Form field properties

There are two ways you can edit the properties of a field: You can click the name of the field in the Navigation panel or add a new field to a section.

To add a field to a form section or smart section, first click the section's name in the Navigation panel so the section properties appear in the Properties panel. Then click the Add Field action at the top of the Layout tab.

There are three kinds of fields you can add to a section:

A Data field is a field that is explicitly connected to a field in the business object with which the form is associated.
A Form Field is a field that is not explicitly connected to any field in a business object.
A Form Action is not really a field. It is a button. It is something you can put in a section that does not contain data. You can arrange for a workflow to run when someone clicks a button. Buttons are described in greater detail in "Buttons".

If the kind of field you want to add to a section is a Data field, there is a shortcut that may be less work than clicking the Add Field action. If you are looking at properties of a section you can add a field to, the Components panel contains a list of the fields in the form's associated business object that you can use to create a Data field. After you select check boxes in the list and then click the Components panel's Add action, Data fields that correspond to record fields whose check box you checked will be added to the currently selected section in the form.

When you are editing the properties of a field, the field's properties will appear in the Properties panel.

Additional properties may become visible as you select values of some of the initially shown properties. Here are descriptions of the properties:

Type

A field has two properties named Type. This is a description of the first.

The value of this property determines whether the field is a form field, a data field, or a button. The value for this field is chosen from a drop-down list. The possible values are:

Data

If the value of the Field Type property is Data, the field will be a data field connected to the business object's field specified by the Data Field and Data Section properties.

Form Field

If the value of the Field Type property is Form Field, the field will be a form field not connected to any business object field. This is the equivalent of a label and does not let the user input data.

Form fields are usually used to present instructions or messages.

Form Action

If the value of the Field Type property is Form Action, the field will be a button. Buttons are described in "Buttons".

After a new field is saved for the first time, the Type property becomes read-only and is not displayed in the Properties panel.

Data Field

This property is visible only if the value of the Type property is Data. Otherwise, this property is hidden and does not appear in the Properties panel.

The value of this property is the name of the business object field that this data field is connected to. The names of available business object fields appear in a drop-down list.

When you select a field from this list, the name of the smart section it appears in becomes the value of this field's Data Section property. If the business object field is not part of a section, the value of this field's Data Section property is set to General.

After a new field is saved for the first time, this property becomes read-only and its value is grayed out.

Data Section

This property is visible only if the value of the Type property is Data. Otherwise, this property is hidden and does not appear in the Properties panel.

The value of this property cannot be set directly, rather it is set when you select a value for the Data Field property. When you select a value for the Data Field property, the value of this property is set to the name of the smart section that contains the business object field that is named by the value of the Data Field property. If the business object field that is named by the value of the Data Field property is not part of a smart section, the value of this field is set to General.

After a new field is saved for the first time, this property becomes read-only and its value is grayed out.

Name

The value of this property is the name that workflows can use to refer to this field. The name must be unique within the section that contains this field.

After a new field is saved for the first time, this property becomes read-only and its value is grayed out.

Label

The text that is the value of this property is used as the field's label. The property whose value determines the appearance of the label is the Label Style Class property.

Type

A field has two properties named Type. This is a description of the second.

If this field is a Data field, this property is read-only and the value of this property is the data type of the business object field that this field is connected to. For example, Smart Object.

If this field is a Form Field, the value of this property is always Label.

If this field is a Form Action, the value of this property is always Form Action. Refer to "Buttons" for information about the properties of a Form Action field.

Root Classification

This property is visible only if the value of the second Type field is Classification. Click the search icon to select the value.

Lookup Query

This property is visible only if the value of the second Type field is Classification.

When blank, at runtime the system uses the hierarchy tree to determine the value.

If a query is present, at runtime the system runs the specified query to select a value. For the tabout functionality to work, the query must contain the field triNameTX.

Display Type

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is Binary. The value of this property can be chosen from two values in a drop-down list:

Content: If the value of this property is Content, the scrollable area this field takes up will be used to display whatever rendering of the binary data the browser is configured to use for the type of binary data this field has for its value.
Link: If the value of this property is Link, this field is rendered as a hyperlink. Clicking the hyperlink causes the browser to pop up a separate window to display whatever rendering of the binary data the browser is configured to use for the type of binary data this field has for its value.

Icon Position

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is a type of field that has icons next to its data area that can be clicked to set the field's value, such as Business Object or Classification. This field may be narrower than the width of the column it is in. In addition to this field's label and data areas, it also has an icon a person can click to set the field's value.

The value of this property can be chosen from two values in a drop-down list:

Next to Field: If this property's value is Next to Field, the icon will be positioned next to the right side of the field's data area.
Right Align: If this property's value is Right Align, the icon will be positioned next to the right side of the column.

Display Fields

This property is visible only if the value of the first Type property is Data and the value of the second Type property is Duration. Select the check boxes for the duration choices to be available to users; for example, Year(s) and Month(s).

Enable Locator

This property is visible only if the field is a locator field in a dependent single-record smart section. At runtime, this field is a locator field.

Locator Query

This property is visible only if the Enable Locator property is selected. It identifies the query that provides the locator.

Alternate Form List

This property is visible only if the Enable Locator property is selected. It identifies the alternate form list to be used to display a record when that record is opened.

Icon Position

This property is visible only if the Enable Locator property is selected. The value of this property determines where the locator icon is positioned on the form.

Minimum Size

The value of this property determines the minimum number of characters that must be entered into this field for the value in the field to be considered valid.

Maximum Size

The value of this property determines the number of visible characters when this field is displayed to the user. This prevents the displayed size of the field from expanding to be larger than the size to contain this number of characters. If the value of this property is 0, the field's display expands to show all characters. Note, the Size property of the field from the Data Modeler overrides this value if it is less then the Maximum Size.

Score Type

This property is visible only if the value of the Type field is Number, Financial Rollup, or Classification Rollup and the field is defined in the Data Modeler as a scored number field (as described in "Number fields"). The value of this property can be chosen from a drop-down list containing the following:

Number Value Only: Display the number value of the field only and not the score image.
Score Image Only: Display the score image only and not the number value of the field.
Both: Display both the score image and the number value of the field.

Delta Type

This property is visible only if the value of the second Type field is Number, Financial Rollup, or Classification Rollup and the field belongs to an enabled vertical comparison section (as described in "Smart sections").

The delta value is the difference between this field's value in this record and its value in the compare to record. This value is not stored; it is only a runtime calculation for viewing the data.

The values of the Delta Type property are as follows:

No Delta: The delta value is not displayed in the vertical comparison section.
Numeric Delta: The delta value displayed will be numeric and is calculated by subtracting the value of the record being compared from the compare to record's value.
Percent Delta: The delta value displayed will be numeric and is calculated by subtracting the compare to record's value from the value of the record being compared and dividing the result by the compare to record's value.

Delta Precision

This property is visible only if the value of the Type field is Number, Financial Rollup, or Classification Rollup and the field belongs to an enabled vertical comparison section (as described in "Smart sections").

The Delta Precision property defines how many decimal places the platform is to use when computing and displaying the delta value for this field. Enter the number of digits to the right of the decimal point. The maximum value is 5.

Use Custom Display Mask

This property specifies whether or not this field's display mask uses the Display Mask property defined for the business object or the UOM.

When Use Custom Display Mask is not checked, the platform uses the display mask defined on the business object or UOM.

When the Use Custom Display Mask property is checked, the Display Mask property is visible and set to the value defined on the business object or UOM. Changing the Display Mask property only affects this field. See the definition of Display Mask in "Number fields".

The chart in "Number field display and storage" describes the Display Mask property override relationship.

If a value has more digits to the right of the decimal place than shown in the Display Mask property, the platform uses Round Half Up to round the value in the display.

Input Width

The value of this property determines whether this field will be displayed with its natural width or the full width of the column it occupies.

A text field with its Maximum Size property set to 0 has no natural width. However, many fields do have a natural width. For example, a text field with its Maximum Size property set to 15 has a natural width wide enough to hold 15 characters. Some fields have a natural width based on the type of data they contain. A field that contains a date will have a natural width based on the date format that is in the user's My Profile record.

Each column of a section is at least as wide as the widest combination of field and label the column contains. A column may be noticeably wider than the natural width of some of the fields it contains.

This property has two possible values that can be chosen from a drop-down list. These are the possible values:

Default: If the value of this property is Default, then the field will be displayed only as wide as its natural width.
Full Column: If the value of this property is Full Column, then the field will be displayed as wide as the width of the column that contains it.

Label Style Class

If you do not specify a value for this property, the appearance of this field's label will be determined by default settings in the Style Manager.

If you do specify a value for this property, it will be the name of a field style sheet defined by the Style Sheet Editor. The style sheet determines the appearance of the label. The Style Sheet Editor is described in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform: User Experience User Guide.

Data Style Class

If you specify a value for this field, it will be the name of a data style defined by the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform Style Manager tool. The named style is used to specify the appearance of the field's data instead of the default.

If you do not specify a value for this property, then the appearance of this field's data will be governed entirely by the default specified in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform Style Manager tool. This tool is described in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform: User Experience User Guide.

Data Alignment

The value of this property determines the alignment of data in this field when it is displayed. The possible values for this property are:

Left
Center
Right

Hierarchical Parent

This property is visible only for fields in smart sections with the Hierarchical Fields property selected. Such sections are backed by a Vertical Table business object section. Vertical sections are described in "Record organization".

To indicate that this field should be displayed in a Vertical section as the child of another field, select the parent field in the drop-down list.

If this property is blank, this field does not have a parent.

If a field is set to be not visible, it and its child records will not be visible.

Hierarchical State

This property is visible only for fields in smart sections with the Hierarchical Fields property selected and when a value is not selected in the Hierarchical Parent property.

If this field turns out to have child fields, this property determines whether the parent / child relationship is initially rendered as expanded or collapsed.

Start Row

The following description of this property does not apply if the field is in a smart section that is connected to a multiple-record smart section. The interpretation of this property in a smart section that is connected to a multiple-record smart section is discussed in "Multiple-record smart sections".

The Start Row property specifies in which of the section's rows the field will appear. The rows in sections are counted from the top to the bottom, so row 1 is above row 2. If a field is more than one row tall, this property specifies which row of the section the top of the field will appear in.

See "Common section properties" for a visual description of this property.

Row Span

The value of this property specifies the height of the field in rows of a section. For most fields, the value of this property is 1. Descriptions and other lengthy text fields usually take up multiple lines, so the value of their Row Span property is usually at least 3.

See "Common section properties" for a visual description of this property.

Start Column

The value of the Start Column property determines the field's horizontal position. The value of this property specifies in which of the section's columns this field will appear. If the field occupies more than one column, the value of this property is the leftmost column that this field occupies.

A section is laid out in twelve columns. Most sections do not look like they are laid out in twelve columns because they do not use all twelve columns. If a section has nothing in a column, the column has no width and it looks like the column is not there.

You can choose a value from 1 to 12 for this property in a drop-down list.

See "Common section properties" for a visual description of this property.

Col Span

The value of the Col Span property specifies the width of the field in columns of a section. For most fields, the value of this property is 1. Descriptions and other lengthy text fields usually have a value for Col Span of at least 2.

See "Common section properties" for a visual description of this property.

Group Seq

It is possible to have more than one field in the same rectangle that is specified by the Start Row, Row Span, Start Column and Col Span properties. If more than one field in a section is specified with these properties having the same value, all the fields with the same values for these properties will appear in the same rectangle. The order in which the fields appear in the rectangle is determined by the value of this property.

Prefix

If the Group Seq property is greater then zero, the Prefix property will be displayed. The value of this property defines the text that will be displayed between grouped fields. This text will be displayed instead of the Label.

Tab Order

A person using this section can navigate between its fields and buttons by pressing the tab key. The order in which the tab key navigates to the fields and buttons in a section is determined by their Tab Order property. The tab key will navigate to fields and buttons in a section in the same order as the relative magnitude of the value of their Tab Order property. If the value of this property is 0 for all fields in the section, the tab order is left to right, top to bottom of the fields in the section.

Do not use this feature. Custom tab ordering can lead to confusion for screen readers and can break accessibility rules. For applications with custom tab ordering, the tabbing traverses the fields with custom ordering first, then continues with the remaining objects starting with the top-most tab-enabled object.

Required

If this property's check box is checked, a user will not be able to save the record until he or she enters a value into this field. If the business object's field is set as required in the Form Builder, the Form Field required flag will be set and the check box is read only and cannot be changed.

Show UOM

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is Number. If the property's check box is checked, the unit of measure (UOM) associated with the field will be displayed. If the field is not read-only and there is no Source UOM for the field, a user will be able to select a different UOM.

Units of measure are discussed in "Units of measure".

Hide Label

If the check box for this property is checked, this field is displayed without a label.

Position

The value of this property is normally Both. A value of Both means that both the label and data portions of the column will be used to display the field.

There are two other possible values for this property that you can select from a drop-down list. The other values for this property are primarily intended to be used when the check box for the Hide Label property is checked.

If the value of this property is Label, only the label portion of the column will be used to display this field.

If the value of this property is Data, only the data portion of the column will be used to display this field.

If the value of this field's Col Span property is greater than 1, the width of the multiple columns this field spans is first broken up into label and data areas. The field is positioned into one area, the other area, or both areas, depending on the value of this property.

Visible

If this check box is checked, this field will be visible. If the check box is not checked, this field will be hidden. The default is for the check box to be checked.

Workflows can change the value of this property at runtime, making the field visible or hidden as appropriate.

Read Only

If the check box for this property is checked, it will not be possible for a user to interactively change the value of this field by directly editing the field.

If a field is read-only, it does not have a border. If a field is editable (not read only), it has a border.

The next three fields are intended for situations in which you want a field of records created from the same business object to contain different kinds of data. An example of when this is useful is a survey for which the answers to different kinds questions may be different kinds of data. You want to use one kind of record to contain responses to questions. Define the field that will contain the answers as a text field. Then set the following three properties so that the field will be presented by the form as text, a number, a list, a check box, or whatever is appropriate for the specific question. The idea is that other fields in the same record will control the presentation of the field that contains the answers.

Type Field

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is Text. Even though the value of a text field is always stored as text, it is possible for the field's value to be presented in forms and reports as if it were a date, number, duration, or some other type of data. The way that this field's data is presented can vary by record and over time. The purpose of this property is to control the presentation of this field as if it contained a different data type.

If this property has no value, this field will be presented as a normal text field.

If this property does have a value, even though this field's value will be stored as text, the field will be presented by the form and in reports as whatever type is named by the field whose name is the value of this property.

This property's value is chosen from a drop-down list of other text fields in the same section. Though it is not required, the field named by this property will usually have its Visible check box unchecked.

The field you select to drive this property should be a list field, so users can only select a valid data type. There is a list in the List Manager named triDynamicFieldType that has all valid field types defined.

Content Field

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is Text.

If the Type Field property has a value that is the name of another field in this section and the text value of the named field is "List", the value of the field named by this property will be used as the name of the list of values to be presented by the field.

Lists of values are managed by the List Manager, which is discussed in "List management".

The value of this property is chosen from a drop-down list of other text fields in the same section. Though it is not required, the field named by this property will usually have its Visible check box unchecked.

Required Field

This property is visible only if the value of the Data Type property is Text.

If this property has a value, this field's Required property will be ignored. Instead, the value of the field whose name is the value of this property will determine whether this field is required or not.

If the text value of the named field is "true" or "yes", this field will be required. If the text value of the named field is "false" or "no", this field will not be required.

Do not use this property. Similar functionality can be achieved using a workflow to change the required metadata property. See "Modify metadata task" for more details on how to do this.

After you have finished setting up the properties of a section, you may want to set up actions that can be performed within the section. Section actions are described in "Section actions".