It can be useful to display messages periodically while running a component. This is a specially helpful when using loops to ensure that the loops are not endless loop, and/or are processing properly.

One way to display messages while running a component is by creating a Custom Script. Within the Custom Script create a custom display function. Our custom script function will be called 'display'. It displays a message to the console for a few seconds.  (We will write the script later in this article.) First we need to create two Project Variables. The first project variable called Display_Messages is used to turn the display message feature on/off. The second project variable called Display_Time is used to control the length of time to display the message. If a service or component is deployed to an application server with the 'Display Message' option enabled, the message will appear on the server console. Unlike the ECMAScript alert statement, however, no intervention is required to continue processing (as the message is displayed then destroyed after a set about of time as determined by Display_Time).

The 'display' function takes two parameters: The first parameter is a String that contains the text to display.  The second parameter is an integer containing the amount of time in seconds the user wants the text to display. Below is the code for the 'display' function, and an example of its usage. The code can be cut and pasted into an existing 'Custom Script'. Be sure to mark the function as public be saving it.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Display Function:                                                                    //

// Displays a message to the console for a few seconds (Java Frame)                     //

// Parameters:  asValue : a String which contains the text to display                   //

//                     aiTime :     an integer containing the time to display in seconds

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function display (asValue, aiTime)

{

            var myTime

            if ((aiTime * 150000)> 150000)

            {

                        myTime = aiTime * 150000

            }

            else

            {

                        myTime = 150000

            }

            Frame = java.awt.Frame;

            dlg = new Frame(asValue);

            dlg.setBounds(100, 200, 500, 0);

            dlg.show();

            // Dummy loop to hold message on screen for a short time

            for(i=0;i<myTime;++i)

            {

            }

            dlg.dispose();

            return asValue;

}

Usage: From within any action model, select 'add new action' / 'function', and in the dialog simply call the function with its parameters:

 Example:

The function call could combine static data with XPath like this:

CALL display("Processing contract #:" +

Output.Xpath("details/ctrct_no"),PROJECT.Xpath("USERCONFIG/Display_Time").toNumber())