7.67.52015-05-06

Capture Field Masks

When using a Field Type of Custom or Regular Expression, the mask to be used must be set with a Field Mask.

To open the Mask List

1. Create a new Capture Field Area
2. Set the Capture Field Type to User Area
3. Set the Field Style to Multi-Area Field
4. Change the Mask Type to either Custom or Regular Expression.
5. Next to the Format List, click the Edit Masks button.

To add a new mask to the list

1. Click on the button to add a new entry.
2. Double-click in the Name box and enter a name for the expression.
3. Double-click in the Value box and enter the desired expression (see below).

Custom Masks

Custom masks are not as powerful as regular expressions but they offer two distinct advantages. First, Custom masks will automatically divide the Multi-Area Field in which they are used into the correct number of expected boxes and any static characters used in the mask will output in the Capture Field Box when printing. Second, Custom masks are simpler to use and have a one-on-one relationship between the mask and its output.

Accepted Characters

Each character, except for \, is deemed to be a single expected character, so the number of captured characters is not variable

• 9 : Indicates any numeric character from 0 to 9.
• A: Indicates an alphabetic character from A to Z. The character will be converted to uppercase.
• X: Indicates an alphanumeric character from 0 to 9 or A to Z. Alphabetical characters will be converted to uppercase.
• a: Indicates an alphabetic character from a to z. The character will be converted to lowercase.
• x: Indicates an alphanumeric character from 0 to 9 or a to z. Alphabetical characters will be converted to lowercase.
• @:Indicates a lower or upper case alphabetic character from a to z. Case is kept as entered.
• #: Indicates a lower or upper case alphabetic character from a to z or any number between 0-9. Case is kept as entered.
• \ followed by any character: Indicates a literal character. These characters will not be written by the client but rather output in the mask when printing the Capture Document.

Examples

These examples should clarify how the accepted characters should be used:

Mask	Description	Examples
\(999\)999\-9999	Canadian phone number with the area code	(514)875-5863 (800)555-1234
\(999\)999\-9999\ \E\x\t\.999	Canadian phone number with area code and extension	(514)875-5863 Ext.123 (800)555-1234 Ext.432
\+9\(999\)999\-9999	Canada/US phone number including area code and country code.	+1(800)555-1234
\P\R\O\D\-XXXXX\-AAA\-99999	A product number made of 5 alphanumerical characters, 3 letters and then 5 numbers.	PROD-5G32B-ADE-23643 PROD-IPHON-TGS-16000
999\-9999	A Japanese postal code, which is digits only	325-6731 812-2298
99999	A 5-digit US zip code	90210 32454
A9A\ 9A9	A Canadian postal code	H0H 0H0 J0S 1J0 H1V 2C8
\$999\,999\.99	Dollar amount with thousand separator, up to $999,999.99 dollars. However, note that all characters must be present, so the mask must be padded with zeroes (0) if the amount does not fully fill each box (see examples)	$000,001.99 $321,443.54 $000,599.97

It is important to understand that these masks are very precise and will not accept any sort of variation. For example, the second example (phone number with extension) will only accept a 3-digit extension. A 5-digit extension could not be entered with this mask. Because the Multi-Area Field will automatically divide the field into boxes accepting one character per box, this is made clear to anyone using these boxes.

Regular Expressions

If the data that is expected from the field can vary in contents as well as length, a Regular Expression can be used instead of a Custom mask. Regular expressions are much more powerful but they can be difficult to understand at first. Note that a Regular Expression mask will not automatically divide the Multi-Area Field into rows and columns nor will it print out static characters in the field, since the number of characters can be variable.

Accepted Values

This documentation cannot pretend to teach anyone how to learn to use Regular Expressions nor to describe how to build regular expressions. Plenty of tutorials and documentation on Regular Expressions exist online. However, here are some quick resources that may help you in building your expressions:

• Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet , available in PDF and PNG format
• Regular-Expressions.info tutorial.

Examples

These examples are similar to the ones in the Custom Mask but may extend upon them and accept a wider variety of results.

Regular Expression	Description	Examples
(\d{3})\D*(\d{3})\D*(\d{4})\D*(\d*)$	A fully featured expression for most phone number formats used in the world.	work 1-(800) 555.1212 #1234 800-555-1212 80055512121234
PROD-[0-9A-Za-z]{5}-[A-Z]{3}-\d{5}	Product Number	PROD-5G32B-ADE-23643 PROD-IPHON-TGS-16000
^\d{5}(-\d{4})?$	A 5 or 9 digit US Zip code with optional dash.	90210 32454-4332
^[ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVXY]{1}\d{1}[A-Z]{1} *\d{1}[A-Z]{1}\d{1}$	A valid Canadian postal code.	H0H 0H0 J0S 1J0 H1V 2C8