XFA Specification
Chapter 16, Config Specification
Config Element Reference
697
The record element
This option controls the division of the document into records.
<record
Properties:
desc="cdata"
>
...pcdata...
</record>
The record element is used within the following other elements:
data
Records are processed sequentially, almost as separate documents. For example, in a form-printing
application, the cycle of operations for each record is:
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preprocess the record via an XSLT interpreter
load the preprocessed record into the XML Data DOM
load the record data from the XML Data DOM into the XFA Data DOM
merge the record data with the template
lay out the merged template and record data upon the page
render the layed-out template and record data into printer language
send the rendering to the printer
A consequence of this cyclical processing is that a new merge operation and a new layout operation are
performed for each new record. Because of this, the resulting printed document starts each record at the
top of a new page, even though nothing in the template specifies that this should happen.
Data that is outside any record is still available via SOM expression in scripts and in data references
(dataRef elements). See
Basic Data Handling
XFA Template
Specification
This option affects processing during every phase.
For more information about this element see
Extended Mapping Rules.
Content
The value of
record
determines the granularity at which the document is divided into records. The value
can be empty or a non-negative decimal integer or a tag name.
If the
record
element is absent or empty the entire document is treated as a single record.
If the value of
record
is an integer, it specifies the level in the tree at which the XFA application treats
each node as the root of a record.
0
represents the root of the whole XML Data DOM. For example, if the
value is
2
, each element which is two levels in from the outermost element is considered as enclosing a
record. Content that is at a higher level is considered as outside any record.
If the value of
record
is not an integer, it is interpreted as a tag name. The first element in the XML data
document with a tag matching the value of
record
determines the level of a record within the tree. The