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This tutorial is for the Desktop Designer. To view the updated tutorial for the online project designer, please click here .

Session Sequencing

Learn how sessions are sequenced and how to use the Sequential ID in your projects.

What is Session Sequencing?

When a session is created it is automatically assigned with a Sequential ID which is unique to that session. The Sequential ID for a project will start at 1 for the first session and will increment by 1 for each session that is created. This ID is a unique, numeric identifier that can be used to determine the order of sessions being created. A project can be configured to add a prefix, suffix and zero-padding to customise the Sequential ID for reports and dashboards.

Key Features

  • Unique identifier that can represents the order of when sessions were created.
  • Can be customised with Prefix , Suffix and Zero-Padding to produce a formatted Sequential ID.

Sequential ID

The Sequential ID is a read-only, numeric value that is unique per session and can be used to determine the order of when sessions were sent to the web portal. This value can be displayed in custom reports and can also be used for naming the files that are sent in automated emails.

Referencing the Sequential ID

The Sequential ID can be used in reports and project options by referencing the point ID __sequential_id__ . The example below shows how to use this point ID in a project's options page in order to use the Sequential ID in the file name for HTML reports:

Sequential id project options 1

The Sequential ID can also be used within a project by adding a point with the point ID __sequential_id__ . It is important to note however that the value for the Sequential ID will not be set until a session has been sent to the web portal. See the example below for configuring an Edit point to display the Sequential ID and then to reference that point in the Session List columns:

Sequential id edit point
Sequential id session list options

Formatted Sequential ID

A project can be configured to create a customised, formatted sequence ID that includes the Sequential ID and an optional prefix, suffix and zero-padding. These settings can be configured in the Mobile Data Anywhere Designer by opening a project's properties window and selecting the Advanced tab.

Sequential id properties

Prefix

The prefix setting can be used to add text before the Sequential ID.

Suffix

The suffix setting can be used to add text after the Sequential ID.

Zero-padding

This value determines how many digits the Sequential ID should be padded to. This will add leading zeroes to the Sequential ID, up to the number of digits set by this value. For example, a Sequential ID of 12 with zero-padding set to 5 will be padded to a value of 00012 .

Referencing the Formatted Sequential ID

The Formatted Sequential ID can be used in reports and project options by referencing the point ID __formatted_sequential_id__ . The example below shows how to use this point ID in a project's options page in order to use the Formatted Sequential ID in the file name for HTML reports:

Sequential id formatted project options

The Formatted Sequential ID can also be used within a project by adding a point with the point ID __formatted_sequential_id__ . It is important to note however that the value for the Formatted Sequential ID will not be set until a session has been sent to the web portal. See the example below for configuring an Edit point to display the Formatted Sequential ID and then to reference that point in the Session List columns:

Sequential id formatted edit point
Sequential id session list options

Sample Projects

This sample shows how to add two Edit points to display the values of Sequential ID and Formatted Sequential ID in reports.


Sample Projects
You can download the sample files for this tutorial or import the projects directly into your account.