This step is used to define the Start and Ending record events.  In addition, you may apply a Pre-Filter to the data prior to checking for the beginning and ending record events.  The Pre-Filter allows you to change the ASCII data received into other characters just prior to checking for “Start of” and “End of” Record events.  The Start of Record event can be defined as one of the following conditions:

Any Character Received

Any character received will indicate the start of the record.

Alphanumeric Character Received

The first Alpha or Numeric character received will indicate the start of the record.  Therefore any data before the first Alpha or Numeric will be ignored.

Numeric Character Received

The first Numeric character received will indicate the Start of Record.  Any Non-Numeric data before the first numeric will be discarded.

Specific Characters Received

You may enter up to 16 characters that are used to indicate the Start of Record.  For example, you could use a semicolon (;) to capture Track 2 records read from a Magnetic Stripe Reader.

i  If you wish to enter special characters such as a carriage return, line feed, tab or function key they can be enters using a $ followed by the HEX value of the key.  Hex values can be found in the Special Characters Table.

i  If you wish to have your records start with multiple possible character combinations you may use the $FF special character to enter a list of strings to search for in the data received.  For example if you want your records to start with % or ; you would enter %$FF; for the Specific Characters Received.

The End of Record event can be defined as any one of the following conditions:

Carriage Return/Line Feed Received

If either a Carriage Return (ASCII 13) or Line Feed (ASCII 10) is received, their presence defines the end of the record.

Timeout on data received

This option can be used to define how long after the Start of Record event must pass before an End of Record event occurs.  This is useful in cases where the data will come in and no End of Record value can be determined and records are of varying lengths.

Fixed Length Records

Use this as the End of Record event when the sizes of the records are all the same.  If the specified number of characters are not received, after the Start of Record event, and the End of Record Timeout occurs the record will be treated as indicated by the “Discard data on timeout” checkbox.

Specific Characters received

This option is useful when you wish to end the record with a specific sequence of characters.  You may enter up to 16 characters.

i  If you wish to enter special characters such as a carriage return, line feed, tab or function key, they can be entered using a $ followed by the HEX value of the key.  Hex values can be found in the Special Characters Table.

i  If you wish to have your records end with multiple possible character combinations you may use the $FF special character to enter a list of strings to search for in the data received.  For example if you want your records to end with either a ? or a Carriage Return, you would enter the following for your Specific Characters Received Edit  ?$FF$0D

In addition to being able to indicate the Start of Record and End of Record events, you may indicate an End of Record Timeout and how to handle the received data upon timeout.  By default, if the Start of Record event occurs, the Keyboard Accelerator will continue to search for the End of Record event for 2 seconds (2000 Milliseconds) and will be treated as if the record satisfies the End of Record event.  Options for the End of Record Timeout include enable, timeout and action taken on timeout.

As you change the settings for the Start of Record and End of Record events the resulting record will be displayed at the top of the dialog in the Record field. The value of this field represents the record after the events and filters are applied.  If the field is GREEN then the sample data contains a valid record.  If the field is RED then the sample data does not contain a record that matches the Start of Record and End of Record events.