Introduction to "merge fields"
AppScan® merge fields fall into two categories:
- Repeaters (or loops): These consist of a Start and an End tag. They
do not produce any data themselves, but they "loop through" any plain fields placed between
the Start and End tags, and draw the relevant data for these groups.
Example: <<AS:IssueTypeRepeaterStart>> <<AS:IssueTypeRepeaterEnd>>
This repeater loops through all IssueTypes in the scan results.
- Plain fields: These consist of a single field, and they produce the
actual data. (Plain fields do not necessarily have to be placed within a repeater, but they
cannot have other plain fields as "children.")
Example: <<AS:IssueTypeName>>
This field represents the names of all issues found in the scan.
When you insert a plain field between the Start and End tags of an appropriate loop, a report can be created. Using the two examples above, we can create a report of all the IssueTypes found by the scan:
<<AS:IssueTypeRepeaterStart>>
<<AS:IssueTypeName>>
<<AS:IssueTypeRepeaterEnd>>
To better understand how this works in practice, see the Custom template tutorial
following.
Note: A complete list of valid merge fields can be opened by
clicking Tools > Report > Template Based > Field Reference.