How to reference properties indirectly in directives

Bill VANDJ 6/19/02 In the reference, when, with, and foreach directives, you can reference properties indirectly rather than by name.

When you reference a property indirectly, you are implicitly referring to the current active property. Use any of these to set up a property as the active property:

The with directive
The foreach directive with the IN or INPAGE keywords
The reference directive, to reference a property associated with a control rule. This is useful and meaningful only when writing source HTML for a control rule.

Using symbolic values

After your HTML has established the active property, use symbolic values (keywords) to reference the property indirectly. Use these symbolic values in the Reference, the When, Foreach, and With directives.

Symbolic value	Description
`$THIS`	Use `$THIS` in the with, when, and foreach directives to identify the active property.
`PARAM`.parameter-name	Use this keyword to refer to the current value of the named parameter on the current parameter page of the activity. Example: <input type=hidden name="param.UserID" value="VANDJ"> The parameter page is not visible with the Clipboard tool. Use the Tracer to examine the current parameter page.
`$THIS-NAME`	Use `$THIS-NAME` in an HTML tag, in the reference and When directive, to display the name of the active property. For example, if you have a selection box that lets a user choose an account type, and Account_Type is the active property, use the active property as the name of the selection box. That way, the user's choice becomes the value for the property named Account_Type: <SELECT NAME="{$THIS-NAME}"> <OPTION VALUE="Checking">Checking Account <OPTION VALUE="Savings">Savings Account </SELECT>
`$THIS-VALUE`	Use `$THIS-VALUE` in the reference and when directives to display the value of the active property.
`$THIS-DEFINITION`(myProperty)	Use `$THIS-DEFINITION` in the reference directive to display the value of a property in the Rule-Obj-Property definition of the active property. For example, to display the pyLabel value of the active property, use {$THIS-DEFINITION(.pyLabel)}. This symbolic value is frequently used to specify the maximum length or expected size.
`$THIS-MESSAGE`	Use `$THIS-MESSAGE` in the reference directive to display messages associated with the active property.
`$THIS-QUALIFIER`	`R-6233` Use `$THIS-QUALIFIER` in the reference directive to display a property qualifier (Rule-Obj-Property-Qualifier rule type) associated with the active property.
`$PAGE-NAME`	Use `$PAGE-NAME` in the reference directive to display the name of the base page. The base page is the same as the primary page, if it has not been changed by the with directive. If the With directive has changed the primary page, the base page is the page established by the with directive. (The keyword `$THIS-PAGENAME`, introduced in Version 2 has the same meaning as the keyword `$PAGE-NAME`.)
`$PAGE-CLASS`	Use `$PAGE-CLASS` in the Reference directive to display the name of the class on the base page. The base page is the same as the primary page if it has not been changed by the With directive. If the With directive has changed the primary page, the base page is the page established by the With directive. (The keyword `$THIS-PAGECLASS`, used in Version 2, has the same meaning as the keyword `$PAGE-CLASS`.)
`$PAGE-MESSAGE`	Use `$PAGE-MESSAGE` in the reference directive to display page messages. Page messages are associated with the current base page, not with one property on that page. (The keyword `$OBJECT-MESSAGE`, used with Process Commander version 2, has the same meaning as `$PAGE-MESSAGE`.)
`$PAGE-ALLMESSAGES`	Use `$PAGE-ALLMESSAGES` in the reference directive to display all messages associated with the (current) base page. (The keyword `$ALL-MESSAGES`, used in Version 2, has the same meaning as `$PAGE-ALLMESSAGES`.)
`$PAGE-DEFINITION(propertyname)`	Use this keyword to supply the named property from the Rule-Obj-Class instance that corresponds to the class of the current page. Huh?
`$SAVE`(name)	Use `$SAVE(name)` in the reference directive to display the scratchpad value associated with name.

Qualifying symbolic values

Use this syntax to qualify the value of the $THIS symbol when the property is an aggregate: (An aggregate is a property that has any property mode other than Single Value.)

Symbolic Value

Description

$THIS.property-reference

If the mode of the property is a page,

{$THIS.myProperty}

identifies the value of myProperty within that page.

Symbolic values for the Rules Inspector tool

Two advanced symbolic values support operation of the Rules Inspector tool.

Symbolic Value	Description
`$STREAM-DEFINITION (property)`	Identifies the named property of the current stream definition.
`$STREAM-HANDLE`	Identifies the handle of the stream definition.

Directives