Chapter 5 Using the PowerDesigner Interface
Selection lists are very common in the product, they let you select items in a list of available items.
Most selection lists display objects contained in the current model or in individual packages contained in that model.
Other selection lists such as the following allow you to display both objects contained in the current model or its packages and objects contained in other models or other packages of these models:
The following tools are available from the top part of a selection list:
| Tool | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Model list | — | Lets you select a model. |
| Package list | — | Lets you select a package. |
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Include Sub-Packages/Sub-Objects | Displays objects contained in sub-packages (Include Sub-Packages) Displays sub-objects if any (Include Sub-Objects) and objects contained in sub-packages. |
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Include External Shortcuts | Includes shortcuts to objects in other models in the list. Note that the model containing the original objects must be open for external shortcuts to be available for selection. When generating, external shortcuts are generated as ordinary objects. |
| Owner List | — | [PDMs only] Lists the users created in the model. Select a user to filter the list by objects owned by the specified user or by no user. If you select User <NONE>, then all the objects are displayed. |
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Select All | Selects all check boxes in the current object type tab. To selects all check boxes in all object type tabs you can click the arrow and select All Lists or you can press the ctrl key and click the Select All tool. |
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Deselect All | Deselects all check boxes in the current object type tab. To deselects all check boxes in all object type tabs you can click the arrow and select All Lists or you can press the ctrl key and click the Deselect All tool. |
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Use Graphical Selection | Uses the graphical selection. |
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Move Selected Items to Top | Moves all selected objects to the top of the list. |
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Move Selected Items to Bottom | Moves all selected objects to the bottom of the list. |
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Customize Columns and Filter | Allows the definition of filter expression on the columns of the selection list. |
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Enable/Disable Filter | Enables or disables the filter. The currently available filter is displayed in the Filter box underneath the object list. |
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Use Filter for Selection | Selects objects based on the filter parameters. |
| Ctrl + selection tool | — | Applies the action of the selection tool to all object types in the different tabs. |
The BPM, the OOM and the XSM own sub-objects (like sub-processes or sub-activities) that are child objects used to describe the actions of the parent object. In these models, you can use the Include Sub-Objects tool to display sub-objects and objects contained in sub-packages. In other models you can use the Include Sub-Packages tool to display objects contained in sub-packages.
The way you use the Include Sub-Packages/Sub-Objects tool allows you to display either:
The selection options are the following:
| Parent object | Include Sub-Packages/Sub-Objects selected | Include Sub-Packages/Sub-Objects not selected |
|---|---|---|
| Model | All objects created in model including sub-objects and objects contained in packages and sub-packages | All objects created in model except sub-objects and objects contained in packages, and sub-packages |
| Package | All objects created in package including sub-objects and objects contained in sub-packages | All objects created in package except sub-objects and objects contained in sub-packages |
Objects identification
As the Include Sub-Packages tool can allow you to display all objects in the current model regardless of packages, objects in the list may have the same name and cause you problems to uniquely identify them. To do so, click the Customize Columns and Filter tool in the list toolbar to display the Customize Columns and Filter dialog box, select the Object Location check box and click OK. The Object Location column appears in the list and allows you to know where objects have been defined.
For more information about the Customize Columns and Filter dialog box, see the Defining a filter on a list section.
You can select objects that are not displayed in the current list by clicking the Include sub-packages tool.
However, if you deselect this tool before you commit your selection, the objects you selected are no more displayed in the current list. Thus, when you want to commit your selection, a confirmation box ask you if you want to include selected objects, which are not displayed, with the current selection.
If you answer:
Yes Objects selection is composed of the objects selected in the current list together with the selected objects that are not displayed.
No Objects selection is only composed of the objects selected in the current list. Other selected objects that were not displayed are simply ignored and deselected.
In some selection lists, you can save sets of object selections in your model, so that you can reuse them easily. Note that in case of a database reverse engineering by ODBC, object selections are saved into separated files, as you can reverse a database without having any open model.
To save a selection, enter a name in the Selection list at the bottom of the Selection tab then click the Save tool beside the list. The selection is saved as part of the model file. For a database reverse engineering by ODBC, you have to select a folder before being able to save the object selection into a separated file.
For more information about database reverse engineering by ODBC, see the "Reverse Engineering a database into a PDM" chapter in the PDM User's Guide .
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