Setting Page Field Properties for Controls

Select to provide sufficient space to display the field control length in average-width characters.

Select to provide enough space to display the field control length in maximum-width characters.

Select to define a custom size for edit boxes that are not display-only. If you set a display-only edit box to Custom, it appears as its defined length. If your edit box is in a grid, this field wraps.

Select to left-justify the content of character fields and right-justify the content of number and signed number fields. This value is the default.

Select to left-justify the content of a field.

Select to right-justify the content of the field. Do not use this option in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture for fields that are not display-only.

Displays the current family name, which was set when the field was created, if it is applicable to your control.

Select an option to override the display format that is associated with a field.

Select if the content of the page control are numeric and you want to display a zero value instead of a blank field. Sometimes, seeing a zero helps users remember that a page control is not blank. For example, in a tax table you might show the lowest tax bracket as starting at zero instead of leaving it blank.

Select for date fields to enable users to enter a date with a four-digit century, as in 1999. Dates are always stored with the four-digit century in the database, but only the last two digits appear unless you select Display Century. If this option is not selected, the century is automatically set to the century of your system date.

Select to hide the value that is entered or displayed in a page control. When selected, characters in this control appear online as black dots.

The component processor stores the actual value, making it available for normal processing, such as PeopleCode.

Use this option for pages that capture sensitive information, such as personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords, and so on.

For more information on options for displaying sensitive field data, see Protecting Sensitive Field Data Online.

Select to display a currency symbol in the field. This selection expands the display length of the field by the length of the currency symbol.

Select to display a prompt button next to the edit box, which enables the user to look up valid values for that field.

Select if the content of the page control is numeric and you want to insert thousand separators to make the numbers easier to read. The system automatically calculates the number of thousand separators to insert and determines where they should be positioned. This selection expands the display length of the edit box by one character for each separator.

Select to have the system automatically populate the page control with the character specified in the Fill Character field. The direction in which it populates depends on the alignment that you select. If a field is left-aligned, then it populates from left to right. If a field is right-aligned, it populates from right to left.

For example, suppose that you define a six-character control as left-aligned, specify a fill character of 0, and activate Auto Fill. When you type 123 in the control online, the system displays 123000. Similarly, if you changed the alignment to right, the system would display 000123.

Select to insert a decimal point automatically if none is provided in the data that is entered into the control. Where the system inserts the decimal point depends on how you define the control.

For example, in a record definition if you define a numeric field with a length of 4.2 (allowing four characters to the left of the decimal and two to the right) and activate Auto Decimal, the system inserts a decimal at the second digit from the right. This option applies only to numeric field controls and affects the actual value of the field control, not just its visual representation.

Select if you are setting the properties for a Time or a DateTime field and you want to display the related time zone. This setting helps users understand whether the time reflects the base time zone of the database or of some other time zone. This setting does not determine which time zone is actually used, only whether the time zone appears. The record field properties determine which time zone is used.

Select for edit boxes containing sensitive information that you want to protect by:

• Displaying only masked characters s in the page field in the browser. (Black dots or asterisks, depending on the operating system and/or browser)

• Preventing the field value from being accessible in the page HTML.

The component processor stores the actual value, making it available for normal processing, such as PeopleCode.

Use this option for pages that capture sensitive information, such as personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords, and so on.

For more information on options for displaying sensitive field data, see Protecting Sensitive Field Data Online.

For edit boxes and long edit boxes only, this option enables the user to check spelling on field content. This feature supports 17 languages using 36 dictionaries. Users have the option of selecting the appropriate dictionary to meet the language needs.

The behavior of this feature is as follows:

• Design time behavior: The default setting is deselected. When theEnable Spell Check check box is selected, the Show Prompt Button option is deselected and disabled; a field can either be spell checked or validated, but not both. Like the Look-Up button, the spell check button appears to the right of the field and is not visible on the page definition. Be sure to leave extra space to accommodate it when placing other fields on the page.

• Runtime behavior: The spell check button appears to the right of the edit box and at the upper right corner of a long edit box. Each click of the spell check button forces a transmission to the application server, opening the Spell Check page. The user then has the option to accept or reject the recommended spelling for the individual word or for all incidences of the term in the field. If no misspellings occur, a message box indicates so without leaving the current page. The Alt+5 hot key invokes spell check while cursor focus is on the spell check field.

  The spell check feature uses the current session language when applying a foreign language dictionary, unless the user changes it by means of Personalizations. The system uses PSLANGUAGES to provide the SCLANG default for each supported session language.

Enter a character to replace blank spaces in an edit box when the system displays the content of the field. For instance, if the length of a Net Pay field is 8.3 and you specify a fill character of *, then a value of $1,250 appears as:

*****$1,250.000

You can use any character as a fill character.

Select to display no control label on the page. Use this option for controls such as related displays.

Select to display text that you enter in the Text field. The default text is the long name for the field from the associated record definition.

For translation purposes, avoid using this option if possible.

Select to display the RFT short name for the field from the associated record definition.

Select to display the RFT long name for the field from the associated record definition. This value is the default.

Enter the text exactly as it should appear on the page. The default is Dummy Name until you assign a record and field to the control. This field is only enabled if you selected Text as the type. Otherwise, the system displays the label text assigned to the field for the Label ID you select.

Select from the drop-down list box the label you want to appear for the page field. The available choices are based on the Label ID column and the Long Name column for the selected field definition.

The default setting for this option is Use Default Label. This default is determined by the label you select as the default for the field definition.

Displays text to assist the translation team determine the context of the field label to be translated. The context is determined by the field name and label ID combination. If no contextual information exists in the database, then no text appears in this field.

This property appears on edit box, long edit box, drop-down list box, push button, image, chart, tree, group box, and check box page controls.

Application users define the contextual information on the Context Information page. See Providing Context Information.

Click to split your control label into multiple lines at the position of the cursor in the Text field. A thick vertical bar character appears in the Text field. When you close the properties dialog box, the label is split into multiple lines. This option is only active when you select Text for the type.

Select an option to control the color, font, and other characteristics of a label. If you do not select a label style that is different than the default, Use Default Style, then the system uses the label style specified on the style sheet on the PeopleTools Options page.

Select to align the label to the left-of-center horizontally. This value is the default.

Select to center the label horizontally.

Select to align the label to the right-of-center horizontally.

Positions label immediately adjacent to the left side of the field. Left is the default position of the label for fields newly added to the page. If you move the label on the page from the left position, PeopleSoft Application Designer changes the selection to Custom.

Positions label above the field. Selecting this option automatically moves the label to the top of the field. If you later move the label on the page from the top position, PeopleSoft Application Designer changes the selection to Custom.

Indicates that the label was manually moved on the page. Labels can be adjusted using the keyboard arrows. Selecting this option does not automatically move the label on the page.

See Positioning Page Control Labels.

Select to display the label only with the first occurrence of a child page field in a scroll area.

Select this option if you do not want a colon to appear at the end of the label text. This option is selected by default for edit boxes and long edit boxes.

Select to prevent users from modifying the content of the control during application data entry. The system automatically selects Display Only when you select Related Field.

Select to make the control physically present on a page but invisible to users. Typically, you add an invisible control because it is required for a PeopleCode program that is associated with the page. An invisible control can also be used as a display control field.

When you select the Invisible check box, the Show Label, Modifiable by JavaScript, and Enable When Page is Display Only fields are enabled.

Select to make the control label visible while the control itself is invisible. This option is useful if you add an invisible display control field to a page to show its related description. Show Label is enabled only if Invisible is selected.

This feature is security related and should always be deselected unless you are familiar with modifying an invisible field using JavaScript in an HTML area. If the Invisible check box is deselected, then Modifiable by JavaScript is deselected and unavailable for entry. If the Invisible check box is selected, then the Modifiable by JavaScript check box is deselected by default.

Select to enable hyperlink actions on read-only pages. This check box is active when the Invisible check box is selected. This check box is deselected by default.

Select to generate an invisible field (hidden field) on the HTML page sent to the browser where it can be manipulated by JavaScript in the browser.

Only use this option if you are familiar with modifying an invisible field using JavaScript due to potential security concerns.

This check box is active only when the Invisible check box is selected. This check box is deselected by default.

If you want the application server to update the invisible field with data sent back from the browser, in addition to having the Generate in HTML check box selected, also make sure to select the Modifiable by JavaScript check box.

This option is available for edit boxes, long edit boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, and drop-down list boxes (only list boxes with a single value for selection).

Select to automatically resize a disabled (display-only) long edit box so that all text within the field is visible at runtime. The field automatically enlarges to accommodate text. This check box is deselected by default. When selected, this option enables the Wrap Long Words option.

Select to identify the control as associated with multicurrency processing. This selection causes the field to appear at runtime only if Multi-Currency is selected on the PeopleTools Options page.

Select to indicate that the field controls another field at the same page level. The controlled field is a related field. For example, on many pages Department ID is the display control field and Department Name is the related field. The system uses Department ID to retrieve Department Name from the Department table to display on the page.

Select to specify that the content of this control is controlled by another field on the same page level, one that you selected as a display control field. When you select this check box, the system automatically selects the Display Only option. It also makes the Related Control Field drop-down list box available for you to select the related control field.

When you select Related Field, Display Only is automatically selected. If the related field is located on a record definition with multiple keys, relate the display field to the lowest order key field that both record definitions have in common, with the exception of EFFDT and EFFSEQ, in the control record definition. The system searches for the higher order keys by matching field control names on the current level and all higher levels for the other keys.

If the related display field contains a long name or short name from the Translate Table, use PSXLATDEFN as the record definition name.

Select this check box to enable the user to select radio buttons and check boxes on runtime pages to perform certain tasks and processes despite the entire page being in display-only mode.

The Paragraph property applies only to these page field controls:

• Static Text

• Edit Box

• Long Edit Box

If Paragraph is selected, PeopleTools generates a text field for the supported controls and inserts the page field content within a paragraph tag (<p>),  rather than a span tag (<span> ).Content within a paragraph tag is easier to access with screen reading devices.

The Paragraph property applies to classic and fluid applications. For classic pages, PeopleTools generates a paragraph tag if the Paragraph property is selected or the controls have one of the following styles applied.

• PAPAGEINSTRUCTIONS

• PAADDITIONALINSTRUCTIONS

• PAADDITIONALINSTRUCTDISABLED

• PAADDITIONALINSTRUCTACTIVE

• PAERRORTEXT

• PSTEXT

PeopleTools suppresses any label generation for the paragraph fields; field values are generated, but field labels are omitted.

PeopleTools ignores the Paragraph property in these conditions:

• Rich Text Editor is enabled.

• The field is not set as display only.

• The field is disabled using PeopleCode. When using PeopleCode, PeopleTools ignores the Paragraph property if the Disabled property is set instead of the DisplayOnly property.

• In the case of long edit boxes, the Paragraph tag can be selected in Application Designer only if the Expand Field When Display Only property is also selected.

Select to wrap long words that do not contain spaces, such as long URLs, in a page field at runtime for Microsoft Internet Explorer only. The word wraps to the length of the field set at design time. Other browsers automatically stretch the width of the page to accommodate the longer text. This option has no effect at runtime to applications running on browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. This setting is deselected by default.

The Wrap Long Words option is available for edit boxes, long edit boxes, and drop-down list boxes only. You can apply it to standalone page fields and grid columns. For edit boxes and drop-down list boxes, this option is disabled if Disabled Edit Control is selected. For long edit boxes, this option is available only if the Expand Field When Display Only option under Field Use Options is selected.

Select to include the field as a list box item in the persistent search results grid. You must also select the Persist in Menu grid property for the grid that contains the field.

This property is disabled on check boxes and radio buttons.

You must enable recent search results caching at the system level in the web profile for this property to take effect.

When you select Related Field, a list of all controls on the page that are marked as display control fields appears in this drop-down list box. Select the field to which this control is related. You must define the use of the initial control field before it appears as an option in the Related Control Field drop-down list box. For example, after the Pay Group field is designated as a display control field, it appears in the Related Control Field drop-down list box for the control that you set as the related field.

Enables the system to issue a save warning for the field if the user changes the value and attempts to exit the page before saving. This setting reinforces current save warning behavior. This option is set by default for edit boxes, long edit boxes, radio buttons, check boxes, and drop-down list boxes. Deselecting this option overrides the save warning that normally appears to users. The user will not see a save warning after changing the value of the field and attempting to exit the page. An example of when this might be necessary is for a drop-down list box that includes links to another page. If the user selects a link from this field to transfer to another page but has not made any other changes to the page, then the system should not issue a save warning.

By deselecting the Set Component Changed flag, you indicate that no save warning message is issued for this field. This option works for fields associated with a derived work field or database record field.

For the push button/hyperlink control, the default setting is deselected instead of selected, unlike most other page controls.

Deselect this option to allow this field to operate in interactive mode. Typically, set a field to interactive only if you want to perform a server trip for an action that can be deferred otherwise—for example, to execute FieldEdit or FieldChange PeopleCode, when data is entered in a field with a prompt table edit, or in a field with a related display.

The setting of this field is ignored if either the page or the component is set to run in interactive mode. See Understanding Processing Modes for more information.

Select to have no pop-up page. This value is the default.

Select to associate the edit box with a pop-up page that you choose from the drop-down list box. Only pop-up pages appear in the Page Popup drop-down list box.

Select to associate this edit box with a pop-up page that displays a message from the message catalog. You can design and implement message catalog pop-up pages to be context sensitive.

See PeopleBooks and the Online PeopleSoft Library,“Managing the PeopleSoft Online Library and PeopleBooks,” Integrating Context Sensitivity.

See Enabling Message Catalog Pop-up Pages.

See Message Catalog.

Enter the message set number and the message number of the message whose text you want to appear in the pop-up window.

This field displays the message of the message catalog entry that you enter in the message set/number fields.