Configuring the VRL field

Variable-length flat-records consist of one or more fields, which can have one or more subfields (optional), which can have one or more subsubfields.

A VRL must match the data to or from the ancillary system, or incorrect results are produced.

  1. To create a new file or open an existing one, select Define > Define Fields.
    To create a new field, click the New Field tool. This places a new field folder in the Layout pane.
    To reconfigure an existing field, open the file to edit. In the Layout pane, click the field to reconfigure. Its current properties display in the Field Properties pane.
  2. Specify the field name.
  3. For Prefix, specify the characters that precede this field. This separates it from the previous field in the record layout. This value is optional.
  4. For Postfix, specify the characters that follow this field. This separates it from the next field in the record layout. This value is optional.
  5. For Min Width, specify the minimum width of the field, not including any prefix.
  6. For Max Width, specify the maximum width of the field, not including any prefix. To disable, specify a value of -1. This is the default. For a specific width, specify the value. Incoming data larger than that value are truncated.
  7. For SF Sep, specify a subfield-separator character.
  8. For Escape Pair, specify a start escape-sequence character and an end escape-sequence character. Escape-sequence characters are useful when using field-separator characters in the data. The default is "". Unique or identical characters are permitted.
    All separator characters that are found inside escape-sequence pairs are considered escaped. When retrieving data, they are not considered as separators.
    When encoding VRL data, if separator characters are found in the input data, they are escaped by embracing them with escape-sequence pair characters. For example, {Last, First} is encoded to {Last"," First}.
    For Tag, specify a user-defined string. If one field has a tag, then all fields must have tags. The Tag name can be the same as Name (for example, "last name" for both. Or, it can be unique. For example, "last name" for Name and "ClientLN" for the Tag name.
    This option is available only when Use Tagged Fields is selected on the Global Properties dialog box. See Global properties .
  9. Select the validation:
    Validate at Fetch validates the field whenever this record layout is retrieved or used for an input or output operation. With this selected, messages with an invalid field are parsed, but a warning is given.
    Validate at Parse validates the field when the data is parsed. This option forces validation even when the field is not used. With this selected, messages with an invalid field fail when parsed.
  10. Select how to validate the subfield data whenever this record layout is used as an input or output record.
    Existence validates the existence of the data, but not its content.
    Contents validates the type of data, but not its existence.
    Existence and Contents validate both the existence and the content of the data.
  11. Select how to define the field:
    Normal defines the field format by the current field entries, instead of a mask or group. This is the default setting.
    Mask defines the current field with a mask.
    Group defines the current field with a group.