Overview
System Requirements
Installing
Upgrading
Getting Support
Configuration
Data Source Management
Add & Edit Data Sources
Organisations
Add & Edit Organisation
Export Settings
Database Settings
Alert Addresses
Record Creation
Further Settings
Configuration Files
The User Interface
Directory Browser Panel
Objects Panel
Details Panel
Attributes Panel
The Toolbar
Menu Options
Using Directory Integrator
Searching
Submitting via Export Files
Submitting via SQL
Automatically Manage Data
Creating RA Forms
Using Secondary Sources
Templates
Translations
The National Directory
Validation
Pull Connectors
Push Connectors
Reporting
Further Information
Validation
Data Sources
Using Custom Values
Object Attributes
Splitting Database Content
Glossary
 

Using Translation Tables

Translation Tables allow an object's data attributes to be changed according to a set of rules. Some examples of translation use are:

  • applying a default value to an attribute for any number of similar objects
  • correcting the data in an attribute, e.g., replacing "Company Name" with "AAA" in the organisation code attribute
  • add values to an attribute using the content of another attribute as a guide, e.g., when "Company = Company Name" set "Address = Company Address".

When an object is selected, any translation tables that are defined are applied to the object, and any changes displayed in blue in the Attributes panel.

Translations are matched to the object by a specified attribute value. E.g., translation table 1 will be applied to all objects that have "AAA" in the organisation code attribute. All translation tables are applied to each object.

Translations can apply values either only when the object's attribute is blank or can overwrite any existing attribute value.

Setting up Translation Tables

Click on Tools > Translations to open the Translation Tables List form:

All tables are listed on this form. Each is listed with their name and status.

  • Add - adds a new translation table
  • Update - updates an existing translation table
  • Activate / Deactivate -changes the status of the table

Tables can be turned off so that they are not applied to objects. Select a table and click Deactivate. To re-apply the table, click Activate.

To remove tables permanently, set the status to False and then use the "Remove Inactive Entries" option on the Database settings tab.

Configuring a Translation Table

Click on Add and enter a translation table name, or click update for an exiting table. This will open the Translation Manager form:

Each rule in the table determines what action is to be taken. In the above screenshot, the rule is saying "When the Company attribute has a value of "Company Name" then always replace this value with "AAA"".

Click Add to create a new rule. Then complete the following fields:

  • Rule Name - a friendly name for the rule (any value)

  • Value - the filter value for the rule. Click the ellipsis (...) button to open the following form:



    Select the field (attribute), how to match it and the value to match on. Several filter value can be added here and these will be AND'ed together.

  • Apply - whether to apply this value only if the attribute on the object is blank (If Blank) or to always apply this value (Always)

  • Field - the output attribute that is to be updated on the object

  • Result - the value to be written to the output attribute.

Multiple rules can be added to one table. Rules are applied in order from top down and as soon as one rule is matched, the rest are ignored. Therefore it is necessary to create several translation tables rather than have one table with lots of rules.