Understanding Viewpoints

A viewpoint provides a user interface in which users can work with nodes. A viewpoint's available nodes and hierarchical relationships are defined by its data chain.

You can configure the following items in a viewpoint:

• The properties that can be edited.
• Actions that users can perform in the viewpoint. The following actions can be enabled:
  • Add
  • Insert
  • Move
  • Remove
  • Delete
  • Reorder

    When Reorder is selected, users can change the order of nodes. You can select Reorder only if the hierarchy set on the data chain is configured to allow a custom sort order.

• Labels for properties. For example, you might want a property named "Country" to display as "Country Name".

A viewpoint references one node set, and the objects on the viewpoint's data chain depend upon whether the viewpoint represents a list or a hierarchy.

Data Chain for Lists

A viewpoint representing a list references one node set. The node set references one or more node types, as shown in the following diagram:

Data Chain for Hierarchies

A viewpoint representing a hierarchy references one node set. The node set references one hierarchy set, which in turn references one or more node types. The following diagram shows the data chain for a viewpoint that contains a hierarchy:

For more information, see:

• Working with Data Objects and the Data Chain
• Working with Viewpoints

Example 18-5 Viewpoint Example

The viewpoint in the Example 18-1 uses a node set that includes the Analytics and Finance hierarchies, as shown in the following diagram:

You can specify the actions users can perform and the properties they can edit in the viewpoint. In the following example, users can only insert and move nodes, and can edit the Description property but not the Name property:

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