Back Forward Property form
Completing the General tab — Value modes
 

About Property rules

  Show all 

Use this topic to complete General tab fields that appear when you create a property of mode Single Value, Value List or Value Group. For information on choosing a property mode, see Completing the General tab — Choosing a mode.

 Selecting the Property Type

The Property Type determines the kind of data that values of the property represent, and can affect the format and allowable characters in the value.

R-5829 B-663 NoteChoose the Property Type carefully. After you save a property rule, you cannot later change its type except in a few special cases, even if no instances or pages have a value for the property. See More about Properties.

Type

Description

Text

Select Text to allow the property to hold text strings that can contain tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds.

When you use an activity or an HTML form to set the value of the property, the value can contain any graphic characters in addition to tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds.

Use the TextProperty Type if a user may enter the value in a text area of an HTML form.

Identifier

Select Identifier to allow the property to hold a text string that does not contain double quote, tab, carriage return or line break characters.

TipDon't confuse the Identifier type with the more restricted Java identifier values. To limit the values of a property to those that Process Commander accepts as Java identifiers, set the Type to Identifier and also set the Validate field (on the Advanced tab) to JavaIdentifier. See How to enter a Java identifier. KHATV 5/8/09

Password

Select Password to allow the property to hold a password.

The values of properties with this Property Type are always encrypted when stored in the database. When on the clipboard, the values may appear as clear text (not encrypted), until the page containing the property is validated.

The value can contain only legal graphic characters. Tabs, carriage returns, and line feed characters are not allowed.

NoteDon't confuse the Password type with the TextEncrypted type, which has encrypted values even when on the clipboard; clear text values are visible only if a Rule-Access-When rule evaluates to true. See Implementing and using the TextEncrypted type.

NoteYou can prevent any text field from echoing when typed into an HTML form using the PASSWORD input type:

<INPUT TYPE="PASSWORD" NAME=...>

This HTML does not cause any encryption. This native HTML feature is not related to the Password Type.

Integer

R-7995 Select Integer to allow the property to hold an integer.

When you specify the value in your later configuration, use any sequence of digits for the value. You can precede the digits with a plus sign (+12) or a minus sign (-12).

Double

R-7996 Select Double to allow the property to hold a 64-bit floating point value.

Decimal

Select Decimal to allow the property to hold a decimal quantity.

Your property rule can reference the standard property qualifier named pyDecimalPrecision to fix the number of digits the system keeps after the decimal position in values of this property.

DateTime

Select DateTime to allow the property to hold a UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) value. The value is essentially the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), used for the synchronization of computers on the Internet.

Internally, a DateTime value is stored in the format YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.QQQ GMT where T and GMT are literal characters, YYYY represents a year, MM is a month, DD is a day, HH is an hour value between 00 to 23, MM is a minute value between 00 and 59, SS is a second value between 00 and 59, and QQQ is a millisecond value between 000 and 999. See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

Users need not enter DateTime values in this format, as shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

Date

Select Date to allow the property to hold a calendar date. Internally, a date is stored as an eight-digit text value, in the format YYYYMMDD. For example 20071123 represents November 23, 2007. No time zone is implicitly associated with a Date.

Application users are not required to enter Date values in this format, as many shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

TipAs a best practice, use DateTime rather than Date for properties that are part of work objects, assignments, or other persistent objects in your application. Avoid using Date property types in persistent objects, such as work objects or assignments, even if your application is used in only a single time zone, unless a time zone value is also stored in another property of the object. See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

TimeOfDay

Select TimeOfDay to allow the property to hold a time of day at the seconds level, not associated with a time zone. CLINB 1/22/03

Internally, a TimeOfDay value is stored as six digits in the format HHMMSS, with two digits for the hour, two digits for the minute, and two digits for the second. COLEA 11/8/02

For example, 000000 represents midnight and 120000 identifies noon. The value 235959 identifies the second before midnight.

Application users are not required to enter TimeOfDay values in this format, as shortcuts and alternative entry formats are available.

TipAs a best practice, use DateTime rather than TimeOfDay for properties that are part of work objects, assignments, or other persistent objects in your application. See Understanding the Date, TimeOfDay, and DateTime property types for more about this type.

TrueFalse

Select TrueFalse to allow the property to hold values representing true or false. When you specify the value in your later configuration, you can enter true, false, or any of these values:

  • 1, -1 or Y for true
  • 0 or N for false

A TrueFalse property with a null value ("") can be saved into the PegaRULES database, but this is not a desirable practice. To avoid possible confusion and errors, choose a value "true" or "false" when initializing a TrueFalse property in a model or through other means, as appropriate to the business situation. CLINB 11/15/07 clinic

TextEncrypted

Select this type to implement encryption for the value. PROJ-466 5.3 See Implementing and using the TextEncrypted type.

NoteDon't confuse the TextEncrypted type with the Password type. For TextEncrypted values, clear-text values are visible only if a Rule-Access-When rule evaluates to true.

 Completing the Control fields

These fields determine the presentation of the property when it appears on an HTML form. (By definition, the read-write mode is never used for special properties; only the read-only mode is relevant.)

Field

Description

Control

SmartPromptOptional. For Single Value properties, identify a control rule (auto-generated or non-auto-generated) to control the read-only presentation and read-write presentation of this property. Dozens of standard control rules are available:

  • If there is no value, the system uses the control rule named Default. R-10856
  • Choose Default-NonNLS to use default presentations that do not reflect operator locale settings.
  • Choose PromptSelect (for a drop-down list) or RadioButtons (for a rectangular array of radio buttons) in most cases when Table Type has Local List, Remote List, or Prompt List selected. PROJ-183
  • Choose PromptFieldValue when Table Type has Field Value selected. OSMAE 8/23/05
  • ShowTextEncryptedPropertyValue is the default if the property Type is TextEncrypted.
  • Do not choose SmartLabel, StartSmartField, SmartInfoBehavior, SmartInfo, ListView, ListToList or Chart; these are pseudo-control rules with special, restricted use.
GRP-18668 V6.2 pashm When you create a new single value property, the system enters an auto-generated control rule in the Control field based upon the property type as follows:
  • CheckboxpxTrueFalse v6.2
  • Date pxDateTime v6.2
  • DateTimepxDateTime v6.2
  • DecimalpxNumber
  • DoublepxNumber
  • IntegerpxInteger v6.2
  • PasswordpxPassword
  • Text pxTextInput
  • TimeOfDaypxDateTime v6.2
See Atlas — Standard control rules for information on selected popular choices that do not require parameters or Atlas — Standard auto-generated control rules introduced in V6.1 SP2 for information about standard auto-generated controls.

NoteThis field is not meaningful for Value List or Value Group properties. Leave blank. CLINB 3/15/06

Configure

If the control rule requires parameters and you want to specify them in this Property form, click the button and enter values as prompted.

When completing a Field panel (for a cell in a harness, section, or flow action rule), you can override the parameter values entered here with values that apply to that cell only. PROJ-64 5.3 MELLJ

For a list of selected popular formats that use parameters, see Atlas — Standard control rules with parameters.

Note This button does not work with auto-generated control rules. You can customize an auto-generated control only in a section or harness that contains the control. To customize the control, specify the rule in the Control field on the Cell Properties panel and use the magnifying glass icon (Magnifying glass) next to the field to open the control's Parameters dialog.v6.1 sp2

 Using the Table Type for input value validation

A property of mode Single Value, Value List or Value Group can use "table validation" to constrain the property's input value to one of a set of specified acceptable values, or to a pattern of values. At runtime, the system verifies that the value matches one on the list, and validates the value is appropriate input for the property.

To use table validation:

  1. Select Single Value, Value List, or Value Group for the Property Mode field. (You cannot use table validation for properties of any other modes.) R-5676XXXXXXXXXXXX KOWAL 6.2 build Table Type fields appear for Java Property and Java Property List also. Should those be included here? Are they supported for this?
  2. Select one of the values in the Table Type drop-down list (other than the None value). The appropriate fields for that type appear in the form.
  3. Complete the fields appropriate for the selected Table Type value. See Property form General tab — Completing the Table fields for descriptions of the fields.

See Property form General tab — Completing the Table fields — Basics for details about how the system compares the set of acceptable values to the input values.

After you have specified the table validation you want and completed the appropriate fields:

  1. In most cases, set the Control field to:
    • PromptSelect, to get a runtime presentation of a drop-down list of the acceptable values
    • RadioButtons to get a runtime presentation of a rectangular array of radio buttons for the acceptable values; this control rule requires parameters
    • PromptFieldValues when using the Field Value table type OSMAE 8/23/05
  2. Save the Property form and click the Preview toolbar button (Preview) to test the presentation and values of the property.

Field

Description

Table Type

Select None, Local List, Field Value, Class Key Value, Remote List, or Prompt List:

 Using the Preview toolbar button

For Single Value properties, you can preview the presentation and other aspects of the property. B-17329 BYRNB

Click the Preview toolbar button (Preview) to see an approximate presentation of the property as it will appear in both input and display at runtime. For properties not marked as Special, you can preview the representation of a specific value: MARTT 5/31/05

  1. Type or select the value in the Input: area.
  2. Click  Show output   to see the resulting display-only representation, in the Output: area.

NoteThe preview presentation does not reflect the pyMinimumLength property qualifier (when referenced on the Qualifiers tab) unless the Edit Input field contains pyMinimumLength-Enforce. B-19154 B-17179

NoteYou can't preview a TextEncrypted property if your system does not include a cipher algorithm. BUG-3613 Rejected

Up About Property rules