Link Overview

HTML

<a href="{Link1_Src}">{Link1}</a>

Image

Description

The Link control is composed of the two components shown in the HTML code above. The first component ({Link1_Src}">}) is the page to be linked to. The second component ({Link1}) is the text that will appear on the browser to represent the link. Links are used extensively in grid forms where you can have a simple link to another page, or a link with parameters that need to be passed to the linked page.

The Link parameters are specified in the Href Source property and depend on the Href Type property.

General Tab

• The text inserted instead the second component and appearing in the browser is specified in the Static Text field. For multilaguage projects the Translation can be selected by clicking on the [...] near the field.
• You can select a page or enter the URL in the Static address field.

• In the Text from Database field you can select a database field which value will be displayed in the broser. You can also specify the Static Text field.
• In the Address from Database you can select a database field which value will be used as a link.

Parameters

Used to add/edit the link parameters (variables passed through a link to the target page). Link parameters are name=value pairs specified after ? (question mark) following link's target page name. Each name=value pair is separated from another using & (ampersand) character. Example resulting link passing two parameters id and edit could look like:

<a href="record.php?id=6372&edit=true">Record details</a>

A list of currently configured link parameters is displayed on the Parameters tab. It contains Parameter Name, Source Type and Parameter Source columns representing each parameter's name and the way its value to pass is extracted. Beside the list three buttons are available for adding new parameter (plus button), removing selected one (minus button) and editing selected parameter's properties. Under the list a preview window provides insight into how the resulting link will look like. Adding a new parameter or editing an existing one opens Link Parameter dialog:

It provides a preview and fields to specify three parameter's properties:

• Source Type, which specifies the way parameter's value is evaluated, the following selections are available:
  • Expression is used to provide an expression evaluated using site's selected language syntax
  • URL is used to extract current page's parameters passed through URL
  • Form is used to retrieve values of the fields submitted to the current page using some form
  • Session is used to retrieve session variables persisted between user page loads
  • Application is used to retrieve application-scoped variables
  • Cookie is used to retrieve a value from client-side cookies
  • DataSource Column is used to retrieve a value from the parent component's Data Source, only available for links located within data-bound component
  • DataSource Parameter us used to retrieve a parameter from the stored procedure configured as Data Source, only available for links located within data-bound component
• Parameter Source, which specifies the expression that depending on the Source Type selected will be used to evaluate and retrieve parameter's resulting value; for Source Type=URL, Form, Session, Application and Cookie Parameter Source specifies name of a variable to extract from the selected scope; for Expression-typed parameters Parameter Source specifies expression to evaluate against the site's selected language; with Source Type=DataSource Column/Parameter the Parameter Source is a dropdown list with DataSource columns/parameters available for selection
• Parameter name, which is a name of the parameter to attach to a link

Advanced Tab

In the Target Frame field of the Advanced Tab you can define where the linked document will be opened, for example: if the target="_blank" the document will open the document in a new browser window. In the Screen Tip field you can enter the text will be displayed in the browser for the link.

The second component ({Link1}) value can be specified using the Default Value property and can be set/changed in the RunTime. Also the second component ({Link1}) can be changed for the plain text, but you will be unable to change it in the RunTime.

<a href="{Link1_Src}">Home page</a>

For multilanguage projects the second component ({Link1}) can be a translation.

<a href="{Link1_Src}">{res:Link1}</a>

See also