The behavior of a collective search help is defined by:

• the parameters of the collective search help

• the search helps assigned to the collective search help

The parameters of the collective search help form the interface between the screen mask and the parameters of the assigned elementary search helps. As for elementary search helps, the parameters of a collective search help can be marked as import or export parameters.

A collective search help comprises several elementary search helps. It groups together all the search paths which for an F4 help make sense for a field.

Both elementary search helps and other search helps can be included in a collective search help. If other collective search helps are contained in a collective search help, they are expanded to the level of the elementary search helps when the F4 help is called.

The parameters of the included search helps must be assigned to the parameters of the search help. Not all of the parameters need to be assigned, that is the assignment can be open for some of the parameters.

If an elementary search help of a collective search help is assigned more than once (for example because it is contained in two included collective search helps), it is only offered once when the search path is selected.