Set properties for page automation elements
Page automation elements from builders such as Data Page, Data Column Modifier, or Rich Data Definition, have generic properties associated with them. They are used for a number of internal processes, generally carrying information about how the page should be rendered or how certain methods should be called. In some scenarios, you might need to set these properties at runtime. For example, to highlight fields on a data entry page that have validation errors, you could change the CSS class of the field label to render in a different color or font. These can be set by assigning the
LabelClass_NoError
andLabelClass_Error
properties to the field.Most properties can be inherited, so it is possible to set the properties on a container and that value will be used for all sub-containers and fields within that container. In any element, there are actually two sets of properties, the local ones (that apply only to that element) and the ones that will be inherited by children. To set a property that will apply to a container and to its children, you have to put the property into both lists.
We can set page automation properties in one of three ways:
- Programmatically, using the setProperty() or setLocalProperty() method of DataDefinitionElement.
- Using a Rich Data Definition file.
- Using a Data Field Modifier builder in the properties section in the Advanced group.
Here are some common properties that we can set.
- ColumnWidth
- Determines the width of a column, for example,
24px
or1.4in
. This property must be placed on a leaf node in a table.- ColumnAlignment
- Determines how the content of a table column is aligned. Indicate either left, right, center. This property must be placed on a leaf node in a table.
- ResourceKeyPrefix
- Indicates a prefix to use when looking for a key in the resource bundle.
- InferInputType
- Boolean that indicates whether control type should be inferred from the HTML. The default is true.
- ActionType
- Determines the type of behavior of the action of a button, image button, or link. Possible values are
form
,link
, orscript
.- IsModelAction
- Determines whether the action is a model action. Specify either
true
orfalse
.- RenderOuterPage
- Determines whether action control should reinvoke the page after invoking the action. Specify either
true
orfalse
.- OptionsSource
- Indicates the name of a lookup table for text, select, and radio button group controls.
- NoAssignIfValidationError
- Boolean that indicates whether the assign part should be skipped if validation fails (in SaveData method).
- PutAssignInTryCatch
- Boolean that indicates if assignment code (in SaveData method) should be wrapped by try and catch blocks.
- AppendBadValueToErrorMessage
- Boolean that indicates whether to append a user's value when validation fails.
- TranslateHTMLLabels
- Boolean that indicates whether labels should go through ResourceBundle translation even though they were on original HTML
- LabelClass_NoError
- Indicate the CSS class to render a field in a form that does not contain errors.
- LabelClass_Error
- Indicate the CSS class to render a field in a form that contains errors.
- RequiredPrompt
- Value of this property is a String used to indicate required fields.