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3.3 Table Editor

See also the Menu Reference, Section 7.8.

The Table Editor provides a tabular or form-based view on the elements in graphs stored in the repository. In the editor, elements of a graph are represented as rows and properties of the elements form columns. Thus, the Table Editor provides an easy way to view all the information about elements in a graph in a compact form.

Figure 3-52 shows an example window of a Table Editor. It shows the graph ‘Sales system', a Data Flow Diagram.

Figure 3-52. Table Editor.

The Table Editor opened in Figure 3-52 lists the Process objects of ‘Sales system’, and shows all their properties (i.e. Process ID, process name, process specification and documentation). The figure also shows a property dialog opened on a Process ‘Verify orders’.

With the Table Editor you can view and edit properties of design elements as well as make or view explosions and decompositions between several graphs. Hence graphs such as requirements specifications or problem lists, which are neither graphical diagrams nor matrices, are most suitable for the Table Editor.

3.3.1 Tables

Opening tables

Like all editors, the Table Editor opens, manages and creates graphs in a similar manner to that described in earlier sections where the Diagram Editor and Matrix Editor were introduced.

Accordingly, to open a Table Editor:
1)Select Editors | Table Editor in the Launcher.
2)Select a graph, e.g. ‘Sales system’, from the list (Figure 3-53), and click OK. Alternatively, you can double click a graph to choose it and close the dialog.
3)Select a representation from the dialog that appears, and click OK. If you want to make a new representation select ‘Create new Table’. This selection opens the selected graph but allows you to make a different representation version of it. Thus, you can choose a different object type to show, or a different order and subset of the objects in the graph.

Figure 3-53. Dialog for selecting graphs.

The dialog for representation selection does not necessarily appear. It depends on the representations available and the current dialog options (see Section 2.1.3 Options Tool).

As a result, you should now have a Table Editor open on the selected graph.
By keeping shift pressed during the open operation, you can open the graph without locking it. This is especially useful in a multi-user environment when you just want to view the graph and allow another user to change it at the same time.

Creating tables

To create a new table:
1)Select Editors | Table Editor in the Launcher.
2)Select the last item, ‘create new graph’, from the dialog (Figure 3-53), and click OK.
3)As a result a dialog appears asking you to select a method. Choose a method and click OK.
4)Next a property dialog opens for the new graph. Fill in the properties and press OK.

If the selected method has multiple element types, the Table Editor asks which element types of the graph should be shown in the table. Thus, when creating a table for a Data Flow Diagram the editor asks which elements will be shown, e.g. ‘Process’, ‘Data store’, or ‘External’.

After you have answered these dialogs, a Table Editor opens with a new graph.

Managing tables

As in all editors in MetaEdit+, the Graph menu allows users to create, open and edit graphs. For example, the same function that was previously used to open a table can be accessed in the Table Editor from Graph | Open.... Similarly, new tables can be created by selecting Graph | New... and by following the instructions described above.

To edit the properties of the graph itself select Graph | Properties..., and a dialog similar to that in Figure 3-54 will appear. In the dialog, properties of the graph can be edited and modifications accepted by selecting OK. See Section 2.3.1 for more information on such property dialogs.

Figure 3-54. A property dialog for the graph ‘Sales system’.

The Graph menu also includes functions to view a table in other representations (i.e. as a matrix or as a diagram) or to browse the table in a Graph Browser. Basically, the Graph | View functions each open a new editor for the given representation.

Printing a table

To print a table, select Graph | Print.... You are first asked for the printer, then for the scale of the printout or how many pages you want to print over. By default, printing is of the whole used area of the table on a single page.

When you press OK in the print scale dialog the output is sent to the printer. You may also use a print preview tool by pressing Preview button. The preview tool shows the output a page at a time. Pressing the Print button actually sends the output to the printer and closing the window cancels printing. You can choose to print only the visible area of the table or the whole table, at a specific scale or over a certain number of pages. These more advanced features are described in Section 4.2.

You may also export the table to a word processor or spreadsheet, as described below, and print from there.

Exporting a table

To export the table as tab-separated ASCII or as an HTML table select Graph | Reports | ASCII Export or Graph | Reports | HTML Export. These export functions open a report output tool from which the table can be saved into a file or copied directly into an external program, such as a word processor, spreadsheets or textual HTML editor.

Accessing reports

All reporting functions can be accessed through the Graph menu. To run reports that are already defined select Graph | Reports | Run.... To define new reports and access existing ones choose Graph | Reports | Create.

Closing a Table Editor

To close a Table Editor select Graph | Exit, or close the window like any other window on your platform.

3.3.2 Objects

Adding objects

Each object (i.e. row in the table) has a pop-up menu that includes all the functionality that is needed for creating, editing, linking and deleting elements of the table. The pop-up menu is shown in Figure 3-55. The menu also includes the operations for making explosions and decompositions to other graphs.
Note that only objects can be added in the Table Editor. Adding relationships and roles is not allowed, because the table representation is poorly suited to handling the binding of a relationship, its objects and roles.

Figure 3-55. Pop-up menu in the Table Editor.

To add an object (i.e. a row) in the Table Editor:
1)Select the row above which you want to add the object (with the left mouse button). If none of the rows is selected, objects will be added to the last row of the table.
2)Open the object’s pop-up menu (with the right mouse button).
3)Select Add... from the menu.

A dialog opens allowing you to enter information about the new object. When adding a Process in the graph ‘Sales system’ the dialog looks like that in Figure 3-56. With the tab key (ctrl-tab for text fields) you can move between the fields and buttons of the dialog.

Figure 3-56. Dialog for adding a process.

Adding existing elements

To add an existing element into the table select Add Existing... from the table related pop-up menu. This works as in other editors.

To add an existing element:
1)Click the left mouse button at the row of the table above which you want to add an element.
2)Open the pop-up menu with the right mouse button.
3)Select Add Existing... from the menu. As a result a dialog, like that in Figure 3-57, opens allowing you to pick elements that are already defined in this graph.
4)Choose one or more of the elements in the list and press OK.

Figure 3-57. Selecting an existing object to add.

The dialog in Figure 3-57 also has additional functions for more complex reuse situations: to fetch information from other graphs, even if they have other representations, i.e. a matrix or a diagram. These options can be selected from the last two items in the list.

The first of these, ‘Get some objects from another graph’ opens a new dialog (Figure 3-58) for selecting a source graph from which elements are to be reused.

Figure 3-58. Selecting a source graph for reuse.

Please note that only those elements can be reused whose type is shown in this table. If you select an incompatible graph the tools opens an empty dialog showing that no objects can be reused from that graph.

The second reuse option, ‘Get some objects of type ‘Process’, offers a list of all the currently loaded elements which match the table’s element type.

For example, in a Data Flow Diagram when the selected object type is ‘Process’ a dialog list like that in Figure 3-59 opens. It contains a list of all processes that are used in any graph.
The dialog also includes those processes that are part of the table that is already opened in the Table Editor. Also, objects of that type may exist that have not yet been loaded, and hence not appear in the dialog.

Figure 3-59. List of all processes to be reused.

When you press OK, the objects selected will be added into the table. If you edit any of these objects, i.e. change the information about the object through a property dialog, the change will be immediately propagated to that object elsewhere, and therefore also available to all graphs and tools that use the same object.

Editing elements

Information about each element can be edited by selecting Properties... from the pop-up menu. There are also two shortcuts: double clicking with the mouse and pressing Enter on the keyboard.

You can also move and copy elements in the table through the Cut, Copy, and Paste functions that are available in the pop-up menu. Note that these functions can also be accessed through Edit menu, and are only effective within the current Table Editor.

Deleting elements

To remove a design element, select it in the table and then choose Delete from its pop-up menu. Note that there are different deletion policies that you can choose through the Options Tool (Section 2.1.3).

3.3.3 Subgraphs

Like other editors, the Table Editor provides functions to level graphs and to link objects in a table to other graphs. (See also Sections 3.1.4 and 3.2.4 for linking in the Diagram Editor and Matrix Editor).

In the Table Editor you can either view or make the decomposition links (Subgraphs | Decomposition...), or view and make explosions between objects in a table and other graphs (Subgraphs | Explosions...). These functions can be accessed as in other editors through the object related pop-up menu and Edit menu.

3.3.4 Viewing and formatting

Viewing a table

The View function allows you to hide or show selected properties of elements by hiding or showing columns of the table. Viewing also affects the printing functions so that printing follows viewing settings.

Figure 3-60. Dialog for choosing properties to be shown.

View | Selected ... opens a selection dialog like in Figure 3-60, allowing you to choose the properties to be shown in the table.

Sorting a table

Other specific functionality related to tables includes sorting, setting column widths and fonts. These functions can be accessed through the Format menu. The table can be sorted by Format | Sort.... Figure 3-61 shows a dialog for selecting a property to be used as a sorting key as well as a sorting order, i.e. ascending or descending.

Figure 3-61. Sort table dialog.

Setting column widths

Column widths of the table can be adjusted in two ways. The first way, Format | Autowidth, adjusts all column widths according to the longest values of properties on columns so that they can all be seen.

The second way, Format | Widths..., opens a dialog for setting each column width. Figure 3-62 shows the Column Widths Tool. With the tool you can set a width for each column, to some of the columns or to all columns. The Save button accepts the settings allowing you to continue to set different widths for other columns, and Save & Close saves the current settings, closes the Column Widths tool, and applies all saved settings to the table.

Figure 3-62. Column Widths Tool.

Setting fonts

In some cases, it may be necessary to set the font of the table. For that purpose, Table Editor offers a tool for selecting fonts. By selecting Format | Font... a dialog such as that in Figure 3-63 opens, allowing you to choose a font for your purposes.

Figure 3-63. A dialog for selecting fonts.


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