Chapter 6 Diagrams and Symbols

Displaying a set of associated sub-objects within a parent symbol

A sub-object is an object associated with a parent object. It has no symbol in the diagram but displays in its parent symbol. In the following example, the Team number and the Employee number columns have no symbol in the diagram but display in their parent Proj.Team table symbol:

You define a sub-object from its parent property sheet. All the created sub-objects display by default in the parent symbol with a default font defined in the display preferences.

For more information on setting a default font, see "Format display preferences" in the Customizing your Modeling Environment chapter.

You can decide to remove sub-objects from the symbol by clearing their corresponding check box in the display preferences for the parent object.

For more information on setting display preferences for an object, see the appropriate modeling guide.

Sub-Objects tab

However, you can also decide to only display a set of sub-objects using the Sub-Objects tab of the Symbol Format dialog box. It also allows you to define a specific font for each sub-object.

This tab is accessible from the symbol contextual menu or from the Symbol menu.

It is not available from the Symbol Format dialog box that you access from the display preferences. It is neither available from the Symbol Format dialog box that you access from the Custom Symbol of the Profile editor, same when you select more than one symbol in the diagram.

Moreover, this tab is never available when the Comment option is selected in the display preferences to allow the display of the comment in symbols instead of the sub-objects. For more information see, "Object Properties" in the Objects chapter.

The Sub-Objects tab contains a sub-tab for each sub-object type selected in the display preferences. Each sub-tab content reflects the corresponding tab in the parent property sheet. By default, all the sub-objects D (for Displayed) check box is selected and the Specific Font column is empty as all sub-objects have the default font.

The following example shows the Sub-Objects tab in the Symbol Format dialog box for the table Proj.Team as Columns and Indexes were selected in the Display Preferences dialog box.

You can use the following tools to manage the display of sub-objects in the symbol:

Tool	Description
	Selects the D (Displayed) check box for all sub-objects in the active page or in all pages at once.
	Clears the D (Displayed) check box for all sub-objects in the active page or in all pages at once.
	Opens the Font dialog box to allow you to define a specific font for the selected sub-object.

For each sub-object in a sub-tab, you can decide:

• To display it or not in the parent symbol.
• To apply to it a specific font that displays in the parent symbol.

To select a sub-object to display in the parent symbol:

1. Right-click a symbol in the diagram and select Sub-Objects Format.
2. Select a sub-object in the list and click the D check box.
   
   The sub-object you have selected is displayed in the parent symbol when you click Apply.
   
   When only some sub-objects in a sub-tab are selected for display in the list, ellipses are displayed in the parent symbol to indicate that more data can be displayed.

To define a specific font for a sub-object:

1. Right-click a symbol in the diagram and select Sub-Objects Format.
2. Select a sub-object in the list and click the Select Font tool to open the Font dialog box and define a font.
3. Click OK to close the Font dialog box.
   
   The font settings are displayed in the Specific Font column beside the selected sub-object. If the D check box is selected for the sub-object, the font settings are applied to it in the diagram when you click Apply.
   
   You can also open the Font dialog box by clicking the Ellipses button in the Specific Font column beside the selected sub-object or even directly define a font for a sub-object in the Specific Font column. Beware that if you type wrong font settings, they are replaced with the display preferences default font.
   
   You can also multi-select sub-objects in the list to apply to them the same specific font.

In the following example, both columns have a specific font but only the Team number will be displayed in the parent symbol:

In the Proj.Member parent symbol, only the Team number column is displayed and ellipses indicate that more data can be displayed:

All and Limit options in display preferences

For objects that have "All" and "Limit" options in their display preferences (i.e. CDM entity for attributes or OOM state for actions), the rule is to preserve your selections in the display preferences together with taking into account the sub-objects you have selected to be displayed in the parent symbol.

For example, if 7 attributes are selected to be displayed in the entity Sub-Objects tab whereas the display preferences for entity attributes has a limitation at 5, only the 5 first attributes selected in the Sub-Objects tab are displayed in the entity symbol.

For more information on All and Limit options in display preferences, see the appropriate modeling guide.

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