Desktop Client User Interface (4.0)
- Jenni Wallin
Desktop Client is the user interface application that enables you to manage, navigate, and monitor the system. Using Desktop Client, you create workflows. A workflow is a set of agents that are connected to each other and represent a flow of data processing. All the agents in a workflow operate on a specific data type, and most agents need to know the structure, the Input/Output data, of the data in order to operate properly.
The Desktop Client User Interface
The Desktop Client provides a tabbed user interface, which allows for having more than one configuration open in the same window and to easily switch between different configurations.
The Desktop Client window is organized into two main sections:
The left part - Configuration Navigator pane: The Configuration Navigator holds all configurations and enables easy navigation between the different configurations. To create a new configuration, click the New Configuration button. To open an existing configuration, double-click on the configuration in the Configuration Navigator, or right-click on a configuration and then select Open Configuration(s)... . The configuration will be visible in a tab in the right part of the Desktop window. For further information, see the section below Configuration Browser.
Configuration NavigatorConfigurations - A configuration is a configurable item, for example, a workflow or a Database profile.
For further information about configurations, see Common Configurations(4.0).
Desktop - Configurations SettingsInspection - When workflows are executed, the agents may generate various kinds of data, such as logging errors into the System Log, or sending erroneous data to the Error Correction System (ECS). The inspectors allow the user to view such information and are further described in Data Management (4.0).
Desktop - Inspection buttonTools - provides different tools to, for example, view logs, statistics, and pico instance information, and to import and export configurations. To open tools, click on the Tools button .The tools are described in Tools(3.1).
The right part - Tabs: The right part of the Desktop window holds all Configurations, Inspectors and Tools that have been opened, each of them shown in a separate tab.
Configuration Browser
The Configuration Navigator gives a view of all configurations and makes it possible to easily navigate between different configurations.
In the Configuration Navigator you can also filter what configurations to be shown, by selecting configurations of a specific type. The Configuration Navigator can be hidden or visible. By default, it is visible and all configurations are displayed. In addition, you have the option to display configurations with folders and subfolders.
The Configuration Navigator supports a set of operations that can be performed for the configurations by using the right-click menu. For each configuration you can also open a Properties dialog where permissions can be set and where you can view history, references and basic information.
Button | Description |
|---|---|
To show or hide the Configuration Navigator pane, click the Show/Hide Configuration Navigator button in the upper left part of the Desktop. |
The Configuration Navigator
Directly below the Configuration Navigator pane, there are three buttons that you can use to modify how you want to display the folders in the Configuration Navigator pane.
You can enable subfolders to allow you to sort your configurations within your folders, making it easier to maintain larger implementations. To enable subfolders, you must set the Platform property mz.subfolder.enabled to true.
For further information, see Platform Properties(3.1).
Button | Description |
|---|---|
Click this button to toggle between displaying the folders only as they were originally created, e g "batch_realtime_happy_workflow", or when subfolders are created in the folders in the Configuration Navigation pane, e g a folder named "batch" with hidden subfolders named "realtime", "happy" and "workflow. When subfolders are created, configurations are sorted into subfolders determined by the separator used in the folder name. The only valid separators in a folder name are "_" or "-". If any other character is used as a separator, or if the Platform property | |
Click this button to expand all of the folders to display the folders, subfolders and all the configurations that they contain. | |
Click this button to collapse the folders so only the folders are visible. |
In the Configuration Navigator pane there are two standard folders:
Default - where all Configurations are stored if no other folder is specified when saving the configuration.
SystemTask - includes workflows for performing different background routines. For further information, refer to System Task Workflows in Workflow Types (3.0).
The Default and SystemTask folders cannot be renamed or deleted.
Each folder listed in the Configuration Navigator pane has a number attached to its name. This number indicates how many configurations that are stored in the folder.
Right-Click Menu
In this section, the different options available in the right-click menu of the Configuration Navigator are described.
Right-click a configuration and select one of the following options:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Refresh | Select this option to refresh the selected folder, subfolder or configuration. |
Expand | Select this option to refresh the selected folder, subfolder or configuration. |
Collapse | Select this option to expand the selected folder or subfolder to display all the subfolders and configurations that it contains. |
New Folder... | Select this option to create a new folder. Note!If you select a folder and select this option from the right-click menu, you create a subfolder. |
Open Configuration(s)... | Available when at least one configuration is selected. Select this option to open the selected configuration(s). |
Export Configuration(s) | Available when at least one configuration is selected. Select this option to export the selected configurations. The System Exporter dialog opens with the configurations pre-selected. Note!When exporting from the Configuration Navigator, configuration dependencies are not automatically selected. This can be achieved by selecting the "Select Dependencies" check box in the System Exporter dialog. For further information see System Exporter. |
Cut | Select this option to put one or more configurations on the clipboard to move the configuration to another location. Select the menu option Paste in the folder where the configurations should be stored. This option is not applicable if the configuration is locked. For further information see Locks in Administration and Management(4.0). |
Copy | Select this option to put one or more configurations on the clipboard to copy the configurations to another location. Select the menu option Paste in the folder where the copied configurations should be stored. |
Paste | Select this option to store configurations that have been cut or copied to the clipboard into a folder. |
Delete... | Select this option to delete the selected configuration(s). If the configuration is referenced by another configuration, a warning message will be displayed, informing you that you cannot remove the configuration. You can force the deletion of a folder and all the configurations that it contains. A message is displayed asking if you are sure that you want to continue, in order to avoid deletion by mistake. Note that there is no restore option for this function. All the configurations are permanently removed. Note!If you have enabled subfolders, you can only delete the last subfolder within a folder. |
Rename... | Select this option to change the name of the selected configuration. Take particular care when renaming a configuration. If, for example, an APL script is renamed, workflows that are using this script will become invalid. This is important to know when you rename folders that contain many ultra format configurations or APL configurations. Renaming a folder with ultra formats or APL configurations will make all referring configurations invalid. |
Encrypt... | Select this option to encrypt the selected configurations. |
Decrypt... | Select this option to decrypt the selected configurations. |
Validate... | Select this option to validate the configuration. A validation message will be shown to the user. |
Show Properties | Select this option to launch the Properties dialog for the selected configuration. For further information, see the section below, Properties. |
Documentation | Select this option to launch the Documentation dialog for the selected configuration. For further information, see the section below, Documentation. |
Properties
To open the Properties dialog, right-click a configuration and then select Show Properties.
This dialog contains four different tabs: Basic, which contains basic information about the configuration, Permission, where you set permissions for different users, References , where you can see which other configurations that are referenced by the selected configuration, or that refers to the selected configuration, and History which displays the revision history for the configuration. The Basic tab is displayed by default.
The Basic Tab
The Basic tab is the default tab in the Properties dialog and contains the following information:
Configuration Information | Description |
|---|---|
Name | Displays the name of the configuration. |
Type | Displays the type of configuration. |
Key | Displays the internal key used to identify the configuration. |
Folder | Displays the name of the folder in which the configuration is located. |
Version | Displays the version number of the configuration, see the History tab for further information about the different versions. |
Permissions | Displays the permissions granted to the current user of the configuration. Permissions are shown as R (Read), W (Write) and X (eXecute). If the configuration is encrypted, an E will also be added. |
Owner | Displays the username of the user that created the configuration. The owner can:
|
Modified by | Displays the user name of the user that made the last modifications to the configuration. |
Modified | Displays the date when the configuration was last modified. |
If you want to use the information somewhere else you can highlight the information and press CTRL-C to copy the information to the clipboard.
The Permissions Tab
The Permissions tab contains settings for what different user groups are allowed to do with the configuration:
As access permissions are assigned to user groups, and not individual users, it is important to make sure that the users are included in the correct user groups to allow access to different configurations.
R | W | X | E | Permission Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
R | - | - | - | Allowed only to view the Configuration, given that the user is granted access to the application. |
- | W | - | - | Allowed to edit and delete the Configuration. |
- | - | X | - | Allowed only to execute the Configuration. |
R | W | - | - | Allowed to view, edit and delete the Configuration, given that the user is granted access to the application. |
- | W | X | - | Allowed to edit, delete and execute the Configuration. |
R | - | X | - | Allowed to view and execute the Configuration, given that the user is granted access to the application. |
R | W | X | - | Full access. |
- | - | - | E | Encrypted. |
The References Tab
The References tab contains information about which other configurations that the current configuration is referring to, and which other configurations that the current configuration is referenced by:
The References tab contains two sub tabs: Used By, that displays all the configurations that use the current configuration, and Uses, that displays all the configurations that the current configuration uses.
If you want to edit any of the configurations, you can double-click the configuration to open it for editing.
The History Tab
The History tab contains version information for the configuration:
In the version table, the following columns are included:
Column | Description |
|---|---|
Version | Displays the version number. |
Modified Date | Displays the date and time when the version was saved. |
Modified By | Displays the user name of the user that saved the version. |
Comment | Displays any comments for the version. |
If you want to clear the history for the Configuration, click the Clear Configuration History button. The version number is not affected by this.
Documentation
To open the Documentation dialog, right-click on a configuration and then select Documentation.
In this dialog, you can provide information on the selected configuration, for example, a description and the purpose of the configuration. You can use markdown syntax if preferred. The text entered is then included in the automated documentation that you can generate using the Documentation Generator(4.0) tool. When you have completed the text you want to include, click OK to save.
Global Search
A field for free text searches is available at the top right of the main window. You can use this field to search for saved configurations on your system.
You can disable the search functionality by setting the cell property mz.use.search to false. This will decrease the startup time of the Platform by approximately 10%.
Each entry in the search results contains a path to the configuration and a fragment of its settings or code. Double-clicking on an entry opens the corresponding configuration.
To view a fragment or open a configuration, you must have the required read access permissions.
A search query may contain single-word or phrase terms that correspond to code, free text values, or configuration names. These terms are not case sensitive but exact matches are required, unless you are using wildcards.
To search for a phrase you must use quotation marks e g "int myVar".
By default, queries will return all configurations that contain any of the search terms. You can use boolean operators, i e + or -, to further refine the search results. For instance, the query +tcp_ip +3210 will only return configurations that contain both tcp_ip and 3210.
The table below describes symbols that you can use to perform complex queries.
Symbol | Description |
|---|---|
+ | Use this symbol before terms that must be included in the configurations that you are searching for. |
- | Use this symbol before terms that must not be included in the configurations that you are searching for. |
? | Use the this symbol in a term to perform a single character wildcard search. You cannot use wildcard symbols within phrase queries. You cannot use a wildcard symbol as the first character in a term. |
* | Use the this symbol in a term to perform a multiple character wildcard search. You cannot use wildcard symbols within phrase queries. You cannot use a wildcard symbol as the first character in a term. |
^<factor> | You can change the relevance level of matching configurations based on the terms found. Use the ^ (caret) symbol with a factor value at the end of a term to boost it. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be. |
~ | Use this symbol at the end of the terms to perform a fuzzy search. For instance, to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam", use You cannot use fuzzy search in phrase queries. |
~<proximity> | You can search for terms that are within a specific distance from another term. To perform this type of search, use the tilde, "~" symbol with a proximity value that denotes the row distance. |
Status Bar
At the bottom of the main window a status bar is shown. It is divided into four sections, which contain information about your system.
The status bar
Status bar information | Description |
|---|---|
Actions | The first section shows desktop actions. It could either be a text message with user information such as "Saved myWorkflow" or a progress bar when data is being loaded from the Platform to the Desktop. |
Operations Information | An icon for displaying the status of the Configuration Monitor. While operations are being performed, for example when workflows are in building state, the icon will indicate that the operations are in progress. If any warnings have been detected during the operations, a warning sign is shown on top of the Configuration Monitor icon. When you press the icon, the Configuration Monitor will be displayed. |
User | Specifies the user that is logged into the Desktop. When you hover the pointer over the username, the date/time of the last successful login and the IP address that was used are displayed in a tooltip. |
System Information | Specifies the system name as well as the host and port that the Desktop is connected towards. |
This chapter describes applications, features and settings used in the Desktop Client and contains the following sections: