Graphical View in Lexicon

The Graphical View displays a pictorial representation of database relationships, each relationship displays in a separate tab in the Graphic View window of the Lexicon window.

Views are only available for elements which are not administrative in the dictionary hierarchy (World, Group). Graphical views are therefore available for the four remaining elements in Lexicon; User Defined Attribute (UDA), User Defined Element (UDET) Status Definition and Distributed Attributes.

To display a pictorial representation of the database relationships for the Current Element (CE) in a graphical view window, on the Home tab, in the Display group, select Graphical View. The view displays in a tab labelled with the name of the CE in the Graphical View window.

If no specific graphical views have been opened during the current Lexicon session then the Graphical View remains empty. If one or more views have been previously open during the current Lexicon session, then these views are restored when the Graphical View is re-opened. Views are not maintained across Lexicon sessions. Individual view tabs can be closed, to close the current view, select close at the top right of the tab header.

Nodes and Links

View nodes represent database elements. They consist of an outline, whose shape depends on the element's type and the view context. Nodes contain a number of items, starting at the top with the element name, followed by the element description, if there is one. In addition, at the top right, above the element name the node may also include a stereotype which helps to identify what type of element displays. Example stereo types include UDA, UDET and Element. These display as necessary to distinguish between different types in the same view.

In many contexts the node contains lists of other items grouped into compartments. Each compartment has a header followed by a list. The list items display an icon and name. If the item has a value, then the value also displays to the right of the name. If the item is a UDA and the UDA Lock attribute is set, then the item displays with a padlock icon. Example compartments are Attributes (ATTRIBUTES), Hidden Attributes (HIDDEN) and UDAs. To the right of the compartment title is a chevron button that can be used to open and close the compartment. If compartments display, then a node also has a chevron at the top right. The chevron closes all compartments and hides all compartment headers.

A progression displays from left to right, where the chevrons are used to progressively expand the node to display more detail. At the right, a node displays with many compartment items, each having an associated value. In this case they are the attributes and values of the PID UDA type.

Selection of single items can be achieved with a click in the Graphical View window. Multiple selections can be achieved by using bounding outline, selected nodes and links display with handles. Selected items in a node compartment are indicated by a change in the item's background colour.

Nodes and links can be modified by dragging selection handles. The width of a node can be adjusted by dragging the left and right handles. Node height cannot be adjusted. Likewise the route of a node can be modified by dragging a node's selection handle. The node's attachment points to a node are fixed, however, modifications to nodes and links are temporary.

Selected items can be copied to the clipboard in the usual manner. The view's graphics can therefore be pasted into another application, such as an image or document editor. For example: press Ctrl-A to select all the items then press Ctrl-C to copy the graph to the clipboard. The selected items can then be pasted into the application of choice.

A selected node or compartment item can be used to open a new Graphical View window, right-click the selected node or compartment item and select Navigate to to display a new Graphical View window for the selected node or compartment item.

Layout

The arrangement of nodes and links in a graphical view (the layout) is determined automatically when the view is opened. The layout can be modified by dragging selected items, layout modifications are temporary. Either individually selected nodes can be moved, or groups of nodes can be moved together by dragging a multiple selection. When the dragged nodes are released, the path of the affected links is recalculated automatically.

To return to the initial automatic layout, right-click the graphical view background and from the drop-down menu, select Layout.