Names and labels

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Names and labels

Names

mrScriptMetadata has these types of names:

▪field names

▪category names (in a field's category and codes lists)

▪category list names

▪area names, which are used to define alternative label, user context, and language combination: see Alternative labels for more information.

Names must conform to the mrScriptBasic rules for regular identifiers: see Naming conventions

Names can be any of the reserved keywords: see Keyword summary.

There are additional rules for field and category names:

Field names

Some field names are reserved for the definition of standard messages: see Custom message texts.

The field name HDATA is reserved for setting labels, custom properties, styles, and templates on the document.

You can enclose field names in " " (quotation marks) to escape keywords, for example: "Column".

Category names

Category full names must be unique within the question.

You can enclose field names in " " (quotation marks) to escape keywords, for example: "Column".

Labels

The label is typically the question or category text that is displayed to the respondent.

The percent symbol (%) is an escape character, which allows you to give the characters that directly follow the percent symbol an alternate meaning. You can use the following character combinations:

Characters	Result
%n	Inserts a carriage return and line feed character (new line)
%{	Inserts the literal character { instead of a creating a text insertion point
% (not followed by ‘n’ or ‘{‘)	Inserts the literal character %
%%n	Inserts the literal characters %n instead of inserting a line break
%%{	Inserts the literal character % followed by a text insertion point ({).

Escape characters

Question and response texts are converted to and from XML when running surveys. Some special characters have a different meaning when used in XML:

▪To display characters in labels that are also used as tags in HTML (for example, < and >), you must encode them with their ASCII equivalent.

▪Characters that are actually used as tags in well-formed HTML do not require encoding. To create well‑formed HTML, make sure that there is an opening tag and a closing tag, and that tags are properly nested.

If a label displays incorrectly, it might indicate that some encoding is missing.

These are some common characters that must be encoded:

Character	Escape ASCII value
&	&
<	<
>	>
"	"
'	'

You can also add text insertions to the label, for example, to include the answer to a previous question: see Label text insertion for more information.

The following table shows examples of using the escape characters to format labels:

Label that includes	Label code	End result
HTML markup for bold	Here is some <b>bold</b> text	Here is some bold text
A new line character (%n)	This is line 1 of the label.%nThis is line 2 of the label.	This is line 1 of the label. This is line 2 of the label.
HTML markup for line break	This is line 1 of the label.<br/>This is line 2 of the label.	This is line 1 of the label. This is line 2 of the label.
HTML markup for the ‘less than’ symbol	X < Y	X < Y
A literal percent symbol (%)	You said that you spent {PercentTimeSpent}% time at work.	You said that you spent N% time at work. (where N is the value of {PercentTimeSpent})
A percent symbol as an escape character	Time spent at work: %%{PercentTimeSpent}	Time spent at work: %N (where N is the value of {PercentTimeSpent}).
HTML hyperlink that opens in a new browser window	<a href=' https://www.unicomsi.com/about/' rel='noopener noreferrer' target='_blank'>About Us</a>	About Us
HTML hyperlink that opens an interview	<a href=' https://cloud.unicomsi.com/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=MUSEUM&Id=ID1' rel='noopener noreferrer' target='_blank'>Click here to start interview</a>	Click here to start interview

If you do not specify a label, it will be the same as the field or category name.

By default, the label is in the default language, user context, and label type defined for the metadata section. However, you can optionally specify a different language, user context, and label type: see Alternative labels for more information.

See

mrScriptMetadata reference