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 HATS rich client applications, the user overrides global variables using the Properties item on the pop-up menu of the Applications view. For more information, see Variables.

Connection parameter and global variable overrides

For HATS 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 <HATS: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?hatsgv_UserID=bob

To control which HATS 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 applications migrated from HATS V4 is to allow all global variables to be overridden by client requests. You can change that here after importing the application. The default for new HATS V5, or later, applications is to disallow any global variables to be overridden by client requests.