Property form
Completing the General tab — Value modes

Type

Description

Text

Select Text to allow the property to hold text strings that can contain tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds.

When you use an activity or an HTML form to set the value of the property, the value can contain any graphic characters in addition to tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds.

Use the TextProperty Type if a user may enter the value in a text area of an HTML form.

Identifier

Select Identifier to allow the property to hold text strings that form a Java identifier. Identifiers cannot contain tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds. See How to enter an identifier.

When you use an activity or an HTML form to set the value of the property, the value can consist only of legal graphic characters.

Password

Select Password to allow the property to hold a password.

The values of properties with this Property Type are always encrypted when stored in the database. When on the clipboard, the values may appear as clear text (not encrypted), until the page containing the property is validated.

The value can contain only legal graphic characters. Tabs, carriage returns, and line feed characters are not allowed.

Don't confuse the Password type with the TextEncrypted type, which has encrypted values even when on the clipboard; clear text values are visible only if a Rule-Access-When rule evaluates to true. See Implementing and using the TextEncrypted type.

You can prevent any text field from echoing when typed into an HTML form using the PASSWORD input type:

<INPUT TYPE="PASSWORD" NAME=...>

This HTML does not cause any encryption. This native HTML feature is not related to the Password Type.

Integer

Select Integer to allow the property to hold an integer.

When you specify the value in your later configuration, use any sequence of digits for the value. You can precede the digits with a plus sign (+12) or a minus sign (-12).

Double

Select Double to allow the property to hold a 64-bit floating point value.

Decimal

Select Decimal to allow the property to hold a decimal quantity.

Your property rule can reference the standard property qualifier named pyDecimalPrecision to fix the number of digits the system keeps after the decimal position in values of this property.

DateTime

Select DateTime to allow the property to hold a UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) value. The value is essentially the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), used for the synchronization of computers on the Internet.

Internally, a DateTime value is stored in the format YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.QQQ GMT where T and GMT are literal characters, YYYY represents a year, MM is a month, DD is a day, HH is an hour value between 00 to 23, MM is a minute value between 00 and 59, SS is a second value between 00 and 59, and QQQ is a millisecond value between 000 and 999. See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

Users need not enter DateTime values in this format, as shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

Date

Select Date to allow the property to hold a calendar date. Internally, a date is stored as an eight-digit text value, in the format YYYYMMDD. For example 20071123 represents November 23, 2007. No time zone is implicitly associated with a Date.

Application users are not required to enter Date values in this format, as many shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

As a best practice, use DateTime rather than Date for properties that are part of work objects, assignments, or other persistent objects in your application. Avoid using Date property types in persistent objects, such as work objects or assignments, even if your application is used in only a single time zone, unless a time zone value is also stored in another property of the object. See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

TimeofDay

Select TimeOfDay to allow the property to hold a time of day at the seconds level, not associated with a time zone.

Internally, a Time of Day value is stored as six digits in the format HHMMSS, with two digits for the hour, two digits for the minute, and two digits for the second.

For example, 000000 represents midnight and 120000 identifies noon. The value 235959 identifies the second before midnight.

Application users are not required to enter TimeOfDay values in this format, as shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

As a best practice, use DateTime rather than TimeOfDay for properties that are part of work objects, assignments, or other persistent objects in your application. See Understanding the Date, TimeOfDay, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

TrueorFalse

Select TrueorFalse to allow the property to hold values representing true or false. When you specify the value in your later configuration, you can enter true, false, or any of these values:

• 1, -1 or Y for true
• 0 or N for false

A TrueorFalse property with a null value ("") can be saved into the PegaRULES database, but this is not a desirable practice. To avoid possible confusion and errors, choose a value "true" or "false" when initializing a TrueorFalse property in a model or through other means, as appropriate to the business situation.

TextEncrypted

Select this type to implement encryption for the value. See Implementing and using the TextEncrypted type.

Don't confuse the TextEncrypted type with the Password type. For TextEncrypted values, clear-text values are visible only if a Rule-Access-When rule evaluates to true.

Field

Description

Optional. For Single Value properties, identify an HTML Property rule to control the read-only presentation and read-write presentation of this property. Dozens of standard HTML Property rules are available:

• If you leave this blank, the system uses the HTML property rule named Default.
• Choose Default-NonNLS to use default presentations that do not reflect operator locale settings.
• Choose PromptSelect (for a drop-down list) or RadioButtons (for a rectangular array of radio buttons) in most cases if you have completed the Table Edit area with Remote List, Local List or Prompt List as the Type of Table.
• Choose PromptFieldValue if you have completed the Table Edit area with Field Value as the Type of Table.
• Choose ShowTextEncryptedPropertyValue if the property Type is TextEncrypted.
• Do not choose SmartLabel, StartSmartField, SmartInfoBehavior, SmartInfo, ListView, ListToList or Chart; these are pseudo-HTML Property rules with special, restricted use.
• See Atlas — Standard HTML Property rules for information on selected popular choices that do not require parameters.

This field is not meaningful for Value List or Value Group properties. Leave blank.

If the HTML Property rule requires parameters and you want to specify them in this Property form, click the magnifying glass icon and enter values as prompted.

When completing a Field panel (for a cell in a harness, section, or flow action rule), you can override the parameter values entered here with values that apply to that cell only.

For a list of selected popular formats that use parameters, see Atlas — Standard HTML Property rules with parameters.

Field

Description

Select None, Local List, Field Value, Class Key Value, Remote List or Prompt List:

• None — No table edits apply.
• Local List — Values are enumerated in this tab. See Property Form — General Tab — Tables - Case 1: Local List.
• Field Value — Values correspond to field value rules. See Property Form — General Tab — Tables - Case 2: Field Value.
• Class Key Value — Values correspond to the first key part of a known other class. See Property Form — General Tab — Tables - Case3: Class Key Value .
• Remote List — Values are enumerated as elements of a List or Group within a single Process Commander object. See Property Form — General Tab — Tables - Case 4: Remote List.
• Prompt List — Values are enumerated as with a Local List, but for each internal value, a different localized value appears on input or output. See Property Form — General Tab — Tables - Case 5: Prompt List.