Activate runtime editors and object inspection windows
The Alfabet user interface provides inline editing in data workbenches, content areas, and guided data views. In addition, editors and object preview windows are available for data editing. Editors are generated at runtime from the class model. You can specify directly for each object class property whether it will be included in the runtime editor. In addition, sorting for the object class property fields in the runtime editor can be performed on the class model. The editor fields are generated automatically for the property type of the object class properties.
Two functionalities are based on the runtime editor configuration. You can activate them separately:
- Runtime editors opening when a user creates a new object or edits an object via an Edit button.
- Object inspection windows which open on single-click on a button like element representing an object in data workbenches, content areas, guided data views, Gantt charts, portfolio reports, diagrams, and diagram style reports. The object inspection window is a preview with editing capabilities. It is not possible to open the object inspection window from an object in an object inspection window.
To further enhance the editing capabilities, you can define guided data entry views to provide content area like editing environments for users. These environments guide the user through different views required to provide all necessary information about an object. For example, lifecycle specification and object evaluation can be part of a guided data entry view, but not part of an editor.
In addition to runtime editors, standard editors are still available for all object classes in Alfabet. These editors are defined independent of the class model as configuration objects. Customers cannot change the standard editors, but they can add custom editors for customer defined object class properties. A custom editor is rendered as an additional tab in the standard editor of the object class it is defined for. Custom editor definition required manual creation of editor fields which then need to be assigned to an object class property in the editor field attributes. You need extensive knowledge about which fields to use for which object class property to define a custom editor.
The concept of standard editors and custom editors is deprecated, but still available for backwards compatibility. If you are working with an existing Alfabet configuration using standard and custom editors, or wizards, you should change the editor usage to Runtime Editor. Editability and visibility conditions defined for custom editors can be specified directly on the object class property overwrite in the class settings for the object class.
The following configuration should be followed for creating runtime editors, object inspection windows, or both:
- In Alfabet Expand, go to the Meta-Model tab.
- Expand the node of the object class you want to configure the editor for and expand the Properties node.
- For each object class property that shall be included in the editor, click the property node in the explorer and set the Enable for Runtime Editor attribute to True . If this attribute is not editable, expand the Local Settings attribute and set the Enable for Runtime Editor sub-attribute to True. If this attribute is deactivated, the object class property is private and must not be included in editors.
- Click the Properties parent node.
- Open the editor of the Sort Runtime Editor Properties attribute, click an object class property in the list and use the up and down buttons on the upper right to move the property in the sort order. Properties are displayed in runtime editors in the same order as in the sort list.
- Go to the Presentation tab, expand the Class Settings node and the node of the object class you are defining the editor for.
- For all class settings of the object class, click the class settings node and set the Default Editor Type to Runtime Editor.
Existing customers who still want to use the standard editors and custom editors for the object class but enable object inspection windows can set this attribute to False and enable object inspection in the next step.
- If you want object inspection windows to be available, set the Enable Object Inspection attribute to True.
- Optionally, you can hide object class properties from the runtime editor and object inspection window for the user profiles based on the class settings. Right-click the Properties sub-node of the class settings and select Modify Property Behavior. Set the Property Name attribute to the name of the object class property that shall be hidden for this class settings only. Set the Enable for Runtime Editor attribute to False.
- If you do not see the object class property in the drop-down list of the Property Name attribute, there is already an overwrite for this property and you can add your settings there.
- Object class properties not enabled for runtime editors in the class model shall not be enabled for runtime editors in the class settings. Sorting will not take these object class properties into account. It is recommended to do all enablement directly in the class model and only use the class settings for hiding object class properties if the object class property shall not be editable for all users.
- Any changes to the object class property specified in the property overwrite will also apply to the rendering and editing capabilities in the runtime editor and object inspection window.