Templates and syntax

Template types

Caseflow templates come in four types:

Type	Purpose
Create	Rendering for new objects
Update	Rendering for existing objects
Preview Pane	Compact, read-oriented view used in the search preview panel
Portal	Application-level pages with no backing primary object — see Portal templates

Template selection

When no explicit templateName is supplied, selection uses class and template type with access-aware resolution:

Group-based match first — user group assignment is evaluated, and the highest-precedence matching template is selected
Default fallback — if no group match exists, the default template is used

If an explicit template name is supplied, that template is fetched directly. See Administration and best practices for template governance details.

Template syntax

Variable resolution

Use {"{{...}}"} for render-time template variables:

{{AttributeName}}
{{stock.objectid}}
{{user.username}}
{{alias.AttributeName}}

The engine supports nested paths using dot notation.

Conditionals

{{#if condition}}...{{/if}}
{{#if condition}}...{{else}}...{{/if}}
{{#if condition}}...{{else if condition}}...{{else}}...{{/if}}

Condition expressions support:

Comparisons: ==, !=, >, <, >=, <=
Logic: &&, ||, !
Grouping with parentheses

Loops

{{#each items as item}}...{{/each}}
{{#each items as item, index}}...{{/each}}

Loop sources can be arrays, comma-separated strings, or objects (iterated as key/value entries).

Components and HTML

Templates can mix regular HTML tags with registered custom components (capitalized names). Unknown components render as explicit error placeholders.

Property parsing and type coercion

Component props are parsed from strings and coerced where possible:

JSON objects and arrays are auto-parsed when valid
"true" / "false" are converted to booleans
Numeric literals are converted to numbers

This is why template props can be authored as JSON strings in many component attributes.

Template directives

Templates can include HTML comment markers that influence the rendering host’s behavior. These are parsed and stripped before rendering — they do not appear in the rendered output.

Directive	Effect
`<!-- workview:hideDefaultSubmit -->`	Suppresses the default Create/Save submit button on the host modal so the template can supply its own submit control (typically a `SaveButton` configured for the workflow).

Directive identifiers are technical literals parsed by the template runtime. They retain the workview: prefix for backwards compatibility.

Example

<!-- workview:hideDefaultSubmit -->
<div class="space-y-4">
  <EditableField attributeName="Name" required="true" />
  <EditableField attributeName="Description" type="textarea" />

  <div class="flex justify-end gap-2">
    <SaveButton scope="primary" label="Submit application" />
  </div>
</div>

Template shell and styling

Every Caseflow template renders inside a wrapper element with the data-workview-template-shell attribute. Inside the shell, the platform applies a small CSS reset so that templates can use standard utility classes like Tailwind’s .container without being constrained by the responsive max-width rules used elsewhere in the application:

.container inside a template shell expands to 100% width
Default container margins are removed inside the shell

This means template authors can use Tailwind layout primitives directly without having to wrap content in a ResponsiveContainer component. The selector name is a technical literal retained for backwards compatibility.

Scope model

Template scope contains two namespaces:

Namespace	Keyed by
`ids`	Attribute IDs
`names`	Attribute names and known aliases

Common values added to scope:

Regular object attributes
Stock attributes (stock.*)
Object metadata (ObjectId, ClassName)
User context (user.id, user.username, etc.)
Alias objects registered via RelatedObject

Render-time vs runtime variables

This is an important distinction:

Form	Resolution moment	Typical sources
`{"{{...}}"}`	Template rendering	Object attributes, stock attributes, aliases, user info
`${"${...}"}`	Action/script execution	Change context, selected objects, row context, script result

Rule of thumb:

Use {"{{...}}"} for static template composition and default values
Use ${"${...}"} for event-driven logic and action conditions

Runtime variable families

Context	Variables
`EditableField` `onChanged`	`${newValue}`, `${previousValue}`
`RelationPicker` `onChanged`	`${newValue}`, `${previousValue}`, `${selectedObject...}`
`ObjectSearch` row document config	`${row.stock.objectid}`, `${row.AttributeName}`
Save hooks	`${changedFields}`, `${oldValues.X}`, `${newValues.X}`
Script actions	`${scriptResult}`, `${scriptResult.path}`, `${scriptError}`
Date/time	`${today}`, `${now}`
Create actions	`${createdObjectId}`, `${objectKey}`

Mixed render-time and runtime example

<EditableField
  attributeName="Status"
  onChanged='createObject:{"className":"AuditLog","attributes":{"ObjectId":"{{stock.objectid}}","OldValue":"${previousValue}","NewValue":"${newValue}"}}'
/>

Here {"{{stock.objectid}}"} is resolved when the template renders, while ${previousValue} and ${newValue} are resolved when the action executes.

Conditional expressions

Actions can be guarded with a when clause:

actionExpression when conditionExpression

Comparison operators

Operator	Description
`==`	Equal
`!=`	Not equal
`gt`	Greater than
`lt`	Less than
`gte`	Greater than or equal
`lte`	Less than or equal

String operators

Operator	Description
`contains`	String contains
`startsWith`	String starts with
`endsWith`	String ends with

Unary operators

Operator	Description
`isEmpty`	Value is empty
`isNotEmpty`	Value is not empty
`isTrue`	Value is truthy
`isFalse`	Value is falsy

Logical operators

Combine conditions with and, or, not, or !.

Examples

Workflow transition rule:

<EditableField
  attributeName="Status"
  onChanged='setValue:{"attributeName":"ClosedDate","value":"${today}"} when ${newValue} == "Closed" and ${previousValue} != "Closed"'
/>

Escalation rule:

<EditableField
  attributeName="Priority"
  onChanged='createObject:{"className":"EscalationLog","attributes":{"ObjectId":"{{stock.objectid}}","Priority":"${newValue}"}} when ${newValue} contains "Critical"'
/>

Nullish coalescing

Use ?? in runtime expressions to guard optional relation data:

<RelationPicker
  relationAttrName="TypeRelation"
  displayAttributeName="Name"
  onChanged='setValue:{"attributeName":"Status","value":"${selectedObject.DefaultStatus ?? \"New\"}"}'
/>

Action design guidance

Recommended:

Prefer pipe-delimited action chains for readability: action1 | action2 | action3
Keep each action idempotent where possible
Use explicit queryKey values in all search components that need external refresh
Use throwError in onBeforeSave for business-rule enforcement

Avoid:

Long opaque action chains with no conditional guards
Writing non-persisted temporary values to normal attributes
Mixing row-level ${row.*} expressions outside row-driven contexts

Getting started

Release notes

Features

How we use AI

AI search

AI document classification

Caseflow

Workflows

Document types & keywords

Permissions & access

Reporting

Retention & deletion

Template types

Template selection

Template syntax

Variable resolution

Conditionals

Loops

Components and HTML

Property parsing and type coercion

Template directives

Example

Template shell and styling

Scope model

Render-time vs runtime variables

Runtime variable families

Mixed render-time and runtime example

Conditional expressions

Comparison operators

String operators

Unary operators

Logical operators

Examples

Nullish coalescing

Action design guidance

​Template types

​Template selection

​Template syntax

​Variable resolution

​Conditionals

​Loops

​Components and HTML

​Property parsing and type coercion

​Template directives

​Example

​Template shell and styling

​Scope model

​Render-time vs runtime variables

​Runtime variable families

​Mixed render-time and runtime example

​Conditional expressions

​Comparison operators

​String operators

​Unary operators

​Logical operators

​Examples

​Nullish coalescing

​Action design guidance

Template types

Template selection

Template syntax

Variable resolution

Conditionals

Loops

Components and HTML

Property parsing and type coercion

Template directives

Example

Template shell and styling

Scope model

Render-time vs runtime variables

Runtime variable families

Mixed render-time and runtime example

Conditional expressions

Comparison operators

String operators

Unary operators

Logical operators

Examples

Nullish coalescing

Action design guidance