Flags and "Yes"/"No" or "True"/"False" attributes in VTML

Attributes that can take on one of two values can be considered "binary". Generally, the possible values are "Yes"/"No" or "True"/"False".

The following subjects are covered in this document:


Related information about VTML and WIZML:

Tutorial
The Visual Tool Markup Language (VTML)
Reference
VTML reference - overview

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Overview of of binary attributes

Several VTML tags take attributes that designate an on/off property: the property is either present, or it isn't. For instance, a CONTROL of type CheckBox can have a CHECKED attribute.

To turn the property on, you can specify the attribute with a value of "Yes" (or "True"); to turn if off, you specify it with a value of "No" (or "False"). Most of these on/off properties have a default of off, however; in this case the attribute can also be treated as a flag: if present, it turns the property on, if absent, the property has its default value of off.

Generally "Yes" and "True" are equivalent as are "No" and "False".

In the documentation as originally supplied, some of these attributes are indeed defined as flags (but "Yes"/"No" values will work), while others are defined as attributes that take a "Yes"/"No" value, but work when used as flags because their default is "No".

In this documentation all those attributes that can  take a "Yes"/"No" value but for which "No" is the default and testing has determined that specifying it as a flag will indeed work, have been designated as flags. The table below gives an overview of the tags that have such attributes, and which of them work as a flag; new elements in VTML 2 have a graphical marker. The VTML tag editors do indeed write these attributes as flags: this increases readability, and makes the code tighter.

Note:  Although Tag Editors will correctly treat a flag that is written with a "Yes" or "No" value when edited with a checkbox, Tag Inspector currently has a problem with this: it sees the mere presence of the attribute as the "on" state and ignores the value. For now, edit such pre-existing tags with a Tag Editor: when written back, the attribute will be written as a flag (with no attribute value). After that, Tag Inspector can handle them as well.

Tag TYPE= Flag "Yes"/"No"
"Yes" is default
"True"/"False"
"False" is default
Remarks
TAG   BODYEDITING     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
CONTAINER TabDialog MULTILINE      
CONTROL Image

(TextBox)
(Label)
AUTOSIZE     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"

Image: if omitted the image size is not the real size
Overruled if WIDTH/HEIGHT present

TextBox: obsolete (autosize has no effect)
Label: obsolete (autosize is always in operation)
CONTROL Label
Image
  TRANSPARENT    
CONTROL Image CENTER     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
Effective only if WIDTH/HEIGHT present
CONTROL TextBox   EDITABLE   See DropDown!
CONTROL TextBox AUTOSELECT     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
CONTROL DropDown EDITABLE     See TextBox!
CONTROL ListBoxVTML 2 MULTISELECT      
CONTROL CheckBox CHECKED     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
CONTROL TextArea
SQLTextArea
StyleTextArea
VTML 2
WRAP     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
CONTROL StyleTextAreaVTML 2   INLINESTYLEVTML 3   Controls Style Editor behavior
CONTROL FileBrowser FILENAMEONLY     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
Overrules RELATIVE
Overruled by DIRONLY
CONTROL FileBrowser RELATIVE     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
Overruled by FILENAMEONLY (but see DIRONLY!)
CONTROL FileBrowser DIRONLY     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"
Overrules all file-related attributes
ITEM   SELECTED      
TAGLAYOUT     TRIMWHITESPACEVTML 3   Controls suppression of explicitly defined whitespace at the border between TAGLAYOUT sections
CAT   EXPANDED     Originally defined as "Yes"/"No"

HomeSite: Category with caption: "HTML Tags" will always be expanded on startup even if this flag is absent; this default expansion can simply be avoided by changing the caption.

ColdFusion Studio: Category with caption: "CFML Tags" will always be expanded on startup even if this flag is absent; this default expansion can simply be avoided by changing the caption.
CAT     SHOWSUBELEMENTS    
PARAMVTML 2
(for WIZARD tag)
      REQUIRED Value can be set with a dynamic expression, so strictly speaking this is not a flag.
INPUTVTML 2
(in Wizard VTML)
      REQUIRED Value can be set with a dynamic expression, so strictly speaking this is not a flag.

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