Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Validating your halFILE Database

halFILE 3.0 includes two tools for validating database and image information. This post explores these tools to help you understand how they can be useful to you.

The first tool, HFValidate.exe, has been around since halFILE 2.2. You can find it behind the Tools - Database Validator menu of the halFILE Administrator. For the records selected by a SQL statement you provide, HFValidate logs any document that has no images to a missing image logfile. It also validates the coded fields to be sure that the code still exists in the referenced table. Records having invalid codes are logged to the missing code logfile. Documentation can be found at http://www.halfile.com/pdfdocs/hfw0031_22.pdf.

The second tool, HFValidateBKPG.exe, is new to halFILE 3.0 and is primarily used by Title Companies and County Recorders. For the records selected by a SQL Statement you provide, this program uses the instrument Number, Book and Page fields to determine if the document has the correct number of images.

So, for example, if Instrument Number 20080012 is posted as Book 234 and Page 123 and the next Instrument Number in sequence (20080013) is posted as Book 234 and Page 127, then this utility determines that Instrument Number 20080012 should have 4 image pages. It reports any document that appears to have the incorrect number of pages. It also reports any document where it cannot determine the number of pages because the sequence is out of order or the next document in sequence is missing. So, because of the way it performs the validation, it will also reveal miskeyed Instrument Numbers. Documentation can be found at http://www.halfile.com/pdfdocs/hfw0035_30.pdf.

These utilities will help you keep your halFILE database is ship-shape.