Overview
The Automated Academic Registration Numbering Format setting lets an institution define the exact “shape” that every student’s Global Registration Number (also referred to as the Academic Registration Number — the two terms refer to the same field) must follow. This includes which character(s) the number is allowed to start with, and how many digits long it must be.
The setting is found under:
Main Settings > General Settings > Student Form > Default Values > Automated Academic Registration Numbering Format
Once configured, Classter uses this format either to validate numbers that staff type in manually, or to shape the numbers that Classter generates automatically, depending on how student numbering is otherwise configured (see Section 4 and the related “Enable Automated Academic Registration Numbering” setting in Section 7).
What This Setting Does
In simple terms, this setting is a pattern rule for registration numbers. It has two parts:
- Allowed starting character(s): one or more digits (or characters) that a valid registration number is allowed to begin with. You can list more than one allowed starting value, separated by commas.
- Required total length: the exact number of digits the registration number must contain — not a minimum or a maximum, but an exact count.
Both conditions must be true at the same time for a registration number to be considered valid. If a number matches the allowed starting value(s) but has the wrong number of digits (or vice versa), Classter will not accept it.
The format is written using two bracketed groups, one after the other: the first bracket holds the allowed starting value(s), and the second bracket holds the required total length, for example: [3,4,5,6][5].
When a value that is being saved does not match the configured format, Classter blocks the save and shows a warning message explaining what the correct format is (see Section 5 for a worked example of this message).
Where It Is Used
This setting affects the Global Registration Number field wherever it appears for a student:
- On the student’s own record, in the Basic Data (Profile) area of the Student form. This is the current, primary location of the field.
- On the Demographic Data tab of the Student form, the field is still visible for reference, but it is read-only there and carries an information icon explaining that the editable version of this field has moved to the Basic Data (Profile) tab.
- On the main Admission data entry form (used both for new admissions and for re-registration), whenever an applicant’s identification document is set to use the Global Registration Number.
- On the Quick Admission (self-registration) form, where an applicant registering themselves may be asked to provide a Global Registration Number as their identification document.
When the check happens: on the Student form, the format is checked when the record is saved. On the Admission form, it is checked as part of the form’s normal validation. On the Quick Admission (self-registration) form, it is checked as soon as the applicant leaves the field, before they even submit the form. In every case, the intent is the same: catch a badly formatted number before it is stored.
Business Logic / Behavior
The following rules can be inferred directly from how the setting behaves:
- Both conditions are mandatory. A registration number must start with one of the configured values and have exactly the configured number of digits. Meeting only one of the two conditions is not enough.
- Multiple starting values are supported. You can allow more than one starting digit (e.g. numbers may start with 3, 4, 5, or 6) by separating the allowed values with commas.
- The length is exact, not a maximum. A configured length of 5 means the number must have precisely 5 digits — not “up to 5” and not “at least 5”.
- This setting only takes effect where manual entry is possible. Whether staff (or applicants) can type a Global Registration Number at all — and whether Classter checks it against this format, generates it automatically, or both — depends on the companion setting that switches automatic numbering on or off (see Section 7). This format setting has no visible effect until that companion setting is configured to allow either manual entry or automatic generation.
- Fully automatic numbering: when registration numbers are generated entirely by Classter, the Global Registration Number field is not editable by staff, and Classter is expected to generate new numbers that already respect this format, so nobody has to think about the pattern.
- Manual or overridable numbering: when staff can type or edit the Global Registration Number, whatever is entered is checked against this format before the record can be saved. If it doesn’t match, saving is blocked.
- Assumption (not fully confirmed): in configurations where an automatically generated number can still be manually overridden afterwards, Classter has been observed to check that the overridden number is not already used by another student, but it is not confirmed whether the shape of the format (start/length) is re-checked in that specific scenario. Institutions relying on this scenario should verify the behavior in a test environment before depending on it.
- The pattern is a general Classter convention. The same “starting value(s) + exact length” style of format is reused for similar numbering settings elsewhere in the system (for Educational Programs and for Employment Contracts — see Section 7), so once you understand this format here, the same logic applies to those areas too.
Example(s)
Example 1 — Setting up the format
Alpha Academy wants every student’s Global Registration Number to always start with either 7 or 8 (for example, to indicate the current intake), and to always be exactly 6 digits long. The administrator configures the setting as:
|
Setting value |
[7,8][6] |
|
Meaning |
Must start with 7 or 8, and be exactly 6 digits long |
|
Number entered |
Result |
Reason |
|
784321 |
Accepted |
Starts with 7 and has 6 digits |
|
812345 |
Accepted |
Starts with 8 and has 6 digits |
|
684321 |
Rejected |
Does not start with 7 or 8 |
|
78432 |
Rejected |
Starts correctly, but only has 5 digits |
If a staff member at Alpha Academy tries to save student Jordan Lee’s profile with the Global Registration Number typed as 684321, Classter blocks the save and displays a message similar to:
“Global registration number must begin with 7,8 and have exactly 6 digits”
The staff member then corrects the number (for example to 784321) and saves again successfully.
Example 2 — Multiple allowed prefixes
Beta Institute runs several programs and wants registration numbers to reflect that numbers issued under any of four different intake groups are all valid, as long as they are 5 digits long. The setting is configured as [3,4,5,6][5]: the number must begin with 3, 4, 5, or 6, and have exactly 5 digits. A number such as 30456 is accepted; a number such as 20456 is rejected because it does not start with an allowed digit, and a number such as 3045 is rejected because it is only 4 digits long.
When to Use
When to Enable
- The institution wants every Global Registration Number to follow one consistent, predictable structure — for example, so numbers look consistent on printed documents, ID cards, or exports.
- The institution wants the starting digit(s) of a registration number to carry meaning (for example, to distinguish an intake year, campus, or category), while keeping the total length the same for everyone.
- The institution wants to reduce data-entry mistakes by having Classter automatically reject malformed numbers before they are saved.
- The institution already has (or is about to define) a clear, agreed numbering convention it wants enforced consistently across all new student records.
When to Disable (leave unconfigured)
- The institution does not use a fixed structure for registration numbers, or numbers can legitimately vary in length or starting character.
- The institution is migrating historical student records from a previous system, and existing registration numbers do not follow a single consistent pattern. In this case, it is generally safer to leave the format unconfigured until the migrated data has been reviewed or cleaned up, to avoid blocking legitimate historical records from being saved or edited.
- Registration numbers are managed entirely outside Classter (for example, imported from another system) and are not expected to follow any particular shape.
Notes
K-12 versus Higher Education (College) Mode
Based on how this setting and the Global Registration Number field behave in the application, there is no observed difference between K-12 mode and Higher Education (College) mode. This format setting applies the same way regardless of whether the Higher Education / College Customization mode is enabled or disabled, and no separate configuration is needed for either mode.
Prerequisites
- The “Enable Automated Academic Registration Numbering” setting (the companion setting that determines whether registration numbering is manual, fully automatic, or automatic-but-editable) should be configured first. The format described in this article only has a visible effect once that companion setting allows either manual entry or automatic generation of registration numbers.
- Before enabling a strict format on an institution that already has existing student records, it is advisable to confirm that existing Global Registration Numbers already conform to the intended format, so that editing an older record does not unexpectedly fail validation.
Related Settings
- Enable Automated Academic Registration Numbering (“Main Settings > General Settings > Student Form > Default Values – Enable_Automated_Academic_Registration_Numbering”) — the master switch that determines whether the Global Registration Number is entered manually, generated automatically, or generated automatically but still editable. This setting works together with the format described in this article.
- Automated Academic Registration Numbering Format – Auto Mode (“Main Settings > General Settings > Student Form > Default Values – Automated_Academic_Registration_Numbering_Format_Auto_Mode”) — a companion format used specifically when numbers are generated fully automatically; instead of typed starting digits, it lets the starting part of the number be based on a system category (for example, a student category) rather than a fixed digit.
- Educational Program Registration Numbering Format (“Main Settings > General Settings – Educational_Program_Registration_Numbering_Format”) — applies the same starting-value-plus-length concept to numbering of Educational Programs rather than students.
- Automated Employment Contract Numbering Format (“Main Settings > General Settings – Automated_Employment_Contract_Numbering_Format”) — applies the same numbering concept to staff employment contract numbers.
- Academic Identification Number Selection and its related display settings (such as Gradebook Identification Number Selection) — these do not affect the format itself, but control which identifier (Student Code, National ID, Global Registration Number, etc.) is displayed to staff in grids and gradebooks.
Main Settings/ General Settings/ Student Form/ Default Values /Automated Academic Registration Numbering Format
Here, you can set a specific format for the Academic Registration Numbering of students.
Example
Setting -> [3,4,5,6][5]
That means the Global Registration Number must begin with 3,4,5,6 and have exactly 5 digits.
If you try to save a number that does not match, the system will notify you with the appropriate message, as shown in Figure 1&2.
Figure 1
Figure 2
