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Creating a Class Hierarchy

A class hierarchy consists of classes and subclasses. A subclass is a class that has a parent class. In other words, subclasses are classes within classes. There is no limitation on how deeply you can nest subclasses.

You create and manage class hierarchies in Application Administration > Class Administration. You do this by specifying a parent class when defining a class.

You can view the hierarchy in Application Administration > Class Explorer. This view contains a tree display that shows the hierarchy in a manner very similar to the Microsoft Windows file Explorer. You can expand or collapse classes and subclasses as needed to view the hierarchy. The portion of the hierarchy in which you are located displays in the Classes list.

When you run a query on the Classes list, it only searches the currently highlighted level. For example, if you are at the class level, the query searches only the classes at that level. If you are at the first subclass level, the query only searches the list of first-level subclasses belonging to the parent class. Search results are displayed in the Classes list.

To create a class hierarchy

  1. Navigate to Application Administration > Class Administration.
  2. In the Classes list, select the desired class.
  3. Click in the Parent Class field, and select a class from the dialog box.
  4. In the Show menu, choose Class Explorer.

    5. The Class Explorer appears and shows a tree display of product classes.

  5. Locate and expand the parent class.

    6. Verify that the subclass displays correctly beneath the parent class.


 Product Administration Guide 
 Published: 23 June 2003