The Object Explorer provides a quick and easy way to navigate between and modify AXIS objects. The user specifies an object to use as a starting point. The Object Explorer will then allow the user to display all parent and subordinate objects in relationship to that root object. In addition, double clicking on an object will automatically open that object for editing in AXIS.
There are several ways in which the Object Explorer can be opened:
The first time the Object Explorer is started, it will resize your main AXIS window and appear docked on the left hand side of the screen. It can, however, be resized and moved to a different location within AXIS by positioning the mouse over the double horizontal lines at the top of the Object Explorer window and dragging it to a new location.
Once the Object Explorer is visible on your screen, you can use it to navigate through the objects in the current dataset. If you selected a root object while opening the Object Explorer, it will appear at the top of the window with a small "+" sign beside it. If the Object Explorer does not contain a root object, right click within the Explorer window and select a root object from the object types at the top of the popup menu.
Clicking on the "+" sign will show subordinate objects, which may also have a "+" sign associated with them meaning that they also possess subordinate objects. In addition, you will notice that different objects have different icons associated with them - this allows you to quickly identify what type of object you are displaying. A partially expanded list with a Subfund defined as the root object is displayed below:
Double clicking on an object will open that object in the main AXIS window where it can be edited, run, etc. In addition, right clicking on an object in the Object Explorer will display the options that would be displayed if you right clicked on an object in one of the AXIS object lists or clicked on the Action button with an object selected.
Right clicking on an empty part of the Object Explorer window will bring up a menu of options that are unique to the Object Explorer. It is important to note that this menu will not be displayed if you right click with the pointer over an object - in that case the menu items relating to that object will be displayed.
The Object Explorer popup menu contains the following options:
The Root Object can be selected in the top section of the popup menu. Clicking on any of the object groups (Office, Fund, Subfund, Other etc.) will close the currently displayed object tree and begin a new tree with the selected group as the root object. These object groups include everything from "Office" to "Other" on the popup menu.
View Current Object Only closes the currently displayed object tree and opens a new one with the selected object used as the root object. Subordinate objects can then be opened by clicking on the "+" sign next to the new root object. This function can be used in conjunction with the View Full Tree option described below.
View Full Tree will only appear when you have selected "view the current object only". This selection will change the root object to the last selected object group. If, for example, you had defined a subfund as your root object, then selected a cell and chosen to "View Current Object Only", the "View Full Tree" option will use the Subfund as the root object again.
The Find Object option allows you to search the currently displayed object hierarchy for a particular text string. The "Find:" dropdown list allows you to limit the search to a particular object type, or you can search all objects by leaving the list set to the default "all". Entering a text string to search for and clicking the Find Next button will highlight any matching strings in the Object Explorer.
Print Object Tree will allow you to print the object tree as currently displayed. This can be useful for documenting your dataset.
Filter allows you to hide certain types of objects in the Object Explorer. If, for example, you didn't want to have subfunds displayed, selecting Filter, and then checking the box beside Subfunds would hide them. They can be displayed again by clicking on Filter a second time and unselecting the checkbox or clicking on the Clear All button.
Inversed Mode causes the root object to display its parent objects rather than subordinate objects. If, for example, you have a subfund set as the root object, clicking on the "+" sign will display while in inversed mode will display the funds and offices associated with that subfund. Clicking on Non-Inversed mode will return the tree to displaying subordinate objects.
Show Object ID will display the AXIS ID's associated with the displayed objects.
Expand/Collapse Current Object will completely expand or collapse all subordinate objects from the currently selected object.