Set Properties For Form Fields
For each form field, you can set some properties to override the values set by lower-level rules, including the built-in rules (as long as they are not locked).
You can set these properties for form fields:
- Required – The options are Required or Optional
- Hidden – The options are Visible or hidden
- Read Only – The options are Editable or Read Only
- Value – The value can be a static value or an expression
Property overrides affect the form only when the rule's conditions are met for the currently logged-in user.
If more than one rule impacts a given field, it can be tricky to sort out what is finally displayed at runtime to each user group; Understand What Will Be Shown at Runtime can help you.
To set a property for a field:
- Click the dash—or an existing value—in the appropriate column, and select a new value for the property in the dropdown list.
For example, you can modify a field’s Hidden property by selecting Visible or Hidden in the dropdown:
Description of the illustration metadata-select-property.pngVB Studio automatically saves your work for you, so there's no need to do so explicitly.
If you change your mind after setting a property, use the Remove Override option to remove your setting and restore the property to its original value.
Descriptive Flexfields (DFF) and Extensible Flexfield (EFF) sections (or contexts), when shown, are treated like any other fields; that is, you can set the Required, Hidden, Read Only, and Value properties for them as needed.
If you see child fields when you expand a region or an object field, you can use the Set All Children popup menu to quickly override the properties of all the child fields. For example, you can use the popup menu to set the Hidden property for all the child fields in a region to Hidden instead of setting the property for each field individually. To override a property, click ... next to the region to open the menu, and then select the property (Required, Hidden, or Read Only) and the override you want to apply:
Tip:
When you set a field's property to Required or Read Only, you can configure the rule to display a tooltip on the field by selecting Required + Error Code or Read Only + Error Code in the dropdown:
You can then enter the tooltip text in the Error Code field:
The Error Code text is displayed in the tooltip if the rule is applied.
Remember that the Default rule is always active, which establishes the out-of-the-box behavior. All other built-in and extension rules are essentially overriding what is specified in the Default rule. If none of the other rules evaluate to true, then the only overrides applied are those defined in the Default rule.
Note:
A field marked as hidden can still be rendered as visible at runtime. For example, suppose when a page's rules are evaluated, a given field is both required, which means it must have a value, but also hidden. In addition, the field does not have a default value, which means that the user must supply a value explicitly. But how can the user supply a value if the field is hidden? To protect users from encountering this quandary, VB Studio will show the field even though it is marked as hidden, thus allowing users to enter a required value and move on from the page.
