See also:

Keyboard Equivalents ("shortcuts") Using the Paste Multiple Button Linking Image Files Using the STAR Filing System (SFS) Interface

Input forms contain fields defined with the following types of properties:

Property 1:  the type of data allowed in the field, e.g.: text (any keyboard characters, plus symbols and characters with diacritics) numeric-only data full dates with month, day, and year components.

Property 2:  the type of field: a single-occurrence field, represented as a text or text area box, checkbox, listbox, or set of radio buttons a multiple-occurrence (repeating) field a long-text ("rich text") field, which allows for a variable number of characters in a scrollable text box with toolbar selections for applying special effects such as bold and italics and selecting diacritics/special characters in a character map popup chart.

Property 3:  whether free-form or validated, with only valid values allowed (e.g., a valid date with all components/no 00s; terms that are represented in a linked-to authority database) validated against an authority but not "controlled," so that other values can be entered or you can first add the new term to the applicable authority through use of the "create new record" option available in the Picklist report page.

Text and Long-text Fields

1)

Text fields:  These fields can be represented by any of several types of objects: a text or multi-line textarea box, listbox, checkbox, or set of radio buttons. These fields: allow for input of a maximum of up to 1024 characters (and you will be prevented from updating the record if more characters have been input). may be defined to allow for any keyboard character (or pasted-in special character/diacritic) or be limited to numeric or U.S. currency data, or to a limited set of punctuation characters — and they may be defined for upper- and lower-case characters or only upper-case characters. may be free-form or, as described later, provide for validation.

2)

All long-text fields, which allow for any number of characters, have been defined to use a third-party rich-text object.

A text field and a long-text field are illustrated below from the Accessions form.

The rich-text control provides for applying any of these special effects: bold, italics, or underline. It also allows you to represent superscript and subscript characters. The last button, for input of special characters — diacritic marks, currency symbols, miscellaneous symbols — launches a character map.

Instructions for working in the rich-text control are provided by example below. The control provides for automatic word-wrap, but you also have control over the start of new lines or paragraphs.

The last button in the toolbar launches the character map shown below. Select the character at the point at which you want it to be inserted, e.g., an acute accent in André.

Separate documentation is available for how diacritic and other non-English characters, spanning HTML and Unicode representations outside the Latin 1 character set, are handled. If, for example, you have a Greek character from an external source document, you can paste it into the field and it will display properly in the input form and in the search reports. However, you cannot search on these characters that are outside the Latin 1 character set.

Tip.  For convenience, the Title field in the Catalog forms uses the scrolling text box with the several toolbar buttons to make it convenient for working with lengthy titles and applying special effects. However, since the field is a text, not a long-text field, do not use embedded linefeeds.

Repeating Fields

The Creator field shown below illustrates a repeating field — in this case, a repeating field with several subfields that represent separate and discretely tagged data elements within an occurrence.

• to insert a new, first occurrence, click the first +.
• to insert an occurrence below the one that your cursor is on, click the + to the left of the occurrence.
• to delete the current occurrence, click the – to the left of the field.
• to delete data in a subfield, highlight the value and press the Delete key on your keyboard or use ctrl-X.
• to move occurrences into different positions, click in an occurrence and use ALT-uparrow or ALT-downarrow.

See Keyboard Equivalents for shortcut keys in working within a repeating field and moving across fields.

Working in Date-validated Fields

Some date fields in the various input forms are defined for standard 10-digit dates with a / separator, e.g.:  mm/dd/yyyy.

If you prefer to use the European format of dd/mm/yyyy, your STAR system must be configured appropriately, using the DATESTYLE E option in STAR's starsys.opt configuration file. Contact CA Support if you need assistance in making this change. The DATESTYLE setting applies across all STAR applications that have been appropriately defined to support the "date dynamic" feature; you cannot mix and match styles across applications/across databases.

Entering full dates:  Enter the full value, with or without leading zeros, e.g., m/d/yy will automatically be expanded into the full mm/dd/yyy format. Two-digit years will expand to a year that is determined by the base year setting of 1950. This means that 07 will expand to 2007 so, if the date you want to enter is actually 1907, you must enter the full four digits.

Entering "today's" date:  Use either // or ..

If you enter an invalid date, an Error Alert will be generated, as illustrated below in the Catalog form.

The icon displayed in the popup window generated if you click the red X icon is specific to each browser but the message itself is application- and field-specific.

All fields in which your input generates an Error Alert must be emptied (if not a required field) or corrected before you will be allowed to update the record.

Authority-validated Fields and Picklists

The phrase "lookup operation" is used with validated fields to indicate that a round-trip is being made to STAR while you are working locally: a request is sent by STAR Web to have STAR execute a search in the applicable authority database, and the results are sent back to STAR Web, which sends instructions for your browser to refresh your page with the results of the validation operation.

A spinning STAR is your clue that this desktop-to-STAR-and-back is taking place in the background. In contrast, validation of an input date is done locally.

Validation/Lookup Operations:  Fields linked to official names/terms in an authority database have been defined in either of two ways:

Controlled:  This means that only valid values are allowed, illustrated below for the Catalog Record Level Name field. An Error Alert is generated if you enter an official term/name (or one of the input values associated with a term/name) that is not in the authority. In fields that use the Names authority (e.g., Donor/Source, Subject, Owner), you may also receive an Error Alert if you enter a name that is not unique. The error message for this case will be different:

Uncontrolled:  your input is validated and: if you enter an input value set up in the authority, the official name/term will replace what you entered and, in selected fields, as illustrated below, subfields will be populated from the matching authority record. For example, if we type the shortcut "cuadra," the validation operation replaces it with the official name and, in this case, also populates the date data and the corporate author subfields from the matching authority record. if you enter an official term or input value that is not in the authority database, an Information Alert is generated. Click the Alert button to display the message.

In working with validated fields, note the following:

• The lookup operation is invoked when you press ENTER or TAB (or do a mouse-click in another field or subfield).
• New occurrences may be generated automatically after a lookup operation to facilitate your immediately being able to enter another name/term without first requesting a new occurrence. Empty occurrences will be removed when the record is updated so there is no need to delete them.
• A spinning star will display during the lookup operation and, when it has completed, the cursor will be positioned — in the next field, the next subfield, or in a new occurrence. If you prefer to move to a different field, use a mouse-click as the lookup trigger to override the default positioning. However, you must wait for the lookup to complete before working in the new field.

• If you click Done, Cancel, the next-record/last button, or previous-record/first button after working in a lookup-validated field, your mouse-click triggers the lookup and you will receive a message such as the one shown below (with a reference to the field with the validation). The reason for this temporary block on the action you requested is to ensure that the lookup has not generated an error that would require being corrected before the record is updated.

  

• In working in authority databases, a "view only" picklist option is typically available so that you can first confirm whether a term/name already exists. This "see current list" option is indicated with a variant of the picklist graphic.

  

  This "see current list" option is also provided in the catalog form for the Collection Code Name (CNAME) field so that you can easily review existing names before assigning a new one (since the CNAME value must be unique).

  

• An Information Alert will be generated for a valid term/name if there is a message (in the MSG field) of the authority record (e.g., containing guidance on the use of that name or term).

  

Picklists/Authorities:  Both controlled and uncontrolled fields linked to authority databases also provide for selecting names/terms from a Picklist report generated from the authority. Click on the arrow graphic after a field or subfield to request a Picklist, which produces a report/selection page in a popup window in one of two different designs.

Automatic Picklist Report:  The partial picklist report of Media Type terms generated after a picklist request in the Catalog Media Type field illustrates one defined to display all currently valid terms stored in the authority associated with the field.

Search Picklist:  The Catalog and Accessions Donor/Source field illustrates the alternate design used for authorities that can become quite large. First enter a search to restrict the report to a subset of possible authority names/terms.

Each of the two types of generated picklist pages has these additional attributes:

• For repeating fields, use of checkboxes for multiple selections and, for single-occurrence fields, use of radio buttons.
• An option under the page name to add a new record to the linked-to authority, e.g., the Create a new Name record: ... Group and Individual links illustrated above.
• For the Names authority picklist, the "edit record" option, represented by the pencil button.

If you choose to add a new authority term (or edit a Names authority record), another input window will be generated, even while your current input window/form stays active, so that you will now have two Input... tasks in your system tray. After you have completed working in this second input window:

1)	Click Done and close the second input window so that you will be returned to the Picklist page.
2)	On the Picklist page, re-do your search or, if an automatic picklist report, click Refresh and make a selection.

Some picklist reports are defined to restrict the display of terms automatically on the basis of the field and/or form in which you are working. For example, if you were adding a new level-2 Series record, the set of choices presented for the Record Level Name field will be restricted to the name values that you have associated with that particular level in the authority database of Level Names (see Term Type in the inset screen capture from the authority database).

Dynamically Generated Listbox Fields

Fields defined as listboxes may have a fixed set of values required by the application but most are "dynamic-refresh" listboxes, indicated by the pencil button. This button is your visual clue that you can establish the set of valid values The fields with listbox values are associated with pre-defined records delivered in a "super-authority" database, KCALIST, that you can edit to configure the list, as illustrated below with the Acquisition Method field.

Clicking the pencil button to the right of the listbox field automatically recalls the associated pre-defined record in a second input window. Listbox values can also be set up in advance, using the Edit listbox values task in the Data Options task group of the Management → Application Management module.

Each record in this .KCALIST authority database has an assigned name so that you can do a search in this task to retrieve the record(s) you want to set up.

The edit form for this authority database is illustrated below. The same form is used when you recall it through the pencil button and when you use the Management task.

• Use the repeating Listbox Value field to modify any of the standard values delivered with the application, remove any, or add new values.

• Checking the Default? checkbox will pre-populate a field with the value in the occurrence when new records/new occurrences in repeating fields are added.

  Tip.  Because default values can easily be overlooked, we recommend using this checkbox only sparingly if it is not already set in the pre-defined record — e.g., for cases in which almost all records would have a particular value.

• Another field in the form has been set to Allow Null Value, meaning that the field can be left blank. If you uncheck the box, you are, in effect, creating a required field and staff will not be able to update the record without making a selection.

  Tip.  We recommend that you leave this field "as is" (checked or not checked) in editing these authority records.

  

• If you remove a value from the listbox that is in use in other records, the "old value" will not be emptied in the other records. If you recall a record with the old value, it will appear in red but you are not required to substitute it with a currently valid term.

After making the changes you want in the authority record, click Done and then Close the window so that the listbox in the main input form in which you are working will be refreshed automatically.