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Concepts
concept of versioning version fields, version navigation, object life cycles
Status and Status rules (interaction of objects, status life cycle)
Glossary for Expiry Effective Expiry Dates and not deleting records
Authentication modes and impact - Under support and installation
web.config discussion - Under support and installation
concept Roles vs Users and how inherited rights work.
Custom fields TDA Customization etc.
Banks and Bank Level
CE Supports two types of Item Banking. Level 1 Banking where there are multiple Exam and Item Banks and a single shared Bank for Attachments, Authors, Competencies etc. Or Level 3 Banking where there are multiple Exam and Item Banks and multiple shared Banks.
CE has many different types of objects. An object can be an Item, Exam, Candidate, Address Type, User, etc. Item Banking separates these objects into smaller groups of records. Reasons for segregating the Banks are:
- Different Clients/Departments - some records might be used only specific clients or departments. To prevent their use by other departments or clients, they are kept in separate Banks.
- Security - To limit exposure to records, Bank Security can be setup to limit User access to certain Banks.
- Legacy Data - Legacy data might be migrated into CE that users will want to keep separate from production data.
- Import Data - Data that is imported into CE users might want to keep separate until it is vetted or fully checked.
Users can have Bank access restricted:
- None - No access to the Bank.
- Browse - The user has read only rights to the Bank. Meaning they can view records and maintenance pages but cannot create new records, expire records or make any changes to records.
- Full - The user has full rights to the Bank, meaning they can view records, create new records, expire records or update existing records.
Shared Object Types
Regardless of Bank Level 1 or Bank Level 3 Item Banking, certain object types are always Shared. When an object type is Shared it means, regardless of Bank Security, Users can access and maintain records. It also means regardless of what Bank the user has selected to work with, these object type records are avaialable to work with. Shared object types are found on the System menu and are: Address Type, Bank, Competency Type,Contact Type, Country, Country Region, Email Type, Ethnicity, Gender, Item Meta Type, Reference Type, Security Roles and Security Users.
Level 1 Banks vs. Level 3 Banks
The difference between Level 1 Banks and Level 3 Banks is in the data that is separated by Item Banking. Object records are either Shared or they are Banked. When an object type is Shared it means, regardless of Bank Security, Users can access and maintain records. When an object type is Banked it means that the data is segregated by Bank and it is affected by Bank Security.
In a Level 1 Bank most object types are shared and not controlled by Item Banking. Only Item and Exam type records are affected by Item Banking.
State | Object Type |
---|---|
Shared | Attachment, Author, Candidate, Competency, Copyright and Reference |
Banked | ![]() |
In a Level 3 Bank most object types are Item Banked. Even though some object types are shared across multiple Exam/Item Banks, they are not shared throughout all Banks. Each Exam/Item Bank (at level 3) has a parent bank at level 2 which is a shared bank. This shared bank shares all of its object records amongst all of the child Banks underneath it.
State | Object Type |
---|---|
Shared among child Exam/Item banks | Attachment, Author, Candidate, Competency, Copyright and Reference |
Banked | ![]() |
In the sample below, the Shared bank (in red) is shared by its child banks underneath it Import and Production (in orange). The Client 3 bank (in blue) is shared by its child banks underneath it Production (in green).
User Bank Security
User Bank Security is maintained using Security Edit Banks.
In Level 1 Banking, the security is maintained for the Banks at Level 1 in the tree. User rights are managed by Bank only for the links to Item, Item Group, Exam and Term entry tools. All other object type data is shared and not affected by Bank Security.
In Level 3 Banking, the security is maintained for the Banks at Level 3 in the tree. The security shared data in the parent bank (Attachment, Author, Candidate, Competency, Copyright and Reference) is inherited from the Level 3 Banks. Meaning if a level 3 Bank has Full rights, then the shared parent bank at level 2 has Full rights. User rights are managed for the shared parent bank and for the links to Item, Item Group, Exam and Term entry tools.
Record Locking
CE supports record locking. Record locking is the technique of preventing multiple users from editing a record at the same time. This is to prevent inconsistent results. An example would be User 1 opens an Item to change the Competency from “A” to “B”. User 2 opens the same Item after user 2 started editing it. User 2 attempts to change the Angoff to 0.5. User 1 saves their change then User 2 saves their change. Because User 2 retrieved their data before User 1 committed their change, their screen shows the Competency as “A” instead of “B”. When User 2 saves their Item, the Competency then reverts back to “A”.
To prevent this CE locks a record the moment a user begins editing the record. Every time the user navigates to another edit page for the record or saves their work, they refresh their lock on that record. When the user starts to edit or view another record or navigates to another tool in the system or logs off the record lock is released.
When a user selects a record that is locked, a warning message appears on their screen, all of the entry controls are disabled and the Save button in hidden.
Record Locks are specific to the users session not the User ID. This means two people can log in as “Administrator” and CE will track their locks separately.
The default duration of a record lock before automatic release is 30 minutes. This is configurable in the web.config file.
There are circumstances where a user might persist their lock of a record inadvertently. These include closing their browser, instead of logging off. Having their computer shut down or having their network connection drop. In order to clear their Record Locks use the Record Lock tool.
Versioning
Attachments, Items and Exams can be reversioned. By default, all new Attachments, Items and Exams are created as Version 1 with a Version 1 ID value pointing to their ID. Reversioning an object, creates a copy of that object in the same Bank. The new object has a Version = Version + 1 with its Version 1 ID still pointing to the original version 1 record.
Example: Attachment “Eiffel Tower ” ID=25, Version=1 is reversioned. The original Attachment has 25 is Version1ID=25 because it is the first version of the Attachment. The reversioned record will get the next available Attachment ID automatically generated by the system. For sake of this example, lets assume it is 201. So the new Attachment record would by ID=201, Version=2, Version1ID=25. If the version 2 record is reversioned, then lets assume the next available ID=320, so the new record would be ID=320, Version=3, Version1ID=25.
ID | Version | Version1ID |
---|---|---|
25 | 1 | 25 |
201 | 2 | 25 |
320 | 3 | 25 |
All three versions of this Attachment are tied together by their Version1ID value being the same.
Selection Grids
The Attachment, Item and Exam grids by default only show the most recent version of the records. To display prior versions of the records, click the Include Prior Versions check box in the title bar.