Editing record, terse view

The Edit-Viewing Window is the primary Dialog used in the tool. Here the data record content can be examined or changed as needed. Data stewards and standards creators spend most of their time here refining the data concepts for each record in the standard.  Data Users and Deployments use this page to quickly determine relevant information about the entry.

This Dialog is rather complex, and here it is broken up into two major sections. The first deals with the controls that are displayed in the terse mode - often this data is sufficient for many needs. The second deals with the verbose mode where some additional controls are also presented.

Beginning with the controls displayed in the TERSE mode...

Record Title The title of the window displays the mode (Edit or View) as well as the relative position of the current record in the current table (here the 4th record of 114 total). [Top]

Move <- Last This button moves to the previous record in the table. When the first record is reached, it moves to the last record in the table. [Top]

Move Next -> This button moves to the next record in the table. When the last record is reached, it moves to the first record in the table. [Top]

Verbose Mode The button toggles between the Terse and Verbose modes of display. In the terse mode, fewer controls are displayed than in the verbose mode. The verbose mode displays more controls and is described on the next page. [Top]

Raw DB This button will launch MS Access and open the current database file to allow direct editing and viewing of the tables in the file. Any changes made in this mode are not automatically seen by the Mini-Edit tools, so avoid changing records or tables that the tool is currently working on. If you do so, allow Mini-Edit to re-load the record, table, or file when done so that it can re-establish current data. [Top]

Status Text The status text area displays a large number of meta-data items about the data record. These are all values required by IEEE 1488/89 and have similar names and uses in ISO 14817. Several other items felt to be of no value (such as a steward's phone number) are not displayed. Perhaps the only one of these of value to most users is the Changed date which shows when the record was last edited.   Note that each time you edit the record this is updated.  Your user name is stripped in below it as the last user who changed the data (you can see your user name above this section of text). The data steward name (which may be you or may be someone else) is stripped in when the record is locked. The Published area provides data regarding records published in multiple volumes, displaying a comma separated list of the volumes the record will appear in. The small E button next to this allows editing these volumes. This is how a record is assigned to one or more volumes. Databases which do not publish in volumes can ignore this feature (their vol-map meta-data content is either blank or set to 00). [Top]

Record Name The Descriptive Name of the record is displayed here [Top]

Description The Definition field of the record is displayed here. The textual entry area of the control is a rich text control; when it is active, a rich text editor is displayed. [Top]

ASN Code The ASN code section of the control consists of several fields into which the ASN is placed in accordance with the rules of IEEE 1488/89. The ASN.1 Name field contains the proper type definition name of the ASN entry. The Data Type contains the primitive ASN type which is used in data elements (it is not used, nor displayed in data frames, messages or Dialogs). The Valid-Value-Rule area (also called the message body) is used to hold the rest of the ASN production. For simple types this means all restrictions, comments and enumerations. For complex types, this means the complete rest of the ASN listing after the name. The small drop down box provides some basic primitive types which can be selected as a pattern starting point when creating new entries. They will, for example, fill-in the data type and valid value rule with a well structured enumeration listing which the user can further modify. The templates are loaded from the table ASN_Templates in the MEdit_Settings.mdb file and can be extended by the user if desired. The check box Move-To (typically left enabled) instructs the tool to move any extraneous content found in the data type field into the valid value field. Early ITS data dictionaries from some SDOs had such content. Like the other editing areas, the small E command will start an external Edit window using whatever tool you have registered. Return the final text using the clipboard and cut and paste. [Top]

Remarks The Remarks field of the record is displayed here. The textual entry area of the control is a rich text control; when it is active, a rich text editor is displayed. [Top]

Rule Check This command invokes rule checking on the current record. If a rule check has not yet been run, the Rule Selection Dialog is displayed to establish what rules will be used. The Record Entry Error Report will then be displayed. [Top]

Report This command creates (renders) the current record into a word report format. If MS Word is not open and active, it is opened. If it is open, the report is appended to the end of the current document. [Top]

Build XML This command invokes the XML Editor, used to create or update the XML portions of the record. [Top]

Link Report This command invokes and displays a Link Cross Link report which will show every other record that uses this record in its ASN listings. The small textual label above the button shows how many such linkages were found (this is checked when the record is first loaded). [Top]

Revert This command will discard all edits made to the record by the user and restore it to the last saved version. It becomes active only when the record has been changed and not yet saved. [Top]

Re-Lock This command calculates the locking CRC values for the current record and updates those values (locking the record so that any further changes would be evident). It is only displayed when in a R-W mode and can only be invoked based on the users rights for that table. [Basically only a steward can lock the main tables, while all users can lock the local tables and no user can lock the External DEs tables] The textual display above the button displays what categories of the table are still locked. Hint: If you are a deployment using this tool with a DB provided by a standards group, you would typically want to be provided with a set of locked (and hence authoritative) records. You would then avoid damaging these records in your own re-use of them. [Top]

Save This command will save the record to the table with all changes made at that time. [Top]

Cancel This command will cancel the Edit-View Dialog and return the user to the Main Window. [Top]