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Datatel’s Technical Documents On-Line

Datatel has a complete set of Technical Documents on-line and available via the web to its clients. This information lists EVERY Datatel Subroutine, File, Field, Screen, Procedure, Validation Code, List Specification, and Batch process used in Colleague. These are all accessible through an easy to use web interface and searchable through built in “full text search capabilities”.

Datatels Tech Doc Online can help you to quickly find answers to the following questions about Datatel’s software without looking in a manual or leaving your console.

What file is a particular data element stored in?
What are the data elements stored in a particular file?
What is the data element name of a field on a particular screen?
How many other screens does a particular data element appear on?
What subroutine is used to calculate a particular value?
What arguments does a particular subroutine use?
What are the components of a particular batch, procedure, or list specification?

To subscribe to “for our Clients”:

Datatel has a special portion of their web site dedicated to supporting their current software customers. This section, called “for our Clients”, gives Datatel users special access to information about products, upgrades and enhancements, User Groups and documentation. You can access this site at the following URL:

http://www.datatel.com/Clients/index.html

A special login and password is required to get into the “for our Clients” web pages. If you have not been to this site before you can follow the link for registration or go to:

http://www.datatel.com/Clients/register1.html

simply fill in the requested information and within 24 hours they will verify that you are a Datatel customer and provide you with an individualized login (usually your complete e-mail address) and password.

They will request your first name, last name and customer ID

Whitman’s customer ID is:w18

After submitting this information Datatel will send you a personalized login and password within 24 hours.

Using Datatels “Tech docs Online”:

This URL takes you to the page for the product and release that we use at Whitman - Colleague version 16.

http://www.datatel.com/Clients/techdoc/collr16/index.html

From there you can choose to perform a full text search, or select an application area to enter. Once in an application area, you can click your way through all of the technical documentation options available.

The options available include:

Subroutines and Inserts
Files and Fields
Processes and Screens – This area is the largest of the available sections and contains information on :

Batch Processes
Report Processes
Screen Processes
The Menu Mnemonics
And more-

Validation code tables

Using the “Full Text Search”:

Because of the sheer amount of information in the tech docs it can be difficult to find a field or screen that you are searching for if you do not know the exact Datatel Mnemonic (abbreviation). To help you there is a full text search feature available in the tech docs:

http://www.datatel.com/Clients/techdoc/collr16/SearchCollr16.html

You can use this full text search engine to search for specific information in the online technical documentation without knowing the exact name or location of the information. The search engine uses a weighted search algorithm, so you can enter any search criteria and the engine will provide a ranked list of all possible hits, in order by the documents that contain most of what you typed. This operates in a fashion similar to many of the commonly used internet search tools.

Each type of document has a specific name that can help in the search. These names are listed below:

Subroutine	Insert	File	Data Field
Virtual Field	Batch	Report	External
Procedure	List Spec	Front End Screen	Screen
Valcode

Just include any of these words in the search if you want that type of data.

Search Example:

If you are looking for a report that will return a persons information, then type "Report Person" (without the quotes) as your search criteria. This search retrieves a list of all Reports that contains the text "Person."