Global variable overrides

You can use this feature to pass data from the user into the application. For example, you can allow the user to supply a user ID and password, and use them to run a macro.

For ZIETrans Web applications, to override a local global variable, you add an HTML parameter hatsgv_varName=newValue to the client's HTTP request. To override a shared global variable, the parameter name is hatssharedgv_varName.

To allow the user to create and set the value of a shared global variable named UserID, you can supply an input field by adding the following statement to the body of the <ZIETrans:Form> tag of a transformation JSP:

<INPUT name="hatssharedgv_UserID" type="TEXT" size="10">

Any value supplied by the user becomes the new value of the shared variable UserID. If you create the value by JavaScript™, instead, and do not want the user to be able to enter the new value, you can use a hidden input field and supply the value yourself:

<INPUT name="hatssharedgv_UserID" size="10" type="HIDDEN" value="alice">

To create a new global variable or change the global variable's value in the URL, something like the following URL can be used in a GET request:

http://hostname/appname/entry?teagv_UserID=bob

To control which ZIETrans global variables, if any, can be created or changed by a user's client request, click one of the following radio buttons:

Allow all global variables to be overridden by client requests: This button allows you to override all global variables except for any listed and selected in the table.

Do not allow any global variables to be overridden by client requests: If you click this button, you will not be able to override any global variables except for those listed and selected in the table.

You can add a global variable exception by clicking the Add button. There you can either type a global variable name in the text box or select it from the drop-down list. Select the Shared global variable check box to indicate a global variable that can be shared. For more information, see Interacting with global variables.

If you want to edit a table entry, click Edit. The Remove button will delete the highlighted global variable from the list of exceptions.

Note: The default for new ZIETrans applications is to disallow any global variables to be overridden by client requests.