Property form
General tab — Completing the Table fields

Table editing is part of property and page validation. If an input value for a property doesn't match the table edits, the property name and the invalid value remain on the clipboard, but during validation the system adds a message and error text to the clipboard page that contains the property. The presence of the message ordinarily prevents the system from saving the clipboard page (which contains invalid data) into the database. The message does not prevent an activity from reading or using the (invalid) property value.

Table edit comparisons require an exact text match except for case. Use Table edits carefully if the Type of the property is not Identifier or Text. For example, a value of 23.0 does not match a list entry of 23.

Although the value is compared with the table elements a case-insensitive way, the system corrects the case. For example, if the values recorded in a Local List on this tab are all lowercase, a user can enter at runtime the value in uppercase, mixed case, or lowercase letters. The system accepts a matching value but converts it to lowercase.

This check box appears only when the when the Table Type is Field Value, Class Key Value, Remote List or Prompt List.

Choose Local List as the Table Type if your property value is permanently limited to a modest number of known values in a single language. (Use a Prompt List, not a Local List, to accomplish a similar localized presentation.)

You cannot use a Local List if the Type of the property is Password, True or False, Date, or DateTime.

A Table Values array appears. Complete the array listing each possible value as a literal. Order is not significant.

If, at runtime, a user input or other processing assigns a non-null value to the property that is not on this list, the value is accepted but, when the page is later validated, the system adds an error message to the page.

For properties using this option, a standard HTML Property rule named PromptSelect or RadioButtons is often used to present a selection list.

Select Field Value as the Table Type when the set of valid values is not constant or contains more than a few hundred values, and the values are available at runtime within the keys of field value rules. Specify only the first two key parts of the set of field value rules.

For properties using this Table Edit option, the HTML Property rule PromptFieldValue is often used to present a user with a fixed list of selection values to select from.

The value — the third key part — of a field value rule is limited to 64 characters.

Field value examples

For example, the standard property Work-.pyRootCause uses field value rules to define possible root causes for an exception-oriented work object (such as Policy, Conduct, Product, and so on).

The first key part of the field value rules that provides values is Work-; the second key part is the literal pyRootCause. The final key part varies to provide specific values, such as Policy, Conduct, and Product.

The standard property Work-.pyStatusWork also is restricted to values defined by field value rules. (For this property, an activity and a HTML Property rule enforces the restriction, rather than the Table Edit values.)

Reviewing field value rules for the property

After you save the Property form, you can review a list of existing field value rules that match the key of this property:

1. Open the Advanced tab. Click the Explore button at the bottom of the tab to start the Property Explorer in a new window
2. On the Property Explorer, click the Field Values tab.

Select Class Key Value when a concrete class has either

• Two key parts that operate similarly to the second and third key parts of Rule-Obj-FieldValue rule type, or
• Three key parts where the first key part is the pyClassName property and the second and third key part.

The system uses that concrete class rather than field value rules as the source of allowable values for the property.

When you select Class Key Value, Table Description fields appear. Complete them to identify a range of keys in another class.

For example, assume that the class Data-CustomerTerritory class has key parts for state code and county name. Enter Data-CustomerTerritory as the Validation Class and "NY" as the Subset Name, to restrict the property to the county names in New York state.

The Class Key Value facility is a generalization of the Field Value case. For example, fifty-one standard field value rules have Data-Party as the first key part and pyState as the second key part (the Field Name key part). Values for the third key part range from AK (for Alaska) to WY (for Wyoming), identifying codes for 50 states and the District of Columbia. Two standard properties, Data-Party.pyHomeState and Data-Party.pyWorkState, use these field values through the Class Key Values. They use:

• Rule-Obj-FieldValue as the Class
• pyState as the Field Name

At runtime, if your system contains other field value rules in this key range (in an application RuleSet) such as PR for Puerto Rico, they also are acceptable values for pyHomeState and pyWorkState.

Choose Remote List when the set of valid values is not constant or not short, but is available at runtime as the keys of a certain known class.

Complete the fields that appear:

Select Prompt List and complete this array to provide a mapping between a list of text values used in the property value internally and corresponding text values presented on input or output. Typically, Prompt List table edits are useful when this property rule belongs to a language-specific RuleSet and the original base property contains a Local List of text values.

1. Enter a language-specific text value in the Prompt Value column, for each Standard Value in the Local List.
2. On the General tab, choose GetStandardValue as the Edit Input Value rule. Choose GetLocalizedValue as the Display Property value.

Together, these allow users to see information from the Prompt Value column on both input and display, but the system maintains the corresponding value from the Standard Value column internally.

For example, if the base version of the property uses a Local List with values Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow, an Italian version can contain four rows mapping Azzuro, Verde, Rosso, and Giallo to these values. When a user with an Italian locale selects a property value from a selection list, the Italian color names appear (sorted alphabetically). Internally, the system retains the base (English) values.

Field	Description
Prompt Values
Standard Value	Enter a value defined on the base property Local List.
Prompt Value	Enter a language-specific alternative.