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Completing the HTML tab

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Complete this tab to define the HTML and JSP tags or directives for this rule.

Field

Description

Omit extra spaces?

Select to eliminate extra space characters in the processed HTML. This can make transmission or processing more efficient. It does not alter the appearance of the HTML when displayed in a browser.

When selected, the way the system handles stream processing is different for JavaServer Pages (JSP) streams and HTML streams.

JSP streams replace consecutive spaces and control characters with a single space. For example: << space >><< new line >><<tab>> is converted to << space >>. Two or more consecutive space characters are replaced with a single space, except within the curly brace characters defining directives.

As a best practice, remove all line breaks and whitespace. For example:

<pega:choose>

   <pega:otherwise>

Some Value

</pega:otherwise>

</pega:choose>

becomes:

<pega:choose><pega:otherwise>Some Value</pega:otherwise></pega:choose>

HTML streams delete control characters appearing at the beginning of the rule definition and immediately after a directive, but otherwise behave like JSP streams. For example:

<< tab >>{some directive}<< tab >><< space >><< tab >>{some directive}<< space >><< space >>

is converted to:

{some directive}<< space >>{some directive}<< space >>

HTML stream processing copies space characters within the text of a property value and non-breaking spaces (&NBSP;) into the processed HTML without change.

Generate For

Typically, the system sets this field to HTML or JSP, to indicate whether the HTML source is to contain HTML directives or JSP tags. For new controls, the initial value is JSP.

Use of JSP tags offers superior performance and other advantages over directives. Although both directives and JSP tags are supported, JSP tags are recommended for new development.

If this rule is circumstance-qualified or time-qualified, make this Generate For value match the Generate For value of the base rule. The base rule and the qualified rules must all use JSP tags or all use directives.

Note: Do not save the rule form if you have composed HTML that contains both JSP tags and directives.

Browser Support

Indicates which browser types can to display the JSP or HTML from this rule. Note that the Pega 7 Platform does not validate your code. You must ensure that your code can be displayed across the supported browser types, which include Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, and Chrome 5+.

Accessibility

Select On to indicate that you have designed and implemented your HTML to meet your accessibility requirements.

The Accessibility Report evaluates this field on each rule in an application that displays it, when calculating application accessibility compliance levels. See Using the Accessibility report.

HTML Source

Enter source HTML directly in the HTML Source text area. .

Use of JSP tags in HTML rules offers superior performance and other advantages over directives. Although both directives and JSP tags are supported, as a best practice use JSP tags in new application development.
Conversion of existing HTML rules that use directives to functionally equivalent rules that use JSP tags is straightforward. See Converting from directives to JavaServer Pages tags.

When using JSP tags, update the Pages & Classes tab to include each page name referenced in the HTML code, and identify the class of each page.

Use the <% and %> delimiters to surround an inline Java scriptlet within the HTML source code.

Convert to JSP

This button appears only after you save the form when the Generate For value is HTML and this rule is created by a Save As operation. See Converting from directives to JavaServer Pages tags.

Show JS DOC

Reserved; do not use.

Notes on <Form > and <Input > HTML tags

Stream processing automatically supplies attributes for the following HTML tags:

<INPUT name=""<pega:reference name=""$this-name""/>""

Caution: Some standard HTML rules used in harnesses and sections contain hidden fields, defined by the HTML form element <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" ...>. If you override these HTML rules, do not delete or alter these hidden fields. They are essential to correct operation of user forms.