Credential Types

Credential types enable the Protege X system to use a variety of custom data types - such as license plate, bar code, QR code, biometric or custom Wiegand credentials - to identify users. When data is sent to Protege X from a third-party system (via either RS-485 or ethernet), a credential type can be used to interpret that data as a specific user credential.

For example, a third-party LPR (License Plate Recognition) system might send ASCII data to Protege X, which will use the credential type programming to 'translate' that data into particular license plates.

Programming Credential Types

Credential types can be applied to custom door types using the Custom Entry/Exit Reading Mode (Programming | Door Types | General). In addition, the Reader Format must be set to Custom Credential in the reader expander port or smart reader that is receiving the credential data.

Specific credentials can be entered against user records under Users | Credentials.

For more information about programming and using credential types, see Application Note 276: Configuring Credential Types in Protege GX. Specific documentation for Protege X is coming soon.

Name

General

Configuration

Format: The data that is sent to the Protege GX controller by the third-party device. Supported formats include:
- Unicode: The credential data sent to the controller uses two bytes to represent each character as per the Unicode standard.
- UTF8: The credential data sent to the controller uses a variable number of bytes to represent each character as per the UTF-8 standard.
- ASCII: The credential data sent to the controller uses a single byte to represent each character as per the ASCII standard.
- Numeric: The credential data sent to the controller is a binary number composed of up to 8 bytes. The bytes are ordered using little endian. The preceding, trailing and prefix character settings are ignored.
- Hexadecimal: The credential data is sent to the controller as an array of binary numbers. When the specific credential is entered into the user programming for each user, the format used is hexadecimal with the numbers 0-9 and letters A-F representing each nibble of the credential.
- Wiegand: The credential data sent to the controller or reader expander is composed of a Wiegand bit stream. This bit stream can be encoded in numerous different ways and a format descriptor must be included in the Wiegand or TLV Format field.
  
  For the Wiegand format the preceding, trailing and prefix character settings and case sensitive setting are ignored.
Controllers support all credential type formats via either RS-485 or ethernet. Reader expanders only support Wiegand credential types.
Wiegand or TLV Format: The encoding format descriptor for the Wiegand bit stream when the format is set to Wiegand.
Preceding Characters: The maximum number of characters that may be ignored at the start of the data packet received by the controller.
- If the credential is found before this number of characters is counted it will still be accepted.
This setting is determined by the third-party device/application.
Trailing Characters: The maximum number of characters that may be ignored at the end of the data packet received by the controller. For example, this field may be set to 1 to ensure that credentials will be accepted even if they are followed by a carriage return character.
- If there are fewer than this number of trailing characters after the credential is found the credential will still be accepted.
This setting is determined by the third-party device/application.
Prefix: The characters that are required at the start of the credential data packet sent to the controller.

This setting is determined by the third-party device/application.
Case Sensitive: Defines whether or not the data is case sensitive.

This setting is determined by the third-party device/application.