Text Area Control

Runtime Example

How to use the Text Area control

Create a View
Drag the Text Area control onto the canvas. The control can be found in the Input section of the Controls found in the View Designer, see the Properties section below
Configure the properties as required
Run the View

Considerations

The Text Area control is also available in the Form Designer
The Text Area is commonly associated with Memo type fields
Focus can be set to this control at runtime by using the Focus control method in the Rule Designer

Design Properties

The Text Area control is available in the Input section of the Controls found in the View Designer and Form Designer.

Properties	Description	Can be set in runtime using Rules
Name	A unique identifier for the selected control. This property is required	No
Text	The text to be displayed during runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Field	A read-only property displaying the field that is bound to the selected control	No
Data Type	A drop-down list containing the types of values that the selected control can accept	No
Watermark	The text to display when the control is not populated	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Tooltip	The value to be displayed when the cursor is hovered over the control during runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Rows	The number of rows the control should have (values between 1 and 1000)	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Width	Adjust the width of the control (any whole percentage up to 100%, number or pixel value up to 32767px)	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Tab Index	Used to define a sequence that users follow when they use the Tab key to navigate through a page at runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Visible	A Boolean value used to establish whether the control is visible during runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Enabled	A Boolean value used to establish whether the control is enabled during runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Read-Only	A Boolean value used to establish whether the control is read-only during runtime	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Expression	Opens the Expression Builder to configure expressions to populate the control with dynamically calculated values	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Styles	Opens the Style Builder enabling the user to specify style features like Format, Font, Borders, Padding and Margins. See the Style Builder topic for more information on styling options	No
Conditional Styles	Opens the Conditional Formatting Designer used to design styles that will apply only when certain conditions are met. See the Conditional Styles section for more information	No
Max Length	The maximum number of characters to accept (values between 0 and 1000)	Yes, see Control Properties Actions for more information
Pattern	Set up a validation pattern that can be used to evaluate the value of the selected control	No
Message	Specify the message to be displayed if the content of the control does not adhere to the specified Validation Pattern	No

Pattern

Patterns are regular expressions used to enforce validation on a certain control when data is captured. For the Text Area control, there are several validation types as shown below. Additional validation patterns can be configured and the validation error message can be customized. Creating a Pattern for “percentage” for example, would enforce validation on the selected control, which will fail if the user did not enter the value as “[Value][%]”.
When clicking on the ellipsis next to Pattern, the Validation Patterns screen opens:

Actions	Description
Add Pattern	Adds a new Validation Pattern
Edit Pattern	Edits an existing Validation Pattern
Remove Pattern	Removes a Validation Pattern

Click Add Pattern to add a new pattern. The Add New Validation Pattern screen opens

Fields	Description
Name	The name of the Validation Pattern
Example	An example of the Validation Pattern such as abc for a Characters Only Validation Pattern
Pattern	The regular expression for the Validation Pattern
Message	The message to be displayed if the input data does not match the regular expression

Please note that when using a validation Pattern on a control, a Rule should be added that will execute the "The Form passes validation" Rule Condition in order to execute the Pattern. The Condition needs to be configured in order to specify the controls on which validation will be executed. The validation will only be executed at runtime when this Rule is called. See the Using a Validation Pattern and Rule Condition example.

Set Time Zone

The Display Time Zone property can be configured by using the set control properties actions allowing the designer to force a particular time zone to be used when displaying the control's value. This property can be used with the Calendar, Data Label, Text Box and Text Area controls and is configured in the Set Control properties rule actions. This property is useful if the datetime should display the same regardless of the end user location/time zone. Examples of where this feature would be beneficial are:

A good example is birthdays or;
When you have a time zone setting somewhere else you have to match for example the manner which SharePoint has time zones set per site collection and per user.
Another example is when referring to a time in a particular time zone. When the user interface would state the time zone and the date time. A good example would be a world clock showing times in New York, London etc.
Final example is when scheduling a meeting you can select a date/time based on your browser time zone but also show another control indicating the time in another region for the participants.