How it works
How badge groups (tracks) work
What a badge group is, how a track is worked out for your agency from ROK's catalog and your own badges, how "3 of 5" is counted, and how a capstone completes it.
A badge group — a track — turns a wall of badges into progress: "First 90 Days", "Quiz Ladder", or a swiftwater curriculum of your own. By the end of this page you will know which badges make up a track in your agency, how a member's "3 of 5" is counted, and how a capstone badge is awarded when the track is finished.
A track is an ordered set, not a badge
A group is never awarded itself — the badges inside it are. It is also separate from a badge's category: the category says what kind of badge it is, the group says which set it belongs to. One badge can sit in several tracks.
The order of a track is the order it is shown in, on the Groups page and on members' badge walls — the order you intend people to work through it. It does not enforce a sequence: the badges can be earned in any order. To make one badge depend on another, give it a Hold another badge step in the badge designer.
Which badges are in your track
Tracks come from two places: ROK's catalog groups, which every agency inherits, and the groups your
agency creates. For any group, the badges that count in your agency are worked out by the database
function private.resolve_group_badges():
- the badges ROK placed in it (catalog groups only), plus
- the badges your agency added, counted once even if ROK already placed them, minus
- every badge your agency cannot award — inactive badges, and catalog badges you have not switched on.
Your additions to a catalog track are yours alone. Another agency using the same catalog track never sees them, because each membership belongs to the agency that made it and the database scopes it to that agency.
The same rule feeds members' progress, the completion counts on the Groups page, capstone steps and level requirements, so the numbers agree everywhere. It also gives you the way to trim a catalog track you only half want: switch the unwanted badge off on Badges (opens the admin console), and it leaves every track's count.
How progress is counted
"3 of 5" is the number of badges in the resolved track that the member holds now. A lapsed or revoked badge does not count; once it is earned again, it counts again.
- Secret badges keep their slot without their name, so the count stays honest without giving the surprise away.
- Inactive groups disappear from badge walls and from the Groups page counts — but a capstone or a level requirement that names one is evaluated exactly as before.
Capstones
A capstone is an ordinary badge with a Complete a badge group step: All of it, or Some of it with a number. It asks one question — does the member hold the set right now? — so it reads current holdings rather than history.
- "All of it" means the track as it stands when it is checked. Adding a badge to the track raises the bar for everyone who has not yet earned the capstone. A capstone already awarded is not taken back because the track grew.
- It is checked when the member is awarded a badge. Earning the last badge in the track is the event that completes it. Trimming a track does not award anyone on the spot; their capstone is checked again at their next badge award.
- A track with nothing in it never completes. If no badge in it can be awarded in your agency, its capstone cannot be earned through that step.
Why a capstone cannot sit inside its own track
If it did, finishing the set would require holding the badge that finishing the set awards — a loop nobody could close. The database refuses the combination from both directions: filing the capstone in the group ("That badge is awarded for completing this group, so it cannot also be inside it."), and adding the step to a badge already in the group. As a further guard, the engine never counts a capstone toward its own group. The badge designer leaves those groups out of the step's list.
What this means in practice
- Build the track first, then the capstone. Create the group, order its badges, then design the capstone outside it — and, if the track should matter for seniority, require it on a rung of the level ladder.
- Check capstones before deleting a group. A Complete a badge group step pointing at a deleted group can no longer be met. Change those badges' steps first.
- Tracks show outside ROK. When a member shares a badge, the active tracks it belongs to are published with it — see How shared badges work.
See also
- ReferenceBadge groupsTracks that turn a wall of badges into progress — your own and the ROK catalog's, with how many members have finished each one.
- ReferenceBadge group editorCreate a track or change one — its name, artwork and the ordered badges in it — or add your own badges to a ROK catalog track.
- ReferenceBadge designerCreate or edit a badge — its details, artwork, tracks, the steps that earn it, whether it is awarded automatically or by hand, and when it expires.
- How it worksHow recognition worksHow training activity turns into points, streaks, badges and levels — what earns points, who decides a badge has been earned, and why reading never pays.
- How it worksHow levels gate on badgesWhy a member with enough points can still be on a lower level — how a rung can require badges, why the climb stops at the first rung missed, and when a lapsed badge moves someone down.