About INI Setting Field Headings

It is not necessary for all values to be set. Only those that are required for specific purposes need to be set. If a value is not set, in general it will be the equivalent of N(o) if it was set.

Name (Drop-down)

The pre-defined setting name.

NOTE: INI Setting names are not user defined or customisable. They are pre-defined in the INI Setting application. Any attempt to change the Name will make the function unusable.

Value (100 Chars)

The value for the setting. In most cases the available values will be displayed in the description field.

Description (60 Chars)

A brief description of the setting and (space permitting) its available values.

User ID (Drop-down)

A number of INI Settings can be set on a per user basis. Where this is available, this field will be live — otherwise it will be dimmed out. If the INI Setting is available per user, the user name can be selected from the drop-down. If the setting is for all users, select ALL from the User ID drop-down.

NOTE: The system hierarchy of searching on user based INI Settings is that the user ALL will be searched last. This means that if an INI Setting is valid for all except one user, then the setting needs only to be inserted twice—once for ALL users and once for the specific user.

Colours

Some INI Settings allow the customisation of on screen colours. Care should be taken when changing the default colour values. Any errors will be trapped with an error 'Invalid Property or Value' and the application involved will terminate. It is not necessary to set values in any of the colour INI variables, since there are default values that will be used if the INI data value is blank.

Those colour fields already set up that have 10 characters (the first 4 being &H80) are referencing Windows system colours and should not be changed.

Those colour fields which have 8 characters (the first 2 being &H) are able to be edited. The &H indicates that the values are hexsadecimal and the next 6 characters are values which represent various shades of Red, Green and Blue - 2 characters per colour. The 6 characters representing the colour are made up as follows:

  • &HXXnnnn - XX = Red colour value
  • &HnnXXnn - XX = Green colour value
  • &HnnnnXX - XX = Blue colour value

Valid values for XX are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. Zero (0) is the lowest (or "lightest" shade and F is the highest (or "darkest") shade.

  • White = FFFFFF
  • Black = 000000
  • Standard Red = FF0000
  • Standard Green = 00FF00
  • Standard Blue = 0000FF
  • Standard Yellow = FFFF00

Increasing or decreasing the value of 00 and FF will lighten or darken the colour - e.g., 0000DE will display a slightly darker blue.

If experimenting with colours, it is imperative that the original colour values be noted down before changing any values so that they can be reset if necessary.

Dates

All date fields in Tourplan are able to have times stored in them, but the times are not always displayed on screen and in some instances times are displayed as seperate fields. It is possible to use INI switches to format how Dates and Times display. Before adjusting date/time formats, there are some issues that should be considered. First, the INI switch display settings are system wide, so whilst it maybe a nice to have for example, booking service dates displaying full Month/Year, it may be not so pratical when in Debtors Transactions. Remember there is an actual screen limitation as to how much can be displayed. Second, the INI system settings for date/time can be overridden in messaging by using the message code <DATEFORMAT:(parameter)> to get specific date/time formatting into specific messages. If a date/time is incorrect and not recognised, then a default Tourplan setting will be used.

In some circumstances, Tourplan may not always recognise the "standard" Windowns date/time settings, but in general, the use of the same codes is supported, e.g.

  • d = Numeric Date - e.g. 15
  • ddd = Alpha Day (note - to obtain Alpha Day and Numeric date, a combination of the codes must be used - e.g. ddd-d)
  • mm = Numeric Month - e.g. 05
  • mmmm = Alpha Month - e.g. May
  • yy = 2 digit year e.g. 19
  • yyyy = 4 digit year - e.g. 2019
  • hh = Hours (12 hour format)
  • HH = Hours (24 hour format)
  • nn = Minutes
  • ss = Seconds

The following are the values which will be used if the INI settings data is unrecognised:

DATETIME_FORMAT_DISPLAY = dd-mm-yyyy hh:nn:ss

DATE_FORMAT_ENTRY - valid choices for this setting are: dd mm yy, dd mmm yy, dd mmm yyyy, dd/mm/yy, dd/mm/yyyy, dd/mmm/yyyy, dd.mm.yy, dd.mmm.yy, dd.mm.yyyy, dd.mmm.yyyy, dd-mm-yy, dd-mmm-yy, dd-mm-yyyy, dd-mmm-yyyy, d mmmm yyyy, dd mmmm yyyy, d mmmm yy, dd mmmm yyyy. (If unrecognised, dd/mm/yy will be used.

Any date formats set in Tourplan INI settings must be compatible with the Windows Regional settings defined in the Control Panel of the server and all workstations.