Epi Info™ 7 has several mechanisms that allow the user to configure the system, set options and defaults, and get help with program usage. The primary device is the Options window, which can be accessed from Form Designer, Enter, Classic Analysis and StatCalc. Options allows the user to set values for parameters controlling language and translation, data analysis, code plug-ins, data access from web surveys and cloud capture, and general items such as the default file format and working directory.

Options Management

Objective

Epi Info™ 7 shall have a mechanism for managing options that affect the system as a whole and can be accessed from any application module.  It shall include an interface for viewing and setting option parameters, as well as storing and accessing them from anywhere in the system.

Functional Requirements

The system shall enable the user to:

1. define the default database format for new projects from amongst the following options:
   1. Microsoft Access 2002-2003 (.mdb),
   2. Microsoft Access 2007 (.accdb),
   3. Microsoft Excel 2007 Workbook (.xlsx),
   4. Microsoft Excel 1997-2003 Workbook (.xls),
   5. Microsoft SQL Server Database,
   6. mySQL Database,
   7. postgreSQL Database, and
   8. .csv file;
2. define the default data format for Analysis READ command;
3. define the service key for mapping and geocoding (using www.bingmapsportal.com);
4. define the default working directory;
5. create a language translation file;
6. import language translations;
7. define the textual representation of: 
   1. Boolean values and
   2. missing Boolean values;
8. toggle the option to include missing values;
9. toggle the following HTML output options:
   1. Show Complete Prompt and
   2. Show Percents;
10. choose from the following Process Records options:
    1. Undelete Records only (normal behavior),
    2. Deleted Records Only, and
    3. Both;
11. ping the Web Survey endpoint address;
12. set the following options for Web Survey:
    1. endpoint address,
    2. toggle whether to connect using Windows Authentication, and
    3. choose between "basic" and "wsHTTP" binding protocols;
13. set the following options for Cloud Data Capture:
    1. endpoint address,
    2. toggle whether to connect using Windows Authentication, and
    3. choose between "basic" and "wsHTTP" binding protocols,
14. ping the Cloud Data Capture endpoint address;
15. save all option information to a common file accessible to all Epi Info™ projects (EpiInfo.Config.xml).