Namespace: util

This function applies data to a template. It processes the template string given in pTemplate by substituting values according to the options in pOptions. The template supports Application Express server style placeholder and item substitution syntax.

This function is intended to process Application Express style templates in the browser. However it doesn't have access to all the data that the server has. When substituting page items and column items it uses the current value stored in the browser not what is in session state on the server. It does not support the old non-exact substitutions (with no trailing dot e.g. &ITEM). It does not support the old column reference syntax that uses #COLUMN_NAME#. It cannot call PREPARE_URL (this must be done on the server). Using a template to insert JavaScript into the DOM is not supported. After processing the template all script tags are removed.

The format of a template string is any text intermixed with any number of replacement tokens. Two kinds of replacement tokens are supported: placeholders and substitutions. Placeholders are processed first.

Placeholder syntax is:

#<placeholder-name>#

The <placeholder-name> is an uppercase alpha numeric plus "_", and "$" string that must be a property name in option object placeholders that gets replaced with the property value. Any placeholder tokens that don't match anything in the placeholders object are left as is (searching for the next placeholder begins with the trailing # character).

Substitution syntax is (any of):

&<item-name>.
&<item-name>!<escape-filter>.
&"<quoted-item-name>".
&"<quoted-item-name>"!<escape-filter>.
&APP_TEXT$<message-key>.
&APP_TEXT$<message-key>!<escape-filter>.
&"APP_TEXT$<message-key>".
&"APP_TEXT$<message-key>"!<escape-filter>.

The <item-name> is an uppercase alpha numeric plus "_", "$", and "#" string. The <quoted-item-name> is a string of any characters except "&", carriage return, line feed, and double quote. In both cases the item name is the name of a page item (unless option includePageItems is false), a column item (if model and record options are given), a built-in substitution (unless option includeBuiltinSubstitutions is false), or an extra substitution if option extraSubstitutions is given.

The <message-key> is a message key suitable for use in apex.lang.getMessage and is replaced with the localized message text for the given key. The message must already be loaded on the client by setting the Text Message attribute Used in JavaScript to Yes or otherwise adding it such as with apex.lang.addMessages. If no replacement for a substitution can be found it is replaced with the message key. The language specifier that is supported for server side message substitutions is not supported by the client and will be ignored if present.

When substituting a column item the given record of the given model is used to find a matching column name. If not found and if the model has a parent model then the parent model's columns are checked. This continues as long as there is a parent model. The order to resolve an item name is: page item, column item, column item from ancestor models, built-in substitutions, and finally extra substitutions. Column items support the "_LABEL" suffix to access the defined column label. For example if there is a column item named NOTE the substitution &NOTE_LABEL. will return the label string for column NOTE.

The built-in substitution names are:

• &APP_ID.
• &APP_PAGE_ID.
• &APP_SESSION.
• &REQUEST.
• &DEBUG.
• &IMAGE_PREFIX.

The escape-filter controls how the replacement value is escaped or filtered. It can be one of the following values:

• HTML the value will have HTML characters escaped using apex.util.escapeHTML.
• ATTR the value will be escaped for an HTML attribute context (currently the same as HTML)
• RAW does not change the value at all.
• STRIPHTML the value will have HTML tags removed and HTML characters escaped.

This will override any default escape filter set with option defaultEscapeFilter or from the column definition escape property.

apex.jQuery( "#photo" ).html(
    apex.util.applyTemplate(
        "<img src='&IMAGE_PREFIX.people/&P1_PROFILE_IMAGE_FILE.'>" ) );

var options = { placeholders: { MESSAGE: "All is well." } };
apex.jQuery( "#notification" ).html( apex.util.applyTemplate( "<div>#MESSAGE#</div>", options ) );

Compare two arrays and return true if they have the same number of elements and each element of the arrays is strictly equal to each other. Returns false otherwise. This is a shallow comparison.

apex.util.arrayEqual( [1,"two",3], [1, "two", 3] );

apex.util.arrayEqual( [1,"two",3], [1, "two", "3"] );

Wrapper around cancelAnimationFrame that can fallback to clearTimeout. Cancels the callback using the id returned from apex.util.invokeAfterPaint.

Returns a new function that calls pFunction but not until pDelay milliseconds after the last time the returned function is called.

function formatValue() {
    var value = $v("P1_PHONE_NUMBER");
    // code to format value as a phone number
    $s("P1_PHONE_NUMBER_DISPLAY", value);
}
apex.jQuery( "#P1_PHONE_NUMBER" ).on( "keypress", apex.util.debounce( formatValue, 100 ) );

Returns string pValue with any CSS meta-characters escaped. Use this function when the value is used in a CSS selector. Whenever possible if a value is going to be used as a selector, constrain the value so that it cannot contain CSS meta-characters making it unnecessary to use this function.

apex.jQuery( "#" + apex.util.escapeCSS( "my.id" ) );

Returns string pValue with any special HTML characters (&<>"'/) escaped to prevent cross site scripting (XSS) attacks. It provides the same functionality as sys.htf.escape_sc in PL/SQL.

This function should always be used when inserting untrusted data into the DOM.

apex.jQuery( "#show_user" ).append( apex.util.escapeHTML( $v("P1_UNTRUSTED_NAME") ) );

Get a JavaScript Date object corresponding to the input date string which must be in simplified ISO 8601 format. In the future Date.parse could be used but currently there are browsers we support that don't yet support the ISO 8601 format. This implementation is a little stricter about what parts of the date and time can be defaulted. The year, month, and day are always required. The whole time including the T can be omitted but if there is a time it must contain at least the hours and minutes. The only supported time zone is "Z". This function is useful for turning the date strings returned by the APEX_JSON.STRINGIFY and APEX_JSON.WRITE procedures that take a DATE value into Date objects that the client can use.

var date1 getDateFromISO8601String( result.dateString );

Returns the nested object at the given path pPath within the nested object structure in pRootObject creating any missing objects along the path as needed. This function is useful when you want to set the value of a property in a deeply nested object structure and one or more of the nested objects may or may not exist.

var o = apex.util.getNestedObject( options, "views.grid.features" );
o.cellRangeActions = false; // now options.views.grid.features.cellRangeActions === false

Gets the system scrollbar size for cases in which the addition or subtraction of a scrollbar height or width would effect the layout of elements on the page. The page need not have a scrollbar on it at the time of this call.

var size = apex.util.getScrollbarSize();

Return an htmlBuilder interface.

Wrapper around requestAnimationFrame that can fallback to setTimeout. Calls the given function before next browser paint. See also apex.util.cancelInvokeAfterPaint.

See HTML documentation for window.requestAnimationFrame for details.

var id = apex.util.invokeAfterPaint( myAnimationFunction );
// ... if needed it can be canceled
apex.util.cancelInvokeAfterPaint( id );

Function that renders a spinning alert to show the user that processing is taking place. Note that the alert is defined as an ARIA alert so that assistive technologies such as screen readers are alerted to the processing status.

var lSpinner$ = apex.util.showSpinner( $( "#container_id" ) );

lSpinner$.remove();

Returns string pText with all HTML tags removed.

apex.util.stripHTML( "Please <a href='www.example.com/ad'>click here</a>" );
// result: "Please click here"

Function that returns an array based on the value passed in pValue.

lProducts = apex.util.toArray( "Bags:Shoes:Shirts" );

lProducts = apex.util.toArray( "Bags,Shoes,Shirts", "," );

lTextFields = apex.util.toArray( jQuery("input[type=text]") );