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parm Element

  • Article

4/8/2010

This element represents a specific setting under the parent characteristic. It is used to move configuration data around the device and contains metadata describing how that data is to be viewed and edited by the configuration service provider.

Many of this element's attributes are only returned in a response document.

Attributes

  • name
    Corresponds to the parm name being set. If a label attribute is not set, then the value of the name attribute is used for the label when displayed in the User Interface (UI).

  • value
    Describes the value of the parm being set.

    Multiple values returned in a response document from the Metabase configuration service provider delimited with Unicode character U+F000. The value of multiple is set to 1. The character U+F001 is used as the equal sign. In all other situations where multiple-value strings are specified (in request or response documents) they should be specified using the character 0xF000 to separate each string and terminate the list with two 0xF000's. For example: <parm name="parm1" value="one&#xF000;Two&#xF000;&xF000;"/> where &#xF000; is the proper notation for escaping the character 0xF000 in XML.

  • datatype
    Corresponds to the effective data type of the parm. This attribute should not be used for bounds checking; therefore, the allowable values do not correspond to any specific primitive types. This field is designed only to aid in the parsing and validation of data.

    This attribute is only valid for requests processed by the Registry configuration service provider. In all other cases this attribute is only returned in the response document. For more information see Registry Configuration Service Provider.

    The following list shows the allowed data types:

    • integer
    • string
    • float
    • boolean
    • binary
    • multiplestring

  • semantic-type
    Allows the UI to provide a specialized control to better match the actual semantic type of the setting. The value of this attribute is not confined to a specific list.

    The semantic-type attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in the request document.

    The following list shows values used by the UI control:

    • e-mail
    • alphanumeric-password
    • numeric-password
    • currency
    • URL
    • file
    • text
    • phone-number
    • label
    • invisible

  • maxvalue
    The maxvalue attribute for numeric data represents the highest allowable value for this parm.

    The maxvalueattribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in the request document.

  • minvalue
    The minvalue attribute for numeric data represents the lowest allowable value for this parm.

    The minvalue attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • maxlength
    The maxlength attribute represents the maximum number of characters that the value of this parm can have.

    The maxlength is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • options
    If the user is to be able to select from a set of options (as in a spin box), those options are specified in the options attribute as a Unicode character U+F000 delimited list. Character U+F001 is used as the equal sign. The options are displayed in the order that they appear in this list.

    The options attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • multiple
    The multiple attribute specifies whether the user is allowed to select multiple options or multiple values for one setting. The value for this attribute can be 1 or 0. The value 1 indicates that the user is allowed to select multiple options. The value 0 indicates that the user is not allowed to select multiple options. If options are not specified or the control specified does not allow multiple selections, this option is ignored. If there are multiple values in the value attribute, that attribute is also set to 1.

    The multiple attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • label
    The control for this parm in the UI will be labeled with the value of the label field.

    The label attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • nooverwrite
    The value of the nooverwrite attribute could be 1 or 0. The default is 0. If the attribute is not present or the value is 0, then the affected parm value (if it already exists) will be overwritten unconditionally. If the value is 1, this parm cannot be overwritten with the new value if it already exists.

    The nooverwrite attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • rw-access
    The rw-access field defines the read and write permissions for a setting. The value could be 1, 2, or 3. If the value is 1, this parm is a read-only setting. If the value is 2, the setting is write-only. If the value is 3 (default), this setting could be read and written.

    The rw-access attribute is only returned in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document.

  • access-role
    The access-role attribute only exists in the response document. It cannot be used in a request document. It defines security roles that can access this setting. More than one role can be assigned to a particular setting. For a complete list of security roles that are supported, see Security Roles.
  • translation
    The translation attribute designates whether certain strings provided in the value attribute need to be translated to other formats or strings. Depending on the value of the translation attribute, only certain strings or formats may be changed. If the translation attribute does not exist (default), no translation is required. The value "install" is used by application installation management to translate Windows Embedded CE strings and the %InstallDir% variable. **

Remarks

This element is used to specify a setting under the parent characteristic. You can use this element to move configuration data around the device.

Configuration service providers view parm elements, in addition to characteristic elements, as instructions to update device settings.

See Also

Reference

MSPROV DTD Elements
Metabase Configuration Service Provider

Concepts

Configuration Service Providers