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).

Translating Epi Info™ 7 to Another Language

Overview

As alluded to in the Functional Requirements above, there are two steps to translating Epi Info™ 7 into another language.  First, a language translation file must be created.  This encodes the equivalence between the English versions of all of the textual cues used in the program (including explanatory text, menu items, labels, warnings and error messages) and the same words and expressions in another language, possibly involving an entirely different alphabet.  In practice, language translation is implemented as a single CulturalResources table in a MS Access database.  Of the translation files available on the Epi Info website, Spanish is in sync with the latest Epi Info™ 7 release and will serve as an example.   In addition to the fields for English text (SourceValue) and Spanish text (ResourceValue), there are fields that identify which code module a message is associated with (AssemblyName), the data structure in which the string is stored (ManifestResourceName), the key for accessing it (ResourceName) and the  variable type (ResourceType, always System.String).  There is also a ResourceVersion, which appears to indicate the version in which the variable was introduced, and the sporadically populated SourceCultureName, which reads "es", the ISO code for Spanish, used in the system's locale file, and read by Epi Info™ 7 to determine which translation table to use, if any.

Functional Requirements

The Epi Info™ 7 application shall enable the user to:

1. read the menus, mouse overs, and other text and documentation in the user's language of choice
2. port the program to a new language using that person's ability to translate a list of English phrases used in Epi Info™ 7 into that language.