User Reference

VisualAge connections and SilverMark's Connection Detangler

You use the VisualAge Composition Editor to create connections between parts. These connections define specific relationships between those parts. The four types of connections are:

The thing to remember about VisualAge connection types is that they each specify that when something changes (the trigger), something should be done about it (the action). One could say that for any given connection, when its trigger occurs, the connection fires, causing it to perform some action. Parameter connections are a little different because they are triggered to fire to retrieve their source parameter value when their target connection fires.

The Connection Detangler hooks on to connections so that it detects when connections fire. When a connection fires, the Connection Detangler stores information about this as a connection notification. The Connection Detangler does not display connections. It displays connection notifications. This is an important distinction. It means that the Connection Detangler displays information about the dynamic runtime behavior of connections, rather than the static description, which the Composition Editor displays. Being able to view the dynamic runtime behavior of connections is key to being able to have a useful understanding of them.

Starting the Connection Detangler

To start the Connection Detangler, select Connection Detangler... from the VisualAge Organizer Options menu. The first time you do this, you are presented with a product registration dialog.

You can either press Evaluate for 30 days to start the product evaluation period, or follow the directions to purchase the product. This is the only time you are bothered with this inconvenience.

The Connection Detangler Main Interface

Overview

The interface has been kept as simple and straightforward as possible with one main view and a minimal set of secondary dialogs.

The Connection Detangler main view is divided into an upper and lower region. The upper region, called the Part Interaction Diagram, graphically shows part interactions in terms of interacting parts and a list of arrows that represent connection notifications. The lower region, called the Notification Details List, is an alternate detailed textual list of those notifications. The two lists are synchronized so that they always represent the same notifications in the same order. Whenever an item is selected in one list, the corresponding item in the other list is also selected.

The upper and lower regions are separated by a movable separator widget that enables you to adjust the relative sizes of each of the regions. To adjust the sizes, place your mouse cursor over the thin area that separates the two regions. Thc cursor should change to a double arrow. Now you can just drag the separator vertically to its new position.

The Part Interaction Diagram is itself divided into an upper and lower region. The upper region called Collaborating Parts shows icons for interacting parts joined by lines called Collaborating Part Hierarchy Lines, configured in such a way as to indicate their containment hierarchy (parenting). Think of a container tree view turned on its side. The lower region called the Notifications List displays notifications as arrows between the vertical lines that descend from part icons. The Collaborating Parts and Notifications List regions are separated by a movable separator widget, as well. Other miscellaneous regions on the Detangler view are the menu bar and the Control Bar. The menu bar is the standard window menu bar. It contains File and Options menus. The Control Bar contains buttons that control the operation of the Connection Detangler.

Part Interaction Diagram

Collaborating Parts

The Collaborating Parts region of the Part Interaction Diagram region of the Connection Detangler displays icons for those parts that are either sources or targets of connection notifications. This area also shows icons for any parents of collaborating parts, regardless of whether they are sources or targets of connection notifications.

Collaborating Part Hierarchy Lines

The lines above the collaborating part icons show the containment hierarchy of the parts. In the above example, the left-most part is the top-level parent of all the parts to the right of it. The window is the parent of the notebook, the notebook is the parent of the notebook page, the notebook page is the parent of the scrolled window and so on....

Viewing part names

Hover-help is used to show the names of collaborating parts. You can view the names by passing the mouse pointer over their icons. If you do this but do not see hover help, open the VisualAge Preferences notebook (press on the VisualAge Organizer toolbar) and check Show hover help on the General page.

When you view part names, you will see a number in parenthesis appended to the beginning of each name. For example: (1)Query Results. As collaborating parts make their presence known, they are assigned an instance number. This number is used to indicate the instance of the part name. This serves to distinguish parts with the same name or multiple instances of the same part.

If you have any connections to other connections (for example, a connection to a parameter or result of a connection) you will see those connections appear as collaborating parts. The name displayed for a connection is the same name you would see for it in the Composition Editor status area when it is selected in the Composition Editor, with the above instance number concatenated.

Collaborating part popup menu operations

You can perform one of the following operations when you raise a popup menu over a collaborating part's icon:

Notification List

The Notification list is the part of the Part Interaction Diagram that lists connection notifications. It also provides a mechanism for navigating to connection definitions within the Composition Editor.

The notification list is a list whose items each represent a unique connection notification. Remember that a connection notification is not the same as a connection. A connection notification is a particular instance of a connection's firing. Each item is represented by an arrow drawn in the color that the connection it represents would normally appear in the Composition Editor as.

For each arrow,. the end with the rectangle resides at the source of the connection and the end with the point resides at the target of the connection. The text shows the connected feature names. Display of the text can be turned off or on with the Show feature names in diagram menu item under Options.

The vertical lines direct you icons for their respective collaborating parts.

Notification List Popup Menu Operations

You can raise a popup menu after selecting an item in the Notification List. The menu items are:

Notification Details List

The Notification Details list shows details about each connection notification. Like the Notifications List, each item represents a unique connection notification. When you select an item in this list, a corresponding item is selected in the Notifications List.

The columns in the list are, in order:

Notification Details List Popup Menu Operations

You can raise a popup menu after selecting an item in the Notification Details List. The menu items are:

Menu Bar

File

Options

Control Bar

The control bar provides easy access to often used controls or settings.

The control bar widgets from left to right are:

Filtering connections by part

You can elect to show only those connection notifications that are related to a particular part or parts. This is useful when there are many connection notification shown and you want to focus on those related to a particular set of collaborating parts.

There are two ways to filter connections:

• Pop up over a collaborating part to only show connections to or from that one part.
• Open the connection filtering dialog to select from a set of parts.

Filter connections from popup

When you pop up over a part and select the Only show connections for this part item of the popup menu, the items in the lists are reduced to those that either originate from or terminate in the part. To show all connections again, simply pop up over any part and select the Show connections for all parts item.

Note: If there are no connections related to the part, no items or parts will be shown. In this scenario, there are no longer any parts to pop up over so you will need to use the second method below to expose the collaborating parts.

Filter connections from dialog

You can select a set of parts that you want to see connection notifications for. To do this, select the Filter connections by part item of the Options menu. When you do this, you are presented with the following dialog:

The dialog shows the hierarchy of collaborating parts. Any parts that have previously been selected are selected for you. The default is for all items to be selected. When you have selected the parts you are interested in viewing connections for, press OK to have the Detangler view updated to reflect the change.

Note: If you press OK with no items selected, it assumes all items are to be selected. This is to prevent you from creating a view on the connections with a filter containing no parts.

Secondary Views

Connection Detangler Preferences

The Connection Detangler preferences are integrated with the VisualAge Preferences notebook on a tab called Detangler. You can access this page in either of three ways:

• From the VisualAge Organizer tool bar, press the Preferences button and then select the Detangler tab.
• From the VisualAge Organizer Options menu, select Preferences and then select the Detangler tab.
• From the Connection Detangler Options menu, select Preferences.... The Detangler tab is automatically selected for you.

The items on the page indicate Detangler startup options. These values are only used when an instance of the Connection Detangler starts up. Once it has started and set it values based on the preferences, it ignores any changes to them. The values you can set are:

Setting and removing break connections

You can set and remove connection breakpoints by using the Select Break Connections dialog. You open this by selecting the Select break connections... item of the Connection Detangler Options menu.

Setting break connections

To set one or more break connections:

1. Open the Select Break Connections dialog by selecting the Select break connections... item of the Connection Detangler Options menu.
2. Select a part in the left most list (Parts).
3. Select one or more connections in the middle list (Connections).
4. Press the >> button. This moves those connections from Connections list to the right list (Break Connections).
5. Repeat steps 1 through three until you have selected all the connections you wish to break on.
6. Press OK.

or

1. Select a connection notification from either the Notification list or the Notification Details list of the main Connection Detangler view.

2. Popup over the item and select the Add break on connection menu item,

When a break for a connection is set, any notifications for that connection are displayed using dashed lines:

As you can see above, the Display, #object--->Timer,#secondsRemaining connection has a breakpoint set.

Removing break connections

To remove one or more break connections:

1. Open the Select Break Connections dialog by selecting the Select break connections... item of the Connection Detangler Options menu.
2. Select one or more parts in the right list (Break Connections).
3. Press the << button.
4. Press OK.

or

1. Select a connection notification from either the Connection Notification List or the Connection Notification Details list of the main Connection Detangler view.

2. Popup over the item and select the Remove break on connection menu item.

Using Break Connections

When one or more break connections are set, the next time a notification for any of them is detected, the Connection Detangler does the following:

• updates the lists to show any pending notifications, as well as the detected break connection notification

• shows a text representation of the break connection in the title bar

• enables the Debug and Resume buttons

At this point you can open the VisualAge debugger on the connection code and trace through its operation through the point at which it enters the target part, or simply press Resume to continue execution.

While a connection notification is paused, you may want to check the Break on all connections toggle and then press Resume. This allows you to single-step through each connection notification. Uncheck the Break on all connections toggle to exit this mode.

Registering your copy of the Connection Detangler

When you load the Connection Detangler feature into your image, or the first time the Connection Detangler starts watching connections, you are presented with a product registration screen:

You can either start the product evaluation period, purchase the product. Evaluation or registration copies are always in terms of the current Envy user (unique name). This is the license holder.

If you decide to simply evaluate the product, you can elect purchase it at a later time. Each time you start the Connection Detangler during the evaluation period, you will be reminded of the time remaining in the evaluation with the following Transcript message:

Once your 30 day evaluation evaluation period has expired, trying to start the Connection Detangler will result in the above registration dialog being shown. Your only choice at that time is to register the license or uninstall the product.

To register your license at any other time, select the Purchase Connection Detangler... Options menu item of the Connection Detangler. You will be shown the above product registration dialog.

Note: Product registration and evaluation is always in terms of a license holder. That license holder is the current Envy user (EmUser current uniqueName).

Purchasing the product:

Read and understand the purchase license agreement. This is available electronically or in printed form if you purchased diskettes.

1. If you purchased the product on diskette you must enter the printed serial number that came with the diskette in the field marked Serial number below. Note: This is in place of the one already shown.
2. If you downloaded the program you should leave the serial number shown as it is.
3. Located or obtain a key, and enter it in the field marked Key
4. Press Register or evaluate the product to complete your registration.

Evaluating the product:

To begin the 30-day evaluation period for the Connection Detangler:

1. Read and understand the evaluation license agreement.
2. Press Register or evaluate the product with the Key field blank.

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