Button Tag Pass-Through Attributes

Go to:

Tools, Properties..., Attributes tab
Iron Speed Designer Pass-Through Attributes

These attributes control specific types of controls generated by Iron Speed Designer.  Generally these attributes govern specific portions of code that is generated for your application depending on the selected attributes and their values.

Pass-Through Attribute

Description

CommandArgument

CommandArgument supplements the Command Name parameter in the Basic tab.  The syntax and affects of individual arguments vary depending on various factors, including the URL / Command Name value, the button consumers' properties, table schemas, etc.

deleteonupdate

This argument is typically used when the Command Name is “DeleteRecord”.  The selected record is hidden immediately, but not deleted from the database until / unless the consuming Table Control’s data is saved.

CommandName

The particular command to execute upon button click.

AddRecord

Add a new record to the database.  Processing does not wait until a final “Submit” or “OK” button is clicked.

Custom

You can enter any command of your own.

DeleteRecord

Delete the selected record panel. Based on the CommandArgument, the processing commits immediately in the database or waits until a final “Submit” or “OK” button is clicked.

ExpandCollapseRow

The row is expanded or collapsed.

See the RowDisplayAction pass-through attribute for more details.

ExportData

Export data from the associated table.  A file selection dialog is displayed when an Export Data button is clicked, prompting the application user for a file name into which the data is exported.

GotoNext

Go to the next page in the table.  The associated database query is executed and the next page of data is returned from the database and displayed in the associated table.

GotoPrevious

Go to the previous page in the table.  The associated database query is executed and the previous page of data is returned from the database and displayed in the associated table.

LogOut

Sign out of the application.  The application user is logged out.

Redirect

A new page, specified by the URL, is displayed.

ResetData

Clears any data entered on the input form (page).  Refreshes the records displayed on the table panel by performing a database query.

ResetFilters

Resets the filters including the Search, dropdown list box filters and the column sorting on table panels.

Search

Perform a search on the database and display the resulting data in a table or record.  This operation is normally used for the “Go” button in a search panel or in a filter field panel.  The search term is entered into a separate text box field.  Similarly the filter criteria are entered into separate text box and dropdown list fields.

ShowUserStatusLbl

Generates the signed in user name in the upper tool bar.

UpdatePanels

Updates all associated panels to reflect their current data.

UpdateData

Any input data on the page is updated in the database.

Consumers

Designates a “consumer” of the button event.  When the button is activated, the application generates an “event” that informs other controls that the button has been clicked.  This allows other controls to take action based on the event.  This property designates which component, if any, receives the event.

None

There is no consumer of this event.

Page

The page consumes this event, indicating that all records on the page should be updated.

Parent

The parent control consumes this event.

ParentRecord

The parent record consumes this event.

ParentTable

The parent table consumes this event.

Control name

The actual control bound to the button, e.g.: CategoriesTableControl.

ControlToValidate

Specifies the target control to be updated when adding a new record via the Quick Add button feature.  ControlToValidate is typically the name of the control of the dropdown list whose value is to be updated after a record is added via a Quick Add button.

The database field populating the dropdown list control is specified by the FieldValue pass-through attribute.

Applies To

Button
ImageButton
LinkButton

FieldValue

Specifies the name of the database field that populates the dropdown list updated by the Quick Add button.

Applies To

Button
ImageButton
LinkButton

ImageURL

The URL of the button image to be displayed.

PostBack

Specifies whether certain controls inside an Ajax-enabled update panel trigger a traditional post back.  PostBack works in conjunction with the SmoothPanelUpdate pass-through attribute.

True

The button control triggers a traditional post back when clicked.

False

The button control triggers an asynchronous post back (Ajax-based smooth panel updating) when clicked.

Note: When the ‘Export data from’ button action is selected, PostBack is assumed to be True because this feature requires a traditional post back in order to function properly.

The PostBack pass-through attribute is not automatically generated; you must manually enable it.  If PostBack is not present, it is assumed to be ‘False’.

Applies To

Button
ImageButton
LinkButton

Other

.NET Framework 2.0 and later applications.

RedirectArgument

URL arguments, if any, to pass to the page being displayed.  There are several special arguments described in Button Bindings - Substitution Variables.

RedirectURL

The URL of the page to be displayed when the button is clicked.  There are several special arguments:

Back

This argument can be used with the special RedirectArgument "updatedata", which is related to page history (Back key) handling.

You can modify a page’s OK or Cancel button to return "Back" to a previous page with fresh data by adding a RedirectArgument of "updatedata". This causes the previous page to load with fresh data, while maintaining settings (such as page size displayed, sorting, etc).

RowDisplayAction

Specifies the row display behavior when the ‘Expand’ button is pressed.

ExpandSelectedRow

The selected row is expanded.  No other rows are changed.

ExpandSelectedRowAndCollapseOtherRows

The selected row is expanded and all other rows are collapsed.

SendEmail<Number>From

Specifies the email address to use in the From field of an email.  The email address can be specified as a constant or as a substitution variable.  If it is a substitution variable, then the email address is taken from a field in the Table or Record control during application run-time.  Multiple email addresses should be separated by comas (,).

Email address should take one of these formats:

  • A constant

  • A substitution variable

  • Display name constant <Email address constant>

  • Display name constant <Email address substitution variable>

  • Display name substitution variable <Email address constant>

  • Display name substitution variable <Email address substitution variable>

Substitution variables have the format:

{ControlName:NoUrlEncode:FV:FieldName}

See Button Bindings - Substitution Variables for details on substitution variables.

Pass-through attribute numbering starts with 1, must be an integer, and should be sequential.  For example, adding three send email actions using the Button Action Wizard creates this sequence of SendEmail<Number>From pass-through attributes:

SendEmail1From

SendEmail2From

SendEmail3From

If you are adding pass-through attributes through the Attributes tab in the Properties dialog, make sure the pass-through attributes are numbered sequentially.  If numbering is not sequential, then send email code will be generated only for those send email actions that are numbered sequentially.  For example, if you have added three send email actions and used numbers 1, 3, 4, send email code will be generated only for the first send email action.

Numbering

Send email code is generated for

1, 2, 3, 6

1, 2, 3

2, 5, 8

None

The text of all send email related pass-through attributes is stored as encoded (using URL encoding).  This allows you to use different special characters (for example XML code).  We strongly recommend using the Button Action Wizard to add send email-related pass-through attributes.  This helps avoid unnecessary problems and assures correct operation of generated web applications.

SendEmail<Number>To

SendEmail<Number>CC

SendEmail<Number>BCC

Specifies the email address to use in the To, CC, and BCC fields of an email.

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.

SendEmail<Number>Subject

Specifies the subject of the email.

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.

SendEmail<Number>ContentURL

Specifies the URL of the web page used as content of the email.

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.

SendEmail<Number>Content

Specifies the text used as content of the email.

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.

SendEmail<Number>EmbedImages

Supplements the SendEmail<Number>ContentURL pass-through attribute.

true

Images are attached to the email.

false

Images and style sheets are referenced by fully qualified URLs

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.

SendEmail<Number>ForRecord

This pass-through attribute is used to generate send email actions.

current

Substitution variables are evaluated for the current record of the associated Record control or for first selected record in the associated Table control.

selected

Substitution variables are evaluated for all selected records in the associated Table control.  A separate email is sent for each selected record.

all

Substitution variables are evaluated for all records in the associated Table control.  A separate email is sent for each record.

See SendEmail<Number>From for numbering details.
ASP.NET Control Properties

The ASP.NET controls have a wide variety of properties that can be used to govern the controls’ behaviors.  You can enter any .NET control property into the Attributes tab and Iron Speed Designer will insert them into the generated control tags.

ASP.NET Control Property

Description

CausesValidation

The data entered into the page is validated by the application.  All data in each data entry control on the page is validated.

true

The data entered into the page is validated by the application.  All data in each data entry control on the page is validated.

False

The data entered into the page is not validated by the application.

Text

The text to display in the button or link.  This applies only to Link Buttons and Push Buttons.

ToolTip

Pop-up help text displayed when an application user moves their mouse over the button.
PostBack pass-through attribute set to ‘True’ in certain cases

When a field is bound to a third-party control (e.g, FCKEditor) a postback may be necessary to retrieve the current field value.  This is not a problem when page content is saved by clicking the ‘Save’ or ‘Save and New’ button which belongs to page, but it could be a problem for table row buttons.  To avoid such problems, Iron Speed Designer adds the ‘PostBack = True’ pass-through attribute to all ‘Save’ and ‘Save and New’ buttons by default.

Pass-through attributes of buttons within ASCX controls

Pass-through attributes are declared differently for a Text button (called a ‘theme button’) and an Image button.  For example the CommandName pass-through attribute for a text button is Button-CommandName whereas it is just CommanName for an Image button.

The reason is that theme buttons are usually ASCX controls that are included within a page (ASPX).  A button component creates a reusable panel and is based on a layout that you can specify.  The PushButton, LinkButton and ImageButton are standard HTML buttons.  In order to retrieve the pass-through attribute for any ASCX control within a page, it is essential to prepend the name of the ASCX control before the pass-through attribute so that the page is aware it refers to the pass-through attribute of an ASCX control with that name.  Image buttons, on the other hand, are simple ASP controls and therefore don’t require us to specify the name of the controls before the pass-through attributes.

The Button uses several pass-through attributes to set the values of attributes inside of the Button panel.  The attributes whose names are prefixed “Button” refer to the attributes within the Button panel.  For example, a code generation tag named Button within the Button.html panel is referred by the name Button by the enclosing page or panel.  As such, the Button-CausesValidation pass-through attribute refers to the CausesValidation attribute of the code generation tag named Button or LinkButton within the ThemeButton.ascx control.

See also

Button Actions and Properties

Button Display Properties

Button Binding Properties

Button Bindings - Redirect and Send Email Actions

Button Bindings - Substitution Variables

Button Tag Pass-Through Attributes

Pass-Through Attributes

Calling Javascript Code from a Button