Field Validation Types

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Databases Property Sheet

Iron Speed Designer takes advantage of the data types specified in the database to create specific access functions that are strongly typed.  Moreover, applications built using Iron Speed Designer can use a variety of built-in data field validation types and their corresponding data input validation.  You can specify one of these advanced field validation types in Iron Speed Designer, and your application will use this type in the database access code.

For example, the database might specify an email address field as a "varchar" field.  In Iron Speed Designer, you can designate this field as an “Email Address” – one of the built-in advanced field validation types.  The field will be even more strongly typed as an email address, thus ensuring the code and any extensions you write comply with the strong typing.

Field Validation Type

Description

Boolean

A checkbox is displayed as either checked or unchecked, depending on the field value (0 or 1).

Country

The list of countries in the world.

Use the Country validation type when you want to store country names in a database field and you do not have your own database table of country names.

If you have your own database table of country names, any other fields in other tables that require a country name should use either a foreign key or virtual foreign key to your country table, and should not use the Country validation type.

Do not use the Country validation type for country names in your own country database table.

Credit Card Expiration Date

The credit card expiration date is displayed in the format MM/YYYY.

Credit Card Number

Credit card numbers can be 12, 13, or 16 digits in length.

Currency

At present, the US Dollar is the only supported currency.  Currency amounts are displayed with a leading “$” symbol.

Date

Dates display date and time based on the format selected.

Email Address

Email addresses are displayed in the format of [email protected].  (TLD is top-level domain.)  Similarly, email addresses input are validated in this format.

File

File is a file name in standard Windows format.

Floating Point Number

A floating-point number is displayed.  The Floating Point Number type displays a variable number of digits behind the decimal point.

Image

Displays an image stored in the database.

Note: In order to display images, the underlying database field type must be an Image, BLOB, LONG RAW, Ole Object, or Binary related data type.  The page’s Control Type must also be set to ‘Image’.

Latitude

A Double or Decimal field interpreted as a latitude for GeoLocation

Longitude

A Double or Decimal field interpreted as a longitude for GeoLocation

Number
(integer number)

An integer number is displayed based on the format selected.

Password

Displays text as a set of asterisks.  When shown as an editable text box, the actual value is displayed (due to a limitation in the underlying Microsoft .NET control).  When shown as an editable dropdown or a read only label, a set of asterisks ("*****") is displayed.

Note: Password columns are not sortable in tables.

Percentage

Percentages range from 0.00% to 100.00%.  Two digits of precision are displayed.

Please note that when saving percentages, the data is saved in decimal format (e.g., 0.12) while it is displayed in percent format (12%) based on the Microsoft .NET Formatting for "P", "p" or "%" format strings.  Specifically, the .NET Formatting documentation states, "The converted number is multiplied by 100 in order to be presented as a percentage."  Please ensure that the data saved in your database is in decimal format (0.12 for 12%).

String

String fields can contain any alphanumeric character.

U.S. Phone Number

The US Phone Number follows a format with an area code and a seven-digit phone number, e.g., (650) 215-2200.

U.S. State

The 50 states of the United States either in abbreviation or full-text form.

U.S. ZIP Code

ZIP codes can be 5 digits or 9 digits.  9 digit ZIP codes are hyphenated.

URL

URLs are displayed as clickable links to any valid web address.

URL is a file name in standard Windows format.  The URL field may contain:

  • An image file name that is resident in the file library directory on the same server (e.g., toshiba123.gif).  File names can be relative, e.g., “...\Graphics\Image.jpg”.

  • A fully instantiated URL when the image is resident on another server (e.g., http://www.ironspeed.com/art/logo.gif).

Very Large String

Very Large String fields can contain any alphanumeric character.  These fields are generally used for CLOB’s (character large objects).

See Also

Display Format Options