Changing the Sign-in ID format

AccuTrack ships with a default 9-digit social security ID format (999-99-9999). In some cases you might need to change this default format to match the format of your student's ID. For example, your college might be using a 6-digit ID instead of the default 9. This page will help you change the ID format.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you start with one ID format and change it later on, AccuTrack will not identify returning students after the change. For example, if a student used to sign in with "123-45-1234" and you change the ID format to 6 digits so the new student ID is "654321", AccuTrack will not recognize the new ID and will treat the "654321" as a new student.

To fix this problem you will need to update the existing student IDs. We developed a utility that will do this for you automatically. You will need a text file that has the old student ID and the new ID. The utility will read this file and will replace the old ID with the new one. This utility is available for free to users with Platinum Plus subscription, or for $99 for users without the subscription.

The other option is to manually edit each student's record and update it with the new ID. Since this would be a time consuming operation, it would be better to only change the ID format before adding students to the system (e.g. at the beginning of the semester).

If you have AccuTrack 8 or later

AccuTrack 8 and 9 allow you to change the ID format yourself. From System Administration click on Setup - Options and then on the ID Setting page. Use the Student ID Length spinner box to select the number of characters in the new student ID. Use the Student ID Mask box to set up the format of the new student ID. Here are the accepted symbols in the mask field:

In addition to specifying the type of the input character, you can also use special formatting symbols like ‘-‘ and ‘(‘. These characters serve as a separators and are not recorded as part of the sign-in ID itself. For example, the mask of the social security number format is “999-99-9999”.

IMPORTANT: If you change the ID format, make sure to update your administration ID before exiting the System Administration area. From System Administration click on Setup -> System Access -> Administrators, edit each administrator ID by double clicking on it, and update the ID to the new format. Don't forget to click 'Save' to keep your changes. If you do not do this update you will probably lock yourself out from the System Administration area!

If your version of AccuTrack is older than 8

Most versions of AccuTrack prior to version 8 still support changing the ID format. However, unlike version 8 you cannot do this change yourself. Instead, we will do this change for you. Here is what you need to do:

1. Find your AccuTrack data folder. In version 7 you can click on "Database" and then on "Database Location" to find the name and location of your data folder. In other versions you need to check with the person who installed AccuTrack for you to find out where the database was installed. In versions other than AccuTrack 8 and 7 the database folder is called "Data" by default. However, the admin could have renamed this folder.

2) once you have located the data folder, open it and look for 3 files called config.dbf, config.fpt, and config.cdx. Attach these 3 files to an email message and send it to support@accutrack.org. Make sure to identify yourself, mention the AccuTrack version number you are running, and the new ID format you want to use.

3) Our support team will do the necessary changes to your configuration files and will email them back to you. When you receive the files back, save them to the same folder you found them (step 2 above). make sure you over-write the existing files when Windows prompt you.

4) Launch AccuTrack and make sure the ID format is like you want it.