Name Rules Staging Area

In IMSMA^NG database the rule is unique name per data type and item. In version 5.x it was not possible to specify name when creating Custom Defined Fields (CDFs). It was only possible to specify the label which then also was set as name. Therefore there are CDFs with names like If the answer is No on question 14.1 then fill in the Comment field Medical and Physio or Specify.

In version 6.0 it is possible to set the CDF's name and the name must be according to PostgreSQL rules. The name should be no longer than 60 characters and should not contain periods (.), underscores (_), or capital letters. In addition it cannot start with a digit Add Custom Defined Fields. But CDFs created with version 5.x do not follow these rules so they may be up 250 characters long and contain any character (\ @ ? é ô . space). They may also be written with another alphabet e.g. Arabic.

In IMSMA^NG the CDF name is contents of a database column but in the Staging area database it will be used a column name which of cause must be according to PostgreSQL rules. The Staging Area Generator handles CDF names that do not follow the rules:

• any name longer than 63 characters will be cut off
• any not supported character will be replaced with underscore (_)
• to facilitate working with the Staging area or using it with other applications the column name will be in lower case.