Building a Structure Chart

It's easy to get a graphical view of all of the entities that are related to an entity. The Metadata Analyzer's structure chart can show the entities that flow from or flow to a given entity. For example, requesting a structure chart to a program would result in a chart of the jobs, steps, procs, and so on that flow to the program. Conversely, requesting a structure chart from a program would result in a chart of the data items, virtual tables, and so on. And, you can even decide what types of entities are included in or excluded from the chart. For example, you may choose to exclude data items if they would make the chart very large.

To build a structure chart

1. Select the entity in the Entities view.
2. Do one of the following:
   • From the Tools menu, select Structure Chart.
   • Right-click and select Structure Chart from the shortcut menu.
   • Click .
     The Filter Structure Chart dialog box appears.
3. Select the direction you want to chart: either from the selected entity or to the selected entity.
4. Select the entity types you want to include and clear the entity types you want to exclude from the structure chart.
5. Click OK. The structure chart appears. This is a chart from a program.
   
   

This is a chart to the same program.

The entity you selected from the Structure Chart window forms the root of the structure chart. The structure chart shows all of the entities that are related to that entity.

To see property information for an entity, select the entity. The Properties view populates with information about the entity.

To refilter the structure chart

If you decide that you want to see more or less entity types in the structure chart, you can filter the chart again.

1. From the Chart menu, select Filter Chart. The Filter Structure Chart dialog box appears again.
2. Select the entity types you want to display in the chart and click OK.

Changing how nodes display in the chart

Nodes can be displayed in either Shapes mode or Text mode. The default display mode is Shapes mode, which uses shapes to indicate the node type. Text mode displays nodes that are square, have text-wrapping capability, and indicate the entity's type with words rather than shape, all of which allow the entire procedure name to show.

Here are examples of Shapes mode:

Here is an example of Text mode:

If many procedures start with the same characters or are truncated, it can be difficult to read the name of a procedure shown on a node. Changing the node display to Text mode remedies this problem. Here is an example of a node in Shapes mode that would be better in Text mode:

In Shapes mode:

In Text mode:

To select Text mode, from the Chart menu, select Node Display>Text. The default is Shapes mode.

When you choose Text mode, you can also select among three text sizes to be used in the nodes. To select the text size to be used in the nodes, from the Chart menu, select Node Display>Text Size and then Small, Medium, or Large. Text size cannot be changed in Shapes mode.

You can customize the colors used in the chart by selecting from the Chart menu Node Display>Customize Colors.

To open a program or include in the Program Analyzer or an editor

Select the structure chart and, from the Tools menu, select either Program Analyzer or Browse.

To toggle the toolbar and status bar on and off

From the View menu, select Toolbar or Status Bar.

Fields on the Filter Structure Chart dialog box

From the selected entity: Select to indicate that you want the chart direction to be from the selected entity. The default is from the selected entity.

To the selected entity: Select to indicate that you want the chart direction to be to the selected entity.

Entity types to include: Select the entity types you want included in the structure chart. By default, all types applicable to the selected entity are included— except data items. The list of available entity types varies based on the selected entity type, the chart direction, and the type of collections you have run. Data items are excluded by default because there are typically a large number of them. Including data items may result in a very large chart.

Select All: Selects all available entity types to be included in the structure chart.

Deselect All: Deselects all available entity types from being included in the structure chart.