Example 5: Atomic Reference

This example demonstrates how to specify an attachment to another record. The import data specifies a record in the Births module that attaches to a Parties record (the Hospital in which the birth took place).

This example also specifies a table (Business Telephone Number) in the Parties module.

The fields loaded are:

Fields

Back-end name
Double Keying KeyingStatus
Hospital BirthFacilityNamRef

The attachment field in the Births module is Hosp./Clinic: (Child):

If we check the Field Level information for this field, the following displays:

The back-end name is BirthFacilityName, but when specifying an attachment field we use its Link name: BirthFacilityNameRef.

For display purposes only, the import data below is presented with column headings listed vertically rather than horizontally. The first row of any tab or comma delimited file must include the column names. The appropriate layout is:

KeyingStatus ChildSurname ChildDateOfBirth
Double Wagana 04-Feb-03
Double Thomas 10-Mar-05
Double Colleson 17-Mar-06

The import data is:

Column Name (must appear as the first row of the import data file)

Record 1

Record 2

Record 3
KeyingStatus Double Double Double
ChildSurname Wagana Thomas Colleson
ChildDateOfBirth 04-Feb-03 10-Mar-05 17-Mar-06
FatherDateOfBirth 15-Jan-75 10-Jul-68 12-May-81
BirthFacilityNamRef.NamPartyType Organisation Organisation Organisation
BirthFacilityNamRef.NamOrganisation S E Lackey Memorial Hospital Aberdeen-Monroe County Hospital Zaieshgan Hospital
BirthFacilityNamRef.NamBusiness_tab(1) 96561245 93470011 95684236

The attachment reference is constructed by combining the Link name for the attachment field with a back-end field name from the attached module.

For example, to specify that the Hosp./Clinic field in the Births module should attach to a record for S E Lackey Memorial Hospital in the Parties module, you might specify:

BirthFacilityNamRef.NamOrganisation

And to specify a row in a table in the attachment module, simply designate the row number (as we've already seen when specifying a table in the same module). For example, the first row in Business: (Telephone Numbers) is specified as:

BirthFacilityNamRef.NamBusiness_tab(1)

When the import is processed a search for a record for S E Lackey Memorial Hospital is initiated in the Parties module; if a record is found it can be used for the attachment. If no record is found, one can be created in the Parties module using the values specified in the data file, and then the two records will be linked together.

The XML for this example is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<table>
	<!--First record-->
	<tuple>
		<!--First the atom fields in the Births module are specified-->
		<atom name="KeyingStatus">Double</atom>
		<atom name="ChildSurname">Wagana</atom>
		<atom name="ChildDateOfBirth">04-Feb-03</atom>
		<atom name="FatherDateOfBirth">15-Jan-75</atom>
		<!--Next the attachment field in the Births module is specified, followed by each atom field in the Parties module-->
		<tuple name="BirthFacilityNamRef">
			<atom name="NamPartyType">Organi<sz>ation</atom>
			<atom name="NamOrganisation">S E Lackey Memorial Hospital</atom>
			<!--As well as specifying atomic fields in the attachment module, tables can also be specified. In this example, the first row in the Business: (Telephone Numbers) table is referenced-->
			<table name="NamBusiness_tab">
				<tuple>
					<atom>96561245</atom>
				</tuple>
			</table>
		</tuple>
	</tuple>
	<!--Second record-->
	<tuple>
		<atom name="KeyingStatus">Double</atom>
		<atom name="ChildSurname">Thomas</atom>
		<atom name="ChildDateOfBirth">10-Mar-05</atom>
		<atom name="FatherDateOfBirth">10-Jul-68</atom>
		<tuple name="BirthFacilityNamRef">
			<atom name="NamPartyType">Organi<sz>ation</atom>
			<atom name="NamOrganisation">Aberdeen-Monroe County Hospital</atom>
			<table name="NamBusiness_tab">
				<tuple>
					<atom>93470011</atom>
				</tuple>
			</table>
		</tuple>
	</tuple>
	<!--Third record-->
	<tuple>
		<atom name="KeyingStatus">Double</atom>
		<atom name="ChildSurname">Colleson</atom>
		<atom name="ChildDateOfBirth">17-Mar-06</atom>
		<atom name="FatherDateOfBirth">12-May-81</atom>
		<tuple name="BirthFacilityNamRef">
			<atom name="NamOrganisation">Zaieshgan Hospital</atom>
			<table name="NamBusiness_tab">
				<tuple>
					<atom>95684236</atom>
				</tuple>
			</table>
		</tuple>
	</tuple>
</table>

When this data is imported into Vitalware using the Typical import options, the following occurs:

  1. The Parties module is searched using the details in the specified Parties fields (e.g.NamOrganisation). If no matching record is found, a record is created in the Parties module and attached to the Births module using the BirthFacilityNam field. If there is a match, the new Births record (created next) is attached to the matching Parties record.
  2. A record in the Births module is created using the values in the Births fields.