Defining and assigning variables
About this task
- User-defined variables: User-defined variables are defined by
the template designer. A user-defined variable can be internal or
external.
- Internal user-defined variables: Specify a variable as internal to perform calculations or to temporarily store information, such as a variable that is used to bring data into the master pages. Internal variables are not displayed in the document specification; therefore, you cannot provide them with values.
- External user-defined variables: Specify a variable as external when you provide it with a value. External variables are displayed in the document specification. See Creating a document specification.
- Rational® Publishing Engine variables: Rational Publishing Engine variables
are internal variables available for use in the document template.
Table 1. Rational Publishing Engine internal variables Variable Description _cell_number The cell number in a current row. If the element is not a cell, the value is 0. You can use _cell_number from either the Data expression or the Script expression tab. _element_id The element number within the template. Kept internally in the template and used for debugging. You can use _element_id from either the Data expression or the Script expression tab. _element_level The recursive level of an element. If there is not a value set for the element in the Recursive Level property in the Data tab, the value is 1. You can use _element_level from either the Data expression or the Script expression tab. _row_number The row number in a current table. If the element is not contained by a row element, the value is 0. You can use _row_number from either the Data expression or the Script expression tab. _sessionInfo Run time property information from the template or document specification. In the Script expression tab, select the _sessionInfo variable and enter the script. Use empty quotation marks without a value inside to generate the default value for the property in the output. Script examples: _sessionInfo.getDocspecProperty("property", "");
_sessionInfo.getTemplateProperty("property", "");
_sessionInfo.getDatasourceProperty("data_source_name","property", "");
_sessionInfo.getOutputProperty("output_type","property", "");
_sessionInfo.docspecVersion
_sessionInfo.templateVersion
_sessionInfo.engineVersion
_sessionInfo.buildNumberFor the getDocspecProperty, you can use existing document specification properties or create custom metadata properties.
_sessionLogger For debugging purposes, you can display customized information, error, warning, or debugging messages in the TEMP\rpe\rpe.log file, Console view, or Problems view. The messages display in the location that is defined in the log4j.properties file. The default setting is to display information messages in the Console view, but not in the rpe.log file.
In the Script expression tab, select the _sessionLogger variable and enter the script. You can generate log entries with one of the following methods:- _sessionLogger.debug(message)
- _sessionLogger.info(message)
- _sessionLogger.error(message)
- _sessionLogger.warn(message)
When deciding what to enter as the message in your script, consider using a visual callout, like your initials or user name, and using variables from your template to make meaningful messages.
_sessionUtils In the Script expression tab, you can use this variable to run a function on the script called tidyXHTML. This variable is useful when you notice blocks of white space in the output that is created by improper XHTML coding. With the _sessionUtils variable, a string argument is processed and the XHTML is cleaned up so that the extra white space does not display in the output. Example: _sessionUtils.tidyXHTML(text);
When you use the _sessionUtils variable, also select the XHTML Input and XHTML Output options in the Script expression tab.Note: Templates that include this variable can be loaded into older versions of Rational Publishing Engine, but the scripts cannot be evaluated correctly.
Procedure
Results
When you assign a variable to an element,
the element displays an
icon in the template content
editor.

What to do next
You can search for a list of variable assignments, attributes, and queries used in an element by right-clicking an element and selecting . The Search view opens and a list displays. You can double-click an item in the results to edit it.

