TIMER

With a timer, you can regularly trigger a defined event sent by the client. For example, you can use a timer to regularly update information to be displayed inside your page.

The timer tag is accessible as a valid subnode inside the page tag.

Specify either the interval or the intervalprop property in order to set the interval. In case of using a property for dynamically setting the interval, note the following:

  • You can change the interval time at any time.

  • You can stop the timer by setting the interval time to 0.

The following topics are covered below:


Example

The following screen displays a time stamp of the server. It is refreshed depending on the interval field. Increase/decrease the interval time by choosing the corresponding buttons.

graphics/image205.png

The XML layout definition is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<natpage natsinglebyte="true" xmlns:njx="http://www.softwareag.com/njx/njxMapConverter">
    <titlebar name="Demo Timer">
    </titlebar>
    <header withdistance="false">
        <button name="~~Increment" method="incrementTimer">
        </button>
        <button name="~~Decrement" method="decrementTimer">
        </button>
        <button name="~~Stop" method="stopTimer">
        </button>
    </header>
    <pagebody>
        <rowarea name="Time">
            <itr>
                <label name="Interval (ms)" width="100" asplaintext="true">
                </label>
                <field valueprop="interval" length="5" displayonly="true" datatype="int">
                </field>
            </itr>
            <itr>
                <label name="Server time" width="100" asplaintext="true">
                </label>
                <field valueprop="serverTime" length="50" displayonly="true">
                </field>
            </itr>
        </rowarea>
    </pagebody>
    <statusbar withdistance="false">
    </statusbar>
    <timer intervalprop="interval">
    </timer>
</natpage>

In this example, the timer tag does not send a defined event but refreshes the screen. The timer interval is retrieved by the property interval of the adapter object.

Properties

Basic
interval

Duration in milliseconds the timer waits between calling the adapter method defined in the METHOD property.

Use this property to "hard code" the duration - or use INTERVALPROP to define the duration by an adapter property.

Sometimes obligatory  
intervalprop

Name of the adapter parameter that defines the timer interval duration. If 0 is passed then the timer is stopped.

Sometimes obligatory  
method

Name of the event that is sent to the adapter by the timer.

Obligatory  
comment

Comment without any effect on rendering and behaviour. The comment is shown in the layout editor's tree view.

Optional