Overview
Every phone number field in Classter includes a country selector – the small flag and dial code shown before the number itself (for example, +1, +44, +357). This selector determines which country’s dialing code and number format apply to that field. The Enable Default Country Code on the Phone Number Inputs setting controls whether Classter automatically pre-selects a country in that selector when a form opens, instead of leaving it unselected and requiring the user to choose it manually every time.
What This Setting Does
When this setting is turned ON, Classter automatically suggests a country for every phone number field as soon as a form loads, using the following order:
- The country already saved on the record itself (for example, the Student‘s or Relative‘s home address country), if one is available.
- If no country is saved on the record, Classter falls back to the institution’s own country.
- If neither is available, the phone field is left blank, exactly as it behaved before this setting existed.
If the country on the form is changed while the user is filling it in (for example, selecting a different address country for a Student), every phone field that is still empty is automatically updated to match the newly selected country. Phone fields that already contain a number are left untouched, so no number already entered is ever silently changed. Any phone field added to the form afterwards also starts with the newly selected country.
When this setting is turned OFF, phone fields start with no country pre-selected. Staff, applicants, or any other user filling in the form must manually choose the correct country code before typing a number.
Where It Is Used
This setting affects every screen in Classter that includes a phone number field, most notably:
- Student profile forms (creating or editing a Student)
- Relative (Parent/Guardian) profile forms
- Teacher profile forms
- Employee profile forms
- Company/institution profile forms
- Admission and enrollment forms, including the public Quick Admission application form that prospective applicants fill in themselves, without logging in
This is a company-level setting. In environments that manage more than one institution inside Classter, each institution can turn this ON or OFF independently – one institution can pre-fill country codes while another leaves the field blank.
Setting location: Enable Default Country Code On The Phone Number: (Main Settings > General Settings > Basic Customization > Core Entities Settings)
This behavior is primarily active on Admission and Profile-type forms. Phone fields that appear in areas with different form layouts (for example, some Finance or Scheduling screens) are not affected by this setting.
Business Logic/Behavior
The following business rules can be observed from how the setting behaves:
- Precedence order: The person or record’s own saved address country takes priority over the institution’s default country, which in turn takes priority over leaving the field blank. Classter always uses the most specific information available before falling back to a general default.
- Non-destructive updates: Changing the country on a form never overwrites a phone number that has already been typed in – it only fills in fields that are still empty.
- Consistency across a form: If a form has several phone fields, all the empty ones follow the same default-country logic together, so they do not end up with different countries pre-selected for no reason.
- Works together with phone format validation: Classter can also check that an entered number matches the expected format for the country selected on that field (for example, a UK number must follow UK formatting). That check is controlled by a separate, related setting, but it depends on a country already being selected – see Notes below.
- Default state: Out of the box, this setting is OFF, so Classter does not assume any particular country unless an institution deliberately turns it on.
K-12 Mode vs Higher Education Mode
In practice, this setting is more often enabled by Higher Education institutions and left disabled by K-12 schools. Higher Education institutions typically serve a broader mix of nationalities and international applicants, so automatically identifying the right country for each person adds real, everyday value. K-12 schools typically serve a mostly local community where the country is rarely in doubt, so leaving the setting off – with no automatic suggestion – is usually sufficient.
Functionally, the setting itself behaves identically regardless of institution type – it does not detect or adapt to whether an institution runs in a K-12 or Higher Education mode. The distinction above describes a typical configuration pattern, not a difference in the underlying behavior. (This adoption pattern is an inference based on the nature of each setting state, not a rule enforced by Classter; either type of institution may configure it either way based on its own student population.)
Example(s)
Example 1 – Mostly local applicants, setting disabled
Northfield International School has this setting turned OFF. When the admissions officer opens a new Student‘s profile to add a Mobile Phone number, the country selector shows no pre-selected flag. The officer must click the selector and choose the country manually before typing the number.
Example 2 – International applicants, setting enabled
Meridian University turns this setting ON because a large share of its applicants come from outside its home country. A prospective applicant, Elena Rossi, opens the public Quick Admission form and enters her home address, selecting Italy as her country. As soon as she does, the Mobile Phone field automatically switches its country selector to Italy (+39), so she does not need to search for it herself.
If Elena had left the address country blank, the phone field would instead default to Meridian University’s own country. Later, if Elena adds a second phone number – for example, a Work Phone field for a sponsor – that new field also opens already set to Italy.
When to use
When to Enable
- The institution enrolls, employs, or communicates with people from many different countries, so pre-filling based on each person’s own saved country genuinely saves time.
- The institution wants to reduce manual-selection mistakes on public-facing forms, such as Quick Admission, where applicants may not think to change the country selector themselves.
- The institution also uses phone number format validation and wants that validation to work reliably, since it needs a country to check the number against.
When to Disable
- The institution prefers every user to consciously choose the correct country every time, with no automatic assumption.
- The institution’s saved country data (on Student, Relative, or other profiles) is incomplete or unreliable, and an incorrect automatic suggestion would be more confusing than no suggestion at all.
- The institution has unusual phone-formatting needs that an automatic default could get in the way of.
Notes
Related Settings
Main Settings > General Settings > Basic Customization > Core Entities Settings: checks that an entered number matches the format of the country currently selected on that field. It is recommended to enable both settings together: without a default country selected, the validation has no country to check the number against.
Prerequisites
- For the institution-level fallback to work, the institution’s own Country must be set on the Company/Institution profile.
- For the person-level default to work (the more specific of the two), the individual’s own address Country field must be filled in on their profile.
- If neither piece of information is available, the phone field simply remains blank, the same as when the setting is off.
Confirmed Behavior vs. Assumptions
- Confirmed: The precedence order between a record’s own country and the institution’s country; the non-destructive update behavior when the form’s country is changed; the per-institution scope; the relationship with the phone format validation setting; and that the setting is OFF by default.
- Assumption: Inferred from the setting’s name and typical usage, not explicitly documented anywhere: the K-12 versus Higher Education adoption pattern described above is a general tendency observed in practice, not a hard rule enforced by Classter. Institutions of any type may configure this setting either way based on their own applicant and community profile.
