Working with the graphical view of objects and relationships

The Data Visualizer perspective is used to present information about data objects and their relationships. The perspective includes a Graphical View of objects and relationships that presents the data source as a collection of object nodes, rounded rectangular boxes that display the name of the object. Object nodes are connected by lines representing their relationship, with arrowheads pointing from parent to dependent objects. Solid lines indicate RI relationships, and dashed lines indicate AR relationships.

Each node in the Graphical View can be moved to a new location by dragging it with the left mouse button pressed. The contents of the entire Graphical View can also be moved either by using the scroll bars or by placing the cursor on an open area then dragging with the left mouse button pressed.

Each data source you open is displayed in a separate tab labeled with the source name. If the data source cannot be visualized for some reason, an error message will appear.

The data displayed in the Graphical View can be limited by using filters on the Object Filters and Relationship Filters tabs. Nodes can also be expanded and collapsed to limit the data being displayed.

The Graphical View can be zoomed in and out, and the spacing between nodes can be increased and decreased, independent of the zoom level.

The type of object node is indicated visually as follows:

Nodes for MVS files are tinted yellow.
Nodes for DBMS files are tinted blue.
Driving objects are indicated with a bold green border around the node.

By default, excluded objects and relationships are hidden by an automatic object or relationship filter and can be displayed by disabling or deleting the filter. The status of visible excluded objects and relationships is indicated visually as follows:

Excluded object nodes are tinted light gray with grayed-out text. On the Objects tab and the Relationships tab, the excluded object is indicated with light gray text.
Objects nodes with all associated relationships excluded are tinted gray with black text.
Excluded relationships are marked with a bold red X.

Clicking on an object node selects it and highlights it with a bold red border around the node. Any dependent objects are also selected and their nodes are tinted dark gray. Clicking on a relationship line selects it, and the line is highlighted in bold with a red arrowhead. Clicking on an excluded relationship line selects it, and the line is highlighted in bold red.

Right-clicking on an object node representing an MVS file or a DB2 table displays a menu with choices for Edit with File-AID and Browse with File-AID. Choosing Edit with File-AID creates a File-AID Data Editor request that can be submitted to edit the selected object, and choosing Browse with File-AID creates a request for browsing the object. For more information, see the BMC-AMI-DevX-Workbench-File-AID-Eclipse-User-Guide.

The Graphical View title bar displays the specification name of the data source.

The following tasks are described below:

Changing the layout
Locating an object
Locating a relationship
Searching for an object or its relationships
Searching for a relationship
Expanding/collapsing and showing/hiding nodes
Showing/hiding relationships
Zooming
Increasing/Decreasing node spacing.

To change the layout of the graphical view

Right-click an open area of the view and select Layouts to display a menu with the following choices:
- Tree - Displays the graph in a vertical tree with the roots along the top
- Horizontal Tree - Displays the graph in a horizontal tree with the roots along the left side. This is the default initial layout.
- Radial - Displays the driving object in the center of the graph and the other root nodes clustered around it
- Grid - Displays the graph with nodes aligned horizontally and vertically
- Sugiyama - Displays the graph in a layout similar to Grid with nodes arranged to minimize overlap
- Balloon - Displays the graph in a circular layout similar to Radial, but with nodes arranged to minimize overlap
- Balloon2 - Displays the driving object in the center of the graph and the other roots in a spiral around it
- Balloon3 - Displays the graph in a layout similar to Horizontal Tree with nodes arranged to minimize overlap.
Click the desired layout. The Graphical View is redrawn with the selected layout. Experiment with layouts to find the one most appropriate for the data being visualized.
To determine the layout currently in use, display the Properties tab for the Graphical View as described in Displaying-properties.

To locate an object in the graphical view

Either click the desired object on the Objects tab or right-click the desired object and select Find>Find Object. The node representing the object will flash briefly and be highlighted in gray.

To locate a relationship in the graphical view

Right-click the desired relationship on the Relationships tab, expand Find, and select from Find Relationship, Find Parent Table, or Find Dependent Table.

If you select Find Relationship, the line representing the selected relationship will flash briefly and be highlighted in red.
If you select Find Parent Table, the node representing the parent in the selected relationship will flash briefly and be highlighted in gray.
If you select Find Dependent Table, the node representing the dependent table will flash briefly and be highlighted in gray.

To search for an object or its relationships from the graphical view

Right-click the desired node in the Graphical View and select Show In>In Object View. The object is displayed on the Objects tab, where the name is automatically entered in the search field.
Right-click the desired node in the Graphical View and select Show In>In Relationship View. All of the relationships in which the node is involved are displayed on the Relationships tab, where the name is automatically entered in the search field.

To search for a relationship from the graphical view

Right-click the desired relationship line in the Graphical View and select Show In>In Relationship View. The relationship is displayed on the Relationships tab, where the name is automatically entered in the search field.

To expand/collapse and show/hide nodes

Right-click the desired node in the Graphical View and select Collapse to hide dependent nodes. The node is collapsed, and the number of dependent nodes is shown in the lower right corner of the collapsed node.
For easier viewing after the desired nodes have been collapsed, the Graphical View can be redrawn without the hidden nodes by right-clicking anywhere in the view and selecting the desired Layout> option.
Right-click the desired collapsed node in the Graphical View and select Expand, Expand All, or Expand Levels. Selecting Expand expands the collapsed node one level. Selecting Expand All fully expands all nodes under the collapsed node. Expand Levels provides sub-menu choices to expand the collapsed node by 3, 5, or 7 levels. If the node has been collapsed more levels than it is expanded, dependent nodes that remain collapsed include a red indicator showing the number of levels that could still be expanded.
To hide an object node, either right-click the desired node in the Graphical View and select Hide Object, or right-click the desired object in the Object View and select Hide Object. The node and its relationships are hidden, and an object filter corresponding to the selected node is automatically created and enabled.
To display a hidden node, either disable or delete the corresponding object filter.

To show/hide relationships

To hide a relationship, either right-click the desired relationship line in the Graphical View and select Hide Object, or right-click the desired relationship on the Relationships tab and select Hide>Hide Relationship. The relationship and any sole parent or dependent object nodes are hidden, and a relationship filter corresponding to the selected relationship is automatically created and enabled.
To display a hidden relationship, along with any object nodes also hidden, either disable or delete the corresponding relationship filter.

To zoom the graphical view

Click the toolbar zoom percentage and select the desired zoom level. Choices include Page, Width, and Height, as well as various numeric percentages.
To zoom larger by one increment, Alt+click anywhere in the Graphical View. To zoom smaller by one increment, use Alt+Shift+click.
To view an object name while zoomed out smaller than 100%, hover over the desired node. A full-size view of the node is temporarily displayed.

To increase or decrease spacing between nodes

Click the up arrow on the spacing spinner (adjacent to the zoom percentage) to increase the space between nodes in the Graphical View. Click the down arrow to decrease spacing. Spacing is independent of zoom percentage.
A spacing value of 0 to 50 can also be entered directly in the spacing spinner.