Frequently asked questions

ECHSA Database Software

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I have entered X patients, but there are less patients in the reports. Why?

There are few stages where patients can be stopped from appearing in the reports. The reasons are:

1. Incomplete records are not shown in the reports.
2. The data undergoes validation. Operations that contain errors (for example surgery before birth) are stopped from appearing in the reports. To examine the validity of your data, please look at the _Validation_ tab in bottom-right section of the EACTS Congenital Database Software.
3. Some procedures don't have Basic Score values. If a patient had only one procedure and this procedure doesn't have Basic Score value, it will not appear on the BS-related reports. The reports are:
   • Basic Score report
   • Quality of care report

Which version of Java is needed?

You need Java 5.0 (also known as Java 1.5) from Sun [1]. If you have Java 1.4, the Software will not work!

If you have both versions of java installed, please check these instructions, they'll help you find out which version is actually used.

How to export to CSV?

Please see export to CSV.

I can't start the application

First, see the page Starting the software from CLI. Once you've made sure you can start the software from CLI, you can read on how to associate the Jar file with Java.

I can't find the download links

Please go to the download page.

Another instance of Cloudscape may have already booted the database

Software development team

This error message usually appears when trying to run two instances of the software. However, it may also occur when you have the database folder shared over the network and accessed by someone else at the same time. This solution worked with the old software, but with the new software it doesn't anymore. If you need to have more than one software instance, you need to perform a network installation.

If you are sure that the database folder is not being accessed over the network and it still complains about the "another instance", please compress the folder EactsCongenitalDatabase and send it to the software development team for diagnostics. You can compress the folder using software like WinZip or WinRar. After compression it should be of ~300kB size.

What is the executable file for the EACTS Database Software?

The JAR file,

Eacts-7.0.x.jar

is the executable file for the application. You shouldn't unpack it. It's ment to be executed directly.

More technically, JAR file is not an executable (i.e. exe) file for Windows. The real executable that is run in Windows, is the "javaw.exe" file, which shoud have the parameter "-jar" and the Eacts-7.0.x.jar file. The "javaw" program starts the Java virtual machine, which executes the Java binary code that is inside the JAR file. The command-line startup should look like this:

javaw -jar Eacts-7.0.x.jar

When the JAR files are associated properly and you double-click it, the above command is being executed automatically (and silently - you don't see it).

I unzip the "Eacts-7.0.x.jar" file and there's nothing inside that I can run

You shouldn't unzip the JAR file, which is intended to be executed with Java™. If JAR file has a ZIP icon, it's because your system mistakenly associated JAR file with a program like Winzip, instead of Java™ JRE.

In such case, we recommend reinstalling the JRE (Java Runtime Environment), to let it associate the JAR file type with itself. The Sun writes:

On Microsoft Windows systems, the Java 2 Runtime Environment's installation program will register a default association for Jar files so that double-clicking a Jar file on the desktop will automatically run it with javaw -jar. Dependent extensions bundled with the application will also be loaded automatically. This feature makes the end-user runtime environment easier to use on Microsoft Windows systems. (from: JAR Guide)

I get “Unable to launch the specified application” error

“Unable to launch the specified apllication” and in the details it says:

“An error occurred while launching/running the application.
Category: Invalid Argument Error
Could not load file/URL specified: C:\DOCUME~1\UTILIZ~2\DEFINI~1\Temp\javaws5”

You need to associate the JAR files with

javaw -jar

Why is in the diagnosis/procedures list the possibility X not available any more?

The new software contains updated short-list. The procedure/diagnosis was probably excluded from short-list. Current procedures and diagnoses short-list follows the document:

EACTS-STS Diagnosis and Procedure Short Lists 2004-10-24.xls

The document was originally in XLS format. You can download the PDF version of this file: EACTS-STS Diagnosis and Procedure Short Lists 2004-10-24.pdf

What is the primary key for the Patient table?

The primary key consists of two fields: the hospital code and automatically generated integer number.

The graphical user interface of the EACTS Database Software does not show the primary key anywhere. If you want to export the data from the EACTS Database Software to other relational database, the primary key will get exported as well. The patient table looks like this:

Hospital Code	Number	First Name	Last Name	Other fields...
ABC	1	John	Doe	...
ABC	2	Ann Mary	Smith	...

For information about the primary key in CSV export files, please read about the data export.

Please note that the primary key is something different from the local ID.

What is the Patient's Local ID?

Patient local ID technically is a plain text field. It can be used by the hospital according to the center's needs. This field is exported to the central database and can be used to track exported patients.

How to configure the user and password for the database in the Network installation?

The user name and password are defined in the dburl variable in the ecdbc.properties file. Please consult the network installation for details.

Why the network version of software works slow?

There can be many reasons for it. One of them is the lack of configuration of the revDNS. While operating in the local networks, computers try to resolve IP numbers, e.g. 192.168.0.4 to a DNS canonical name (like somehost.localnet). When the revDNS is not configured to resolve IP numbers to canonical names, the computer waits about 30 seconds for the IP number to be resolved, and this is perceived as application slowness.

There is no unique identifier in each CSV/Excel file, i.e. "Primary Key"

For information about the primary key in CSV export files, please read about the data export.

How to join tables

Please see export to CSV.

Any other questions not answered here

Please write the software development team.