XFA Specification
Preface
Conventions
xi
If the node has a
value
property and the value is of interest, it is shown as:
[node-type (name) = "node-value"]
where
node-value
represents the value of the
value
property.
If properties other than
name
and
value
are of interest, they are expressed in the following form:
[node-type (name)
property-name="property-value"…]
where
property-name
represents the name of any one of the node's properties, and
property-value
represents the value of the corresponding property.
Indenting is used to show descent of one node from another, representing containment of the object
represented by the child node within the object represented by the parent node. For example, the
following shows the representation within a DOM of a subform named
Cover
enclosing a field named
FaxNo
. The field has interesting properties
value
,
w
, and
h
.
[subform (Cover)]
[field (FaxNo) = "555-1212" w="1.5in" h="0.17in"]
“Tree Notation” on page 120
Optional Terms
Within syntax definitions square brackets surround optional terms. Nesting of square brackets represents
a term (inside the inner brackets) that is allowed only if another term (inside the outer brackets) is present.
For example, consider the following:
HH[:MM[:SS[.FFF]]][z]
This syntax definition states that the
HH
term is mandatory. The
:MM
term is optional and does not require
the presence of any other term. The
:SS
term is optional but may only be included if the
:MM
term is
included. Similarly the
.FFF
term is optional but may only be included if the
:SS
term is included. Finally,
the
z
term is optional and does not require the presence of any other term.
The meaning of the individual terms varies from context to context and is explained in the text where the
syntax definition appears.
Caution:
Square brackets only have this meaning in syntax definitions. When they appear inside a
scripting example or an XFA-SOM expression they represent literal square-bracket characters in
the script or XFA-SOM expression.
Other types of brackets or braces including “(“ and “)”, “{“ and “}”, always represent literally the character
which they depict.