Guide properties

In the Guide Properties view, specify properties that affect the entire Guide, such as the effects and transitions, the submit method, and any Guide Help.

Note: Guide fillers submit their data, according to the submission method defined for the Guide.

When you select a Guide in the Guide Tree view, the Guide Properties view displays several Guide-level properties:

Guide title:

The name of the Guide.

Guide extensions:

(Optional) Specifies compiled Flex Library project SWC files that contain custom Guide components, such as Guide layouts, panel layouts, or controls. You can add multiple SWC files to each Guide.

The Guide needs two versions of each custom extensions file. For the runtime Guide, compile the SWC file with the Flex 4.5 SDK. For the design-time Guide, compile the SWC file with the Flex 4.1 SDK, and then add “_designtime” to the filename. For example, if the runtime file is named myextensions.swc, name the design-time file myextensions_designtime.swc.

For more information about using Guide extensions, see Customizing Guides Using Flash Builder.

Guide layout:

Specifies the wrapper to associate with the Guide. You can customize the Guide layouts or create your own. The source code is provided in the Guides SDK.

For information about creating custom Guide layouts, see Creating Guide Layouts.

Several Guide layouts are available:

Accordion: A Spark-based layout that displays the entire Guide in an accordion. There is one accordion button for each panel. It does not support Guide Help. The only supported transition effect is Fade. Assistive technologies are unable to see objects in the Accordion layout. These technologies read only the panel names.
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The accordion Guide layout
Button Bar:: Uses a new button for each section you create in the Guide Tree view. When a Guide filler clicks a button, the first panel within that section is displayed with the current panel name as the title. The Button Bar Guide layout is designed to handle sections that contain only one panel. If a section has more than one panel, Guide fillers must use navigation controls, such as Previous and Next buttons, to navigate between panels.
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The button bar Guide layout
Cobalt Bar:: Uses a new button for each section you create in the Guide tree. When a Guide filler clicks a button, the first panel within that section is displayed with the current panel name as the title. By default, the Cobalt Bar Guide layout is designed to handle sections that contain only one panel. If a section has more than one panel, Guide fillers must use navigation controls such as Previous and Next buttons to navigate between panels.
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The cobalt bar Guide layout
Cobalt Standard:: (Default) Displays the first two levels of the Guide tree. Each section name within the Guide tree appears as a label in the navigator. When selected, the section expands to display the contained panel names. This Guide layout is designed to handle sections that contain more panels. However, the visible area for each panel is smaller than for other Guide layouts. The Cobalt Standard layout also uses the Help center panel to display both Guide-level and panel-level Help in the same centralized region of the layout.
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The cobalt standard Guide layout
Cobalt Tree:: Displays all active sections and panels, including nested sections, based on the Guide tree that you create in the Guide Tree view. The sections and panels are displayed in a tree structure, and Guide fillers can expand and collapse sections to show or hide panel information. This Guide layout is designed to display the Guide tree exactly as it appears in the Guide Tree view. It is the only Guide layout that displays nested sections in the navigation panel. It also uses the Help center panel to display both Guide-level and panel-level Help in the same part of the Guide layout.
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The cobalt tree Guide layout
Left Accordion:: Displays the first two levels of the Guide tree that is created in the Guide Tree view. Each section name within the Guide tree is displayed as a label for each accordion pane. When selected, each accordion pane expands to display entries for each of the first level of active panels within the section. This Guide layout is designed to handle sections that contain more panels, but the visible area for each panel is smaller.
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The left accordion Guide layout
Left Multilevel:: Displays all active sections and panels, including nested sections, based on the Guide tree that is created in the Guide Tree view. The sections and panels are displayed as a tree structure, and Guide fillers can expand and collapse sections to show or hide panel information. This Guide layout is designed to display the Guide tree exactly as it appears in the Guide Tree view.
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The left multilevel Guide layout
Minimal: A Spark-based layout that displays the Guide with a simplified appearance. It displays only the panel contents, and next and previous buttons. It does not support including documents with a Guide or Guide Help. The only supported transition effect is Fade. Any panel Help appears as the first item after the panel title.
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The minimal Guide layout
Workspace:: Uses two nested tab navigators to display active sections and panels that are based on the Guide tree. This Guide layout is designed to display content in a way that visually complements Workspace. However, all Guide layouts are displayed in Workspace.
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The Workspace Guide layout

Use default stylesheet

Uses the default style sheet that is included with Workbench for the Guide layout. When you deselect this option, the Guide Style option is available.

Advanced Guide Layout Properties :

Displays the Advanced Properties dialog box. The dialog box lists additional properties that are available for the selected Guide layout, and includes properties for custom layouts. Select the properties that you want to add to the Guide Properties view for the current Guide layout. When selected, a property is set to its default value. The selected properties appear in the Advanced Properties section. Configure the properties as required.

Note: The behavior of some advanced properties may conflict with the behavior of the properties that Guides use.

For information about the advanced properties, see the ActionScript 3.0 Reference for the Adobe Flash Platform.

Guide style:

Specifies the SWF file that contains the compiled CSS file to associate with the Guide. The Guides SDK includes a sample style sheet. This option is available only if you deselect Use Default Stylesheet. For information about creating Guide styles, see Creating Custom Style Sheets.

Guide locale

Specifies the default locale for the Guide. The default locale is the language that the Guide is authored in. The runtime locale is selected automatically by matching the locale to the closest matching runtime. Workbench includes versions of the Guide runtime for English (en_US), French (fr_FR), German (de_DE), and Japanese (ja_JP) locales.

The strings are localized in resource bundles named guides_rb.swf. There is a resource bundle file in each \Guides (system)\2.0\Locales\<locale>\Runtime application folder.

For more information about locales, see (Deprecated) Localizing Guides.

Advanced properties

Displays the properties selected on the Advanced Properties dialog box. Configure the properties as required.

The advanced properties include the following properties from the wrapper class in the ga.controls package in the Guides API:

interactivePdfLoad

This property is available when you select the Include Interactive PDF option. Controls the timing and sequence for loading an interactive PDF that is included with a Guide. The default value is Demand. Select this property from the Advanced Properties only when you need to change the value. The following are the valid values for this property:

Demand: (Default) The interactive PDF file is loaded only when the Guide filler clicks the icon in the Guide. Use this option when viewing the PDF file is optional. Loading the PDF file can slow down Flash Player. Loading demand limits the impact to users who choose to see the PDF file.
Start: The interactive PDF file is loaded and displayed when the Guide is rendered. Use this option to display the PDF file automatically, such as when the PDF file is the main data entry source. Include text on the first Guide panel to indicate that there could be a delay before the PDF file is rendered.
Background: The interactive PDF file is loaded in the background when the Guide is rendered. The Guide filler clicks the icon to display the PDF file. Use this option when it takes a long time to load the PDF file, or when most Guide fillers need to view the PDF file. You can use this option with the interactivePdfBackgroundLoadDelay property.

interactivePdfBackgroundLoadDelay

This property is available when you select the Include Interactive PDF option. Controls the delay time for generating the interactive PDF file, when used with the interactivePdfLoad property set to Background. The default value is 5000 ms (5 seconds).

pdfLoadErrorMessage

Holds the error message string that is displayed when the Guide times out trying to communicate with the PDF document.

pdfRequiredFallbackUrl

Holds an optional process URL where the data is submitted when SubmitFromInteractivePDF is used and the PDF document cannot be loaded. A post is sent to the server URL and the Guide is replaced with the returned content.

includeNavigationMinWidth

Indicates the minimum width required to display the navigation panel.

includeNavigationMinHeight

Indicates the minimum height required to display the navigation panel.

For information about the other advanced properties, see the ActionScript 3.0 Reference for the Adobe Flash Platform.

Start-up / transition effects

Specifies start-up effects and panel transitions.

Start-up effect:: Specifies the visual effect to use when a Guide is opened in a browser. To set the speed of the effect, use the associated slider. In Spark-based layouts, such as Accordion and Minimal, only the Fade effect is available.
Note: If you select a Wipe start-up effect and use an image in a text object or a caption, define a policy file. Otherwise, an ActionScript error occurs when previewing the Guide.
Panel transition:: Specifies the visual effect to use when the Guide filler navigates through the panels. To set the speed of the panel transition, use the associated slider.

Preview Settings

Sample data:: Specifies the sample data XML file to use when previewing a Guide. The sample data is not used when displaying a Guide as part of a process.
Locale: Specifies the language to use when previewing the Guide. After you localize the Guide resources and add them to your application, preview and test the Guide for each locale.

Document-style presentation

Specifies whether to include a read-only document with a Guide. For example, the read-only document can be a document of record or an informational document. It also specifies the service that renders the document from the Guide data.

When you include a document with your Guide, a display document icon appears in the Guide layout. Guide fillers click the icon to switch between the Guide and the document when viewing and entering data.

For more information about including a read-only document with a Guide, see (Deprecated) Include documents with a Guide.

None:: A document is not included with the Guide.
Generate document using default service:: Specifies that the default service renders the document from the Guide data. When you select this option, the Service URL displays the URL for the default service.
Generate document using custom service:: Specifies the custom service that renders the document from the Guide data.
Service URL:: Specifies the location of the service that renders the document. The service URL can be literal text or it can be bound to a property in the Data Model view. Use a relative URL. If you specify a document source, the service URL must end with an equal sign (=), as illustrated in the following example:
/rest/services/myApplication/CustomRenderDOR?lcAsset=
Document source:: Specifies the location of the XDP or PDF file that data is merged into when the read-only document is rendered. If the Guide is based on an XDP form, the name of the XDP form is used.
Important: If you change the document source, save and check-in the Guide before previewing.
Run validations before requesting document:: Specifies that validations are run when the Guide filler clicks the icon to view the read-only document. The Guide filler must enter valid data in the required fields before the document is generated. If validations fail, the document is not displayed. For example, you can use this option to generate a document that the user must complete, print, and then sign.

Interactive PDF

Specifies whether to include an interactive PDF document with a Guide. These options are available only if the Guide is based on an XDP form. These options are not available if the XDP form uses an data model (FML).

Include interactive PDF:: Specifies that an interactive PDF document is included with the Guide. Guide fillers click the PDF Mode icon in the Guide layout to switch between the Guide and the interactive PDF document when viewing and entering data. When you select this option, you can select interactivePdfLoad or interactivePDFBackgroundLoadDelay from the Advanced Properties.
Run validations before switching to PDF:: Specifies that validations are run when the Guide filler clicks the icon to view the PDF document. The Guide filler must enter valid data in the required fields before the interactive PDF document is generated. The PDF document appears only if there are no validation errors.

When to validate

Enforce required fields, validations, and constraints

Specifies when the Guide filler must complete the required fields:

on submit: Specifies that the Guide filler must complete the required fields when attempting to submit all Guide data. Validates on submit or when all data entry panels have been completed.
on panel exit:: Specifies that the Guide filler must complete the required fields when navigating between panels.

Where to submit from

Submit From:

Specifies where the Guide data is submitted from. To submit the data, the Guide filler clicks a submit button. A Guide can run in several different environments, such as within Workspace or in a browser. If left blank, the default is Guide.

You can select one of the following Submit From options:

Guide: (Default) Data submission depends on where the Guide is running. If the Guide is running in a browser, the submit button appears in the navigation button area, where the Next and Previous buttons appear. Typically it appears on the last visible panel in the Guide. When the Guide runs in Workspace, no submit button appears on the Guide, and the data is submitted from a button on the Workspace chrome.
Interactive PDF: Submits the data from an interactive PDF document. This option is available when the Guide is based on an XDP form that includes an interactive PDF form. When you select this option, a Submit From PDF button appears in the navigation button area. Clicking this button switches the view to the interactive PDF document, which must include a Submit button. The Submit From PDF button appears in all environments where the Guide can run, such as Workspace or a browser. No other submit button appears in the navigation button area of the Guide or in the Workspace chrome.
User Button: Submits the data from a button that you add to a panel in the Guide. This submit button appears in all environments where the Guide can run. No other submit button appears in the navigation button area of the Guide or in the Workspace chrome.
Note: Email Submit Buttons are not supported in Guides based on XDP or PDF forms.
Host:: Specifies that data is submitted from the application that is hosting the Guide, such as Workspace. The submit button appears on the Workspace chrome, under the Guide. There is no submit button in the navigation button area of the Guide.

Component mappings

Specifies the component mapping file to use. The component mapping file maps logical components to physical components for a specific target. If no component mapping file is found, Workbench uses a default mapping file.

Note: If you edit the mapping file while the Guide is open, reselect the mapping file or the changes will not be reflected in the Guide.

Guide-specific mappings: A custom mapping file that you create in an application. When creating a custom mapping file, use the system mapping file as a reference. Multiple Guides can reference the same mapping file.
System mappings: (Default) Specifies the default mappings that all Guides can use. The default file is /Guides (system)/2.0/Runtime/SystemConfig.xml. The SystemConfig.xml file uses Spark components. To use MX controls, select the /Guides (system)/2.0/Runtime/SystemConfig-MX.xml file. Avoid editing the system mapping file.

Guide Help

Specifies the Help contents that appear in the Guide container. You can format the text and add links to the contents.

Select font type :

Displays the font name for the selected text.

Select font size :

Displays the font size for the selected text.

Bold :

Applies or removes bold formatting to selected text.

Italic :

Applies or removes italic formatting to selected text.

Underline :

Applies or removes underline formatting to selected text.

Color :

Applies a color to the selected text. You can select a color from the color picker or type the hexadecimal value for the color.

Left align :

Aligns text to the left.

Center align :

Aligns text to the center.

Right align :

Aligns text to the right.

Spread justify :

Justifies the text.

Bullets :

Creates a bulleted list.

Remove rich content settings while retaining the text :

Removes rich text formatting but preserves the text. It also removes any image that may have been associated with the field.

Link to:

Specifies the URL for a link. The URL can use an absolute or a relative path. When the Guide filler clicks a link, the linked content appears in a separate browser window.

Show/Hide image settings :

Shows or hides the following image settings:

Image:

Specifies the URL for an image file. You can specify a URL to an image, or you can select an image file that is in your application. To remove the URL for an image, click the Remove

button.

Position: Specifies the image position.
Width: Specifies the image width.
Horizontal pad: Specifies horizontal padding for the image.
Height: Specifies the image height.
Vertical pad: Specifies vertical padding for the image.
Scaling: When selected, maintains the aspect ratio.
Help video: Specifies the URL for a video file. Help videos must be in FLV file format. Help videos work only with the Cobalt Standard and Cobalt Tree Guide layouts. Select a video file that is in your application. To remove the URL for a Help video, click the Remove button.