SetVar element (View)

Article
06/29/2022

Applies to: SharePoint 2016 | SharePoint Foundation 2013 | SharePoint Online | SharePoint Server 2013

Allows variables to be set in the context of rendering the page—either locally to the current level of XML or globally to the page.

<SetVar
  ID = "Text"
  Name = "Text"
  Scope = "Request"
  Value = "Text">
</SetVar>

Elements and attributes

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute	Description
ID	Optional Text. Provides an ID for the variable.
Name	Required Text. Specifies a name for the variable.
Scope	If set to Request, the variable is global.
Value	Optional Text. Can be used to assign a value to the variable when this is an empty element.

Child elements

None

Parent elements

Numerous

Occurrences

Minimum: 0
Maximum: Unbounded

Remarks

The SetVar element has both a spanning and a non-spanning form, so that <SetVar Name="MyVar">Announcements</SetVar> would be the same as <SetVar Name="MyVar" Value="Announcements/>.

If Scope="Request" is specified in the SetVar element, a variable assignment takes effect anywhere in the current page. Otherwise, the assignment affects only children of the SetVar element.

The SetVar element is often a child to a Method element used in batch processing of requests.

The SetVar element is frequently used to change the display mode by setting DisplayMode to one of the following values.

Value	Description
DISPLAY	Used when rendering the ViewBody section of a view.
EDIT	Used when rendering an edit item form.
DISPLAYHEAD	Used when rendering the ViewHeader section of a view.
NEW	Used when rendering a new item form.
PREVIEWDISPLAY	Used when editing a display form with Microsoft FrontPage.
PREVIEWNEW	Used when editing a new item form with FrontPage.
PREVIEWEDIT	Used when editing an edit item form with FrontPage.

Examples

The following example illustrates using the SetVar element to set global scope for a variable. The second line returns the value set in the first line.

<SetVar Name="GlobalVar" Scope="Request">Value</SetVar>
...
<GetVar Name="GlobalVar">

In the following example, the first GetVar element returns Value_2 and the second GetVar element returns Value_1 because the SetVar element that contains Value_2 applies only to children of the Sample element. Value_2 goes out of scope after the closing Sample tag.

<SetVar Name="myVar">Value_1</SetVar>
   <Sample>
      <SetVar Name="myVar">Value_2</SetVar>
      <GetVar Name="myVar"/>
   </Sample>
   <GetVar Name="myVar"/>

The following example evaluates whether a field is required and, if it is required, creates the red asterisk (*) that is displayed beside required fields in New or Edit forms and sets the HasRequired variable to TRUE.

<Switch>
   <Expr>
      <Property Select="Required"/>
   </Expr>
   <Case Value="TRUE">
      <HTML><![CDATA[<font color=red> *</font>]]></HTML>
      <SetVar Scope="Request" Name="HasRequired">TRUE</SetVar>
   </Case>
</Switch>