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The Entity Dictionary


The Entity Dictionary Concept

The purpose of the Entity Dictionary is to provide easy access to names of entities being used in the system, and a possibility to reuse these names in all parts of the system. The entities that the Entity Dictionary manage are all the link endpoints defined in the system, as well as all diagrams, documents and modules found in the Organizer structure.

The Entity Dictionary is accessible from the SDL Suite editors. The names in the Entity Dictionary are available for reuse in all texts and graphical objects found in the graphical diagrams. However, the Text Editor does not support reuse of texts in text documents.

The Entity Dictionary is also used for creating links between objects and existing endpoints when using the editors.

Relations to Editor Windows

The Entity Dictionary is implemented as a modeless dialog window. There is not a single Entity Dictionary window, but one window for each type of diagram (SDL, MSC, OM, SC, HMSC and text). All Entity Dictionary windows contain exactly the same information, and all the windows are updated when a change is made. The reason for having an Entity Dictionary window for each editor type is that operations in the window apply to the object currently selected in the respective editor.

Since there might be several editor windows showing different diagrams/documents, there is a need to define the current window. This is the editor window that will be associated with the Entity Dictionary, and all operations will act on the current window. The current window is the editor window where the user last performed a menu command or a mouse click detected by the editor.

The editor associated with an Entity Dictionary window is known as the parent editor. The editor type is reflected in the window title of the Entity Dictionary window, thus making it possible to distinguish the different Entity Dictionary windows, and to determine the parent editor that the Entity Dictionary operations will affect.

Entity Dictionary Window

The Entity Dictionary Window can be opened from all of the editors through the use of the menu choice Entity Dictionary in the Window menu.

Figure 132 : The Entity Dictionary window

Contents and Structure

The window lists all the defined link endpoints, following the structure of diagrams and files in the Organizer. By default, every item in the Organizer is repeated, and the indentation of items is also repeated. All Organizer items and link endpoints listed in the window are known as entities in the Entity Dictionary.

Below each Organizer item, the link endpoints defined in that item are listed with indentation:

For an Organizer item that contains both sub-documents and link endpoints, the endpoints are listed first, followed by the sub-documents.

It is possible to hide the Organizer items to display only the link endpoints; see The Filter Dialog for more information.

The information in the Entity Dictionary is updated whenever a link endpoint is created, changed or cleared in any of the editors or the Link Manager, or when the Organizer structure is modified.

Entity Icons

Each entity has an associated icon that identifies the type of the entity, i.e. the type of the endpoint object. Entities that already have an established icon in the Organizer or the Index Viewer use the same icon in the Entity Dictionary, with a few exceptions. The icons specific to the Entity Dictionary are:

Diagram Heading

Diagram Extended Heading

OM Class

OM Object

OM Association

OM Aggregation

OM Generalization

SC Transition

MSC Message

MSC Create

MSC Timer Set

(H)MSC Reference

HMSC Start

HMSC Stop

HMSC Connection

Text symbols and text fragments

Textual Notation

The type and name of an entity is shown to the right of the icon. For entities containing a name, such as diagram symbols, this name is listed. For other symbols and text fragments, the first 25 characters are shown.

The cases when a diagram reference symbol, a diagram heading, or an Organizer document is an endpoint will result in duplication of information in the Entity Dictionary. To distinguish between such endpoints and the structure of Organizer documents, the following textual notations are used:

Figure 132 shows examples of these textual notations.

Operations in the Entity Dictionary

The Entity Dictionary window does not contain a menu bar. Operations are available as quick buttons or as popup menus.

Quick Buttons

The following quick buttons are special to Entity Dictionary window.

Close

Close the Entity Dictionary window.

Create Link

Create a link between the endpoint selected in the Entity Dictionary and the object selected in the parent editor. The quick button is dimmed if not two such selections are present. If the parent editor is a Text Editor, the selected text must be an already existing endpoint.

The Create Link dialog is opened; see Figure 135.

Insert

Insert the text in the selected symbol in the Entity Dictionary at the insertion point in the object selected in the parent editor. The quick button is dimmed if not two such selections are present. If text is selected in the parent editor's text window, this text is instead replaced.

This button is not available in the Text Editor's Entity Dictionary.

Replace

Replace the text content of the object selected in the parent editor with the text in the selected symbol in the Entity Dictionary. The quick button is dimmed if not two such selections are present.

This button is not available in the Text Editor's Entity Dictionary.

Undo

Undo the most recent text operation in the Entity Dictionary (Insert, Replace, Undo). The quick button is dimmed if the selection in the parent editor has changed to another object.

This button is not available in the Text Editor's Entity Dictionary.

Filter

Filter the information listed in the Entity Dictionary. See The Filter Dialog for more information.

Show Editor

Raise the parent editor window.

Popup Menus

The following tables lists the available operations in the popup menus of the Entity Dictionary window.

On the Window Background

Appears when no symbol is selected and the menu is invoked in an area not containing any symbols.

Expand All

Expands all collapsed symbols.

Collapse All

Collapses all symbols; only root symbols will be shown. Collapsed symbols are indicated with a small triangle directly below the symbol.

Show Editor

Raises the parent editor's window.

On a Document Symbol

Appears if an Organizer document symbol is selected, or the menu is invoked where a document symbol is selectable.

Expand

Expands a collapsed symbol one level down.

Expand Substructure

Expands the entire substructure of the symbol.

Collapse

Collapses the substructure of the symbol.

On an Endpoint Symbol

Appears if an endpoint symbol is selected, or the menu is invoked where an endpoint symbol is selectable.

Show Definition

Brings up an editor window, or the Organizer window, where the endpoint is selected.

Double-Clicks

If there is a selection in the parent editor and a symbol in the Entity Dictionary is double-clicked, the text of the symbol is inserted in the parent editor. A double-click thus corresponds to using the Insert quick button; see Insert. This functionality is not available in the Text Editor's Entity Dictionary.

The Filter Dialog

The Filter dialog is opened when the Filter quick button is pressed in the Entity Dictionary window. The Filter dialog controls what is to be shown in the Entity Dictionary window.

Figure 133 : The Filter dialog


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