Control Reference

A control is an element that you add to a print template to present a particular piece of information. For example, the Map control presents the map from the user's current session, the Legend control presents the legend, and so on. Controls can be static or dynamic. A static control gets its value when you design the print template. A dynamic control gets its value when the print template runs. For example, Label controls that contain print inputs are dynamic controls.

The Control Reference documents each control offered by VertiGIS Studio Printing. A control's documentation may include the following sections:

Controls

VertiGIS Studio Printing has the following controls:

Properties Common to Most Controls

Actions

Actions

Align to Grid  Snaps the upper left corner of the control to the grid.

Size to Grid Resizes the control so all four corners are snapped to the grid.

Center Horizontally Centers the control within the width of the parent container.

Center Vertically Centers the control within the height of the parent container.

Bring to Front Positions the control in front of any overlapping controls.

Send to Back Positions the control behind any overlapping controls.

Fit Bounds to Container Resizes the control to occupy the entire parent container, excluding the borders.

    A container includes a band or a panel.

    This property is only enabled if the control is the only item in the container.

Styles

Even Style

Type: String

Sets the style used when the print map populates an even record from a bound dataset.

Setting an Even Style overrides configurations set in the Style property.

Odd Style

Type: String

Sets the style used when the print map populates an odd record from a bound dataset.

Setting an Odd Style overrides configurations set in the Style property.

Style

Type: String

Sets the style used.

Appearance

Background Color

Type: Color

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the print item's background color.

Border Color

Type: Color

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the print item's border color.

Border Dash Style

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the dash style for the print item's border.

Border Width

Type: Single

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the width of the border(s) in pixels, using a floating point value.

Borders

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Applies a set of borders (top, right, bottom, left) to a control.

Font

Type: Font

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Sets the print item's font. Properties in this group include:

  • Font Name: The font type applied to the text.
  • Size: Size of the font measured in the units specified in the Unit property.
  • Unit: The unit of measure for the font.
  • Font Effects: Applies Bold, Italic, Strikeout, and/or Underline styling.

Foreground Color

Type: Color

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the print item's foreground color.

Padding

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Defines the location of a print item's contents within the control by specifying the number of pixels by which the contents are spaced from each border.

 

Behavior

Can Publish

Type: Boolean

Specifies whether a control is displayed in the document created at runtime.

When checked, the control is shown in the document created at runtime. When unchecked, the control can only be seen in the design area.

Keep Together

Type: Boolean

Sets whether an item can be split horizontally across pages. When false, the print item will be split across pages if all its contents do not fit on one page. When true, the contents of the item will be printed, as a whole, on the next page.

Visible

Type: Boolean

Can be configured in the Expressions panel.

Sets whether the control is visible at run-time.

Data

Tag

Type: Object

Can be configured in the Expressions panel.

Stores data that is closely associated with the control.

Design

Name

Type: String

Name assigned to the control.

The name can contain letters, numbers, and the underscore character. It cannot contain spaces or special characters.

The value of the Name property can be used to identify the control in the report items list at the top of the Properties and Expressions panels.

Name property value in the report items list

A control's Name property is also used to identify the control in the Report Explorer panel.

Name property value in the Report Explorer

Layout

Location

Specifies where the top left corner of the control is in the band.

The origin (X=0, Y=0) is the upper left corner of the band.

Size

Specifies the height and width of the print item. Measured using the Measure Units specified at the print template level.

Navigation

Bookmark

Type: String

Can be configured in the Properties or Expressions panel.

Specifies the text to appear in a bookmark.

Parent Bookmark

Declares which control's bookmark will be used as the parent for the selected control's bookmark. The selected control's bookmark is set using the Bookmark property.

If this property is left empty, the selected control's bookmark will be shown as connected to the root bookmark in the document map.

Navigation URL

Type: String

Can be configured in the Expressions panel.

Specifies the URL that the web browser navigates to when the control is clicked.