Items on the Page inherit the message reference of their parent items. For example, if a group element has a message reference to a particular
Message Part in the
Page Message, then all the
Page elements within that group can share that reference by using a relative reference.
When you set the Message Ref property, the Message Ref picker displays available message parts relative to the root
Page Message and also relative to the parent element, if any.
The relative path is indicated by a period (.) and the absolute path is indicated by a backslash (/). If a relative path is available for the
Page element, then the relation to the root path is displayed at the top of the picker.
In general, if you’re working with a group of Page elements that reference columns in the same table, you should reference the table itself in the group enclosing the
Page elements and then use relative paths to reference each item within the group. That way, if you need to change the group reference, you do not have to change the Message Ref for each
Page element individually.
The only place where you are absolutely required to use a relative path in your Message Ref is when you are using a Group layout to display a list. For example, when you are creating a grid that displays multiple rows of data for a table column or group of columns, each item in the grid needs a Message Ref relative to the Message Ref of the grid itself.