Constraints form
Completing the Constraints tab

Control

Action

Click to review a property (for a field that contains a property reference). If the property does not exist, click thebutton to create a new property.

expression selector

Click the button to display a drop-down list of all boolean expressions.

Select any constraint to enable. Click the ,, or buttons to add a new constraint before or after the selected constraint, or to delete the selected constraint. (Equivalently, use the  Insert  ,  Shift+Insert  , and  Delete   keys.)

Display Name

Display Label

When reviewing this tab, you can see a presentation using either property names or the Short Description (pyLabel) of properties. Click to toggle the display. (Note that two or more properties may have the same Short Description text.)

Field

Description

Click the button to select a boolean expression from the drop-down list. The form changes to reflect the expression selected.

Most expressions require properties. UseSmartPrompt to select a property. You can enter a linked property reference here.

This area defines the constraint. Click the button to select an expression from the drop-down list. The form changes to reflect the expression selected.

Most expressions require properties. UseSmartPrompt to select a property, or enter a linked property reference.

You can't specify single elements of a Value List, Value Group, Page List or Page Group in property references here. Use only empty parentheses containing no index or subscript, for example:

pyWorkPage.pyWorkParty().pxCity = "Chicago"

Optional. Type the text of a message within quotes or identify a Message rule. Use SmartPrompt to see both the Rule-Message key and text. You can choose any message; these are commonly used:

• ValueRequired — Value cannot be null (blank)
• ValueOutOfRange — Value is out of range

Some messages require parameters. To provide fill-in-the-blank text values for each parameter, follow the key name with a backslash character, the single letter t, and text for each message parameter.

Optional. Identify the property to be marked with the message. The message remains until this property has a new value (or until an activity performs a Page-Clear-Messages method).

Ordinarily, choose the property that failed the constraint. Some constraints involve two or more properties, on the same or different pages. Select the one most likely to have a new value that will restore the constraint condition.

For example, if the constraint is of the form

BoxWidth IS LESS THAN 40

then the message can be associated with the BoxWidth property. If the constraint has the form

BoxWidth IS LESS THAN BoxLength

then the message can be associated with either property.

In unusual cases, you can leave this blank. When you leave this blank, the message is associated with the entire page rather than a property on that page. However, this is temporary, as page messages are removed upon the next user HTTP Submit operation.

You can't use symbolic page names (such as primary or steppage) here, as they are not meaningful except within an activity execution context.