Customizing Forms

After familiarizing yourself with the default operation of the Waveset product, you can identify pages you’d like to customize.

To Customize a Form

1. Consult the section titled Edited Forms for a list of editable pages and their corresponding forms.

2. To edit a form, launch the Identity Manager IDE and select Open Repository Object. Select the form you want to edit from the popup dialog that is displayed.

   This section covers the following topics:

   • To Customize a Form

   • Overview of Customization

   • Additional Customization-Related Topics

Overview of Customization

You can customize a form to make it more user-friendly, change its display characteristics, or include logic for processing field data.

Basic Steps

The basic steps for customizing any form in the Waveset system include:

• Selecting a form to customize. Describes how to identify which form to customize.

• Editing and saving the form. Presents basic information about modifying the default end user and administrator forms shipped with the product.

• Testing your changes. Suggests guidelines for testing your changes before loading them into your production environment and turning on error logging.

Typical Tasks

When you edit a form, you typically perform the following tasks:

• Add and remove fields in the form. Typical tasks include removing some default fields or adding additional fields that have been customized for your environment.

• Define how a field is displayed within a form. This requires using a library of HTML components shipped with Waveset. For information on editing a field’s display characteristics, see the section titled Field Display Properties.

• Set the logical expressions that define the field’s value. To do this, you must create logical expressions using the XPRESS language. For information on working with XPRESS, see Chapter 5, XPRESS Language.

Set the characteristics in the following table from the Main tab view.

A field name is often a path expression into the view that is being used with this form, and is typically associated with a particular attribute on a resource. To browse a list of resources and their attributes, click Browse resources. The Browse resource dialog opens, displaying an expandable tree of resource types. Click the name of the resource type to display a list of resource instances and the names of their attributes. To use the name of resource attribute as your new form field name, click the resource attribute name, then click OK. This inserts the attribute name into the Name field.

Additional Customization-Related Topics

The following topics are covered in this section:

• Form structure

• Form components

• Defining fields

• Guidelines for structuring a form

Form Structure

Forms are stored as XML objects within the Waveset repository. Each form is stored as its own object with the following structure.

You do not need to know the XML structure of a form. Identity Manager IDE simplifies working with form structure. This information is supplied for your reference only.

The following stub form illustrates the general structure of a form.

Example 2–3 Form Structure

<?xml version=’1.0’ encoding=’UTF-8’?>
<!DOCTYPE Configuration PUBLIC ’waveset.dtd’ ’waveset.dtd’>
<!--  id="#ID#UserForm:EndUserMenu" name="End User Menu"-->
<Configuration id=’#ID#UserForm:EndUserMenu’ name=’End User Menu’
reateDate=’1012185191296’ lastModifier=’Configurator’
lastModDate=’1013190499093’ lastMod=’44’ counter=’0’ wstype=’UserForm’>
   <Extension>
   <Form name=’End User Menu’>
      <Display class=’LinkForm’>
         <Property name=’title’ value=’User Self Service’/>
         <Property name=’subtitle’ value=’Select one of the following options’/>
      </Display>
Field content
   </Form>
   </Extension>
<MemberObjectGroups>
   <ObjectRef type=’ObjectGroup’ id=’#ID#Top’ name=’Top’/>
   </MemberObjectGroups>
</Configuration>

The Waveset User Interface implements a second XPRESS form that contains the navigation bar. This means that the rendered page has two <FORM> tags, each with a different name attribute:

<form name="endUserNavigation">

and

<form name="mainform">

Form Components

The following table identifies form components in the order in which they appear in the form. Each form component is discussed in greater detail below.

Header

The form header includes:

• Standard introductory information included in XML files: the XML declaration and documentation declaration, including the DTD associated with this XML file. In the preceding example, this introductory information is:

      <?xml version=’1.0’ encoding=’UTF-8’?>
  <!DOCTYPE Configuration PUBLIC ’waveset.dtd’ ’waveset.dtd’>

  This system appends this information to the file. Do not edit.

• Start tags for the <Extension> and <Configuration> elements, which surrounds the HTML components that describe the form’s appearance and behavior. The Configuration element contains attributes that describe the form object properties.

The header contains information about the form, including internal identification such as date of creation, login of whoever last modified the file, and the form type. The page processor typically generates this information.

The system generates the following information for internal use only. Do not edit these attributes.

Form Body

The form body is composed of:

• Form properties, which include title, subtitle, and width. These properties are defined in the table titled Form Properties.

• Field elements, which you use to determine the appearance and function of the fields as they appear to the user in the product interface. Fields can also contain XPRESS logic to calculate information. For more information on using the XPRESS language, refer to XPRESS Language.

The following table lists form header properties.

The following table lists all elements that can occur within the form body.

Form Element

The <Form> element must surround all Field elements and contains the unique name of the form. The elements listed on the previous page are contained within the beginning and ending Form tags.

Example 2–4 Sample Form Element

<Form name=’Create User Form’
   <Field name=’waveset.accountId’>

additional fields

</Form>

Additional example:

<Form name=’Task Launch Form’>
   <Display class=’EditForm’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Task Launch’/>
      <Property name=’subTitle’ value=’Enter task launch parameters’/>
   </Display>
...
</Form>

Display Element

A Display element within the Form element describes the component that will be used to render the form. By default, this Display element is the used EditForm component. You will rarely need to change the Form component class, but you can set component properties. The two most common properties to specify are title and subTitle.

EditForm also supports the adjacentTitleWidth property, which can be used to set the width of the titles of adjacent fields. If this property is not defined, it defaults to zero.

If you define adjacentTitleWidth as equal to zero, columns titles will automatically resize. If set to a non-zero value, then the title width of adjacent columns (for example, the second and third columns) will be the value of adjacentTitleWidth.

<Form name=’Default User Form’ help=’account/modify-help.xml’>
   <Display class=’EditForm’>
     <Property name=’titleWidth’ value=’120’>
     <Property name=’adjacentTitleWidth’ value=’60’>
   </Display>

Field Element

The Field element is the main element used within the form body. Fields are used to define each of the user’s attributes. You can use Field elements to include XPRESS logic in form fields. For more information on working with form field elements, refer to the section titled Defining Fields.

The following example creates an editing field with the label Email address.

<Field name=’waveset.email’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property title=’Email Address’/>
      <Property size=’60’/>
      <Property maxLength=’128’/>
   </Display>
...
</Field>

The name of an editing field is typically a path expression within a view that is being used with the form. In this example, waveset.email refers to the email address associated with a user object in the Waveset repository.

Footer

The footer contains information about the Waveset object group or organization with which the form is associated. It also contains the closing tags for the </Form>, </Extension>, and </Configuration> elements or other elements opened in the header. The footer in the preceding example is:

</Form>
</Extension>
   <MemberObjectGroups>
      <ObjectRef type=’ObjectGroup’ id=’#ID#Top’ name=’Top’/>
   </MemberObjectGroups>
</Configuration>

<MemberObjectGroups> identifies the object group or organization into which the system stores an object. If you do not specify an object group, by default the system assigns the object to the Top organization. For Configuration objects that contain forms, are typically found in the All group with this syntax:

<MemberObjectGroups>
   <ObjectRef type=’ObjectGroup’ name=’All’/>
</MemberObjectGroups>

What Is a Form Field?

The form body contains Field elements that define how each element of the Web page appears and behaves. Each Field can contain other fields, each with its own display component.

Form fields comprise several parts, which are encapsulated by the <Field> tag set:

• Value Expressions. The field can contain a number of XPRESS expressions, which calculate the value of the field or define the set of allowed values. For example, <Default> is used to define the default value of a field, and <Derivation> is used to derive the value for the field when the form is first loaded. Not all field elements contain expressions. See the section titled Field Display Properties.

• HTML Display Components. Display components determine how visible elements are displayed. In Waveset form fields, display components (defined in the form by the <Display> element) determine the behavior and appearance of form fields. You can specify only one display component for each field. These display components are described in detail in Chapter 7, HTML Display Components

• Disable Expressions. Fields can be conditionally included in the form by using Disable expressions. If the Disable expression evaluates to true, the field is ignored.

Creating Variables

Use the following syntax to include variables that contain long lists of constant or static data. This syntax builds a static list once and reuses it on each reference

<defvar name=’states’>
    <List>
      <String>Alabama</String>
            ...
    </List>
</defvar>

The former syntax is preferable to <list><s>Alabama</s>...</list>, which builds a new list each time it is referenced.

You must use balanced parentheses in form variable values and when naming Waveset objects. If you use parentheses in object names or form variables, they must be balanced (that is, for every ’(’ there is a corresponding ’)’). This allows all form variable expansions to expand properly. (Unbalanced parentheses will result in an error.)

For example, when a resource name contains unbalanced parentheses, you can neither edit or delete the user object of any user to whom this resource has been assigned. However, the pertinent error message will indicate that the failure is caused by unbalanced parentheses in the specific resource name.

Defining Fields

This section describes procedures you perform when customizing any form. These procedures include:

• Defining field names

• Defining field elements

• Adding a visible field

• Hiding a field. When you hide a field, the field (and any fields nested within it) is not displayed on the page, but its value is included in the form processing.

• Disabling a field. When you disable a field, the field (and any fields nested within it) is not displayed in the page, and its value expressions are not evaluated. If the view already contains a value for the disabled field, the value will not be modified.

• Setting a field value

• Calling functions

The following sections discuss in more detail the field characteristics you will set.

Defining Field Names

You use the field name to match the attribute defined on the resource to the text entry field that is displayed on the web page. When the resource is defined, the system sets up a schema map that maps resource account attributes to Waveset attributes. For example, your Active Directory resource might have attributes that include firstname, lastname, and Office Phone. When referring to these attributes in the form, you must know the name of the attribute on the Waveset schema plus the path to the attribute from the view.

There are two ways of defining the name attribute of the Field element:

• The name attribute typically contains a path to an attribute within the user view.

• The name attribute is used to identify the field so that it can be referenced by other fields in the form or by a FieldRef element. This occurs when fields are defined to represent containers of other fields and do not correspond to any one attribute of the view.

Determining whether a Field name represents a path expression for the view or is simply a reference name depends on the value of the class attribute selected in the Display element. If the display class is the name of an editing component class, then the name is expected to be a path expression for the view. See the section titled HTML Display Components for a detailed explanation of the component classes.

Creating a Path Expression to a View Attribute

Typically, you define a Field name by including the path to an attribute in the user view (the path expression). For a list of these attributes, see Chapter 3, Waveset Views.

The following field definition renders a text field to edit the Waveset email address:

<Field name=’waveset.email’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’60’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

The string waveset.email is a path expression for the user view that targets the email address stored in the Waveset repository.

Example:

This example field edits the email address defined for a particular resource account. The field name references a resource in the account:

<Field name=’accounts[Active Directory].email’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’60’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

The string accounts[Active Directory].email is a path expression to another location within the user view that holds information about account attributes for a specific resource. In this example, the resource named Active Directory.

Example:

This example field defines the email address for all resources including Waveset that contain an attribute named email on the left side of the schema map.

<Field name=’global.email’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’60’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

Identifying the Field for Reference

Naming a field provides you a way to reference the field value in other fields. Use the <ref></ref> tag set to reference a field value from another field. The following example concatenates into the fullname field the firstname and lastname field values with a string, a comma, and a space such as: lastname, firstname. The <s> tag designates a string.

Example 2–5 Referencing Fields

<Field name=’global.firstname’>
   <Display class=’Text’/>
</Field>
<Field name=’global.lastname’>
   <Display class=’Text’/>
</Field>
<Field name=’global.fullname’>
   <Expansion>
      <concat>
         <ref>global.lastname</ref><s>, </s>
         <ref>global.firstname</ref>
      </concat>
   </Expansion>
</Field>

Not all Field names represent path expressions for the view. Some fields are defined to represent containers of other fields and do not correspond to any one attribute of the view. In these cases, the Field name is used to identify the field so that it can be referenced by a FieldRef element. If the field does not need to be referenced, you do not need to specify the name.

For example, a form button performs an action, but does not contain a value or need to be referenced by another form. Therefore, it does not need a field name:

<Field>
   <Display class=’Button’>
      <Property name=’label’ value=’Recalculate’/>
      <Property name=’command’ value=’Recalculate’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

For more information on user views, see the section titled User View and Forms.

Field Display Properties

The Display element is common to all visible form fields. Display elements contain Property elements that define the characteristics of the field rendered by the browser. By defining a Display element for a form, it will be visible on the screen unless there is a Disable element in the field that evaluates to true. There can be conditions in which the form is displayed until another field or value is set and when the form recalculates the field can become hidden from the screen. See the section titled Disabling Fields.

Display

Describes class and properties of the visible field. This element specifies a component class to instantiate and a set of property values to assign to the instance.

<Display class=’Text’>
   <Property name=’size’ value=’20’/>
   <Property name=’maxLength’ value=’100’/>
</Display>

The class attribute of the Display element must be the name of a Component class. By default, these classes are expected to reside in the com.waveset.ui.util.html package and include Applet, Button, and DatePicker among others. A list of all the default classes and their descriptions can be found in the Base Component Class section of Chapter 7, HTML Display Components To reference a class that is not in this package, you must use a fully qualified class name for the class attribute. All classes described in this document are in the default package and do not require qualified names.

Property

Occurs within the Display element. The property value defines the names and values of properties that are to be assigned to the component. The property name is always specified with the name attribute.

Specifying Property Values for a Display Element

You can specify the Property value for a Display element through the use of:

• a value attribute

• an XML Object language

• an expression to specify a value

For most property values, you can use the value attribute and let the system coerce the value to the appropriate type.

Use of the value Attribute

The most common way of specifying the property value is with the value attribute. The value of the value attribute is treated as a string, but if necessary, the system will coerce it to the data type desired by the component. In the previous example, the property size is set to the integer value 20, and the property maxLength is set to the integer value 100.

The following example creates a field that uses SimpleTable to organize several subfields. Within XML forms, the most common Container components used are SimpleTable and ButtonRow.

Example 2–6 Field that Uses the SimpleTable Element

<Field name=’SelectionTable’>
   <Display class=’SimpleTable’>
      <Property name=’columns’>
         <List>
            <String>Account</String>
            <String>Description</String>
         </List>
      </Property>

   </Display>
<Field name=’accounts[LDAP].selected’>
   <Display class=’Checkbox’>
      <Property name=’label’ value=’LDAP’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field>
   <Display class=’Label’>
      <Property name=’text’ value=’Primary Corporate LDAP Server’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field name=’accounts[W2K].selected’>
   <Display class=’Checkbox’>
      <Property name=’label’ value=’Windows 2000’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field>
   <Display class=’Label’>
      <Property name=’text’ value=’Primary Windows 2000 Server’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
</Field>

Within the Display element are zero or more Property elements. These define the names and values of properties that are assigned to the component. The Property name is always specified with the name attribute. The property value is most specified with the value attribute. The value of the value attribute treated as a string, but if necessary it will be coerced to the data type desired by the component.

Use of the XML Object Language

You can also specify property values using the XML Objects language. This approach is useful primarily when specifying list values. This language provides a syntax for describing several standard Java objects as well as other objects defined by Waveset.

The more common Java XML objects include:

• List

• Map

• MapEntry

• String

• Integer

• Boolean

• Object

When you use the XML Object syntax to specify property values, an element is placed inside the Property element. For more information on the XML Object language, see Chapter 6, XML Object Language.

Example 2–7 Property Element

<Property name=’size’>
   <Integer>10</Integer>
</Property>

<Property name=’title’>
   <String>New Password</String>
</Property>

<Property name=’leftLabel’>
   <Boolean>true</Boolean>
</Property>

<Property name=’allowedValues’>
   <List>
      <String>Texas</String>
      <String>Iowa</String>
      <String>Berkshire</String>
   </List>
</Property>

All properties that expect list values recognize the List element. Most attributes, in addition, recognize the comma list syntax for specifying lists.

Use of an Expression to Calculate the Value

You can also specify a Property value through an expression. This allows a value to be calculated at runtime, possibly combining fixed literal values with variable values defined by the page processor. Example:

Example 2–8 Property Value

<Property name=’title’>
   <concat>
      <s>Welcome </s>
      <ref>waveset.accountId</ref>
      <s>, select one of the following options.</s>
   </concat>
</Property>

In the preceding example, waveset.accountId is a reference to a variable. When the system generates the HTML for this component, the page processing system supplies the value for the waveset.accountId variable. The names of the variables that can be referenced are defined by the page processor. In most cases, these are defined by a view that is used with the XML form. Form designers must be aware of the view with which the form will be used and only reference attributes defined by that view.

Disable Element

Calculates a Boolean value. If true, the field and all its nested fields will be ignored during current form processing.

Do not create potentially long-running activities in Disable elements. These expressions run each time the form is recalculated. Instead, use a different form element that will not run as frequently perform this calculation.

The display.session and display.subject variables are not available to Disable form elements.

Example

This example illustrates a field definition that uses an expression within the <Disable> element to control the visibility of the field. accountInfo.typeNames is used to find the type of all resources that a user is assigned to. The type returned is a list of all the user’s resource types. If the list of returned type names contains Solaris, then this field is displayed on the screen. Otherwise, this field is disabled.

<Field name=’HomeDirectory’ prompt=’Home Directory’>
   <Display class=’Text’/>
      <Disable>
         <not>
            <contains>
               <ref>accountInfo.typeNames</ref>
               <s>Solaris</s>
            </contains>
          </not>
   </Disable>
</Field>

Disable elements are typically used to check values of other fields on the form. Often the other field being referenced is calculated based on other input fields.

<Field name=’special value subfield’>
   <Comment>Show only when otherField has the value ’special value’</Comment>
   <Disable>
      <neq>
         <ref>otherField</ref>
         <s>special value</s>
      </neq>
   </Disable>
</Field>
<Field name=’account correlation rule’>
   <Comment>If synchronization on a resource supports an account correlation rule,
allow one to be selected, otherwise don’t show the field.  If a process rule has been
selected, then a correlation rule won’t be run, so don’t show the field.</Comment>
   <Disable>
      <or>
         <isnull>
            <ref>resourceAttributes[correlationRule].displayName</ref>
         </isnull>
         <notnull>
            <ref>resourceAttributes[processRule].value</ref>
          </notnull>
      </or>
         </Disable>
   </Field
...
</Field>>

Default Element

Calculates a value to be used as the value of this field, but only if the field does not already have a non-null value. Default is essentially the same as Derivation, except that the value applies only if the current value is non-null. Default expressions are calculated when:

• the form is first loaded

• data is retrieved from one or more resources

• the form is recalculated or saved until the field value is non-null.

Example

This example shows a field definition that uses string manipulation expressions to return a default account ID composed of the first initial of the first name plus the user’s last name.

<Field name=’waveset.accountId’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’AccountID’/>
   </Display>
   <Default>
      <concat>
         <substr>
            <ref>accounts[AD].firstname</ref>
               <i>0</i>
               <i>1</i>
            <ref>accounts[AD].lastname</ref>
         </substr>
      </concat>
   </Default>
</Field>

Derivation Element

Unconditionally calculates a value for the field. Whenever a Derivation expression is evaluated, the current field value is replaced.

Derivation expressions are calculated when the form is first loaded or data is returned from one or more resources

The following example shows a field definition that uses conditional logic to map one set of values into another set. When this field is processed, the expression in the <Derivation> element is evaluated to determine the descriptive value to be displayed for this field based on the location code returned from the resource.

<Field name=’location’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Location’/>
   </Display>
   <Derivation>
         <switch>
            <ref>accounts[Oracle].locCode</ref>
            <case>
               <s>AUS</s>
               <s>Austin</s>
            </case>
               <s>HOU</s>
               <s>Houston</s>
            </case>
            <case>
               <s>DAL</s>
               <s>Dallas</s>
            </case>
            <case default=’true’>
               <s>unknown</s>
            </case>
         </switch>
   </Derivation>
</Field>

Expansion Element

Unconditionally calculates a value for the field. It differs from Derivation in the time at which the expression is evaluated.

Expansion statements are calculated when:

• the page is recalculated

• the form is saved

The following example shows a field definition that uses conditional logic to convert the value derived for the location field in the previous example back into a three-letter abbreviation that will be stored on the Oracle resource. Notice the difference in the field names. The location field value is not saved on any resource. It is used to calculate another field.

<Field name=’accounts[Oracle].locCode’>
   <Expansion>
      <switch>
         <ref>location</ref>
         <case>
            <s>Austin</s>
            <s>AUS</s>
         </case>
         <case>
            <s>Houston</s>
            <s>HOU</s>
         </case>
         <case>
            <s>Dallas</s>
            <s>DAL</s>
         </case>
      </switch>
   </Expansion>
</Field>

Validation Element

Determines whether a value entered in a form is valid. Validation rules are evaluated whenever the form is submitted.

This example Validation rule checks to make sure that a user’s zip code is five digits.

<Validation>
   <cond>
      <and>
      <eq><length><ref>global.zipcode</ref></length>
            <i>5</i>
      </eq>
            <gt><ref>global.zipcode</ref><i>99999</i></gt>
      </and>
      <null/>
      <s>zip codes must be five digits long</s>
   </cond>
</Validation>

Editing and Container Fields

When the Display element appears with the Field element, it describes the component that will be used to render that field. There are two types of fields:

• editing fields. These are associated with a particular value to modify.

• container fields. These surround one or more fields.

Editing fields must have names and are always used with one of the editing components such as Text or Checkbox.

Example Editing Field

<Field name=’waveset.email’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property title=’Email Address’/>
      <Property size=’60’/>
      <Property maxLength=’128’/>
   </Display>
 ...
</Field>

The name of an editing field is typically a path expression within a view that is being used with the form. In the preceding example, waveset.email refers to the email address associated with a user object in the Waveset repository.

A Container field may not have a name and is always used with one of the Container components, such as ButtonRow, SimpleTable, or EditForm.

One common type of container is the EditForm container, which builds an HTML table that contains titles in one column and components in another. These titles are defined in the title property and are rendered on the Waveset page associated with the form.

Disabling Fields

When you disable a field, the field (and any fields nested within it) is not displayed in the page, and its value expressions are not evaluated or incorporated in to any global.* attributes. If the view already contains a value for the disabled field, the value will not be modified.

<Disable></Disable>

Example

<Field name=’waveset id’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property title=’accountId’>
   </Display>
   <Disable>
      <eq><ref>userExists</ref><s>true</s></eq>
   </Disable>
</Field>

Disable expressions are evaluated more frequently than other types of expression. For this reason, keep any Disable expression relatively simple. Do not call a Java class that performs an expensive computation, such as a database lookup.

Use caution when referencing fields with Disable rules. Otherwise, fields inside containers might be disabled.

Hiding Fields

When you hide a field, the field (and any fields nested within it) is not displayed on the page, but its value is included in the form processing.

To hide a field, simply do not assign a Display class to the field.

<Field name=’field A’/>

Calculating Field Values

Field values can be calculated from the values of other fields or any logical expression. For example, you can calculate the user’s full name from the first name, middle initial and last name.

<Field name=’global.fullname’>
   <Expansion>
      <concat>
         <ref>global.firstname</ref>
         <s> </s>
         <ref>global.middle</ref>
         <ref>global.lastname</ref>
         <s> </s>
      </concat>
   </Expansion>
</Field>

Setting Default Values

You can set the email address based on the user’s first initial and the first seven characters of the user’s last name. In this example, the system performs an additional check to ensure that the values have been set before performing the concatenation. This additional check is performed to:

• Allow the email address to set only when the account is first created.

• Confirm that the first and last name fields have been set.

Example 2–9 Setting global.email Default Values

<Field name=’global.email’>
   <Default>
      <and>
         <notnull><ref>global.firstname</ref></notnull>
         <notnull><ref>global.lastname</ref></notnull>
      </and>
         <concat>
         <downcase>
            <substr>
            <ref>global.firstname</ref>
            <i>0</i>
            <i>1</i>
            </substr>
         </downcase>
         <downcase>
            <substr>
            <ref>global.lastname</ref>
            <i>0</i>
            <i>6</i>
            </substr>
         </downcase>
         <s>@waveset.com</s>
      </concat>
   </Default>
</Field>

Deriving Field Values

Some fields are used on the form solely to calculate other fields. These fields cannot be stored on any resource to which the user belongs. When the user record is edited, each of the resources is contacted and the field values for the attributes are populated. To populate the fields that are used for calculations, you can write derivation rules.

Example

A phone number field can be represented on the form as a single text box. However, a more advanced form might have three fields for the area code and phone number, which are used to calculate the phone number that is saved to the resource.

In the simple case of representing a phone number, you can have form fields that resemble the ones listed below.

<Field name=’P1’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Office Phone Number’/>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’3’/>
      <Property name=’maxLength’ value=’3’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field name=’P2’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’-’/>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’3’/>
      <Property name=’maxLength’ value=’3’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field name=’P3’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’-’/>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’4’/>
      <Property name=’maxLength’ value=’4’/>
   </Display>
</Field>
<Field name=’global.OfficePhone’>
   <Expansion>
      <concat>
         <ref>P1</ref><s>-</s>
         <ref>P2</ref><s>-</s>
         <ref>P3</ref>
      </concat>
   </Expansion>
</Field>

Example

The following example expands on the field definition for the field P1 defined above. It defines how a phone number attribute is read into the form, and consequently expands into the three field displays.

<Field name=’P1’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Office Number’/>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’3’/>
      <Property name=’maxlength’ value=’3’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

When a user enters data into Waveset, the form can ensure the data is entered properly. However, Waveset cannot ensure that data entered directly into the resource meets the same requirements. For example, over the years, administrators might have entered the phone number as 123-4567 (8 characters), 123-123-4567 (12 characters), or (123) 123-4567 (14 characters).

Example

The definition of the OfficePhone field remains the same as described previously, but each of the three fields (P1, P2, and P3) should be updated to use derivation rules, as this example illustrates for the P1 field.

<defvar name=’lenOfficePhone’>
   <length><ref>Office Phone</ref></length>
</defvar>
<Field name=’P1’>
   <Display class=’Text’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Office Phone Number’/>
      <Property name=’size’ value=’3’/>
      <Property name=’maxLength’ value=’3’>
   </Display>
   <Derivation>
      <or>
      <cond><eq>
      <ref>lenOfficePhone</ref>
         <s>8</s></eq>
         <s> </s></eq>
      </cond>
      <cond><eq>
         <ref>lenOfficePhone</ref>
            <s>12</s></eq>
               <substr>
               <ref>Office Phone</ref>
               <i>0</i>
               <i>1</i>
               </substr>
      </cond>

      <cond><eq>
         <ref>lenOfficePhone</ref>
         <s>14</s></eq>
            <substr>
               <ref>Office Phone</ref>
               <i>0</i>
               <i>1</i>
            </substr>
      </cond>
      </or>
   </Derivation>
</Field>

When you are calculating fields, you must consider the data’s current format and quality in the resource. It is much easier to ensure the correct field values when creating new users. It is much harder to get existing data to conform to the field when reading it off the resource. You can use derivation rules for any field to check the format of the attribute as it is being read in.

Recalculating Fields

The system performs field calculations many times when a user is working on a form. The field is calculated when it is first displayed, which sets any default values, and the form is calculated when the user clicks Save. Two other actions can cause the form to be evaluated: clicking Recalculate on the Edit User page and action fields.

Example

<Field>
   <Display class=’Button’>
      <Property name=’label’ value=’Recalculate’/>
      <Property name=’command’ value=’Recalculate’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

To ensure that the system recalculates the value of a field, set action to true in the Display class element as shown below:

<Display class=’Select’ action=’true’>

Add this value only to fields that the user selects or clicks on. Do not add it to test or text area fields. When a field has action=true set, the form recalculates this form whenever the field is modified in the browser.

Example

<Field name=’Region’>
   <Display class=’Select’ action=’true’>
      <Property name=’title’ value=’Geographic Region’/>
      <Property name=’allowedvalues’ value=’North, South,
Central, Midwest’./>
<Property name=’nullValue’ value=’Select a region’/>
   </Display>
</Field>

Guidelines for Structuring a Form

Use the following guidelines when creating the structure of your new form or editing an existing form.

• List field elements in the order in which you want them displayed on the page. The order of the field elements in the form determines the order in which the elements are displayed in the browser.

• Place the referenced field before the field referencing it. If a field has an expression that references a value in another field, place the referencing field after the referenced field.

• Disabled fields are ignored when logically true. If any field defines a Disable expression, it is evaluated. If the result of the Disable expression is logically true, the field will be ignored during form evaluation.

Optimizing Expressions in Form Fields

Some activities performed in forms can call out to resources external to Waveset. Accessing these resources can affect Waveset performance, especially if the results are long lists of values (for example, compiling a list of groups or email distribution lists). To improve performance during these types of calls, follow the guidelines in the section titled Using a Java Class to Obtain Field Data.

Example Scenario

The following example illustrates a type of expression optimization.

If you want to query a database for information that is not stored in Waveset or accessible as a resource account attribute, follow these general steps:

To Perform Optimizing Expressions

1. Write a Java class that performs the database access.

2. Define a form field that uses a default expression to call the Java class.

3. Reference the hidden variable.

Using a Java Class to Obtain Field Data

You will need to write a Java class that has methods that can be called to retrieve information. The example in the following section, Defining a Hidden Form Field, uses the getJobGrade method, which is a custom method. You should locate this custom class in the idm\WEB-INF\classes\com\waveset\custom directory structure. (If these directories do not exist on your system, you must create them.)

Follow these guidelines when writing this class:

• If the method performs an expensive operation, such as a database request, you should make the call in the Default expression of a hidden form field. This will cause the value to be stored in the view when the form is first loaded. The value can then be referenced many times without incurring database overhead.

• If the method being called has not been declared static, use the new element to instantiate the class first, as shown in the following example.

Defining a Hidden Form Field

First, define a hidden form field that uses a default expression to call the Java class by not including any Display class in the field definition:

<Field name=’jobGrade’>
   <Default>
      <invoke name=’getJobGrade’ class=’com.waveset.custom.DatabaseAccessor’>
         <ref>waveset.accountId</ref>
      </invoke>
   </Default>
</Field>
     </Derivation>

Default expressions are evaluated only if the view does not contain a value for the attribute jobGrade. Once the default expression has been run, the result is stored in jobGrade, and the expression is not run again.

To Define a Hidden Form Field

1. Select Hidden from the Display Class menu.

2. Click OK.

   The Hidden display class corresponds to the <input type=hidden’/> HTML component. This component supports only single-valued data types because there is no way to reliably serialize and deserialize multi-valued data types.

   If you have a List that you want to render it as a string, you must explicitly convert it to a String, as shown in the following example:

   <Field name=’testHiddenFieldList’ > <Display class=’Hidden’/ > <Derivation> <invoke name=’toString’> <List> <String>aaaa</String> <String>bbbb</String> </List> </invoke> </Derivation> </Field>

Referencing the Hidden Attribute

Once you have defined a hidden attribute, you can reference it in other expressions, such as:

<Field name=’secureKey’>
   <Disable><lt><ref>jobGrade</ref><i>10</i></lt></Disable>
     ...
</Field>

You can use XPRESS defvar variables to hold the results of a computation, but the results are typically not as efficient as using a hidden form field.

Note about Optimizing Variables Beyond a Single Iteration

XPRESS variables typically persist for only a single iteration over the form fields. As a result, you can use a variable within an Expansion phase but not on a subsequent Derivation phase. If you need a computed value to remain relevant beyond one field iteration, use a hidden form field instead. Hidden field values are stored in the view and will persist until the editing session is either canceled or saved.

Disabling Automatic Linking of New Resources and Users

Waveset provides a way to control the linking of existing accounts when new resources are assigned to a user.

When you assign a new resource to a user, and an account with the assigned ID already exists on the resource, Waveset by default automatically links that account to the Waveset user and proceeds with provisioning. Alternatively, you can disable this automatic linking and enter an alternative account ID when creating a new account for the user.

There are two ways to control how new accounts are linked to user:

• Enabling manual linking of this information in the user form

• Preventing automatic linking during provisioning

Enabling Manual Linking in the User Form

To enable manual linking, you must

• Include a property definition in each user form similar to the following

  <Form>
     <Properties>
        <Property name=’InteractiveLinking’ value=’true’/>
     </Properties>
     ...
  </Form>

• Add a field reference anywhere in the form. For example,

  <FieldRef name=’DiscoveredAccountFields’/>

  To reference this field, you must have the following Include statement in your user form. Typically, this Include is present in all user forms.

  <Include>
     <ObjectRef type=’UserForm’ name=’User Library’/>
  </Include>

With these form changes in place, Waveset checks for existing accounts each time the form is refreshed, and before it is saved. If Waveset discovers an existing account, it displays warning messages at the top of the form, and inserts new fields for each discovered account. These new fields include a checkbox that can be used to manually indicate that the account should be linked.

In addition, Waveset generates a field for each attribute in the resource’s Identity template. With this field, you can specify a different identity for the account. Waveset fetches the attribute for the existing accounts and includes it in the view.

You can display these attributes using the MissingFields reference or with your own custom fields. You must either supply an alternative identity for an account that does not exist, or check the option to allow the existing account to be linked before the form can be saved.

Preventing Automatic Linking during Provisioning

When performing non-interactive provisioning from a workflow, you can also control whether Waveset performs automatic account linking. Passing the NoLinking view option to the checkinView call prevents automatic linking. You can specify this option in several ways:

• Pass it as an argument to the WorkflowServices method as follows:

  <Action application=’com.waveset.provision.WorkflowServices’>
     <Argument name=’op’ value=’checkinView’/>
     <Argument name=’view’ value=’$(user)’/>
     <Argument name=’NoLinking’ value=’true’/>
  </Action>

• Setting the option as attributes in the view. In this case, name the view attribute viewOptions.NoLinking. You can then set it in a workflow with XPRESS logic like this:

  <set name=’user.viewOptions.NoLinking’>
    <s>true</s>
  </set>

Preventing an Attribute from being Displayed in Clear Text on Results Pages

Waveset displays the value of an attribute in clear text on Results pages, even when you have set the attribute for display with asterisks in an Edit form.

To prevent an attribute from being displayed in clear text on Results pages, you must register it as a secret attribute. To register a secret attribute, add it as follows to the System Configuration object:

<Attribute name=’secretAttributes’>
   <List>
     <String>email</String>
     <String>myAttribute</String>
   </List>
</Attribute>

Calling Resource Methods from Forms

You can invoke methods on a resource from a form by using the invoke method.

The invoke method is called by specifying the class name and name of the method. Arguments can also be passed to the method within the invoke tags as shown in the following example.

<Default>
   <block>
      <defvar name=’vmsResName’>
         <index i=’0’>
         <ref>accountInfo.accounts[type=vms].name</ref>
         </index>
      <defvar>
         <invoke name=’callResourceMethod’class=’com.waveset.ui.FormUtil’>
            <ref>display.session</ref>
            <ref>vmsResName</ref>
         <null/>
         </invoke>
</Default>

From the Form Element dialog for the field

To Call Resource Methods from a Form

1. Select Javascript from the Display Class menu.

2. Click OK.

Referencing a Form from Another Form

You can reference particular fields in a separate form (rather than a complete form) through the use of the <FormRef> element.

Use the <FormRef> element to include another form from within an external form. The following example calls the form named MissingFields.

<FormRef name=’MissingFields’/>
   <FieldRef name=’AuthenticationAnswers’/>
   <FieldRef name=’AccountInformation’/>
   <Field name=’waveset.backgroundSave’>
      <Display class=’Hidden’/>
   </Field>

Referencing Fields from Another Form

You can reference particular fields in a separate form (rather than a complete form) through the use of the <FieldRef> element.

Use the <FieldRef> element to include a specific field from within an external form. Include:

• the name of the form in which the field resides. This form name must be listed in the include section of the form header with the <ObjectRef> element. The property type specifies the name of the form (UserForm) and its unique configuration ID. The name property identifies the name of the field you will later reference.

• the field name itself inserted in the section of the form that matches the location on the page you would like it to be displayed.

<Include>
   <ObjectRef type=’UserForm’
      id=’#ID#04F5F14E01889DFE:2E5C94:F131DD723D:-7FE4’
      name=’Password Library’/>
   <ObjectRef type=’UserForm’
      id=’#ID#04F5F14E01889DFE:2E5C94:F131DD723D:-7FE3’
      name=’Account Summary Library’/>
   <ObjectRef type=’UserForm’
      id=’#ID#UserForm:UserFormLibrary’/>
   <ObjectRef type=’UserForm’ name=’Global Attributes’/>
</Include>

In the following example, the field name itself inserted in the section of the form that matches the location on the page you would like it to be displayed.

<Field name=’global.fullname’ hidden=’true’>
    <Expansion>
      <cond>
        <and>
          <ref>global.firstname</ref>
          <ref>global.lastname</ref>
        </and>
        <concat>
          <ref>global.firstname</ref>
             <s> </s>
          <ref>global.lastname</ref>
        </concat>
      </cond>
    </Expansion>
</Field>

In the following example, the <FieldRef> element identifies the name of the attribute you want to reference.

<Field>
    <Disable>
       <isnull>
          <ref>waveset.id</ref>
       </isnull>
    </Disable>
    <FieldRef name=’DynamicChangePasswordFields’/>
</Field>

Implementing the Waveset Whitelist Feature

You can use the whitelist feature to check forms and workflows that use the SaveNoValidate action against a list of IDs or form names. Waveset checks the whitelist for either form names or form-owner IDs. The list of IDs, called saveNoValidateAllowedFormsAndWorkflows, is located in the security attribute in the System Configuration object. If the form name or owner ID is on the whitelist, the form or workflow can use the SaveNoValidate action. If the form name or the owner ID is not on the list, the form or workflow is processed using a Save action. If the list is not present, all forms and workflows can be processed as SaveNoValidate.

To implement this feature in your deployment, you must add any forms or workflows using SaveNoValidate to the saveNovalidateAllowedFormsAndWorflows list in the System Configuration object. To see the IDs or form names that you must add, check the syslog or turn trace level 4 on for com.waveset.ui.util.GenericEditForm and submit any custom forms or workflows that use SaveNoValidate. Waveset will log a warning including the ID. If you are getting “null” form names in the syslog, confirm that the form in the TaskDefinition that was run has a name attribute.