3240171 - Adding instruction element in Candidate Profile Template displays an error - Recruiting Management

When user tries to add instruction element <instruction> in Candidate Profile Template right before the background elements, an error message displays in Provisioning.

The system encountered error(s) when importing the template.
Errors Validating Recruiting Template: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 1234; columnNumber: 12; The content of element type "candidate-profile-data-model" must match "(template-name+,template-desc?,template-lastmodified?,(instruction-header?|(instruction-header-internal-candidate?,instruction-header-external-candidate?)|(instruction-header-external-candidate?,instruction-header-internal-candidate?)),operator-instruction-header?,field-definition+,(instruction-footer?|(instruction-footer-internal-candidate?,instruction-footer-external-candidate?)|(instruction-footer-external-candidate?,instruction-footer-internal-candidate?)),operator-instruction-footer?,search-display-options-config?,candidate-summary-display-options-config?,background-element*,sm-mapping*,field-permission*,button-permission*)".

1. Go to Provisioning > Managing Recruiting > Edit Candidate Profile Template;
2. Edit the XML adding instruction element as the below right before the background elements:
   <instruction>
     <label mime-type="text-html"><![CDATA[<b>Instruction</b>]]></label>
   </instruction>
3. Click to Save Form and error will display.

This happens because although the instruction message is displayed right above its respected background element, the instruction element should be added inside background element session.

Please add instruction element inside background element session, as per example below:

<background-element id="areasOfInterest" type-id="100">
  <label xml:lang="en_US"><![CDATA[Areas of Interest]]></label>

<instruction>
<label xml:lang="en-US" mime-type="text-html"><![CDATA[<b>Instructions about Areas of Interest</b>]]></label>
</instruction>

  <data-field id="areaOfInterest" field-name="vfld1" required="true" max-length="4000" anonymize="false">
    <label><![CDATA[Area Of Interest]]></label>
    <picklist id="areaOfInterest"/>
  </data-field>
  <data-field id="yrsExp" field-name="vfld2" required="true" max-length="4000" anonymize="false">
    <label><![CDATA[Years of Experience in this Area]]></label>
    <picklist id="yearsOfExp"/>
  </data-field>
</background-element>

Please note that the instruction element <instruction> only can be used for background element fields, it cannot be added to other candidate profile sections.

Furthermore, this is a customization and it can result in unexpected behavior. In this case, we do not provide support.

Alternatively, you can add header and footer instructional text, to check how to configure it please refer to our SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Management Implementation Guide:

Candidate Profile Element: Instruction Text for Internal and External Candidates

Candidate Profile Element: Instruction Text for Recruiting Users

instructions, CPT, <instruction>, background elements , KBA , LOD-SF-RCM-CAN , General Candidate Issues (not Offers, not Profiles) , Problem