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• form.load : This property is true when the form is first loading. It is useful for setting default values via rules that you need to be set before the user starts interacting with the form. This also holds true for flows. This property is true when each step of a workflow is first loading.
• form.unload : This property is true when users click the form's submit button. It is useful for setting control values just prior to the execution of the form's Doc Actions and Form Actions. This also holds true for flows. This property is true when the user clicks the continue button for each workflow step. Refer to this topic for the details about a change in behavior that has been implemented for Forms only.
  
• form.positionUpdated : This property is used for the Geo location feature. You can fire a rule using this special identifier every time the position is updated.
• Activate : Use this property instead of form.load to prevent invalid flow states when navigating back and forth in a workflow.
  
• Deactivate: Use this property instead of form.unload to prevent invalid flow states when navigating back and forth in a workflow.
  

Examples of identifiers used in  rules are:

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• Browser independence. We found it impossible to get these to run reliably in so many versions of so many browsers, especially IE. A bug in your rule (e.g. an infinite loop) will crash the browser and in some cases will require a Windows reboot. On the server, these run in separate threads with lower priority and timeouts so it will not impact the form server.
• The ability for the rule to do server-side things like http:get () to a database connector, invoke a REST service etc. These often reside behind the firewall and are not accessible to the browser.
• The rules are not exposed to the browser at all so any sensitive information in the rule (e.g. a password) won’t leave the server. However, we do not recommend putting any sensitive information in a rule.
• Rules can use information like the currently authenticated subject user id, name, email etc. though technically it would be possible to make this available on the browser if required. However, providing this information in the browser is a potential security hole.
• Rules can also modify a control – in theory, this can cause large-scale changes to the form’s valid state. Think of an optional XML complex type that has a deeply nested data structure inside it with some required and some optional elements. If any element has a value, all the other required elements become required. It’s much easier and efficient to analyze the form on the server although, technically, this is also possible in the browser. It can be extremely slow for large forms, especially in IE or if someone is running on a slower machine.

These pros of excuting rules server-side mitigate the couple cons:

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There is a potential for performance bottlenecks. However, this is rare since rules are not compute intensive typically. We think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks here.

Dates and Times

There are several special considerations when writing rules using date, time and date/time controls. You can also find many working samples in the Rules Examples chapter.

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The validator also supports global directives. Use the global directive to identify additional global objects and functions defined in the execution environment and made available to the rule for which it is not appropriate to include a var statement in the rule code itself. One directive can be used to list all additional globals on a single line. Currently there are no known cases requiring the use of the global directive.  

Rule Editor Functions

The Rule Validator includes an enhanced editor designed to provide an easy experience when developing rules.The rule editor box includes the following features:  

Features	Description
Line Numbers	Line numbers in the rule code editor make it easier to correlate reported validation errors with the line of code.
Bracket auto close	Type a {, ( or [ and the closing bracket is automatically inserted.
Match Bracket	Place the cursor on a bracket and both it and the matching bracket are shown in a matching distinctive color (green).
Syntax Hi-lighting	JavaScript syntax hi-lighting with keywords, variables, comments, etc. shown in distinctive colors.
Auto Indent	New lines are auto-indented according to generally accepted code formatting rules.
Code Folding	Bracketed code blocks (functions, if-then-else blocks, etc.) are collapsible. Click the arrow immediately to the right of the line numbers to collapse/expand code blocks.
Full screen edit mode	Expand the editor to full screen mode if you need more space to work. Click the "double arrow" expand icon (directly above the editor box) or press F2 when your cursor is inside the Rule box to expand to full screen. The ESC key returns you to small window mode.
Auto Complete/Hinting	When composing a rule, the designer can pick from a list of available controls and their properties directly within the rule editor. The pick list is context sensitive and will behave differently based on where the cursor is located when it is invoked. When on a blank space or immediately following an open bracket/brace, it can be manually invoked using Ctrl-Space to bring up a list of controls. Typing a dot (.) immediately after a  control name or after the index ("[i]") that follows a control name will automatically bring up a context sensitive pick list of properties applicable to that control for selection. You can type the first letter of the item you are looking for and the property starting with that character will be highlighted in the list. Continue typing and the matching options will progressively narrow to the characters typed. Double click your choice using the mouse or press the Enter key to select an item. Any other key dismisses the pick list. . See the example below.
Help	The help icon displays a small help window listing the hot keys described above - (F2, ESC and Ctrl-Space)

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Security Subject Information from LDAP

LDAP supports both the standard subject attributes and custom attributes. When a user is successfully authenticated by the LDAP security manager, Live Forms automatically retrieves Last Name, First Name and Email Address for this user from the LDAP server. You can retrieve custom attributes in addition to the standard ones from Active Directory and pull the data into your form/flow using  business rules. 

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Attributes with more than one value are also supported. For example, The carLicense attribute can return multiple licenses. You can write a rule to populate dropdown options with those values. Make sure the carLicense attribute is added to the custom field on the LDAP Configuration screen and of course, there are multiple carLicense attributes, each one containing a different value for the dropdown options, set up for appropriate users on the LDAP server.

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Execute a Rule on a Specified Workflow Step.

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Click the View All button to display all the rules in your form/flow. Then use a browser search (Ctrl+F) to highlight all the places in your rules where a particular search item is mentioned. For example, if you were looking for all the rules that set the required property for a section, search for  'SectionName.required' (replace SectionName with the name of your section ) . This view might be helpful when correcting errors reported by the Rules Editor.

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