I have 5 rows...sorry. And the values are split by semi colons. Is there anyway to break that down, so I can create a report in Forms.

Thanks for the clarification. The result from e.g. {/dataset/Table/Column} is a string with the values demarcated by semicolons. So for example if for my 5 rows I have the values 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the variable value will be the string "1; 2; 3; 4; 5".

So we can parse this with JavaScript. In the custom HTML element, in the HTML editor you can add:

<div id="customContent"></div>

This registers a <div> element that we can fill.

Now while we do eventually want to parse the data with JavaScript, we can't use the variable syntax in the custom JavaScript editor. So we'll add a script element in the custom HTML field itself:

<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
  var stuff = "{/dataset/Table/Column}".split("; ");
  $('#customContent').html(stuff.join(','));
});
</script>

<div id="customContent"></div>

Everything we'd normally put in the custom JavaScript area, we can put right in here. The above code will cause the custom HTML to show the string "1,2,3,4,5" from the previous example. See Example-1.png.

The .split("; ") method is the key here; it takes a string and returns an array of elements which were originally separated by the "; " substring. So each entry of this array are our table input values, in order, and can be accessed as such. For example:

<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
  var stuff = "{/dataset/Table/Column}".split("; ");
  $('#customContent').html(
    "The first item was " + stuff[0] +
    " and the second item was " + stuff [1] +
    ", followed by " + stuff[2] +
    " and " + stuff[3] +
    ", before finally ending with " + stuff[4] +
    ", the fifth and final item."
  );
});
</script>

<div id="customContent"></div>

Note that the indices of the array are zero-based, so the first element is index 0, the second is index 1, etc. See Example-2.png for the result.

And lastly you can even add HTML tags in this, for example:

<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
  var stuff = "{/dataset/Table/Column}".split("; ");
  $('#customContent').html(
    "The first item was <b>" + stuff[0] +
    " and bold</b> and the second item was <i>" + stuff [1] +
    " and italicized</i>, followed by <span style='color: red'>" + stuff[2] +
    " which was red</span> and <span style='color: blue'>" + stuff[3] +
    " which was blue</span>, before finally ending with <pre>" + stuff[4] +
    "</pre>This unformatted, fifth and final item, was displayed as if it was code."
  );
});
</script>

<div id="customContent"></div>

Which is a bit silly, in Example-3.png. You may be able to take this farther to meet your reporting needs.

Hope this helps!

Gosh, I didn't think it would involve special scripting. This is what I am looking for though. 

Unfortunately it does. This is all just because of how the variable value is displayed. Thinking about it further, some special handling may need to be required if the data actually contains semi-colons, as that would throw off the .split('; ') operation. It would depend on what kind of data exactly you'll be dealing with.

So it might tamper my end workflow...HMMM. My workflow is way more important than the other report. The report I want to create would just be an HTML moving explanations in a cleaner look than the read only fields.

Hi Chynna,

To clarify having semicolons in the field will affect how this custom script runs to make the report in the custom HTML element on the form; it won't affect how Workflow processes the field values. The attached image demonstrates that even with semicolons in one of these fields, when Workflow pulls the value using a "Retrieve Business Process Variables" activity, it correctly demarcates which values go to which fields, and can properly assign metadata to a multi-value field of a repository entry.

Custom HTML elements, it should be noted, are intended for display on a form; they are not "variables" which can be retrieved in this manner on a Workflow.

Is that relevant to your concern, or were you more worried about something else?