Entities view

The Entities view shows a tree view of the entities resulting from a search, such as programs and data items.

By default, the tree is collapsed to show only the entity types that match the search criteria and the number of entities of each entity type found by the search.

Clicking the  next to an entity type expands the tree to show the actual entities found by the search. Our search for all programs named CWXTCOB found one program.

Each time you expand the tree, it shows another level of entities that are related to the entities found in the search. By expanding CWXTCOB, we see that it has one related collection and one related step.

When the tree is fully expanded, it shows all of the entities that are directly related to the entity selected, that is, the entities that feed into or out of the selected entity, and related entities are grouped in the tree by their relationship direction: "Related To" or "Related From". For example, it can show the programs related to an include. It cannot, however, show the transactions related to an include because this is not a direct relationship. If you want to see an entity's indirect relationships, perform impact analysis.

If your search doesn't return the results you expected, you may want to contact your Metadata Analyzer administrator to verify that the entities you are searching for have been collected.

There are several selections you can make that can affect what entities appear in the Entities view:

• The Entity Tree Settings dialog box lets you choose what type of related entities you want to see.
• The Entity Tree Settings dialog box lets you choose what optional information you want to see.
• The Filter dialog box lets you show only the entities that match a given name.
• The Return Limit dialog box lets you set the number of entities returned from the Metadata Repository when you expand a folder in the Entities view.

When you select an entity in the Entities view, the Properties view populates with attributes describing the entity.

You can also browse a downloaded entity in an editor.

Choosing which related entities to show

By default, all direct relationships are shown in the tree, with an indication of which are related to and which are related from the entity. You can, however, set the tree to show only one of these directions.

1. From the Tools menu or by right-clicking the entity in the Entities view, select Entity Tree Settings. The Entity Tree Settings dialog box appears.
2. Select the related entity direction you want to see in the Entities view and click OK. The settings take effect when the next search is performed.

Adding optional detail to the Entities view

The Entity Tree Settings dialog box also allows you to add any of the following information to the Entities view:

• User label (which can be entered when setting up a collection so you can later identify all entities collected by that collection)
• Owner (some entity types are owned by another entity type, for example, data items are owned by programs)
• Relationship type

By default, these are hidden but they can be shown.

1. From the Tools menu or by right-clicking an entity in the Entities view, select Entity Tree Settings. The Entity Tree Settings dialog box appears.
2. Select the check boxes for the items you want shown in the Entities view and click OK.

Filtering the Entities view

1. To refresh the Entities view to show only the entities that match a given name, set up a filter to filter the Entities view.
2. Select the folder you want to filter.
3. From the Tools menu or by right-clicking the folder, select Filter Entities. The Filter dialog box appears.
4. Enter the filter you want to use, including wildcards in any position of the name, or select from the drop-down list, and click OK. The Entities view refreshes to show only the entities that match the name you entered. A filter icon ()and the filter name (for example ) are shown on the filtered folder to indicate that a filter has been applied.

Limiting return results when you expand a folder

By default, 1000 entities are returned from the Metadata Repository when you expand a folder in the Entities view. You can, however, use the Return Limit dialog box to change this number to any number up to 32,767. This allows you to set a manageable number of entities to be displayed and can reduce the length of time it takes to populate the Entities view.

1. From the Search menu, select Return Limit. The Return Limit dialog box appears.
2. Select the Enable entity return limit checkbox to activate the return limit. If this checkbox is cleared, the return limit value is not used. Note that even if the return limit is disabled, Metadata Analyzer has an internal limit that allows a maximum of 32,767 entities to be returned from the Metadata Repository.

3. In the Return Limit field, indicate the number of entities you want returned when you expand a folder in the Entities view. Type the number or use the spin arrows.

   Note

   The larger the return limit, the more time the request will take to complete.

4. Check or clear the Prompt me… check box as appropriate:
   • Clear it if you do not want to be prompted when the number of entities found exceeds the set limit.
   • Check it if you want to be notified when the number of entities found exceeds the set limi If the number of entities to be returned exceeds the return limit, the Override Return Limit dialog box appears. This dialog box lists the current return limit and allows you to do the following:
   • Click Yes to override the limit so that all matching entities are returned (up to a maximum of 32,767).
   • Click No to accept the return limit and return up to that number of entities. You may then want to apply a filter to the folder or refine your search.
   • Cancel the folder expansion request.
     Clicking Yes will return all entities (up to a maximum of 32,767). Clicking No will return the number of entities equal to the return limit set on the Return Limit dialog box.

5. Click OK. If the number of entities in the Metadata Repository exceeds the search limit, a sample of the matching entities is returned from the Metadata Repository. When the search limit is enabled, the Entities view indicates the number of entities found and the return limit.