2022.2

Table Of Contents

UseanIDorclassasselector

Scripts(exceptControlScripts)startwithaquery.TheselectorinthesecondcolumnintheScripts

paneiswhatascriptlooksforinthetemplate.Theselectorcanbeatext,HTML/CSStags,oracom-

binationoftextandHTML/CSStags.

Lookingfortextinatemplateisalessoptimizedoperationandmayimpactoutputspeedsinlongerdoc-

uments.Tospeeduptheoutputprocess,itisrecommendedtouseanIDorclassasselectorinstead.

Thisnarrowsthescopeofthesearchandresultsinaveryfastquery,aselementswithanIDorclass

areindexedbyConnectDesigner'slayoutengine.

ForinformationabouthowtogiveanelementanIDorclass,see"IDandclass"onpage568.

Seealso:"Quick-startascriptforaspecificIDorclass"onpage811.

Targeting text

TextinitselfcannothaveanIDorclass,buttheelementthatcontainsitcan.Thesmallestpossiblecon-

taineroftextisaSpan.TolearnhowtoputtextinsideaSpan,see"Span"onpage625.GivetheSpan

anIDorclassandusethatasthescript'sselector.

Totargettextinabiggercontainer(aparagraph,forexample),changetheFindmethodofthescriptto

Selector and Text,usetheIDorclassofthecontainerelementasSelectorandtypethetextinthe

Textfield.

Tip: DraggingadatafielddirectlytotheScriptspanecreatesascriptwithaclassselector,

withoutaddingaplaceholdertothetemplate.

Tip: Whenyouusethedrag-and-dropmethod(withoutpressingtheALTkey)toinsertvariable

dataplaceholdersintoatemplate,thescript'sselectorisbydefaulttheclassoftheelement-a

SpanorDiv-inwhichtheplaceholderiswrapped.Formoreinformationsee:"Variabledatain

text:scriptsandplaceholders"onpage726.

AvoidDOMmanipulations

TheScriptingAPIoftheDesignerisaverypowerfultooltomanipulateandpersonalizeyourdocument.

ButkeepinmindthatDOMmanipulationcommandslikeappend(),prepend(),before()andafter()are

resourceintensive.

TryavoidingDOMmodifications,especiallywithinloops.Storingthecontentinavariableandappend-

ingtheinformationaftertheloopismoreefficient:thisway,thetemplatewillbetouchedonlyonce.

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