Configuration

Configuration

Settings are configured via the menu option File/Settings. Your settings are stored in a user-specific config file in the standard Windows Program Data folder, typically C:\ProgramData\QuickViewHL7_Project.

When a newer version of QuickViewHL7 is installed, the config file should remain unchanged, unless you perform a full uninstall of the previous version first.

The settings dialog has three tabs: Settings, Message Buckets, Databases.

Settings

The Settings tab contains a properties grid with these properties:

EnableMacros	True - the application will scan the macro folder at startup. All valid macro files will be listed in the Macros menu. False - the application will not look for macros and the Macros menu will be disabled.
LogFile	Full pathname for a file to be created and written to by the application. Key events and details of exceptions will be logged to this file. If no value is entered the application will not write a log file.
MacroFolder	Pathname to the directory to be scanned for macro files at application startup. Defaults to a folder called Macros, located below the folder that the application executable was installed in. Your Windows authentication settings may require you to set this to a folder outside of the Program Files location. The example macro files are installed in the default Macro folder during installation.
ShowFolderView	True - the Folder View will be displayed at startup and populated with the contents of the default bucket location, or if a file name was given in the command line, the Folder View will list the contents of the folder that the named file resides in. False - the Folder View will not be displayed at startup, you can still use the View menu or the hotkey F2 to display the Folder View. Note: Population of the Folder View can be quite slow when listing a large set of files. If you deal with huge collections, it may be best to set this option to False. The list method will be fixed in the near future to reduce this loading time.

Message Buckets

Message Buckets are folders which you regularly work with. These are given a short name and the path to a folder. The Message Buckets list is edited with the buttons Add, Edit, Remove. These do what you probably guessed they do.

When adding or editing a bucket, there is a checkbox for setting a bucket as the default location. The default location will be listed in the Folder View at startup, if a specific file was not selected and if the Folder View is configured to be shown at startup.

The bucket names are shown in the Location select-list above the Folder View. Bucket names can also be used in macros and the macro environment is only allowed to read and write files located in a predefined bucket location.

Databases

Databases which you want to access in macros must be predefined here. The connection string, including user authentication, is stored in your user configuration file. The security of this information depends on standard Windows security - only you and those with system administrator rights should be able to read your ProgramData files.

When you add or edit a database definition, the DB Connection String dialog is shown:

Name	The short name given to each database definition is used in the macro database methods.
Provider	The select-list lists the recognized database provider types, according to your .Net configuration. The available database types are those which have a DbProviderFactory driver registered for the .Net framework - see MSDN - DBProviderFactory. I have used this with SqlServer and PostgreSQL and believe many other database types should be accessible.
Connection String	Refer to the documentation for your chosen database type. This will typically name the data source, connection type, user authentication etc.
Test Connection	Hit this button to see if the connection string is correct. The Connection Results panel will give you a positive outcome, including such words as "Test success: True", if the connnection string is good, otherwise the results panel may give some hint at what is wrong with it, or it may be no help at all. Database connections are like that.