Purpose
The Class Browser is designed to display and edit UBIK® objects in a hierarchical manner. It is also meant to be the superior of all other controls and the only one where at least one instance of it is actually mandatory in a UBIK® Studio session. So it can be considered as the root of object manipulation in UBIK®.
In addition, it makes use of Namespaces and uses them for structuring the displayed objects even further.
Basics
Appearance
Icons
Depending on the current View Style, the control display different types of UBIK® classes. Each major class type is associated with a unique icon, in order to provide a visual distinction of the class types. However, these icons can be replaced by more specific ones during the customization process, which means that it is not a reliable indicator if an object is of a certain type.
The coloring of an icon indicates another object status: if the icon appears grey instead of its regular coloring, the respective object is considered as a system object.
A blue triangle in the upper left corner of an icon indicates that the object is an instance of another object in the same view.
Tooltips
Hovering with the mouse over a tree node will bring up a Tooltip-Text, showing you the system type of the respective object and if it is currently in in Live- or in Sandbox-mode. Depending on the actual type of the object, there will be additional information presented in the Tooltip.
Node Texts
Clicking a node with the right mouse button will bring up a standard context menu for each node, except Namespaces. Depending on the View Style there will be different options, however, all nodes will at least show the following menu items:
| Menu | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Navigate To | Opens the navigation menu |
| Save | Saves changes on the object to the database |
| Delete | Deletes the object from cache. It will only be removed from the database after a Save |
Toolbar
| Control | Purpose |
|---|---|
| View Style | Indicates or changes the View Style of the control; changing it will result in reloading of the control |
| Search | Allows to perform a (visual) search through the labels of the tree nodes; found objects will be highlighted accordingly |
View Styles
The Class Browser has three different View Styles, each of the providing different views and functionality.
Hierarchical
In this View Style, the Derivates relation from each MetaClass deriving directly or indirectly from BaseClass will be evaluated. It is also the Style where new MetaClasses should be created by deriving from exiting ones.
Inheritance
In this View Style, Inheritance relation of all MetaClasses will be evaluated.
Content
In this View Style, the Instances of all MetaClasses will be evaluated.