Creating an Anchor Hierarchy for a Tile 

Use

Creating an anchor hierarchy in a tile creates a dependency between two data sources and the controls associated with those data sources. The data displayed in controls associated with the independent data source determines what data is displayed in the set of controls associated with the dependent data source. By creating a dependency, you can build a rich context of information within the tile.  

To create an anchor hierarchy for a tile, the tile must be associated with at least two data sources.

The Customers tile is associated with two data sources to provide information about active customers and their activities. The tile contains two business anchors associated with the data sources that supply this information: the Customer business anchor and the Activities business anchor. At runtime, when a customer is chosen from the customer list, the activities grid displays the scheduled activities for that customer. You must create an anchor hierarchy between the business anchors as shown below. The Customer business anchor is the parent anchor, the Activities business anchor is the child anchor.

 Customer business anchor

                 Activities business anchor

If you do not create a hierarchy between these anchors, the controls associated with the Activities data source display the first activities record available in the user database at runtime. It has no relation to the entry selected in the customer list.

Prerequisites

You have:

·        Identified the tile with which you want to work

·        Ensured that the tile contains more than one data source (business anchor)

·        Identified the parent and child business anchors

The data source for the child anchor must be a business object.

·        Identified the business object associated with each business anchor

·        Determined that a business relation exists between the two data sources

·        Switched to the required change list

Procedure

...

       1.      In the Solution Explorer, locate the tile for which you want to create a business anchor hierarchy, click the tile with the secondary mouse button, and choose View Anchors.

The Anchor Designer window appears.

       2.      In the design area, drag the anchor associated with the child data source and drop it on the parent anchor data source.

A line appears connecting the two, with the child business anchor nested under the parent business anchor.

       3.      Click the child business anchor with the secondary mouse button and choose Set Supply Function.

The Set Supply Function dialog box appears.

       4.      Determine what you next using the following table.

If a relationship …	Then:
Exists between the business objects of the parent and child business anchors	a.      In the Supply Type field, select Relation.                             b.      In the Supply Relation field, specify the name of the relationship.
Does not exist between the business objects of the parent and child business anchors	...                             a.      In the Supply Type property, choose Global or Local.                             b.      Write a supply function.

If the tile were associated with more than two data sources and you want to create another tier in the dependency, repeat this procedure.

       5.      Save your entries.