Unique-valued fields Registry entries

EMu provides two different Registry entries for specifying the uniqueness of fields, the Unique Registry entry and the Unique Index Registry entry. Both of these entries can be used to specify uniqueness, but there are differences between the two:

Unique

Specifies that a column or a combination of columns must be unique in order to save a record, and a message to be displayed if uniqueness is violated:

  • This is a client-side entry and uniqueness is checked when the record is saved. If a field or a combination of fields required to be unique is not unique, the record is not saved and the message displays warning the user to change the value.
  • This setting can be overridden using a Unique Override Registry entry (users / groups are able to save a record even if a Unique Registry entry specifies that a column or a combination of columns must be unique in order to save a record and the column or combination of columns is not unique).

Unique Index

Specifies that one or more columns is unique:

  • This is a server-side entry and uniqueness is checked as focus leaves the field. If the field contains a non-unique value, a generic system warning message displays indicating that the value is not unique.
  • This setting can be overridden using a Unique Strict Registry entry (specifies users / groups able to save a record even if a field that has been configured on the server to be unique is not unique).
  • The Unique Index Registry entry was introduced with EMu 4.1 to allow Administrators to specify server-side uniqueness of one or more columns, which is necessary when enabling uniqueness checking and auto-incrementation of a value in a field. See Uniqueness checking and auto-incrementation for details. Previously it was necessary to request EMu Support to set server-side uniqueness on a column.