Compose Model Task Panel (Design Board) 
On the Design board, the Compose Model task panel serves as a repository of model elements that you can use to compose the model logic and flow. You build your model by dragging the required element icon from the Compose Model task panel onto the Design board. After you have placed elements on the Design board, you can also drag out from their input or output ports and use the options in the context menu to create a connected element.
The model elements in the Compose Model task panel are grouped into the following categories:
Views: Standardized and reusable UI elements, such as forms, tables, charts, and HTML views. You can add views directly to the Design board as top-level elements, or you can add them within a container.
Containers: Enable you to group model elements to define which views are visible to users at specific times in the application, and to change the visible view elements according to user actions in the application. For example, you can use a wizard container to display view elements in numbered and layered boxes, as sequential steps to navigate between layers. You drag views and other elements into containers. You can use multiple container types in a model, and you can also nest containers of the same or different types within each other.
Connectors: Points in the data flow that represent connections that channel data from/to points outside the open component. You can use connectors to bring parameters in from another component, send parameters at the end of the data flow to another component, define the component initialization or end value, and enhance the data flow within the component.
Operators: Enable you to specify criteria by which to manipulate data returned from a data service, prior to displaying it in a view element. After you add an operator to the Design board, you define its parameters by right-clicking the operator icon and choosing Define Operator from the context menu.
Components: Reusable objects, such as composite views or services, which can be referenced in other components.
The Compose Model task panel contains the following elements when working on the Design board:
Type |
Element |
Description |
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Views |
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A data view used by the runtime user to input data, to view data, and to select displayed data. |
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A tabular view used by the runtime user to view output data and/or to edit data. This view displays each record in the dataset in a separate row and each field in a separate column. |
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A view that displays data in a graphical chart format. A variety of chart types are available. |
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A view that enables you to display an external HTML document at runtime. |
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Containers |
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A generic container used to create complex layouts. You can use Panel containers to assign different properties to content that is grouped in each panel. For example, you may want to arrange one set of view elements using a vertical flow, and another set of view elements using a horizontal flow. In this case, you could place each set of elements in a separate Panel container. |
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A set of labeled tabs that enables navigation between content layers. Tabstrip containers enable you to group model elements into different tabs. The runtime user displays each content group by selecting the relevant tab. |
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A container that uses sequential labeled steps to represent different content layers. The runtime user navigates between content layers using toolbar buttons or by clicking the step labels at the top of the Wizard container. |
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A simple container that displays one content layer at a time, with no navigation selector. The View Switch container enables the runtime user to flip between views, depending on the current context. |
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A container that displays its content in a popup window. |
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Connectors |
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Defines a value used to initialize the component execution. For example, in a component used to display a number of customer records, the initialization value defined in the Start Point could be 10.
You create one Start Point per component. To do so, you can create a single Start Point instance in the model, or, for convenience purposes, you can create multiple Start Point elements, all pointing to the same Start Point connector. End of the note. |
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Defines a final value at the end of the component execution. For example, in a component that returns a value to another component, the value defined in the End Point could be the Customer Name field.
You create one End Point per component. To do so, you can create a single End Point instance in the model, or, for convenience purposes, you can create multiple End Point elements, all pointing to the same End Point connector. End of the note. |
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Defines the navigation to a referenced component that is opened in a new window. A component opened using the Navigate connector cannot output parameters to other components. When you add a Navigate connector, the Create New Model dialog box opens, to enable you to create the referenced component. You can double-click the Navigate connector on the Design board to open the referenced component in a new model tab. |
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A collection point in a nested view that asynchronously receives parameters from another component. Use the Signal In connector only if you need to use asynchronous communication to transfer data to the nested view during runtime.
After you add a Signal In connector to a nested component, right-click the nested component icon in the parent component and choose Redefine Ports from the context menu. In the displayed dialog box, select the newly added ports and click OK to display the in port on the nested component icon. End of the note. |
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Sends data asynchronously from a nested component to another component. Use the Signal Out connector only if you need to use asynchronous communication to transfer data from the nested view during runtime.
After you add a Signal Out connector to a nested component, right-click the nested component icon in the parent component and choose Redefine Ports from the context menu. In the displayed dialog box, select the newly added ports and click OK to display the out port on the nested component icon. End of the note. |
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Receives data from another component. This connector is available only when creating a service component.
After you add a Data In connector to a service component that is referenced from another component, right-click the service component icon in the parent component and choose Redefine Ports from the context menu. In the displayed dialog box, select the newly added ports and click OK to display the in port on the service component icon. End of the note. |
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Sends data from a service component to another component. This connector is available only when creating a service component.
After you add a Data Out connector to a service component that is referenced from another component, right-click the service component icon in the parent component and choose Redefine Ports from the context menu. In the displayed dialog box, select the newly added ports and click OK to display the out port on the service component icon. End of the note. |
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Contains the personal data of the user, retrieved from the runtime environment. The User Data fields can be referenced in any dynamic expression, thereby personalizing the component by creating dynamic attributes that depend on the current user data and preferences. For example, you might use the User Data connector as input to an Employee GetInfo data service. |
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Temporarily stores data for later use. Each model uses a single Data Store. To make it easier to connect elements to the Data Store, you can add multiple Data Store elements to the Design board. However, these multiple Data Store elements all represent the same Data Store (data stored in one element is visible in the other elements). The connecting lines to the input port of the Data Store are of data mapping type. The values in the Data Store are accessed using dynamic expressions. More information: Storing Data in a Data Store |
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Enables transfer of clustered data to and from view elements in your model (Private scope mode), and enables transfer of data between your model and a Guided Procedures process (Public scope mode). . More information: Transferring Data Using a Data Share This connector is available only when creating a composite view component. |
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Stores static flat data for use by a service component. You can create multiple Static Data connectors per component. You can manually define data for a Static Data connector and use it to output data from the service. When you use the Service Component Wizard to add data to a service component, a Static Data connector is created for each data selection that you add. More information: Creating a Service Using the Service Component Wizard. This connector is available only when creating a service component. |
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Operators |
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Defines selection criteria for retrieving and displaying records in a dataset. For example, you can filter documents by Creation Date so that only documents created on the specified date are displayed. |
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Sorts data in ascending or descending order according to a specified field. For example, you may want to alphabetically sort a list of records by Name, with a secondary sort according to Date, newest to oldest. |
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Aggregates the values of all the records of a specified field into a single record. For example, you may want to create an output record that totals the values of all the material orders. |
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Omits records containing duplicate data from the dataset. Note that the fewer fields marked as distinct, the fewer records are returned. For example, a data service returns the following fields: Bank Country, Bank Key, and Bank Name. If only Bank Country is marked as distinct, the first appearance of a value, such as France, in the combination of Bank Country–Bank Key–Bank Name is returned. Any subsequent combination containing France is not returned. If, on the other hand, all three fields are marked as distinct, each combination is considered distinct, so that the potential list of results is greater. |
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Merges the data of multiple datasets into a new dataset. For example, you may have a field in one data service called FirstName and a field in another dataset called FName. You can use the Union operator to combine the data from these two fields into a single field called Name. You can select the Key column to specify that the entries merged into the new Name field are unique (any duplicate entries from the source fields are not added to the target field). |
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Defines multiple execution flows. You can use the Switch operator to receive input from multiple sources (such as a data service and a form view) and pass the received data as input to a single model element. |
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Components |
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A component that is displayed at runtime within the current component. This option enables you to reference a new reusable component from within your model. After you add a Composite View to your model, you can double-click its icon to open the component in a new model tab and define its content. |
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Creates a new data service component. You can use this option to create a new empty service component, or use a wizard that assists you in creating a service component that contains ports and static data. You can use this component to model a customized data service that performs data processing that a group of operators or an advanced service might otherwise perform. More information: Creating Service Components |
(Form View)
(Table View)
(Chart View)
(HTML View)
(Panel)
(Tabstrip)
(Wizard)
(View Switch)
(Popup)
(Start Point)
Note
(End Point)
(Navigate)
(Signal In)
(Signal Out)
(Data In)
(Data Out)
(User Data)
(Data Store)
(Data Share)
(Static Data)
(Filter)
(Sort)
(Aggregate)
(Distinct)
(Union)
(Switch)
(Composite View)
(Service Component)