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Text Label

This article applies to versions 4.5.3 and later of P2 Explorer. For more, see Release History.

Overview

The Text Label displays text on a page.

The diagram below shows a configured text label on a grid, in Studio mode. The text label here has been styled, and includes variable data.

Content: The text displayed in the label. Any added data is enclosed in curly brackets {} with any formatting applied.
Add Data: You can add data to the content. The selected data (fixed or variable) forms part of the content text.
Style: Select one of the available styles from the drop-down list, or keep the default style. If you are a Style Administrator, you can add a new Text Label style.

Related: The Text Label in display mode, Adding a Text Label style

 

Interaction with other Controls

The Text Label interacts with other controls on the page if it is configured to use variable data from other controls.

Watch the video below to see how the Text Label changes every time the page default endTime updates.

The page default variable endTime is embedded as data in the Text Label's Content. The endTime variable is refreshed every second by a Current Date/Time Toggle component, until this is switched off.

 

Tutorial: Adding a Text Label with Data

If you're unfamiliar with the process of building pages, read the article Building an Explorer Page.

In this tutorial, we'll add a Text Label component, and add the page default value of endTime. We'll configure the endTime to use the Full Date format

Note: Before you start the tutorial, prepare a page in Studio.

Step 1. Add a Text Label to the Page

Drag and drop a Text Label component onto a grid cell. The Text Label is in the Display Display group icon group.

Step 2. Configure the Text Label

In this example we will add Value data to the Text Label, by selecting the Values data category.

Click the Text Label component to configure it:

  1. Add Content: Content is a combination of text and formatted data. To add text, type it into the edit box. To add data, click Add Data. See the next section for details on adding content.
   
  2. Select a Style: In the Selected Option drop-down list, select Normal Centered.
   

Adding Content

Content is a combination of text and formatted data. To add text, type it into the edit box. To add data, click Add Data.

1. Add Content: In the Content edit box, type The current date is:
2. Add Data: Click Add Data to add data to the content text.
A data panel appears below the Content edit box.
3. Select a data type: In the Type drop-down list, select Datetime.
  We're going to select the page default value for endTime.
4. Select the endTime variable: Follow the instructions in Using Value Data to add the endTime variable.
  Note: For instructions on adding different categories of data (such as Tag or Attribute data), see the section: Options for a Text Label's Data.
5. Format the Datetime: The various types are require text formatting, so that they can form part of the Text Label's Content. In the Format drop-down list, select Full Date.
  Note: For more about formatting the various data types, see the section: Options for Formatting a Text Label's Data.
6. Click Add: This adds the formatted data to the Content.
For numerical data (not shown here), choose a Separator using the check box.

In preview mode, the Text Label shows the content, including the changing endDate date.

Options for a Text Label's Data

There are up to five separate data categories that you can choose from, when adding data to a Text Label, depending on the data's Type.

Here is the full reference of data categories you can choose from (including the dataset category already covered in the Tutorial).

Note: You can tab through the different data categories, to configure them. The one that is selected when you add the data remains the configured option. Any other configurations will be lost.

Select a Data Category  

Dataset Add dataset (relational) data to your Text Label's Content. See how: Using Dataset Data

Attribute Add attribute data to your Text Label's Content. See how: Using Attribute Data

Ad-hoc Calculation Add ad-hoc calculation data (using tags, calculations and/or attributes) to your Text Label's Content. See how: Using Ad hoc Calculation Data

Tag Add tag data to your Text Label's Content. See how: Using Tag Data

Value Add value data to your Text Label's Content. See how: Using Value Data

  

 

Options for Formatting a Text Label's Data

When you add data to a text label, you can choose from various formats.

The available options relate to the data's Type:

  • List Formats
  • Number Formats
  • Entity Formats
  • EntityList Formats
  • Datetime Formats

Text data does not require formatting; nor does the Yes/No type, which just adds the text: 'true' or 'false'

Below are some examples of type formatting.

Datetime Formats

The Datetime type has several formats. Here are the different formats for the date Thur 19/10/2017 04:12:16 GMT.

Format Result
Full Date 19 October 2017 04:12
Date 19 October 2017
Short Date 19/10/2017
Time 4:12:16 am
Month October
Day 19th
Hour 4 am

Number Formats

The Number type has several formats. Here are some of the results you'll get when you format the number 10,932.5821. The number separator depends on the locale of the user’s browser.

Format Parameter (for example: Separator, Symbol) Result
Normal (Separator) selected 10,932.582
Currency (Symbol) $ $10,932.58
Scientific (Decimals) 2 1.09e+4
Decimals (Decimals) 4 10,932.5821

Entity and EntityList Formats

The only format here is Display Name.

List Formats

All lists are formatted as Comma Separated. For example, a list: 1, 2, 3 appears in the text label as 1, 2, 3.

Release History

  • Text Label 4.5.3 (this release)
    • If the text label's data contains tags or calculations that have a digital state set assigned, the matching digital state pair's Name is used instead of the Value if there is a match. No changes to the Text Label's configuration are required.

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