Graphical Property Editor

Overview

This helper allows you to quickly and easily view and manipulate the graphical properties of elements on a diagram.

Applicable To	All
Menu Entry	Power Pack  Diagram Tools  Graphical Property Editor
Demonstration	Watch the Video

Launching the Editor

In addition to the context menu above, if you are using Rhapsody 10 or above then an additional toolbar button is available:

The editor may be launched from a diagram or from element(s) on a diagram. If a single element is used, then the UI only presents that element:

If multiple elements are selected, then only those elements are presented and the Apply Changes to All option defaults to true (the helper assumes that if you launch from multiple selected elements any changes you make should apply to all of them).

If a diagram is used, then all elements on the diagram are presented and the Apply Changes to All option defaults to false.

Viewing and Filtering

When multiple elements are presented, each may be viewed by selecting its radio button in the sidebar. Typing (a regular expression) into the Filter field will filter the displayed elements:

Important: If Apply Changes to All is selected then changes apply to all currently visible items. Filtered out elements are unaffected by changes. This gives you two options to apply bulk changes:

1. Select one element on the diagram and use Edit  Select  Select Same Type before invoking the helper – then you can use Apply Changes to All

2. Run the helper on the diagram and apply a filter – then Apply Changes to All only affects the remaining unfiltered elements.

Locating Elements

Clicking Highlight Element in Model will locate the model element in the model browser (if applicable – diagram frames for example have no model element) and select/highlight the element on the diagram. If the same model element appears on a diagram more than once then the helper uses underscores in the radio button names to distinguish them.

General Element Information

Some fields are for information and as such are read-only, for example Type and GUID. Editing the Name field in the Model Element section will rename the model element. Editing the Text graphical property directly manipulates that graphical property (see below).

Graphical Properties

The helper queries Rhapsody for all available graphical properties of an element. This is important for several reasons:

· In some cases, Rhapsody may provide graphical properties that are either not applicable or not used by the element.

· Changing values in the helper uses the Rhapsody API to request the graphical property change to the requested value.

· In some cases, Rhapsody ignores the request – either because the property is not relevant or for some other reason.

· You are directly manipulating graphical properties. Whilst the Rhapsody API should not allow you to corrupt the model by changing properties through standard API calls, this cannot be guaranteed! Always make sure you have a backup of the model before using this helper. Co-Ordinate properties seem especially prone to misbehavior.

Applying and Undoing Changes

Changing a value in the helper will request the change immediately (except in the case of text fields in which case the change is requested when you hit Enter). The helper requests the change and then requests the new value to check if the change took place or was ignored. If the new value is not the one requested, then that is reported in the Rhapsody output window and should be reported to IBM as a Rhapsody defect.

If the Apply Changes to All checkbox is set to true, then any change made will result in the change request being made for all elements (or all visible elements – see Filtering above). Be very careful that you really want to Apply Changes to all before making a change! Changes are logged with the Rhapsody API undo buffer (bulk changes are logged as a single undoable action) and so you may use the Rhapsody Edit  Undo menu to undo the changes. Note however that the Rhapsody Undo API is not always successful! If you do use Undo you will need to close and re-open the helper for it to see the updated property values.

The helper presents specific editors for the known property types, for example ‘boolean’ properties are presented as check boxes (in the API some of these properties are true / false, others are 1 and 0, others have custom values – the helper presents all of them as a checkbox to improve your user experience)

Editing Text

Editing the Text graphical property has different effects for different model elements. For example:

· Editing the Text property of a Note changes its text.

· Editing the Text property of a Comment modifies its Description.

· In some cases, this property change may change the name of the model element.

· In some cases, this property change sets the label of the model element.

· In some cases, the property change is simply ignored or refused.

In some cases (for example Comments and Notes), this changes the Label and sets the display options, in other cases Rhapsody simply refuses or ignores the change.

Editing Colors

Colors may be selected using a picker or by typing values directly into the RGB fields: