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    Order of checking error_eng files in u-tree and a-tree

    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 18.01

    Description:
    In what order are error_eng files checked to find the appropriate error message or text? We have a case where a due date is being displayed as "User name 11/14/07 does not exist", instead of with an appropriate message. I think this might be related to which version of the error/message text is being used.

    Resolution:
    When Aleph needs to display text that comes from the error_eng directory, there are four possible files involved, and the system checks them in this order:

    specific file in u-tree (in this case format_due_date)
    "global" file in u-tree
    specific file in a-tree
    "global file in a-tree

    Beyond the order of the files is the fact that it looks for a specific error number. In your case, it is looking for message "0001". Even if one of the files above exists, the system will check the next file if the specific error message is not present in the file. Of course, if the message does exist, the system stops looking and uses whatever message text it finds.

    So, in your case, the message "0001" is defined in your u-tree's "global" file. Since the system finds it there, it does not look at the format_due_date file in the a-tree, but just displays the message as found in the global file.

    In general, our advice is this for error messages in v.17 and up: copy to the u-tree only those files where you are making a change to the message text. In those files, delete all messages except the ones you are changing. This is most important with the "global" file if you copy it to the u-tree, as it will be checked before the more specific file in the a-tree. Since many message numbers are re-used in different contexts, having them present in the u-tree's global file might mean wrong text is displayed, as is the case in your example.


    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013
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