Enquiries, Sources and Data Definitions: Data Definitions
The Data Definition Manager
The Data Definition Manager manages all the data definitions of a process-description. It can be used to add, edit and delete data definitions.
To access the Data Definition Manager, select View > Process Data Definitions (or click the Data Definition Manager button on the toolbar 
).
The figure below is a screen capture of the Data Definition Manager:
The top panel is used for adding new Data Definitions.
| Name | An alphanumeric string representing the Source’s ID (e.g.: Symptoms). |
| Caption | The caption is displayed to the end-user when the enquiry is enacted (e.g.: What are the patient’s symptoms?) |
| Description | A textual description of the data definition. |
| Data Type | The collected data can be of one of four types: text, integer, real, or boolean (e.g., Symptoms could be of type Text) |
| Range | The collected data can be of a limited range of values (i.e., the end-user will have to select one of these predefined values; e.g.: Symptoms could be: Headache, Nausea, Vomiting, Sensitivity to light) |
| Default Value | The collected data can have a default value. The default value is used to pre-populate the data entry dialogue box when the enquiry is enacted. |
| Selection mode | When range values of a source are mutually exclusive, only one of them should be selected. If the end-user has to select one value, selection mode should be set to single-value. If the end-user can select more than one value, the selection mode should be set to multi-value (multi-selection is only available for sources with range values). |
The lower panel displays the data definitions. Use the Edit and Delete buttons to the right of the list to manage the data definitions.
Importing and exporting Data Definitions
- Data definitions that are not used by sources are not saved with the process-description.
- Data definitions can be saved separately in data definition libraries (.dd files) to facilitate reuse.
- Data definitions can be imported into a process-description either from a library or from another process-description.
Exporting Data Definitions
To save data definitions locally, select File > Save Data Definitions > Locally (or click the Save Data Definitions button on the toolbar 
).
To save data definitions to a web repository, select File > Save Data Definitions > To Web Repository (or click the Save Data Definitions to Web Repository button on the toolbar 
).
Enter a name for the data definition library and click Save.
Importing Data Definitions
To load locally saved data definitions, select File > Load Data Definitions > Locally (or click the Load Data Definitions button on the toolbar 
).
To load data definitions from a web repository, select File > Load Data Definitions > From Web Repository (or click the Load Data Definitions from Web Repository button on the toolbar 
).
Select a data definition library (.dd file) or a process-description (.pf file) and click Open (when importing locally) or Load (when importing from a web repository).
All the data definitions from the library or the process-description will be available for use in your current process-description. You can view them in the Data Definition Manager.