The Object Navigator provides a hierarchical display of all major objects in a report or template, including attached libraries and external queries. Using this view, you can perform actions as select an object, display PL/SQL, drag and drop PL/SQL program units, and search for an object by name.
The Object Navigator displays the object you have open in Reports Builder and their components:
Document list
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At the top of the Object Navigator is a list of all of the currently open modules in the Navigator, and the most recently selected node and its ancestors. By selecting a name from the list, you can immediately select its node in the Navigator. | ||||||||||||||
Find |
Enables you to enter a target string for a node search:
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Toolbar |
To use the tools in the toolbar, click to select one or more objects in the outline view, then click the desired tool. The action represented by that tool will be performed on the selected objects. | ||||||||||||||
Object Tree |
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Each object or object type in your current session, from each open report or template, to the objects in each report, is represented in the Object Navigator by a node.
Each node in the Object Navigator consists of some or all of the following:
a plus or minus indicating the node’s expansion status:
A plus indicates that the node has other nodes underneath it, but they are not currently displayed. A plus can be clicked to display its child nodes. If the plus is greyed out, it means that the node could contain other nodes but currently doesn't.
A minus indicates that the node has other nodes underneath it and they are currently displayed. A minus can be clicked to collapse all of its currently displayed child nodes.
a name or heading (for example, Data Model, Q_EMP). Object nodes represent specific objects found in open reports or templates, for example, F_1, M_GRPFR_Dept, or B_Rectangle. When you select an object node in the Object Navigator, the object is also selected in the appropriate view of the Report or Template Editor, if the editor is already open. Heading nodes denote types of objects or properties, for example, Reports, Frames, and Boilerplate are all heading nodes. These headings precede the nodes representing objects and are used in navigation.
Clicking the name or heading selects the node. If the node is already selected, a single click on the name places it in edit mode, and you can edit the name of the object (you cannot edit headings). Clicking outside the object deactivates edit mode and updates the edited name in all appropriate places (for example, the layout and the object's properties). Similarly, if you change the object's name elsewhere, it will automatically be updated in the Object Navigator.
Note: If the name in the Object Navigator is in edit mode but edited elsewhere, the name will not get updated in the Object Navigator. Instead, the name in the Object Navigator takes precedence and the object's final name will be that which is in the Object Navigator at the time edit mode is deactivated.
an object node or editor view icon representing the object’s properties
(for example,
) or a view in the Report Editor (for example,
).
To display the properties for an object, double-click its object
icon. To display a view, double-click the view icon.
a PL/SQL icon indicating that the object can have PL/SQL associated with
it (
) and whether it currently has a program unit defined (
)
. To display the Program Unit Editor with the object's program unit
in it, double-click the PL/SQL icon.
The Object Navigator enables you to view objects by ownership hierarchy or by object type:
ViewOwnership View
displays objects in a parent-child hierarchy. For example, a query’s
columns would appear underneath the query and a field would appear underneath
the repeating frame that encloses it. This view can be a useful debugging
tool because it enables you to easily see the relationships between objects.
ViewObject Type
View displays objects by their type. For example, all queries
would appear underneath the Queries heading and all database columns underneath
the Database Columns heading. This view can be useful when you want
to quickly find objects in the Object Navigator.
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