Smart Script: the language of Beezr

Smart Script is how you tell Beezr to work something out: a default value, a check before save, a filter for a list of records, a number on a dashboard. It is JavaScript with two additions, tokens that bring in your data, and a helper library called FunctionManagerFunctionManagerThe Smart Script helper library exposed by the interpreter.Open glossary ↗ that reads and writes records. If you can read a few lines of JavaScript, you can read any Smart Script.

The engine behind Smart Script is Beezl.

Where does a Smart Script run?

Anywhere a box says Smart Script, or hints at a script. These are the places we checked in the code.

Place	What the script gives back	Where you write it
Default value	The starting value of a new record’s field	Fields, field editor, Default value
Smart field	The field’s value, worked out when the record is shown	Fields, Script
Rule Book	true to pass, anything else to fail, before save	Forms, Form rules, Rule Book
Disabled If and Visible If	true or false for a form button	Forms, button component
Form parameters and button parameters	The value that prefills another form	Forms, parameters
Custom HTML component	The HTML the form shows	Forms, Custom HTML
Load data step	A WHERE filter for the records to load	Which records?, Smart Script tab
Record manager, Approval task, Send email, Loop, JSON parser	A value for a field, a person, a recipient, a count or a payload	The step’s value boxes
Custom function step	Nothing. The script runs for what it does	Smart Script box
Dashboard Metric	The number or text the block shows	Value
Dashboard Custom HTML	One value per ${variable}	Variables tab
Data quality rule of type SCRIPT	true or false	Data tools

○ ○ ○Beezr

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The Smart Script tab holds a filter written as a WHERE clause.
Each column carries its module’s table name, for example cm_customers.tier.
The notes under the box list what the step does when nothing matches.

The Decision step is different: it builds its conditions from a field, an operator and a value.

How does Beezr read a script?

Four things happen, in this order.

1. Tokens become values
2. Script runs as JavaScript
3. Last expression is the result
4. Result becomes text

• Tokens become values. Before anything runs, Beezr replaces every $table$.$field$ with the data it stands for. Text arrives in quotes, numbers arrive as they are. Tokens and placeholders lists every kind.
• The script runs. It runs as JavaScript, with FunctionManager ready to use.
• The last expression is the result. There is no return. The script total; gives back whatever total holds.
• The result becomes text. true becomes "true", 42 becomes "42". The place that asked for the value reads the text.

Check a new script with Run test where the editor offers it. If the result is your own script text, a name in it is misspelled.

Behind the scenes

The language is JavaScript as defined by ES5, run by the Nashorn engine on Java 8. Write it with var and function.

Which mistakes catch everyone?

Four rules cover most broken scripts.

• getCurrentValue() returns a string. Even for numbers and dates. Use parseInt(value, 10) or parseFloat(value) before you add, and parse dates before you compare them.
• loadRecordsByClause returns null when nothing matches, not an empty list. Check it before you loop.
• Loop with .forEach. The lists are Java lists, and .forEach is how you go through them.
• Write WHERE clauses with the full table.field name, such as cm_purchase_orders.status. Text values need quotes. Filter lookup fields by their id, and use resolveLookupIdValue when you need the text people see.

Dashboard scripts have one more: they end with an expression, with no return. Script a dashboard metric shows it in a finished script.

For evaluateCount, evaluateSumFunction and evaluateAverageFunction, write the clause exactly as it must run, starting with WHERE.

What do I read next?

Write three small scripts in Write your first Smart Scripts. Keep Tokens and placeholders open next to it. Every function FunctionManager offers is on Smart Script functions.