classter portal (canteen staff, security, an external partner, and similar).
• You want that person to be able to confirm a card is valid quickly, for example by scanning a QR code, without needing a Classter account or login.
• You are ready to decide, via the related field-selection setting, exactly which details (if any) should be visible on that public page.

When to Disable

• Your institution does not use cards to grant any benefit that needs to be checked by someone outside the Classter portal.
• You are not yet ready to expose any card or personal information outside the portal, or have not yet reviewed and configured which fields would be shown.
• You want to keep card verification strictly internal, for example only through staff who already have Classter access.

Notes

Related Settings

• External verification page properties for benefits/ExternalVerificationPagePropertiesForCardsBenefits (Admin Settings > Basic Customization > Card Settings) – chooses exactly which details (such as photo, name, mobile phone, an identification number, location, card number, educational program, or the special due balance flag for students) appear on the verification page. By default, only the institute name and logo are shown.
• Enable QR code for benefits/EnableQRCodeForCardsBenefits (Admin Settings > Basic Customization > Card Settings) – controls whether a QR code is generated for cards at all. This is normally the main way people reach the verification page, so it is commonly enabled together with this setting.
• Add also the CardID property in QR code for benefits/AddAlsoTheCardIdPropertyInQrCodeForBenefits (Admin Settings > Basic Customization > Card Settings) – includes the card’s own identification number as part of the QR code, in addition to the information already used to identify the cardholder.
• Default expiration date/DefaultCardExpirationDate (Admin Settings > Basic Customization > Card Settings) – determines whether, and when, a card automatically expires. An expired card will show as not valid on the verification page, so this setting indirectly affects the results shown.

Prerequisites

• The person to be checked must already have a Card issued to them. Cards are set up through the other settings in the same Card Settings section (for example, the ID card format settings and the option to automatically create cards when a new person is added to the system).
• Decide and configure which fields the page should reveal, using External verification page properties for benefits, before relying on this page for real checks. Until that setting is adjusted, the page will only show the institute’s name and logo, with no personal information.
• If cards will be checked by scanning, also enable Enable QR code for benefits, otherwise there is no simple way for someone to reach the verification page directly from a physical card.

K-12 vs Higher Education Mode

Enable external verification page for benefits behaves the same way regardless of whether Enable Configuration for Higher Education/Xrisi_parametropoihshs_kolegiou is turned on or off. There is no functional difference between standard (K-12) mode and Higher Education mode for this setting: the Card Settings section, the verification page, and its Active/Inactive logic (including the optional financial warning for students) work identically in both modes.

A Note on Terminology

In this setting’s name and related settings, Cards refers to the identification cards issued to people in the system (Students, Teachers, Employees, and Parents), and Benefits refers to any service, facility, or privilege that a valid card entitles its holder to, such as a subsidized meal, a discounted service, or access to a facility. The exact benefit or benefits offered is defined by each institution’s own policies and is not something Classter itself determines; Classter only provides the tool to verify that a card is currently valid.