Custom Card Formats

Guide to configuring custom card formats in the Alcatraz AI Admin Portal

Overview

If your organization utilizes a card format that is not already predefined in the Admin Portal, you can create a custom card format. This flexibility ensures that the Alcatraz AI system can interpret and display badge information, such as facility codes and card numbers, in security events and profiles. This article provides a step-by-step guide to configuring custom card formats in the Admin Portal.

Understanding Custom Card Formats

Card formats define the individual bits encoded on a credential. While there are many possibilities for custom formats, they typically include the following components:

• Bit Length: The total number of bits in the card format, ranging from 1 to 256 bits.
• Facility Code: A portion of the card format represented in binary. Not all formats include a facility code.
• Card Number: The unique identifier for the card, which is also represented in binary.
• Parity Bits: Used as a simple quality check to ensure the accuracy of the transmitted binary data. Parity bits can be even or odd.

Adding a Custom Card Format

Find Your Card Format Information

Card format information may be found on the label of the box of cards, in your access control system, or by contacting the installer of your access control system. You will need to know the bit length as well as the bits containing the facility code, card number, and parity information as described above.

Add a Custom Format

1. Log in to the Admin Portal and navigate to Accounts -> Account Settings -> Card Formats.
2. Click on the + Card Format button.
3. Choose the Custom option to define a new card format.
4. Enter a Format name.
5. Enter the total Number of bits (between 1 and 256)

Define the Format

Use the graphical format editor by clicking on each bit to define the format.

• Clicking the left mouse button will toggle a bit between the color blue and white (undefined).
• Clicking the right mouse button will toggle a bit between the color red and white (undefined).

1. In the first row, define the bits that represent the Facility Code (red) and Card Number (blue).
2. If needed, define Parity Set 1. 
   1. Check the box to enable it, and then select Even or Odd.
   2. Select a single bit (red) to be the parity bit.
   3. Select the range of bits (blue) to be used when calculating the parity bit.
3. If needed, follow the same process to define Parity Set 2 and Parity Set 3.
4. Click Save to add the custom card format to the list of Card Formats.

Verify

Check the Security Events tab to ensure that the Badge ID is displayed correctly with the facility code and card number.

Example

Here is an example custom card format for a 48-bit Corporate 1000 card.