Visual Filter functionality for models

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   Hi, 
I know we discussed that already ,but here is another suggestion from a different angle. 

I feel it would be great to have a visual filter that can make visible or invisible objects and relationships in a graph. I think this would be very helpful for discussing the diagrams. 

While one key purpose is of course code generation, another is to communicate what is captured in a diagram to stakeholders -- and for that having the ability to (pedagogically) focus on some diagram elements at a time would be very helpful. 

It also helps unclutter a diagram during work. 

Best if filters could be saved by name so one can quickly switch between different "views" of a diagram 

thank you,

Daniel

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grossd18 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Major Contributor Joined: 30.Sep.2016 Points: 22	Post Options Post Reply Quote grossd18 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Visual Filter functionality for models Posted: 07.Oct.2016 at 06:48
	Hi, I know we discussed that already ,but here is another suggestion from a different angle. I feel it would be great to have a visual filter that can make visible or invisible objects and relationships in a graph. I think this would be very helpful for discussing the diagrams. While one key purpose is of course code generation, another is to communicate what is captured in a diagram to stakeholders -- and for that having the ability to (pedagogically) focus on some diagram elements at a time would be very helpful. It also helps unclutter a diagram during work. Best if filters could be saved by name so one can quickly switch between different "views" of a diagram thank you, Daniel

jpt Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MetaCase Joined: 25.Mar.2008 Points: 253	Answer Post Options Post Reply Quote jpt Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07.Oct.2016 at 07:53
	Sure. In MetaEdit+ any single symbol element, or a group of symbol elements, can be set conditional to provide filtering options like show, hide or show differently. See Symbol Editor for setting conditional symbols. To see some use cases of this, see e.g. video on deciding if allocations of functions are shown in Hardware architecture, or inspect how selection of ‘View’ property in Mobile application example changes the “skin” for most of the model elements. You can also find this example from ‘demo’ repository and its’ Mobile UI’ project. Such visual filters are also used in other examples like ‘Heating system’ project of the ‘demo’ repository too. The selection of the filter can be anywhere in the language, and often it is a property of the graph itself, but it can be also a property of any other element, or a dedicated visualization property that you can put e.g. on top of the element as shown in video. In your example you could have a filter property with the name of the stakeholder/role that you feel the filter be particularly suitable but it could be also depending on the task (e.g. allocation as in above architecture example), phase of the development, etc. Finally, it is also possible to hide and show elements by their type by choosing View \| Selected in Diagram Editor or Table Editor, or choosing among possible view options in Matrix Editor. These are useful if you know your filter is based on a certain type of your language. I hope some of these examples are useful when considering which kind of filters work best with your language concepts and their visualizations. Edited by jpt - 07.Oct.2016 at 07:56