Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:28:44 GMT

I guess it depends on your use case. I haven't experimented with it all that much yet but I haven't had the need to keep the input totally blank in spite of background HTML tags.

[quote userid="293911" url="~/discussions/f/user-interface/38278/handling-tab-characters-in-appian-text-fields/144167"]IMHO too much unnecessary verbosity[/quote]

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Stefan Helzle — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:38:44 GMT

To ignore any HTML formatting in validations, you can use the striphtml() function.

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Silas. B. Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:29:28 GMT

saveInto: {
  a!save(
    local!requisicao['recordType!MyRecord.field,
    substitute(
      substitute(trim(save!value), char(9), ""),
      "<p></p>",
      ""
    )
  )
},

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Silas. B. Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:21:57 GMT

no problem. By the way, the styledTextEditorField component inserts an empty <p></p> and then it doesn't consider it as empty or null for validation porpoises, any insights on this?

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:18:23 GMT

ah yes, char(9) was what i was thinking of above, sorry - yeah you will probably be good to go with substitute(save!value, char(9), " ") (since you said you wanted a blank space).

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Silas. B. Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:14:55 GMT

trim() doesn't work when the character is a tab char(9)

saveInto: {
    a!save(
    local!requisicao['value'],
    substitute(trim(save!value), char(9), "")
    
    )
},

I think we got the answer here, thank you all.

However, it needs some adjustments when it's a styledTextEditorField

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Stefan Helzle — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:58:40 GMT

be aware that the validation does not evaluate the value displayed to the user, but the value stored in your variable or rule input. So you will have to use a!save() to modify the saved value. Use the stripwith() function to remove any characters you want.

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:57:38 GMT

In your saveInto, you should be able to strip out tabs and probably replace them with spaces. trim() *might* do this but i'd have to check, but otherwise, you could always do it manually - the tab character is (iirc) char(12).

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Silas. B. Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:47:53 GMT

textField(
    value: trim(recordType!Test.field)
)

This was the only validation I did, it works for spaces but it doesn't for tab character.

I didn't see any reference for empty spaces on the link you sent above

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Stefan Helzle — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:42:27 GMT

Can you share the code of that validation?

Be aware that whether a TAB is considered empty or not, very much depends on the specific use case. So a general solution is not possible. But you can easily add your own save logic that removes any entered white space.

https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/24.4/fnc_evaluation_save.html

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Silas. B. Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:37:57 GMT

In the "Objet" field, I performed the test mentioned above using the tab key, and it did not validate as empty as expected.

RE: Handling Tab Characters in Appian Text Fields

Stefan Helzle — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:31:48 GMT

Can you somehow visualize this? Some Screenshots?