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The project data has different representations, notably the treeview and different Internal Block Diagram views. The goal of navigation is simply to move from one project data representation to another. In the picture below, you can see the different elements of the arKItect user interface that can be used for navigation.

The navigation is always done in a given projection. A projection can be seen as the context resulting from a filter on the objects of the project. Only one projection can be selected at a time. To set the current projection, use the drop-down list in the Navigation Panel of the Home Category.

A treeview is a vertical view of the project. It represents all the objects present in the context of the current projection.

In order to display the treeview related to a given projection, check Show Treeviews button in the Navigation Panel of the Home Category. The treeview is displayed in a panel on the left-hand side of the arKItect window. The title of the treeview window corresponds to the name of the projection. You can choose to close the treeview window; to make it reappear, reselect the projection when Show Treeviews button is checked. Even though only one projection can be selected at any given moment, you can visualize several treeviews by selecting the projections sequentially, one after the other.

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If you do not want a new treeview panel to open each time you change the projection, click on the Show Treeviews button again to uncheck it. This action also closes the treeview panel of the active projection.

You can navigate in the treeview by expanding nodes and selecting the focus object with a single mouse-click.

When a projection is selected, there is always an item in focus. By default, the root object is selected. It is possible to change the focus object by clicking (a single mouse-click) on object nodes in the treeview; the Internal Block Diagram of the object in focus in the current treeview is displayed. The diagram contains the following elements:

  • All the direct children of the focus object in the treeview are displayed. The children can eventually be displaying some of their attributes.
  • If a child is expanded, a rectangle with rounded corners is displayed encompassing the first-level children inside.
  • All the flows exchanged by the focus object's children are displayed. A flow is exchanged if it is produced by an object or its descendants and consumed by another object or its descendants. The flows often have a label.
  • The interface of the object is displayed through ports. A port exists in the following situations:
    • If the flow is produced (resp. consumed) in the focus object or its descendants and it has no consuming (resp. producing) object.
    • If the flow is produced (resp. consumed) in the focus object or its descendants and consumed (resp. produced) outside the object and its descendants.

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The descendants of an object are computed based on the projection, the object's type and its parents' type(s) (for more information, see Filtering Principles). As an object can have multiple parents, it is therefore possible for an object to exist in different diagram views in the same projection.

Using the treeview is not the only way to focus on an object. There is a way to access directly the displayed objects: you just have to double-click on them in the Internal Block Diagram.

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The Internal Block Diagram and the treeview are linked: just as selecting the focus object in the treeview determines the displayed diagram, navigation in the Internal Block Diagram influences the treeview (nodes open and the focus object changes in function of the user's actions).

It is also possible to right-click on a non-flow object in the Internal Block Diagram and choose Focus in Projection from the context menu. This action allows to highlight the selected object in the TreeView. For flows, you have two options: Focus Consumed Flow in Projection and Focus Produced Flow in Projection.

The Navigation Panel in the Home Category has three buttons  that will help to navigate between the diagrams. The first two work like the navigation buttons in your web browser. They allow to go back and forward in the diagrams. The last button will set the focus on the nearest parent whose diagram is initialized (or in the root object in case there are no parents with an initialized diagram). This allows you to go up in the diagram.

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A diagram is called initialized when the positions of its object instances differ from the default positions.

More information on the Design Panel in the Home Category and Zoom Panel in the Diagram Category can be found in Organizing Objects in the Internal Block Diagram.

You can choose to hide or display the labels of links in diagrams using the Labels(Diagrams) button in the Display Panel in the Home Category. When the Labels(Diagrams) functionality is on, the links in diagrams are displayed without their labels. Thus, you can decrease the number of displayed information in diagrams.

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If you hide the labels in the diagrams and close the project and/or exit arKItect, Labels(Diagrams) will be on when you re-open the project.

One very useful feature offered by arKItect when navigating is Persistent Flows. With this feature, you can select flows in a diagram and keep this selection while navigating inside a projection. The selection will be lost if you exit arKItect or close the project. To use the selection, you have to right-click on a flow in the Internal Block Diagram. Select Persistent Flows >, and choose:

  • Add: adds the selected flow object(s) to the list of persistent flows.
  • Edit...: opens a panel to manually edit the list of persistent flows. You can add some flow(s) from the link you clicked on and remove already selected objects.
  • Clear: clears the list of persistent flows.

To access the Persistent Flows menu, you can also right-click on any object (a flow object, a non-flow object or a flow port object). For a non-flow object in addition to 3 options above, there are 2 other options:

  • Add Only Incoming Flows: adds the input flows of the selected object(s) to the selection.
  • Add Only Outgoing Flows: adds output flows of the selected object(s) to the selection.

The persistent flows will be represented in red in every diagram view of the projection.

Pointers are special object attributes. If an object has a pointer attribute, the value of the attribute can be a set of locations in the project. In this case, you can go directly to the pointed location from the current diagram. You have to right-click on the attribute displayed on the object, then select Goto → and choose a pointer. The activation of a pointer can change the current projection, the focus, the type of view and the currently displayed variant.

It is possible to assign a pointer to the current view by right-clicking on the Internal Block Diagram background (and not on an object) and to select Assign View Pointer from the context menu.

 

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