Harness, Section, and Flow Action forms
Adding a Text Area control

Field

Description

Alternatively, you can drag a property name from the lists of properties visible in the Application Explorer. Typically, this works for Single Value properties belonging to in the Applies to class of the current rule (or a higher class). If the container in which this field sits has a non-blank Using Page value, you can drag a Single Value property from within that embedded page property.

Click the pencil icon () to review the property (if the reference is to an existing property in the Applies To class of this rule or a parent of that class). If the property is not found, the New dialog box for the property form appears.

You can reference properties on any page identified on the Pages & Classes tab, using the normal notation pagename.propertyname for pages other than the page corresponding to the Applies To class of the rule.

If this field is in a cell of a section that includes parameter declarations on the Parameters tab, you can enter the notation param.NAME here, to use a parameter value for the field, where NAME identifies a string parameter. Make sure that the NAME parameter is declared on the Parameters tab, and that your application provides a non-blank value for the parameter value in all possible situations where the section appears. See Sections — Completing the Parameter tab.

For a harness, the property generally must be on the primary page of the rule — the page corresponding to the Applies To key part of the rule. However, a section within the harness may have a different Applies To class, and that section can include properties from its own class.

Click the pencil icon () to review the control identified in this field.

Customizing the control

The control's default parameters are the ones you'll most likely use in your UI design for both edit and read-only modes. If you wish, you can customize the control within the context of the section that contains it. For example, you can:

• Specify the text area's width it in pixels or as a percentage rather than let the size of the cell determine the width.
• Specify the width and height of columns and rows.
• Add behaviors and actions, such as Size to Content or on Change, Refresh Section. You can specify multiple actions for a single control. The actions execute in sequence. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab for descriptions of the available parameters and how to define behaviors.

Your edits apply only to the control within the section that contains it and do not update the underlying rule. You an add multiple controls of the same type within a section, each with its own custom settings.

Do the following to customize an auto-generated control in a section:

1. Open the section or harness that contains the rule.
2. Select the cell containing the rule and open its Cell Properties panel.
3. In the panel, select the magnifying glass icon () next to the Control field. This displays the control Parameters dialog. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab for descriptions of the available parameters and how to define behaviors.
   
4. Modify as necessary. You cannot edit the Control Modes and UI Element settings.
   To immediately render your changes, click OK in the dialog. If satisfactory, save the section. The system generates the XML representing your edits and stores it in the section.

Displays only if dynamic behavior for this control was configured prior to V6.3. In V6.3 and above, click the magnifying glass icon () next to the Control field to configure dynamic behavior.

To modify an existing dynamic form action based on user updates or values for this field, click the magnifying glass icon () next to the Behavior field to open the Client Event Editor. Complete the Client Event Editor to select an event (OnBlur, OnChange, or OnClick) and the resulting form action.

Click the help icon ( ) on the Client Event Editor for assistance. For general information on this capability, see Harness, section, and flow action forms Help — Client Event Editor.

Client event support is not available for harnesses, sections, or flow actions that use directives.

Field

Description

• Choose Always, If Not Blank, or If Not Zero to have the field appear or be hidden based on the property value at the time this area of the user form (section or flow action) is first presented or refreshed. This condition is checked only once.
• Choose Other Condition to make the visibility depend on a when condition rule or a Java condition.

When a user submits an HTML form, an input field that is not visible is not included in the HTTP details. Don't make an input field invisible if your application expects user input on the field.

Appears if you selected Other Condition in the Visible field. Enter or select one of the following:

• The When Name key part of a when condition rule. Click the pencil icon () to review or create the rule.
• Simple expression based on the comparison of a pair of constants, properties, or both, combined by Boolean operators, such as .Color="Red". You can combine the expression with a when condition rule or another expression using the && and || operators.

As a best practice, use the Condition Builder to edit this field. Click the magnifying glass icon ( ) to open the tool. See Using the Condition Builder to configure dynamic UI actions.

Appears when you enter a simple expression in the Condition field.

Select to cause evaluation and execution of the condition each time the value of a property stated in the condition changes. If unselected, the expression is evaluated and the condition executed when the form is initially presented and whenever the form is refreshed.

By default, controls that allow typing, such as Text Input, are evaluated when the user leaves the field. To re-evaluate conditions as the user types, use the Apply Conditions action with a Keyboard event. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab.

• Auto — the control uses the edit mode of the section or harness in which it appears. If the section is set to Read Only, then the control is Read Only. If the section is set to Auto, then the control uses the edit mode of the harness. For example, a New harness is editable, while a Review harness is read only.
• Editable — the control is editable, regardless of the edit mode of the section or harness in which it appears.
• Read Only — the property value is presented in read-only mode always, or based on a when condition rule or client-side test, even when the enclosing layout is in read-write mode. You can set a Read-Only Condition.

• The When Name key part of a when condition rule. Click the pencil icon () to review or create the rule.
• Simple expression based on the comparison of a pair of constants, properties, or both, combined by Boolean operators, such as .Color="Red". You can combine the expression with a when condition rule or another expression using the && and || operators.

As a best practice, use the Condition Builder to edit this field. Click the magnifying glass icon ( ) to open the tool. See Using the Condition Builder to configure dynamic UI actions.

Selecting Required marks the label for this field with an orange asterisk () when the flow action form appears in read-write mode. (The asterisk also appears if the Label control's Value For field is not blank and the Label control's Required box is checked.)

For sections, checking this box enables client-side format validation when this section is part of a harness form that has the Enable Client Side Validation box selected on the HTML tab. At runtime, users who leave this field blank and submit the form are notified immediately that the field is required; the form is not transmitted to the server.

Field

Description

As a best practice, use SmartLayouts to achieve uniform width of cells throughout your application's forms. You can set the width of SmartLayout templates using the Skin rule. See Skin form — Styles tab — Layouts — Smart Layouts.

Optional. Enter a positive number for the width in pixels of this cell. (At runtime, normal browser processing for rendering tables determines the actual displayed width.)

This field appears only when the cell is not controlled by SmartLayout column restrictions. In that case, you can also adjust the width this column directly:

1. Click a vertical wireframe cell border.
2. Wait until the pointer shape changes (), then drag the border.

As a best practice, use SmartLayouts to achieve uniform height of cells throughout your application's forms. You can set the width of SmartLayout templates using the Skin rule. See Skin form — Styles tab — Layouts — Smart Layouts.

Optional. Enter a positive number for the height in pixels of this cell. (At runtime, normal browser processing for rendering tables determines the actual displayed height.)

This field appears only when all columns in the Layout are not controlled by SmartLayout column restrictions (that is, all columns have the None template). In that case, you can also adjust the height of a row directly:

1. Click a horizontal wireframe cell border.
2. Wait until the pointer shape changes (), then drag the border.

Optional. Enter a constant value for the property value, a property reference, or an expression, to be used only when the user form or flow action form appears in read-write mode rather than read-only mode.

Click the magnifying glass icon () to start the Expression Builder. Click the pencil button () to review a property.

Choose a default value that speeds data entry. When the system renders a harness or section in read-only mode (for example because the read-write mode requires a privilege that the current user does not hold), the default value does not appear, because data entry is not permitted.

Optional. Type the name of the custom style, for example, custom_stylename, that you want to apply to this cell when the user form or flow action form appears in read-write mode. Define custom styles in the Skin rule. See Skin form — Custom.

Optional. Type the name of the custom style, for example, custom_stylename, that you want to apply to this cell when the user form or flow action form appears in read-only mode. Define custom styles in the Skin rule. See Skin form — Custom.

Optionally, enter CSS code for an inline style for a cell in the column. For guided assistance in composing a style definition, click the magnifying glass icon () to open the Style Editor. You can select from predefined lists or type a style definition directly, and preview the results.