Harness, Section, and Flow Action forms
Adding a Dynamic Select control to a field

Field

Description

Select or type a property reference that identifies a single text value that has a dynamic set of possible values. (Use the default placeholder property @baseclass.pyTemplateDynamicSelect only when prototyping work object forms and the actual property is not yet defined.)

Click the pencil icon () to review the property rule (if the reference is to an existing property in the Applies To class of this rule or a parent of that class). If the property is not found, the New dialog box for the property form appears.

You can reference properties on any page identified on the Pages & Classes tab, using the normal notation pagename.propertyname for pages other than the page corresponding to the Applies To class of the rule.

Accept the supplied value DynamicSelect. Click the magnifying glass icon () to enter parameters.

Parameter	Description
Method for Generating Dynamic Select	Select a radio button to indicate which of three runtime approaches is to be used to derive the contents of the list. The form changes to reflect your selection.
List View Information	Complete these fields if you selected the List View radio button.
Applies To	Enter the first key part of the list view rule.
View Purpose	Enter the second key part — Purpose — of the list view rule. At runtime, the system uses these two key parts and rule resolution to locate the list view rule to run.
Activity Information	Complete these fields if you selected the Activity radio button.
Applies To	Select the first key part of an activity rule.
Activity Name	Select the second key part of an activity rule. If the activity requires as an input parameter the value of a property controlled by another Dynamic Select control, you can identify this parameter and its source in the Filter fields. If the activity requires other input parameters, use the Advanced radio button to enter them in URL format.
Class of Returned Results	Optional. Identify the class of the pxResults() pages. (This helps during development, by facilitating SmartPrompt operations.)
Advanced	Additional fields appear if you select the Advanced radio button. See Advanced Format Parameters.
Common Dynamic Select Information	These fields apply to every Dynamic Select control, regardless of which approach you use to build it.
Select ID	Optional. Enter an alphabetic-only value for the ID=" " element in the <SELECT> control. The ID is required when you need to reference this control in another Dynamic Select control.
Default Caption	Optional. Enter a text value for the caption value in the control. For example, "Choose a state".
Property for Option Display	Identify the property that supplies the text values displayed to users at runtime.
Property for Option Value	Identify the property that is the source of internal values for the field on the Harness, Section, or Flow Action form. This property may be the same as the property in the Property for Option Display field.
Enable Cache	When set to true, Dynamic Select instructs Internet Explorer to cache the data that it receives for a specific URL. The next time the data is needed (for the exact URL from this user), the activity is not called and the cached information is presented again. The default is true, which is recommended. This feature is especially useful when a single HTML form includes more than one Dynamic Select control that have a common value for the Source. For example, a user may need to select one or more General Ledger codes for debits, and later one or more General Ledger codes for credits.
Filter	Optional. Complete these parameters to filter the results in this Dynamic Select control based on the value at runtime of another Dynamic Select control on the same work object form that users typically complete first. Enter one row if the values to be presented depend on the value selected by users on a single previously completed field controlled by a Dynamic Select control. Enter multiple rows if multiple selections affect the choices to be presented by this row. The SelectID of Dynamic Select control identified in the last row becomes the ParentID for this Dynamic Select control. As a result, the system refreshes the contents of this Dynamic Select only when the value changes in the parent control, not when any other Dynamic Selects control lists change. If your application requires this Dynamic Select control to refresh when a value changes for any of multiple parents, use the TargetID option in the Advanced format for the parent Dynamic Select controls. Field Description Param Name Optional. Enter the name of an input parameter to the activity identified in the Activity Name field, or a parameter affecting the list view rule identified in the View Purpose field. Select ID Optional. Enter the ID field of the other Dynamic Select control that at runtime has a value for the parameter.

Optional. Leave blank if no dynamic form actions to other parts of the form are to occur based on user updates or values for this field.

To establish a dynamic form action, click the magnifying glass icon () to open the Client Event Editor in a new dialog window. Complete the Client Event Editor to select an event (OnBlur, OnChange, or OnClick) and the resulting form action.

Click the help icon ( ) on the Client Event Editor for assistance. For general information on this capability, see Implementing dynamic form actions and the Client Event Editor.

Event support is available for harness, section, or flow action rules that have Generate for set to JSP on the HTML tab and that use the SmartFrames layout.

Field

Description

Optional. Enter an alphabetic-only value for the ID=" " element in the <SELECT> control. An ID is needed when another Dynamic Select controls is a parent to this control and supplies a filter value.

Enter the query string form of the activity to call, including values for parameters. Click the magnifying class button () to open an Activity Picker window for guidance on entering input parameter values. Use URL encoding (commonly called percent-encoding) for blanks and other special characters. Use this syntax:

pyActivity=myClass.myActivity&param=value....

You can reference another HTML element (such as a parent Dynamic Select control) for a parameter value. Enclose the ID of the other element between square brackets. For example, to reference an element with ID=textbox17:

pyActivity=ActivityClass.ActivityName
           &param1=false
           &param2=[textBox17]

Select No in most cases. Select Yes in a rare case when your application requires the primary page of the current activity at runtime — typically a page containing a work object — to become the primary page of the activity referenced in the Source field.

Enter a semicolon-delimited string of property names that form the visible text of Option elements, in the format:

propertyName1;propertyName2;...

For example. to display the name and the label of a class as the text of the Dynamic Select options elements, use the following:

pyClassName;pyLabel

Enter a semicolon-delimited string of property names that form the values of the HTML Option elements in the format:

propertyName1;propertyName2;...

For example, the following string sets the values of a Dynamic Select to the class names in a list:

pyClassName

Optional. Enter a text value that becomes the runtime default value of the Dynamic Select control.

Optional. Enter a text value for the caption value in the control. For example, "Choose a state".

Optional. Enter the ID of another <SELECT > element that, when changed, triggers a refresh of this control.

Optional. Complete this field when the results of another Dynamic Select control on the same harness, section, or HTML form depends on the results selected by users for this Dynamic Select control. This technique is known as cascading.

Enter one or more semicolon-delimited text value to identify the ID(s) of the other Dynamic Select controls whose values depend on the value selected in this Dynamic Select control.  When a user selects a value in this Dynamic Select control, the system appends the value to the Source of the target Dynamic Select control. The activity of the latter control is then executed to populate it.  The Source of the target control must end with the following syntax:

parameterName=.

The value of the selected option in the first Dynamic Select then becomes the value of the parameter in the activity of the target Dynamic Select.

Optional. Enter text that appears when the activity returns an empty page. If this field is blank, the default text "No results were found." appears.

Optional. Enter one or a few characters to override the default delimiter used to concatenate multiple captions or values. If this field is blank, the delimiter is a single space character.

Select:

• Auto — The system loads the Dynamic Select control when the HTML page is assembled for the user. (You can't also specify a Default value when you choose this.)
• Dynamic — The system loads the Dynamic Select control only on request because it depends on another Dynamic Select control.
• OnDemand — The system loads Dynamic Select control on request, when the mouse pointer hovers over the control or the control receives focus. This feature is known as deferred loading, as the activity runs only after a user explicitly requests the output.

Optional. Enter an optional string to appear as the caption of the default value when this Dynamic Select control is set to OnDemand mode. The value of this attribute can be:

• A literal string.
• A reference to an HTML element. Enclose the ID of the element in square brackets.
• An activity call that returns the text of the caption.

To call an activity, use the following syntax, using URL percent encoding for special characters:

pyActivity=myClass.myActivity&param=value....

Optional. Enter a value between 1 and 60 to set a maximum period in seconds after which processing times out (fail) if no results were received from the activity.

If omitted, the default timeout value is 3 seconds. The system does not notify users of this timeout.

When set to true, the Dynamic Select control instructs Internet Explorer to cache the data that it receives for a specific URL. The next time the same user accesses this control, cached information in the Internet Explorer cache appears again; the system does not call the activity.

The default is true, which is recommended for best performance.

This feature is especially useful when a single HTML form includes more than one Dynamic Select controls that have a common value for the Source. For example, a user may need to select one or more General Ledger codes for debits, and later one or more General Ledger codes for credits.

Optional. Enter a width in pixels of the drop-down area

Optional. Select a section that presents at runtime a SmartInfo pop-up display when this field appears in read-only mode.

Optional. Select a section that presents at runtime a SmartInfo pop-up display when this field appears in read-write mode.

Optional. Enter a text string to appear at runtime as the contents of the SmartInfo header.

Optional. Enter a count of the number of drop-down rows presented.