Dialog Naming

Naming a variable may be the "ground level" method in which to create order in a document assembly (or any programming) system. However, in terms of HotDocs, dialog naming is where it starts. The reason for this is that variables (in HotDocs) are separate and distinct containers for information. For the most part, a variable generally appears on a single dialog. Also in most cases, dialog will contain all variables that relate to a single "area" within a system - its common sense to put all variables relating to the Court on a single page where possible. This is referred to as "variable grouping".

Variable grouping into well built dialogs means that our component manager will organize our entire list of components for us, without having to look too hard. It means that at a single glance, you are looking at all the code pieces that relate to a given area of your system. I personally favour plain English naming schemas. Following are some rules that I apply when naming dialogs.

• Parent dialogs start with a distinctive and descriptive word or descriptive abbreviation (Examples are Court, Plf, Dft, Borr, Lender)
  This is so that "at a glance", your dialogs are readable without a code book
• Child dialogs start with the same word as their parent, or an abbreviation of same (Examples are Court Addr, Plf Sol, Dft Sol, Borr Sign)
  This is so that when you filter/sort, you get the sub-dialogs as well. A filter for "Court" would also return "Court Addr" - the court details as well as its address details, without having to re-filter
• Every dialog has a suffix: RPT for repeating dialogs and DLG for flat dialogs
  This is "a bit" Hungarian, but again - its handy for filters. Type "RPT" into your HotDocs component manager and see every repeating dialog at a glance. Perfect.

Not too difficult! So, with this in mind, we get something like:

Defendant RPT is a repeating dialog for defendants. At a glance, we know it is collecting information about defendants, and more than just one defendant. Perhaps it is a series of dialogs because we are doing a complex litigation system. For that, we may have:

• Dft RPT - basic defendant dialog
• Dft Sols DLG - a non-repeating child dialog of Dft RPT, that holds solicitor details
• Dft Docs RPT - a repeating child dialog of Dft RPT - a list of documents
• Dft Dirs RPT - a repeating child dialog of Dft RPT - a list of directors if the Defendant is a company

Loan DLG is obviously a dialog that deals with loan details. But if we can see right below "Loan DLG" that there is a dialog named "Loan Figures DLG", we know that Loan DLG deals only with the sweeping details, such as loan type and options, whereas "Loan Figures DLG" is a flat dialog on Loan DLG that deals with the amounts, interest rates and other numeric data associated with the loan.

Word of Caution

HotDocs advocates AGAINST using ALL CAPS for the naming of dialogs and variables. The reason is that it uses all caps in its "system" variables (variables you don't have to set up, they pre-exist in the HotDocs program itself). Personally, I use all caps however, you may wish to use LeadingCaps in your dialog names, or all lower case - its up to you. The "official" HotDocs stance is "don't" use all caps.