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christopher2151
Level 2
May 25, 2018
Solved

How to access data elements in custom code

Is there a way to reference the data elements I have created inside a snippet of custom code in the code editor?

var bkprop4 = "%myDataElement%";

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    Stewart_Schilling
    Stewart_SchillingAccepted solution
    Community Advisor
    May 25, 2018

    You bet you can.

    var bkprop4 = _satellite.getVar("myDataElement");

    The % signs are just for use in the UI.  They can also be used in HTML tags - I'm pretty sure that they trigger replacement during the rendering process.

    You can also use _satellite.setVar("variableName", value) in your custom code, but only for new data elements.  You cannot change the value of a UI created data element using setVar.   I like to use a standard naming convention when I dynamically create data elements using _satellite.setVar.  This way I have no chance of conflicting with UI data elements.

    One more point.  I often will create a data element in a rule's custom code and then reference it from the UI in an action.  When doing this, you need to manually enter it in the UI field (using the %name% notation as normal).

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    5 replies

    Stewart_Schilling
    Community Advisor
    Stewart_SchillingCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
    Community Advisor
    May 25, 2018

    You bet you can.

    var bkprop4 = _satellite.getVar("myDataElement");

    The % signs are just for use in the UI.  They can also be used in HTML tags - I'm pretty sure that they trigger replacement during the rendering process.

    You can also use _satellite.setVar("variableName", value) in your custom code, but only for new data elements.  You cannot change the value of a UI created data element using setVar.   I like to use a standard naming convention when I dynamically create data elements using _satellite.setVar.  This way I have no chance of conflicting with UI data elements.

    One more point.  I often will create a data element in a rule's custom code and then reference it from the UI in an action.  When doing this, you need to manually enter it in the UI field (using the %name% notation as normal).

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      extwebd96701854
      Level 2
      April 16, 2020

      Hi Stew, Could you please show us how to reference a data element created in UI to the one we are created in the custom code.

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      Stewart_Schilling
      Community Advisor
      Stewart_SchillingCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      May 25, 2018

      One more thing that might blow your mind is that although the UI expects a data element to return a string, you can store anything in them (Objects, Functions, Arrays, Strings, Numbers, Booleans). 

      As an example:

      _satellite.setVar( "dynPersonObj", {firstName: "stew", lastName: "schilling", age: "old"} );

      _satellite.logger.log( "AGE is ", _satellite.getVar("dynPersonObj")[age] );

      Maybe that's more than you wanted to know...

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        christopher2151Author
        Level 2
        May 29, 2018

        stewarts16448458​ Thank you for the detailed response. Could you see an issue with creating a data element inside Launch that retrieves an JSON object from an Ajax call?

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        Stewart_Schilling
        Community Advisor
        Stewart_SchillingCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        May 29, 2018

        No issues at all (as long as you don't intend to use that data element in the Launch UI.

        On that note, I've been wanting to try the new Core Extension Event Type of (custom code) with an AJAX success handler.  This event type has the guidance, `The code you provide in the editor will be run as soon as the library is loaded. Inside your code, call trigger() whenever you would like the rule to fire.`

        It seems that you could put your AJAX event listener as custom code and when you catch the event (or events) that you care about, call trigger().  You can also put a JSON object as a parameter in the trigger call, i.e. `trigger({key1:value1, key2:value2})`

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