Properties in Display Profile

The display profile document defines a Provider. The definition of a Provider associates the Provider with the class file that implements its behavior. A Provider definition includes a number of properties, mandatory and provider-specific.

Provider specific properties are defined in the display profile. Provider specific properties are defined in the display profile within the <Properties></Properties> tag for the provider. The following is the structure of the properties in the display profile:

<Properties>
    <Collection>
        ...subset of property definitions
    </Collection>
    <Integer>...</Integer>
    <String>...</String>
    <Boolean>...</Boolean>
</Properties>

Typically, the custom provider will not modify the required properties. When properties are updated, they are set in the user’s display profile by the administrator via the administration console. However, values can only be set on existing properties.

If the provider class does not extend the ProfileProviderAdapter and implements the Provider interface, then the get*Property() methods cannot be used directly, and the display profile properties are not accessible. If the provider class implements the Provider interface directly, then no properties are required. Properties must be hardcoded return values or can come from another source such as a database. However, some provider properties are required if the provider implementation extends ProviderAdapter or ProfileProviderAdapter.

The following is a list of the mandatory properties for a provider. The mandatory properties described below are for a provider extending the ProviderAdapter or the ProfileProviderAdapter classes. If you are implementing the Provider interface directly, you can avoid the use of the display profile and the required properties outlined below.

title

Title of the Provider

description

Description of the Provider

refreshTime

Time interval for cached content

isEditable

Can the Provider be edited

editType

Type of edit form to use

width

Width of the Provider

helpURL

URL of a help page for this Provider

See Technical Reference Guide for detailed information on the Display Profile properties.

Channel definitions that use a provider can overwrite the properties of that provider. At runtime, channel property values can be affected by the display profile merge process. See Technical Reference Guide for detailed information on the display profile merge process.