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A Smart layout is a grid (corresponding to an HTML <TABLE> element) of paired cells on a harness, section, or flow action form that has columns of uniform width, uniform styles, and uniform characteristics. Each pair of cells holds one label and one property value or other form control.
As a best practice, use dynamic layouts for new development. It is recommended that you upgrade existing smart layouts to take advantage of HTML5 capabilities including cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility, access to the latest HTML markup, and improved performance.
When you open a section with a smart layout, you'll see a guardrail warning and a suggestion to upgrade.
Click Update layouts for Designer Studio to update this layout instance to a dynamic layout.
Some smart layout configurations may not have a one-to-one correspondence with dynamic layouts and may require some manual modifications. Note the following:
Use Smart layouts when creating form-like layouts consisting of label-field pairs that align across multiple rules. See Adding a smart layout.
A primary benefit of Smart layouts it to force vertical alignment even when layouts are nested. When a section using Smart layouts is nested within another section, all labels and fields are given consistent widths. PRPC adjusts padding and cell widths to seek attractive spacing and presentation.
The width and other style characteristics of these Smart layout templates depends on the portal skin rule in use. To ensure consistent results when building harnesses, sections, or flow actions for user forms, set the Skin preference to the skin that application users are expected to use. You can change template widths, heights, cell padding, and other characteristics of the templates using the Skin rule.
By design, you cannot change the height or width of Smart layout template-based cells through rule form updates. However, PRPC records the template cell height and widths in styles for the <TD> HTML element. If at runtime a cell contains an object that is explicitly larger than these values, browsers do expand the table cell to attempt to display the entire object, overriding the fixed size restriction. The resulting display may vary somewhat by browser version.
PRPC cannot automatically convert non-Smart layout-based harness, sections, or flow actions to the Smart layout form; manual effort is required. While in some cases conversion is impossible or not practical, in many cases conversion may require only a few minutes. See How to convert a section or flow action to Smart layouts.
To convert an existing Smart layout, select the Allow changes to column checkbox on the Properties panel of the Smart layout. See Adding a layout.
See the PDN article Using Smart layout features — How to customize, use Merging Cells, and change Field Width.
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Adding a layout
Adding a smart layout |
Smart Layout
Definitions