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2 Information management tools

This chapter provides an introduction to the major information management components of MetaEdit+. Here we describe the functionality and capabilities of the Startup and Main Launcher, the Browsers, Graph Manager, Property dialogs and the Info Tool. The various Editors are covered in Chapter 3, and reporting and printing tools in Chapter 4.

There are four main categories of tools in MetaEdit+:
1)Information management tools include two Launchers for managing the tools of the environment, repository browsers and Graph Manager for browsing information stored in the Object Repository, property dialogs for viewing and editing information about single design elements, and Info Tools for viewing linkages between graphs, reuse of designs, and locking information (in the multi-user version).
2)Editors, which are tools for viewing, editing and managing method specific information about system development projects. MetaEdit+ includes a Diagram Editor, Matrix Editor, and Table Editor.
3)Output tools, including reporting and code generation tools for accessing information in the repository, and transforming that either to various reports or checks, or to program code. MetaEdit+ includes some predefined reports as well as a tool called Report Browser, which allows users to make their own reports. In this section we also describe the printing functionality common to all MetaEdit+ tools and editors.
4)Method development tools, which forms the metaCASE part of the environment allowing users to modify the environment. Method development tools are described in a separate manual: ‘MetaEdit+ Method Workbench: User’s Guide’.

In this chapter we look first at the tools you see first, the Launchers, and the Options Tool with which you set various environment and system preferences. Then we examine the two Browsers which give an overview of the repository and Graph Manager which exports graphs into files. Finally, we look at two classes of tool that are generic and used throughout MetaEdit+: the Property dialogs, where the details of individual design elements can be viewed, reused and edited; and the Info Tools, which show how a given design element is used by and linked to other design elements.

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