Display Name

The name of the field as it will appear on the MIDM.

Input Mask

A mask used by the GUI to add punctuation to a field. For example, if users enter the date in the format MMDDYYYY, you can add an input mask to display the dates as MM/DD/YYYY. Use the value mask (described below) to strip the punctuation from the value before storing it in the database.

To define an input mask, enter a character type for each character in the field and place any necessary punctuation between the character types. For example, the input mask for the above date format is DD/DD/DDDD.

• D - indicates a numeric character.

• L - indicates an alphabetic character.

• A - indicates an alphanumeric character.

Note that the value you enter can further restrict the data pattern for the field (this is the Pattern field property described in Master Index Wizard General Field Properties). The following character types can be used.

Value Mask

A mask used by the index to strip any extra characters that were added by the input mask (see above). This mask ensures that data is stored in the database in the correct format.

To specify a value mask, type the same value as is entered for the input mask, but type an “x” in place of each punctuation mark. For example, if an SSN field has an input mask of DDD-DD-DDDD, specify a value mask of DDDxDDxDDDD to strip the dashes before storing the SSN. A value mask is not required for date fields.

Search Screen

An indicator of whether the field appears on the search windows of the MIDM. Specify true to display the field or false to hide it.

Required

An indicator of whether the field must be populated on the search windows of the MIDM when performing a search. This property can only be modified if the Search Screen property is set to true (see above). Specify true to make the field required or specify false to make it optional. You can also specify oneof to create a group of fields of which at least one must be populated to perform a search. (Be sure to specify oneof for each field in the group.)

Tip - If a field is required for a search, the field should also be required for creating a record (by specifying true for the Required property on the Properties page). Otherwise, searches performed from the MIDM could result in no matches even though possible matches exist.

Search Result

An indicator of whether the field appears on the search results windows of the MIDM. Specify true to display the field, or false to hide it.

Report

An indicator of whether the field appears on the reports generated from the MIDM. Specify true to display the field on the reports; otherwise specify false.