UBIK Studio Basics

UBIK^® Studio is the server application and administrative tool for creating and modifying UBIK^® object models. Transfer your entitiy-relationship-model into UBIK^® MetaClasses and MetaProperties and build up necessary relations. It is also the instrument of your choice to manage instances of MetaClasses, edit their property values and create actual relations between instance objects. This section will provide you with more information on the user interface.

File:METACLASS.png

UBIK^® metaclass

File:INSTANCE.png

UBIK^® instance

Prerequisites

Options

File:USB Options.png

UBIK^® Studio settings

Locate and click the menu Edit → Options. Press Apply or OK when you're finished changing the settings, or Cancel if you don't want your changes to be saved. The settings are user-specific and will be stored in your local Windows user profile.

In the options you can configure your database connection by the following parameters

Parameter	Purpose
AutoConnect	If set to true, the system will attempt to automatically connect to the configured database on start up
DataBase	The name of your SQL Server
DataSource	SQL server instance (specify a server via host name, UNC, IP, ...)
Language	Set the desired database language in ISO639-1 syntax
User	SQL user name
Password	SQL user password

Take care that the specified SQL user has appropriate permissions on the database.

Additional options are

Parameter	Purpose
LiveMode	Use the relational database structure (true) or the Sandbox structure (false)
RecordLifeTime	Set how long records are valid before the will be requeried for changes by the core; -1 to turn off

Working with UBIK^® Studio

Working area and controls

File:USB Studio.png

UBIK^® Studio main window

The main window of UBIK^® Studio is split into 3 sections, where each of the 3 areas can hold an arbitrary amount of controls. The arrangement of the controls is user specific and can be saved. In addition to the predefined sections, the user interface can be extended with working windows, where each working window can again hold any amount of controls:

View → New Working Window or Ctrl+W

However, such working windows are considered temporary and are therefore not made persistent when the layout is saved.

Each control provides different functionality for object creation/modification. Clicking the header of an empty tab strip in one of these areas with the left mouse button will bring up a context menu, that allows you to create a new tab page hosting one of the following controls:

File:USB ControlsOverview.png

UBIK^® Studio controls

Control	Description
Class Browser	Navigate through the MetaClasses and instances
Class Details	Design MetaClasses
Bulk Editor	Create and edit instances
Code Editor	Implement customer specific functionality
Relation Editor	Relate objects and edit relational data
Object Explorer	Display and edit all exposed properties of objects (list style)
Object Editor	Graphical editor for changing object properties
Workflow Designer	Design and assign customer specific workflows

Editing objects in general

Basically there are various ways to edit objects in the UBIK^® database, each applicable for both, meta- and content objects. Use the following controls to edit

Property	Control
Basic properties	“Object Editor”, “Object Explorer”, “Content Editor”
Relational data	“Relation Editor”
MetaClass details	“Class Details”
Events / object methods	“Code Editor"

All controls require a similar workflow

1. Open the control
2. Set the object to be edited to the control via dragging the object and dropping it onto the header of the control’s tab
3. The corresponding edit functionality will be available then

MetaClasses

Create new MetaClass

1. Create a new MetaClass via „Derive new object“ from the context menu
2. Open the control “Object Editor”
3. Set the newly created MetaClass to the control
4. Set name, description and namespace
5. Save the changes

Technical implementation

The system creates a new instance of “CUSTOMMETACLASS” and sets the “INHERIT” property to the MetaClass the context menu was opened at. New derivates can be created for any system MetaClasss as “BASECLASS”, “REFERENCE”, “SELECTIVELIST”, … etc.

MetaProperties

Create new MetaProperty

A new MetaProperty can be created and automatically assigned to a MetaClass via the “Create new MetaProperty ” workflow. This workflow guides the user through the creation and configuration procedure of a MetaProperty and relates it to the selected MetaClass .

1. Start Workflow “System / Create new MetaProperty ” from the context menu
2. Set at least name, description and data type
3. Change the MetaProperty ’s category if necessary
4. Save the changes
5. Optional configuration:

- Reference

- Selective list

- Unit item

- Format

- Validation flag

- Number of index keys

- Default values

- Initial values

Technical implementation

Without the workflow the user has to complete the following steps:

Step 1: Create new MetaProperty instance

1. Navigate to the MetaClass “CUSTOMMETAPROPERTY”
2. Create a new instance
3. Set at least name, description and data type
4. Change the MetaProperty’s category if necessary
5. Save the changes
6. Optional configuration:

- Reference

- Selective list

- Unit item

- Format

- Validation flag

- Number of index keys

- Default values

- Initial values

Step 2: Relate the instance of MetaProperty to a MetaClass

1. Open the control “Class Details”
2. Set the designated MetaClass to the control
3. Add the MetaProperty either by dragging and dropping the MetaProperty's instance onto the MetaClass or by clicking the Add MetaProperty button button in the menu
4. By clicking on the Add MetaProperty button button the user has to navigate through the hierarchy to the appropriate MetaProperty

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