Harness and Section forms
Adding a Check Box control

About Harnesses

About check box controls

Check box controls present a user with an option or a list of options, from which the user can make a single selection. A cell in a layout can present a property as a TrueFalse type using a Check box (pxCheckbox) control.

Upgrading check box controls

As a best practice, use pxCheckbox, rather than the deprecated Checkbox control. See About the V5 Check Box control.

If a section contains a deprecated (Checkbox) or outdated check box control, or another control for which there is an improved alternative, such as (pxCheckbox), a warning displays, along with an Update Controls button. Click Update Controls to automatically update deprecated controls in the section. Automatic update is not available for all controls; see Upgrading deprecated and outdated controls on the PDN.

NoteIf you have a use case that requires a specific configuration of a standard control, such as a check box, you can make a copy of the control and save it using a new name.
For example, if you use a Yes/No radio button frequently, you can save a copy of pxRadioButton as pxYesNoRadioButton. Configure pxYesNoRadioButton to display Yes/No radio buttons, and then use pxYesNoRadioButton wherever you'd like it. Do not modify the Control Modes and UI Element settings.

Adding a check box

1. Drag and drop the Check Box control

Click the down-arrow (Arrow) at the right end of the Basic control group (Basics) and select the Check Box control (Check box). Drag the control to the cell or header that is to contain the property value. When the pointer changes shape to indicate that a single cell is selected, release the mouse button to drop the control.

If the cell is not empty, the dropped control replaces the current contents of the cell. Click (Magnifying glass)to display the Cell Properties panel.

2. Complete the Cell Properties panel — Top Fields

Complete the top fields of the Cell Properties panel.

Your updates to this panel update the rule form upon clicking Apply. If the panel is pinned (pin), the wireframe on the rule form changes immediately to reflect your inputs. If the panel is not pinned (pin), click Apply to apply your inputs.

Field

Description

magnifying glass

(Appears only when this field is in a section included within the current open rule.) Click to open the section that immediately contains the field.

Property

SmartPromptSelect or type a property reference that identifies a single text value and has a Property Type of TrueFalse.

Alternatively, you can drag a property name from the lists of properties visible in the Application Explorer. Typically, this works for Single Value properties belonging to in the Applies to class of the current rule (or a higher class). If the container in which this field sits has a non-blank Using Page value, you can drag a Single Value property from within that embedded page property.

(magnifying glass) to review the property (if the reference is to an existing property in the Applies To class of this rule or a parent of that class). If the property is not found, the New dialog box for the property form appears.

You can reference properties on any page identified on the Pages & Classes tab, using the normal notation pagename.propertyname for pages other than the page corresponding to the Applies To class of the rule.

If this field is in a cell of a section that includes parameter declarations on the Parameters tab, you can enter the notation param.NAME here, to use a parameter value for the field, where NAME identifies a string parameter. Make sure that the NAME parameter is declared on the Parameters tab, and that your application provides a non-blank value for the parameter value in all possible situations where the section appears. See Sections — Completing the Parameter tab.

For a harness, the property generally must be on the primary page of the rule — the page corresponding to the Applies To key part of the rule. However, a section within the harness may have a different Applies To class, and that section can include properties from its own class.

Control

SmartPrompt Accept the default pxCheckbox control. When placed in a SmartLayout field, the adjoining Label cell is populated by the standard .pyTemplateCheckbox property with a label value of Check Box. When placed in a repeating grid, the value appears above the control in the header cell.

Click(magnifying glass) to review the control identified in this field.

Customizing the control

The control's default parameters are the ones you'll most likely use in your UI design. If you wish, you can customize the control within the context of the section that contains it. For example, you can:

  • Add a caption, tooltip, and True and False labels
  • Add behaviors and actions, such as on Change, Refresh Section, Set Value, Post Value, or Set Focus. You can specify multiple actions for a single control. The actions execute in sequence. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab for descriptions of the available parameters and how to define behaviors.

Your edits apply only to the control within the section that contains it and do not update the underlying rule. You an add multiple controls of the same type within a section, each with its own custom settings. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab for descriptions of the available parameters and how to define behaviors.

Do the following to customize an auto-generated control in a section:

  1. Open the section or harness that contains the rule.
  2. Select the cell containing the rule and open its Cell Properties panel.
  3. In the panel, select the magnifying glass icon () next to the Control field. This displays the control Parameters dialog. See Control Form — Completing the Control tab for descriptions of the available parameters and how to define behaviors.
  4. Modify as necessary. You cannot edit the Control Modes and UI Element settings.
    To immediately render your changes, click OK in the dialog. If satisfactory, save the section. The system generates the XML representing your edits and stores it in the section.
Behavior

Displays only if dynamic behavior for this control was configured prior to V6.3. In V6.3 and above, click the magnifying glass icon (magnifying glass) next to the Control field to configure dynamic behavior.

To modify an existing dynamic form action based on user updates or values for this field, click the magnifying glass icon () next to the Behavior field to open the Client Event Editor. Complete the Client Event Editor to select an event (OnBlur, OnChange, or OnClick) and the resulting form action.

Click the help icon ( Help) on the Client Event Editor for assistance. For general information on this capability, see Harness and Section forms Help — Client Event Editor.

Client event support is not available for harnesses, sections, or flow actions that use directives.

3. Complete the Cell properties panel — General tab

Complete the General tab.

For descriptions of the fields and options in this tab, see Adding a Text Input control — Complete the Cell Properties Panel — General tab.

4. Complete the Cell properties panel — Advanced tab

Complete the Advanced tab.

For descriptions of the fields and options in this tab, see Adding a Text Input control — Complete the Cell Properties Panel — Advanced tab.

Copying, deleting, duplicating, or moving a Check Box

TipUse these Windows operations to speed development:

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