Back Forward HTML form
Completing the HTML tab

About HTML rules

Complete this tab to define the HTML and JSP tags or directives for this rule.

Field

Description

Omit extra spaces?

Select to eliminate extra space characters in the processed HTML. This option can make transmission or processing more efficient; it does not alter the appearance of the HTML when displayed by Internet Explorer.

When selected, during stream processing the system:

  • Deletes control characters such as tab and newline.
  • Replaces two or more consecutive space characters with a single space, except within the curly brace characters that define a directive.

Stream processing copies space characters within the text of a property value, non-breaking spaces ( ) and space characters within a literal directive into the processed HTML without change.

Generate For

This field and the Convert to JSP button appear only when the HTML Source field contains HTML directives rather than JSP tags. The value that appears is HTML.

TipAs a best practice, use JSP tags rather than directives. In most cases, you can convert HTML rules that use directives to use JSP tags automatically, using the button. See Converting from directives to JavaServer Page tags.

NoteDo not save the rule form when the source contains both JSP tags and directives.

NoteIf this rule is circumstance-qualified or time-qualified, make this Generate For value match the Generate For value of the base rule. The base rule and the qualified rules must all use JSP tags or all use directives.

Browser Support

SmartPromptIndicates which browser types can to display the JSP or HTML from this rule. Note that Process Commander does not validate your code. You must ensure that your code can be displayed across the browser types that you specify in this field: either IE6+ only or IE6+ and FireFox2+.

The Browser Compatibility Report in the Application Preflight tool uses this value to determine what percentage of the rules in your application provide cross-browser support.

Accessibility

SmartPrompt This field is available when Auto-Generated HTML? is not selected.

Select Enabled to indicate that you have designed and implemented your HTML to meet your accessibility requirements.

NoteWhen enabled, the HTML is included in the calculation of accessibility levels displayed in the preflight Accessibility Report. See Using the Application Preflight tool.

HTML Source

Enter source HTML directly in the HTML Source text area. Alternatively, click the pencil icon (Pencil) to open an HTML editor. You can use JSP tags or directives in the source HTML you enter.

TipUse of JSP tags in HTML rules offers superior performance and other advantages over directives. Although both directives and JSP tags are supported, as a best practice use JSP tags in new application development.
Conversion of existing HTML rules that use directives to functionally equivalent rules that use JSP tags is straightforward. See Converting from directives to JavaServer Page tags.

When you finish entering HTML, close the editor. Process Commander copies the HTML from a temporary file on your workstation into the HTML Source text area.

NoteWhen using JSP tags, update the Pages & Classes tab to include each page name referenced in the HTML code, and identify the class of each page.

AdvancedUse the <% and %> delimiters to surround an inline Java scriptlet within the HTML source code.

 Convert to JSP  

This button appears only after you save the form when the Generate For value is HTML and this rule is created by a Save As operation. See Converting from directives to JavaServer Page tags.

 Show JS DOC   

Reserved; do not use. Supports the Desktop API display.

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Notes on <Form > and <Input > HTML tags

Stream processing automatically supplies attributes for the following HTML tags:

<INPUT name=""<pega:reference name=""$this-name""/>""

Caution Some standard HTML rules used in harness and section rules contain hidden fields, defined by the HTML form element <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" ...>. If you override these HTML rules, do not delete or alter these hidden fields. They are essential to correct operation of work object forms.

Definitionsactive property, directive, open authoring, stream processing
Related topicsAbout JSP tags
How to set up HTML and XML editors
How stream processing works
Source HTML tags
Standard rulesAtlas — Standard HTML rules

zzz About HTML rules