This article is for Item Bank Managers and Authors.
With Placeholder Item Banks, you can simulate the final home for your content and instantly identify conflicts before you start a bulk move. This planning exercise aims to give you a clear workflow for your content migration, making the process more efficient.
To use this functionality you must first request that it is enabled for your tenancy by the Service Desk. We recommend only enabling this feature when you are actively considering the migration of your content to Item Banks. Speak to the Service Desk for more details.
Preparing your content to migrate from the Unbanked space to Item Banks
To perform the following actions, you must have the Item Bank Manager user role.
1. Create Item Bank Placeholder Names
Locate and click the 'Item Bank migration planning' option in the Settings or Admin drop-down menu.
This will open a modal window where you can create a list of Item Bank Placeholders.
These Placeholders should mirror the names of the Item Banks you intend to establish once you are ready to move your content. At this stage, you are simply compiling a list of potential names to accurately simulate where your content will ultimately reside once the migration is complete.
You can always come back to this list and amend the names of the Placeholder Item Banks.
Click into the input field for the value to edit it directly.
The 'Delete' and the 'Archive' functions are available under the three dot menu.
You can only edit or delete a placeholder if it has not yet been tagged to content. You can still use the "Archive" function to hide any unwanted placeholders at any stage.
2. Tag unbanked content with Item Bank Placeholders
The next stage is to determine which content (currently unbanked) belongs to each Placeholder Item Bank.
This activity may require some time if you already possess a substantial volume of unbanked content. We would recommend starting with the Question Set list and leveraging the existing system metadata you have for your content to precisely identify its future location.
Identifying Content for Placeholders
For example, if your Placeholder Item Banks are structured around subject areas, you could use the following methods:
a. Filtering by 'Created by': Identify authors who are associated with specific subject areas.
b. Using the search function: Look up any subject-specific naming conventions you have previously put in place.
c. Filtering by labels: Utilise any tags or labels you may have employed to categorise your content by subject area.
Once you have located the relevant Question Sets that should belong in the same Item Bank, you can select them within the Question Set list. Then, activate the process by clicking the 'Plan Item Bank migration' action in the bottom panel.
This opens a new modal and allows you to choose from the list of Placeholder Item Banks to tag against the content.
You can also opt to tag all of the individual Questions contained within your selected Question Sets with the same Placeholder Item Bank.
To do this, simply select the dedicated checkbox when processing the Question Sets. This will significantly save you time when you later work through and review your Question list.
Systematically work through your list of Question Sets, as well as any Questions that are currently unattached to Question Sets or those that may require further review.
To facilitate this process, you can both filter by 'Placeholder Item Bank' and add it as a visible column within the Question Set and Question lists.
When working through your Question list, you can also now select a Question and click the 'See Usage' symbol in the bottom panel.
This will show you a list of the Question Sets to which the Question is attached. It also shows the Placeholder Item Bank for those Question Sets.
3. Check for conflicts
It is important to bear in mind that the same Question or Question Set cannot reside in more than one Item Bank.
If you have a Question you wish to place in both Item Bank A and Item Bank B, you must duplicate it so that each Item Bank possesses its own independent copy.
Before you finalise the movement of your content, you need to know which Questions or Question Sets are tagged as belonging to more than one Placeholder Item Bank.
To make these conflicts easier to spot, the 'Placeholder Item Bank' column will display a warning symbol if you have assigned more than one placeholder to the same content item. This symbol will also include a tooltip to remind you of the required duplication action.
You can also use the dedicated filter 'Conflict: Multiple Placeholder Item Banks' to work from a precise list of items that require action.
Remember: Once you have successfully resolved a content conflict (e.g., through duplication), you must ensure you remove the Placeholder Item Bank tag that is no longer relevant.
The content item should then only display the Placeholder associated with its actual, single destination.
4. Create your Item Banks
At this stage you can proceed with creating your Item Banks and defining their access rules. Remember to use your Placeholder Item Bank list as the basis for this activity, to ensure you know which Item Bank corresponds to your tagged placeholders.
See our step-by-step guides for more details on how to create Item Banks and control access:
Advanced Access Controls for Item Banks
5. Move your content
In your Question List, filter your content by a single Placeholder Item Bank. Select the entire list and then choose the 'Move to other bank' option in the bottom panel.
Choose the name of your destination Item Bank and click Move.
If there are any conflicts remaining then you will be informed and asking to take action before making the move. Repeat the above steps as required, until you have moved your content to the Item Bank.
For more information about the move functionality, see Move content to, from, and between Item Banks.
Repeat the filtering step for the next Placeholder Item Bank and so forth.
Once your content has been migrated to your Item Bank, it will still show the Placeholder Item Bank tag. This is intention, so that you can double check post-move.
After you have completed the content migration exercise and no longer need to see the Placeholder Item Banks column or associated features, remember to contact Service Desk who can disable the functionality for your tenancy.