Model Views Operations

Define View Search

When you:

• First create a View, the Create New View dialog displays
• Select to display the View properties, the View Properties dialog displays.

These two dialogs are identical. However, in the Corporate, Business and Software Engineering, Systems Engineering and Ultimate editions of Enterprise Architect, a work flow feature is added to the dialogs (second illustration).

In the Name field, type a name for the View.

In the Search field, either:

• Click on the drop-down arrow and select an existing search from the lists, or
• Click on the [ ... ] (Browse) button to display the Manage Searches dialog, edit an existing search or define a new one, then Close the dialog and select that search name in the Search field.

If required, in the Search Term field type a specific value to search for.

If you are working with the Corporate or extended versions of Enterprise Architect, and you want the search to run automatically and refresh the results, select the Refresh this search checkbox. The Frequency field has three sections, for hours, minutes and seconds. Click on the appropriate section and use the up and down arrows at the end of the field to set the interval for refreshing the search results. You can also set the refresh to display a pop-up notification if the search results change. To do this, select the Notify me when new results found checkbox.

Click on the OK button. The View is created (or updated) in a collapsed state. When you expand the View, the search executes and populates the View.

Display Recent Postings

If a new post is added to the Team Review, and that post refers to any Model View items, that post is also added automatically to the Recent Discussions | <Connection> | Recent Posts folder in the Model View. To open a post, double-click on the entry; the Team Review tab displays, showing the selected message. You can control how many posts are displayed, and for what period of time, using the Model Views context menu for the Recent Discussions folder.

Move Objects Into Favorites

Drag any required package, diagram or element from the Project Browser into the required Favorites folder.

Move Objects Between Views

Views and Favorites folders are fixed in the Views folder in which you create them, and you cannot move them. However, you can copy (by dragging) objects from any View into any Favorites folder, and move (by dragging) objects between any two Favorites folders.

Use Objects From Model Views

To make use of the elements, diagrams and packages held in any View or Favorites folder, click on the item and drag it into a diagram or a Team Review posting. The item behaves in the same way as if you dragged it from the Project Browser.

Export/Import Views

You export Views to create an XML file that you can:

• Import into another model as a user-created Model View or
• Call from an MDG Technology Selection (MTS) file to access the Technology-defined View provided by the active MDG Technology.

The export and import functions are available from the Model Views root-node context menus.

When you use the export function, it acts on the complete set of View folders in the selected My Views root node, Model Views root node, or user-generated root node. You cannot export individual Views, nor can you export Favorites folders. The function displays the Save As dialog, on which you browse for the directory location for the exported XML file, and specify the file name.

When you use the import function, it displays the Select Import Filename dialog on which you browse for the directory and XML file you want to import. The import creates a new Model View folder with the same name as the copied root node.

Set Up a Technology-Defined View

To set up the Technology-defined View for an MDG Technology, you:

1. Create a user-generated Model View in Enterprise Architect while using the technology
2. Populate it with the required View folders and Views.
3. Export the Views from that Model View as an XML file to an appropriate location
4. Create a call to the file from the technology's MTS file.

Thereafter, any model for which the MDG Technology is active automatically displays those Views in a Technology-defined View.