Harness form
Completing the Layout tab

C-1778The tab presents a real-time preview of the work object form, allowing you to adjust the contents, position, style, and other aspects of the elements in the form quickly.

Areas of the layout that correspond to section rules (or other elements) that you cannot update appear with a gray background. This may mean that the rule needs to be checked out by you, or belongs to a locked RuleSet version, or belongs to a RuleSet version that you are not allowed to update.

You cannot use this tab to modify section rules (referenced in the harness rule) with the Auto-generated HTML? checkbox cleared (on the HTML tab). These are marked Manual HTML on this tab. Similarly, you cannot use this tab to modify section rules are in the legacy format. These are marked Not Upgraded on this tab.

When you save this rule form, Process Commander also saves any other section rules you have open that this rule references, and validates the rules as they are saved.

At runtime, the initial state of each collapsible element on a work object form — collapsed () or expanded () — is determined by the state on the Harness form when you save the form.

As a best practice, build your application skin (using the Branding wizard) before you develop harness rules, especially if you are using SmartLayouts (with spacing determined by the skin styles.)The system renders the Layout tab using the styles of the skin rule identified in the Skins field of the Run Process In group of your General preferences. If the Skins field is blank, these displays use the styles marked Work on the Styles tab of the skin identified in your current portal rule. See Designer Studio — Setting your preferences. 5.5 GRP-503

Using the Harness form to review or update a harness rule creates a clipboard page and initializes properties. This may in turn cause declarative processing to execute. Use caution before implementing any OnChange declarative processing that produces database updates. F-174 APAP SR-866 GROVS 10/11/05 B-16568 SR-1131 BUG-1239 rejected

Controls that alter the preview

The preview area of this tab holds an approximate visual presentation of the runtime appearance of the flow action. These buttons do not affect the contents of the rule, only the display on this tab:

• Click the button to present the SmartFrames wireframe preview. Blue wireframe rectangles help you understand the structure of the section, names of rules referenced in this rule, and the size and other relationships of elements in the section.

• Click the button to hide wireframes, providing a less busy and more faithful preview.

Controls that alter a layout table (grid)

These controls operate on a table structure. Select one or more cells first, and then click the control to apply the operation described. When a control is not available (grayed), it cannot be applied to the current selection.

Control	Description
	Delete the contents of a single cell (not a row or column).
	Insert a new row before (above) the selected row.
	Insert a new row after (below) the selected row.
	Delete the selected row.
	Insert a new column before (to the left of) the selected column.
	Insert a new column after (to the right of) the selected column.
	Delete the selected column.
	Merge right — Combine the selected cell and the cell to the right.
	Merge down — Combine the selected cell and the cell below it. Proj-649 5.4
	Unmerge — Undo the previous merge.

You can also alter the table structure with Windows pointer operations. Select a row, cell, or column and right-click to access a context menu. Select menu operations Cut, Copy, Paste, Insert Row, Delete Row, or Delete Column.

Tabs and +/- controls

Sections in a harness may be presented as horizontal elements () or as clickable tabs (). These are "live" in the Layout tab; click a tab to bring it to the front, or click a plus sign to expand a section.

When you save a Harness rule form, the state of these controls is saved as well, and determines the initial presentation of the form. To achieve the desired results, before you save the Harness rule form:

• Click one tab to make it front-most when the work object form initially appears at runtime, or
• Click the or as desired to control the initial presentation of a section or other element

Structurally, every harness consists of one or more containers. (The container structure is not required for those harness rules that are defined through handcrafted HTML code.) A container can provide a visual grouping of multiple sections.

Headers belong to containers. A container may have a horizontal header, a set of tabs identifying the (top-level) sections it contains, or no header.

Each container can contain one or more sections, which in turn can contain layouts, repeating layouts, and other sections. Sections contain cells, arranged in rows and columns.

You can rapidly mock up the layout, labels, and controls on this tab before all properties it ultimately will reference are defined. The development effort you make in designing layout is not wasted, as the resulting Harness rule is a valid starting point for further evolution after the property rules are created.

When you first drop a control dragged from the Basic Group, the control initially references a standard placeholder property, for example @baseclass.pyTemplateInputBox. You can save and preview the Harness form (although these properties are not part of your application's work objects).

To produce a harness rule with the appropriate layout, drag and drop the controls, adjust the labels, but do not complete the Cell Properties panel. Reopen the Harness form and update each Cell Properties panel later, when the real properties are defined.

For an example of this approach, see Pega Developer Network article PRKB-25216 Use pyTemplate properties and controls to rapidly prototype work object forms.

Each control is defined by your inputs in floating panel, which you can pin for faster input. To open the panel, select the control (after dropping it) and click the magnifying glass () icon that appears. Use these controls on the header of floating panel:

• — Pin the panel to a location. The OK button disappears, and each input you enter is immediately applied to the open rule form.
• — Release the pin. The OK button appears. Your inputs do not affect the open form until you click OK.
• — Collapse (hide) the panel body.
• — Expand a collapsed panel body.
• — Close the panel. If you have entered changes that are not yet applied, a warning dialog may appear, depending on the Warn on modified checkbox in the SmartFrames Edit area of the Edit preferences group. See Designer Studio — Setting your preferences.

Click the down arrow () in the Container control group () and select a control: PROJ-649 5.4

Control	Description
	Add a panel set to this harness, to support a composite portal. See Adding a panel set. GRP-240 5.5
	Add a container to the harness form. Every harness must contain at least one container. The sections within a container may be presented vertically or with tabs. See Adding a container.
	Add a tab to a harness. See Adding a tab.
	Add an accordion to the harness. See Adding an accordion.
	Add a section rule into this harness. See Adding a section.
	Add a layout to the harness — a <TABLE> element containing one or more rows and one or more columns. You can then change the number and size of rows and columns, and set up the contents of each cell (a <TD> HTML element). See: Adding a layout Adding a Row Repeat layout Adding a Column Repeat layout Adding a Tabbed Repeat layout Adding a Grid layout Adding a Tree Grid layout Adding a Tree layout

A cell can hold a label or property value or a form field that accepts a user-entered property value. The property value may be presented in read-only or read-write mode.

Click the down arrow () in the Basic control group () and select a control:

Control	Description
	Add a static read-only text label into a cell. Adding a label.
	Add an Input Box, which corresponds to <INPUT TYPE="TEXT"... >. Adding an Input Box.
	Add a TextArea, which can contain more than one line of text. Corresponds to <INPUT TYPE="TEXTAREA" ...> Adding a TextArea.
	Add an icon to the form, in a cell or on a header. When clicked at runtime, the icon starts an activity. Adding an icon.
	Place a button into a cell or to the bottom of the form. When clicked at runtime, the button starts an activity. Adding a button.
	Add a checkbox representing a property value. Adding a checkbox.
	Add a radio button group representing a property value. Adding a radio button group.
	Place blue, underscored text in a cell. When clicked at runtime, the link starts an activity. Adding a URL.
	Add a text box containing a Date or DateTime value. Adding a Calendar control.
	Add a Select control that presents a fixed list of values. Adding a Select control.
	Include an image in the form. Adding an Image. GRP-1041

Click the down arrow () in the Advanced control group () and select a control:

Control	Description
	Reference, in a cell, a paragraph rule that presents only read-only text and images using rich text. Optionally, you can link a SmartInfo pop-up section with the paragraph. Adding a paragraph. C-2526
	Use an AutoComplete text box to present a drop-down list of dynamic choices computed by an activity. Adding an AutoComplete field.
	Add a red label that opens a pop-up SmartInfo section when the user hovers the mouse pointer over the label. Adding a Smart Label. PROJ-1019 GRIFK 4/24/08
	Add a dynamic drop-down list. Adding a Dynamic Select control.
	Adding a control that allows multiple selections from a possibly long list. Adding a list-to-list control.
	Presenting rows of a report, optionally allowing selection. Adding a List View display.
	A cell can contain an interactive chart, defined by a summary view rule with a completed Chart tab. Adding a chart.
	For harnesses that are part of a composite application built with Internet Application Composer only. Add a hidden field to expose a property value, making it available to the external page that displays the composite application. See Adding a Data Field control.
	Add a menu to a composite portal. See Adding a Menu Bar. GRP-237 5.5
	Adding a Work Area to a composite portal. 5.5Adding a Work Area.
N/A	In addition to these Advanced controls, you can add interactive data displays to support quick review or editing for a Page List or Value List. Adding a Tree, Adding a Grid, Adding a Tree Grid.

You can complete two cells of a layout in one step if the left cell is to contain a text label and the right cell is to contain a field corresponding to a property on the Application Explorer.

1. Locate and expand the work type that contains the property on the Application Explorer.
2. Expand the Data Model category () and the Property rule type to list property names.
3. Select the blue dot () for the Single Value property to be placed in the field. Drag and drop the dot into the desired cell.
4. The system places the Short Description text of the property as a label in the left cell. It places the property as a (read-write) field in the right cell. You can adjust the settings for these cells.