Context Views

Context views is a set of predefined views that particularly display structural
aspects of specific parts of a diagram.

The following views are available in the ‘Context Views’ menu entry of the ‘Window’
menu:
Folder Contents, Predecessors,
Successors, and Neighborhood

The tool windows of these context views are dockable.

Context views are updated either

  • through a change in the selection state in the active editor windows, i.e., when
    another graph element is selected or
  • when the mouse hovers a certain amount of time over a graph element (node or edge)

This behavior can be specified in the preferences dialog
on the ‘Display’ tab.

Context Views

Folder Contents

This tool window displays those group nodes together with their content that are
closed and selected in the active editor window.

There is no automatic layout applied to the contents.

Predecessors

This tool window displays an induced subgraph consisting of the selected nodes and
all their predecessors from the active editor window.

Predecessors are those nodes that can be reached from a selected node by backtracking
the incoming edges of the selected node, and subsequently backtracking the incoming
edges of any reached nodes.

For example, in a tree, if a leaf node is selected, then the context view will display
a chain of nodes, starting with the root node and ending with the leaf node.

The displayed subgraph is automatically arranged using the hierarchical layout style.

Successors

This tool window displays an induced subgraph consisting of the selected nodes and
all their successors from the active editor window.

Successors are those nodes that can be reached from a selected node by following
the outgoing edges of the selected node, and subsequently following the outgoing
edges of any reached nodes.

For example, in a tree, if the root node is selected, then the context view will display
the whole tree.
If an inner node of the tree is selected, then the subtree under this node will
be displayed.

The displayed subgraph is automatically arranged using the hierarchical layout style.

Neighborhood

This tool window displays an induced subgraph consisting either

  • of selected nodes and their direct neighbors or
  • of selected edges and their start nodes and end nodes.

The direct neighbors of a selected node are the end nodes of its outgoing edges
together with the start nodes of its incoming edges.

The displayed subgraph is automatically arranged using the hierarchical layout style.

Interaction within Context Views

Mouse Gestures

Within a context view, the following mouse gestures are available:

  • A mouse click on a graph element causes the corresponding original graph element
    in the active editor window to become selected.

    Additionally, the viewport of the active editor window is moved, so that the selected
    original graph element appears centered.
  • Opening up a selection box causes
    the corresponding originals of all graph elements contained in the selection box
    to become selected in the active editor window.

    Additionally, the viewport of the active editor window is moved and eventually
    the diagram is also scaled, so that all selected original graph elements can be
    seen in the viewport.

Context Menu

The context menu of each context view provides an entry ‘Convert to Document’ which
lets you create a new document with the contents of the current context view.
The document is opened as a new editor window. The new editor
window becomes the active editor window.