AIMS Parking Interface settings
KEY VALUE	What it does ...
AIMS-PKG-DSN AIMS-PKG-PASSWORD AIMS-PKG-USERID	These settings are used to control linking to the AIMS parking system database so that the RASWIN application can retrieve data about a specific parking ticket (e.g., name, balance owing, etc.) and can update the AIMS database following the completion of the receipt. The DSN is the name of the ODBC connection which links to the AIMS database. The PASSWORD and USERID settings are what is required to gain access to the AIMS database via the defined DSN.
AIMS-TICKET-FORMAT-PATTERN AIMS-TICKET-LENGTH	These two settings tell the program what a standard ticket# looks like. This allows the RASWIN program to determine if the value entered by the cashier before looking up a ticket in the database is a ticket# or some other value such as a plate# or owner name. The setup of the AIMS-TICKET-FORMAT-PATTERN uses a special format 'string' to define what a ticket# looks like. For example, if the ticket numbers are all numbers and eight digits long, the format setting would be ########. If the format consists of 2 numbers, a letter, and 5 numbers, the format string would be ##[A-Z]#####. The if the letter range permitted was only A-M, the format would be ##[A-M]#####, and so on. By default, the format is assumed to be 8 digits ########. The AIMS-TICKET-LENGTH value tells the program how long a ticket# is. This setting is required because the format-pattern may or may not be the same length as the actual ticket#, as in the examples above where the ticket# contains letters. During entry of the receipt, the operator enters the ticket#, plate#, or customer name when on the receipt entry screen. Depending on what they enter as the search criteria, the program will attempt to automatically determine what type of value they entered. If the entered value matches the defined AIMS-TICKET-FORMAT-PATTERN the program assumes the user has entered a ticket#. If it is not a ticket#, it could be either a name or place number. Determining which of these is a little more uncertain, but the program still tries to determine which by following these rules: 1. If the value is all letters, it assumes it is a name. 2. If it contains all numbers, but as many as defined in the AIMS-TICKET-LENGTH, or a combination of numbers and letters, it assumes it is a plate#. Based on the determination as to what type of value the user entered the program will then attempt to search for matching values in the AIMS parking database. Most of the time these rules will yield correct search results. However, if the program makes the wrong guess (e.g., the entered value is all letters but is really a plate#) the user can still manually override this by clicking on the type of search they desire and the program will search using that criteria.