How to understand Serial Ranges

Serial number is a number consisting of 12 digits, one letter at the beginning and one letter at the end. It is unique for each card and the card is identified by it. When a card is issued, a serial number is assigned to it and it exists for whole lifecycle of the card. Serial Numbers are parts of larger sets called “Serial Ranges“. Serial Ranges can be managed in NCDB -> Licence Management -> Serial Ranges. There, you can find an interface for managing ranges for cards issued by external subjects, cards issued via NCDB, cards issued through Online Ordering Form and for cards issued through the Card Issuing system (CI). Serial Ranges are determined by start number and end number (Range from — to); these numbers have usually 12 digits. Furthermore, the ranges contain — apart from information about the owner — information about the types of cards to which serial numbers are assigned from the range, information about the type of chip on these cards, and also the card design that is being used. Optionally, a range can have an order number and a note; you can also set whether a range is Active. No two ranges can overlap with their endpoints in a way that would make them share some serial numbers. This is checked automatically when a range is created or edited.

You can find the list of Serial Ranges in NCDB -> Licence Management -> Serial Ranges. There, you can access an overview that contains basic information about card ranges, filter them and inspect their details (click the “i” icon). Any range detail also contains the total number of licences and the number of remaining cards in the range. If a range does not contain issued cards, it can also be deleted. If there are some cards from this range that are already issued, it’s not possible to delete it. Note that every Serial Range is tied to a certain card type and to specific Card Design.

Open

In fact, there are three types of Serial Ranges. Be careful when creating new Serial Range (see next section of this course for more detail)  – once created, type of the range is not possible to change!

NCDB Orders Serial Ranges with type “NCDB Orders“ are created for NCDB Orders and they are also used for issuing cards through Online Ordering Form. So, if you have a Card Issuer that makes orders using NCDB -> Orders -> New Order, this type of range will be perfect.

External Issuer Serial Ranges with type External Issuer are created for External Issuers (for example universities), that issue cards on their own and import the issued cards into NCDB. Every external issuer can have one or more ranges assigned, from which he can assign serial numbers to cards that he himself exports to NCDB via machine interface or via excel file.

Card Issuing Serial Ranges with type Card Issuing are created for use in Card Issuing application. They are exported automatically into the Card Issuing application, where you can perform additional operations with them (see other LMS courses about Card Issuing).

Open

For new Serial Range, you can set:

• range type – NCDB orders, Card Issuing or External Issuer

• card type – ISIC, ITIC, etc.

• number of licences – the minimum number of licences for sending notifications about low stocks of available licences

• range start – this is only available when the “Manual assignment of start and end number” option is selected and overrides the “number of licences” value

• range end – this is only available when the “Manual assignment of start and end number” option is selected and overrides the “number of licences” value

• order number (optional)

• note (optional)

• preprinted – Yes/No (optional) – are cards of this range preprinted (do they already contain serial number printed on them)?

• Active – Yes/No

When a range is being created or edited, there is a check of its endpoints so that it does not overlap with another range. When you select the range type and card type, the right side of the page will display the card design (see the picture below). If you have selected the range type External Issuer, it is also necessary to select the issuer to whom the range is assigned. If you have selected the range type NCDB Orders or Card Issuing, it is possible to select a specific card design. If the range type is External Issuer, the designs of the particular issuers are displayed. Below the card design previews, there is the button labelled “Create New Card Design“. Clicking this button will let you create a new card design and assign it to the range right away. Ranges of Card Issuing type have the preprinted option set to „Yes” by default, External Issuer and NCDB Orders range types do not. Only virtual and plastic card together can be issued from preprinted range, virtual card alone cannot. After clicking „Save“ button, an overview of the created design will be displayed. Once you have checked the detail, you can create the range by clicking „Save“. An existing design can be modified by clicking „Edit“ button in the list of ranges. However, some fields cannot be changed.

In the detail of a Serial Range, there is a button that lets you export serial numbers. Clicking it will let you download a file in the .xls format that contains all serial numbers (including control letters) that belong to a particular range, including basic information about the range.