Chapter 1: Overview

Building field objects

When you are building the field objects for the input transaction, you build one field object that defines the group’s entire data area, then build one field object for each element in the group. You do not build a field object for every instance of each element.

For this group:

John Smith^680-7800|Jane Jones^680-7092|Tom White^685-8564|###

you would build three field objects:

**Table 1-1: Group field objects**
Field object name	Data it defines
group_example	Defines the group’s entire data area.
name_element	Defines the name element.
phone_element	Defines the phone number element.

When building field objects for a group, the Offset, Length, and Options entries are the key to describing each part of the group.

**Table 1-2: Group field object settings**
Field object	Offset	Length	Option to set
group_example	The offset for this field object is based upon the group's location in the input transaction.	Separator pattern: ###	Select the “This Field object defines a group” option.
Name_element	By Value: 0 The first element in the group always has an Offset of zero.	Separator: ^	Select “Member of ‘Group’ Field Object” option and select the group_example field object in the related entry field.
Phone_element	Follows-fld: name_element	Separator: \|	Select “Member of ‘group’ Field object” and select the group_example field object in the related entry field.

Set the Offset and Length through the Field Object Information window. Refer to “Building production objects” for more information about these entries.

For a homogeneous group, you would build just two Field objects, one to define the entire data area of the group and one to define the group element. The Offset and Options entries required for these Field objects are the same as those used by group_example and name_element in the table above. The Length entries depend upon the separators used within the homogeneous group.

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