Configuring the VRL group field properties

Both groups and masks serve as templates for defining the data fields in a record layout. A mask defines only a single data field. A group defines many related fields.

A group is a set of logically related data fields and is used to define a multiple field format in multiple places. For example, an address group contains fields for street, city, state, and zip.

After defining a group, you can use it as a template for declaring groups of data fields in the record layout.

  1. Create a new group by selecting Define > Define Groups and clicking New Group.
  2. After giving the group a name, click New Field.
  3. For Name, specify the group field name.
  4. For Data Type, click the arrow to select from a menu of data types.
  5. For Prefix, specify the characters that precede this field. This separates it from the previous field in the record layout. This value is optional.
  6. For Postfix, specify the characters that follow this field. This separates it from the next field in the record layout. This value is optional.
  7. For Min Width, specify the minimum width of the field, not including any prefix.
  8. 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 is truncated.
  9. For SF Sep, specify a subfield separator character.
  10. 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 found inside escape-sequence pairs are considered escaped, and 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}.
  11. 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 may 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.
  12. For validation, select whether fields are validated at parse time or retrieve time.
    For Validate at Fetch, click to validate 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.
    For Validate at Parse, click to validate 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Select how to define the field.
    For Normal, click to define the field format by the current field entries, instead of a mask or group. This is the default setting.
    For Mask, click to define the current field with a mask. Click the arrow to open a menu listing available masks.