Setting properties for custom controls as independent design elements

Set properties for the custom control as an independent design element. Properties include options for configuring data sources, applying styles, specifying validation and visibility settings, and more.

The following table provides an overview of the properties that you can set for custom controls. These are properties that you set before you insert the custom control into pages.
Table 1. Property categories and descriptions
Property Category Description
Custom Control Contains options for setting general properties, for example, adding the custom control to the Controls palette.
Data Contains options for configuring data sources.
Style Contains options to help you create your own custom control styles with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and associated classes. If you set custom format properties using the Font, Background, and Margins tabs, a message displays at the top of the Style page in the Properties view informing you that custom formatting has been added. You can create a new style sheet with any custom formatting.
Font Contains options for setting properties related to font, such as size, color, and style.
Background Contains options for setting background and border properties.
Margins Contains options for setting margins.
Resources Shows any style sheets and script libraries that you have added to an XPage. Also contains options for adding new style sheets and script libraries. You can create formulas to compute which style sheets and script libraries to use at run time based on events.
Navigation Contains options for specifying pages to navigate to when an event occurs.
Property Definition Contains options for defining new custom properties, organizing properties in a tree view, and specifying validation and visibility settings.
Design Definition Lets you specify how the custom control should be rendered in Design mode in Domino Designer. Developers can use their own custom XSP markup in the editor box provided by the property tab. As an example, say you want the rendering of the custom control to look a lot like the actual markup of the custom control. You can just copy and paste the source of the custom control in here and then modify it as needed. The text entered must be valid XSP markup.
All Properties Contains a complete list of all the available properties for the custom control, including some that are not available anywhere else in the Properties view. Properties are listed as XML attributes. You can set values for the properties in the right column and write formulas to compute values dynamically at run time.
Note: The All Properties tab is for advanced users who are familiar with XML and want to work directly with source code.