What is a Static List

A Static List is a list of values that can be displayed in a dropdown list or as radio buttons. An important feature of Static Lists is that the values displayed to the user are language-dependent, i.e. they change based on the runtime language. A Static List is linked to a field or table column using the field’s list properties and the field/column can then be added to a page.

Static Lists are designed to be used for lists that don’t change very often. Examples might include:

Title:	values - Mr, Mrs, Miss, Dr, Other etc
Sex:	values - Male, Female
CarType:	values - Sedan, Estate, Convertible, SUV etc

Each entry in a Static List contains:

A Display text which is the text displayed to the user and will vary depending on the language.
A Return value which is the value held internally by the system. When the user selects a value from the list, this return value is assigned to the field or table column with which the field is associated. This value is independent of the language of the display text e.g. the list Sex might have an entry with English display text of Male and return value M; a German display text of Mann is also configured which also returns M when selected. In this way any script which checks or sets the field/column value is language independent.

Creating and maintaining a Static List

A Static List is created and maintained using the Static List editor within the Ebase Xi Designer. A new list is created by right clicking in the designer tree and selecting New > Static List.

The editor panel works in two modes depending on which tab is selected:

Edit texts in a single language
Translate texts into other languages

Edit texts in a single language

The language dropdown can be used to set the required language. You can then edit the list entries by typing in the tabular display or by clicking the … button to the right of each text. New list entries can be added by using the keyboard up/down keys or by clicking on the icon. The list is displayed to the user in the order shown and list entries can be moved up or down using the keys

Translate texts into other languages

This panel displays the list entry display texts for two languages side by side. Select the from and to languages using the dropdowns. The size of the text entry boxes can be adjusted by dragging the separator lines.

Translation can also be done externally – click here for more details.