The structure and elements of a Registry entry

The Vitalware Registry module is a user-friendly interface to a database of access permissions, functions, display options and other settings applied to individual users, groups or the entire system.

The following diagram illustrates some of the possible values that can be used in the first five keys and how the selection of a value in one key can determine what options are available in subsequent keys:

A Registry entry is made up of a variety of elements: labels, variables, defaults and the value itself. We can represent this as:

Key User User Group Group Group Group
Key 1 User User Group Group Group Group
Key 2 user user group group Default Default
Key 3 Table Table Table Table Table Table
Key 4 table Default table Default table Default
Key 5 Entry
Value value
User user Table table Entry value
User user Table Default Entry value
Group group Table table Entry value
Group group Table Default Entry value
Group Default Table table Entry value
Group Default Table Default Entry value

where:

User

This entry is for a user whose name is given in user.

Group

This entry is for a group whose name is given in group.

user

The name of the user affected by this Registry entry.

group

The name of the group affected by this Registry entry.

Table

The Vitalware module that this entry affects. A module is a user-friendly interface to a database table.

table

The back-end name of a Vitalware module, e.g. eparties for the Parties module. eparties is the name of the database table that holds data entered and displayed in the Parties module.

When a user logs in to Vitalware, the Registry is searched to determine which modules the user has access to (specified in a Table Access Registry entry) and the operations that the user can perform on those tables (specified in a range of Registry entries).

Tip: See Field Level Help for details of how to find the back-end name for modules, tabs and fields.

When a module is referenced in a Vitalware Registry entry, it is the module's back-end name that is used.

Module

Back-end / Table name
Admin eadmin
Audit Trails eaudit
Birth Notices ebirthnotices
Births ebirths
Call Centre ecallcentre
Cash Book ecashbook
Certificates ecertificates
Communications eletters
Correspondence ecorrespondence
Deaths edeaths
Divorces edivorces
Exports eexports
Field Help efieldhelp
Groups egroups
Invoices einvoices
ITOP einduced
Ledger eledger
Lookup Lists eluts
Marriages Bookings emarriagebookings
Marriages emarriages
Match Lists ematchlist
Medical Certificates emedicalcerts
Multimedia emultimedia
No Record enorecord
Orders eorders
Parties eparties
POS epos
Products eproducts
Register Till etill
Registry eregistry
Samples esample
Schedules eschedule
Shopping Cart eshoppingcart
Statistics estatistics
Stillbirths estillbirths
Stock estock
Task Templates etemplate

Default

If Default follows Group, e.g.: Group|Default|...

the Registry entry applies to ALL groups.

If Default follows Table, e.g.: Table|Default|...

the Registry entry applies to ALL modules.

value

The value tells Vitalware which permission, condition or value to apply for the specific circumstance described by the preceding sequence of keys.

value will often refer to one or more tabs or columns / fields in a module.

Tip: See Field Level Help for details of how to find the back-end name for modules, tabs and fields.

If the value comprises multiple entries, each entry is separated by a semicolon:

Group Admin Table Access eparties;eadmin;ebirths;edeaths;edivorces

Values can be displayed in the value field of a Registry entry either as individual items on separate lines or as a string separated by a delimiter.

The default delimiter in Vitalware is a semicolon: when individual values are entered line by line in a Registry entry, they display in the Vitalware back-end as a list of values separated by semicolons. For example, the value in the following entry:

will display in the back-end as:

duQuery;dvQuery;dvDisplay;dvInsert;dvEdit;duInsert;duEdit;duReplace

Read on for details of how to reference Tabs and Fields and Columns:

A tab is a page in a module that displays a number of grouped fields. The Parties module, for example, can have tabs for:

  • Person
  • Organisation
  • Address
  • Roles
  • Associations
  • Biography
  • Synonymy
  • Notes
  • Multimedia
  • Security
  • Admin
  • Audit

Each tab has a unique name which consists of:

  • A prefix of either All or Qry based on its use in Display (All) or Search (Qry) mode.
  • A three-character identifier, usually comprising the first three characters of the label of the tab, e.g. Per for the Person tab in the Parties module.
  • A suffix of Tab.

For example, when referencing the Person tab in aVitalware Registry entry, its unique name is:

  • AllPerTab in Display mode
  • QryPerTab in Search mode

    Note: Rather than listing all tabs, a value of All can be used as a shortcut to display all of the available tabs in a module.

A tab's name is listed under Display Information when accessing the Field Level Help for a field on the tab. For example, when we access Field Level Help for First: (Person Details) on the Person tab of the Parties module in Search mode, we see that the Tab name is listed as QryPerTab:

Tab names are used in Registry entries to determine what tab options are available to a user. For instance, a range of Tabs Registry entries can determine the number, type and order of tabs that display in a module for each user.

A module is a user-friendly interface to a database table: the eparties table for instance holds data entered and displayed in the Parties module. Each field in a module is associated with a column in the table corresponding to that module (e.g. eparties). The following screenshot shows the Field Level Help for the First: (Person Details) fields on the Person tab of the Parties module in Search mode:

As you can see, the First: (Person Details) field has a column name of NamFirst, which is found in the eparties module (database table).

Note: A field name is a label that displays in a module; a column name is the back-end name for a field. Typically, Registry entries reference column names (a back-end reference) not a field name (merely a label).

While there is only ever one instance of a column, its associated field may display more than once in the same module. For example, Party Type displays on both the Person tab and the Organisation tab in the Parties module. If a Registry entry defines access to the column NamPartyType, it will be applied to both instances of the field Party Type.

The Column Access Registry entry is used to specify which privileges users and groups have to columns.

See also:

Column Access Registry entry for details of what privileges can be assigned to users and groups.

Field Level Help for details of how to find the back-end name for modules, tabs and fields.