Regional Profiles

A regional profile is a collection of number, currency, time, and date formats that together are appropriate for data originating from, or intended for a particular locale. For example, a particular country.

You can also use regional profiles to specify the formats that particular input and output data types (such as XML and JSON) use for data values.

Why Does Lasernet Need Regional Profiles?

Regional profiles are needed because (depending on project requirements) Lasernet might need to interpret incoming data that is formatted in a way that is used in a particular locale. Or, it might need to format values in output documents in a way that is meaningful to a reader in that locale. An example of a typical difference between locales is the decimal separator (for example, in some countries, a comma decimal separator is used: 865,95).

For example, you could create a regional profile that specifies Danish number, currency, time, and date formats, and then use it in a form to interpret incoming data that contains Danish-formatted dates and numbers, or to appropriately format data in output documents that are intended for a Danish audience.

You might also need Lasernet to interpret data that is not locale-specific but is typical of the data value formats used in particular formats of incoming data (such as XML).

So, in summary, regional profiles enable Lasernet to:

• Interpret incoming number, currency, time, and date data.

• Appropriately format number, currency, time, and date data in the output it generates.

Regional profiles are relevant only to rearranges whose Format category is Number, Currency, Time, or Date. Rearranges in String format use incoming data exactly as it is received.

Note

Regional profiles are not required when using Lasernet Essentials / Professional / Advanced because Lasernet receives data that is already properly formatted for output.

A Form Can Use Multiple Regional Profiles

Depending on project requirements, Lasernet might need to interpret data that has originated in any one of several different locales, or generate documents in which data values must be formatted differently depending on the locale of its recipient.

For example, Lasernet could use some data in the input document itself to determine the locale of the document’s recipient, and then select an appropriate regional profile to use when generating the output document. If Lasernet determines that the recipient is in Denmark, the form can be configured to use a Danish regional profile to format dates in the output document. If the recipient is in the UK, it could use a regional profile that is appropriate for the UK, and so on.

Can Forms Share Regional Profiles?

The answer to this question differs depending on whether you are using Lasernet 10 or Lasernet 11, or Lasernet Essentials / Professional / Advanced.

Lasernet 10 and Lasernet 11

The regional profiles that are created in a Lasernet configuration are available to every form in that configuration. So, for example, you could create a single Danish regional profile (in the configuration) and then use it in every form that the configuration contains.

Lasernet Essentials / Professional / Advanced

In Lasernet Essentials / Professional / Advanced, regional profiles are not shared between forms. The regional profiles created for a form are available to that form only.

Profile Precedence When Regional Profiles Are Applied in Multiple Places

A regional profile can be applied to an individual rearrange (in a form) to apply specific data value formatting to that rearrange only. To control input data interpretation for all the form’s rearranges, it can be applied to an entire form. To control output data formatting for all rearranges included in a sheet’s output, it can be applied to an entire sheet.

The regional profile applied to a rearrange takes precedence over the regional profile applied to the form or sheet. So, if needed, some rearranges can have a regional profile applied directly to them and consequently have data value formatting that differs from the other rearranges in the form, because all those other rearranges in the form use the regional profile that is applied to the form itself.

However, further to this, profile precedence in Lasernet differs depending on whether you are using Lasernet 10 or Lasernet 11, or Lasernet Essentials / Professional / Advanced.

Lasernet 10 and Lasernet 11

In general, if a rearrange does not have any regional profiles applied to it, and a regional profile is not applied to the form or sheet, Lasernet uses the configuration’s default regional profile. Because a rearrange has input regional profile settings and output regional profile settings, this process is applied separately for incoming data and output data.

The following sections describe profile precedence for incoming data and output data.

Profile Precedence for Incoming Data

If a rearrange has no regional profile on its Input format tab (in Edit Rearrange > Formats), a regional profile present in the table on the Form Options > Format tab is used.

If the Form Options > Format grid is empty, the default profile (as specified in Lasernet Developer and denoted by a ✔ in the regional profile list there) is used.

Profile Precedence for Output Data

If a rearrange has no regional profile on its Output format tab (in Edit Rearrange > Formats), a regional profile present in the table on the Sheet Options > Format tab is used.

If the Sheet Options > Format table is empty, the default profile (as specified in Lasernet Developer and denoted by a ✔ in the regional profile list there) is used.