Defining editable areas in custom controls

Define the editable areas that you want to include in the custom control. Editable areas are regions that users can modify when the custom control is placed on an XPage. All other regions that fall outside of editable areas are read-only and cannot be modified.

Before you begin

You can insert editable areas into custom controls just like you would insert any other user interface (UI) control, either using the Create menu or by dragging the editable area control from the Controls palette.

Editable areas, also known as callback controls, have unique facet names. The facet name is what determines how UI controls get displayed in the editable area at run time. Facet names can be static or computed. If the facet name is static, you can add only one UI control to the editable area. If you want to add more than one UI control, you can add a container control such as a table and add UI controls to it. If the facet name is computed, you can determine which UI control is displayed dynamically.

About this task

To define an editable area, do the following steps:

Procedure

  1. Open the custom control design element in the XPages editor and place your cursor in the location where you want to insert the editable area.
  2. From the main menu, click Create > Core Control > Editable Area. A rectangular block with the default facet name is displayed to represent the new editable area.
  3. Click File > Save to save your changes.

Results

Unlike read-only areas in custom controls, editable areas require you to add UI controls and set properties for them after you add the custom control to an XPage.

What to do next

Note: You can also insert an editable area by dragging it from the Controls palette.