Subscriber Dataset Definition
- To access the definition wizard for a dataset, select the desired dataset node in the Subscriber Datasets subtree, then select Edit -> Open Dataset Definition from the menu (or go via the right-click menu of the dataset node in the explorer tree).
- To create a new dataset, select the New -> Subscriber Dataset from the menu (or go via the right-click menu of the "Subscriber Datasets" node in the explorer tree).
The Subscriber Dataset wizard lets you define the settings of a new dataset or edit an existing dataset.
Note: A dataset is only fully editable while it is "empty", meaning that there are no subscribers or any lists in the dataset. For a non-empty dataset, only certain settings are editable.
The wizard has four pages: General, Profile Fields, Profile Field Details, and Summary.
The top row of the wizard displays links to these four pages. The page that is currently open is marked with a highlighted background color. Depending on the choices made on some of the wizard pages, other pages may become disabled or may be shown in different versions. If a wizard page is disabled, then it means that this page is not necessary with the current choices and can safely be ignored.
Profile Field Details Page: Lookup Tables, Derivation Rules, Input Validation and Other Settings
This screen may have several different tabs, which are described below. Not all of these tabs are always present, and when only one tab would be present, the screen is shown without tabs.
Field Descriptions
For each profile field, you can define an optional field description. This field description (if supplied) is included on all subscriber area pages where the field is displayed, so you can use the description for additional information about a field that is seen by subscribers. For example, to help a subscriber fill out an agreement and inform them on how their answer will affect them, you could specify what will happen if the user gives a specific answer to an agreement, etc.
The tab displays each available profile field with the currently defined description (if any). To edit the description, click on the associated Edit link.
This opens the Field Description dialog. Edit the description in this dialog and click [OK] to submit your changes or [Cancel] to close the dialog without saving.
Selection Field Details
This tab only appears if there are profile fields of the Single Select or Multiple Select type in the dataset or subscriber list. In this case, for each of these fields the lookup table must be specified that will be used to define the values that the subscriber may select from.
The tab displays the name of each such profile field together with a drop-down menu that contains all lookup tables that can be used together with the profile field. Select a lookup table from the drop-down menu to associate it with the corresponding profile field. The description of the selected lookup table appears beneath the drop-down menu so that the selected lookup table can be verified as the desired one.
This step needs to be performed for each profile field that has one of the two types listed above.
It is possible to assign the same lookup table to several different profile fields (if that is desired).
Note: Only lookup tables that are using the encoding "ASCII" or that are using the same encoding as was specified for the dataset (or in case of a list, the encoding that was specified for the dataset the list belongs to) can be selected.
For a dataset that already contains subscribers or lists, or for a list that already contains subscribers, the lookup tables assigned to already existing profile fields can no longer be changed. If a new field is added to such a dataset or list (on the Profile Fields page), then the lookup table for this new field can be assigned, but the lookup tables of the other fields still cannot be changed.
Lookup Tables with Subsets
If a lookup table has subsets defined, and such a lookup table is selected for one of the profile fields on this tab, then the following additional options become available.
Just below the drop-down menu where the lookup table is selected, a second drop-down menu with the label Value subset to display becomes available. Select from this second drop-down menu the lookup table subset that the profile field in question will actually display to the user. If you select <Full List of Values>, then all values from the selected lookup table will be displayed by the profile field. If, however, you select one of the subsets from the drop-down menu, then only the values from the lookup table which are elements of the selected subset will be displayed by the profile field.
If there are several single- or multiple-select fields defined, of which at least one is a single-select field, then the second drop-down menu will have the additional choice of <Depends on other field>. This choice allows you to dynamically change the lookup table subset that is