The Object Tool can be started from various places. To start
an empty Object Tool from the MetaEdit+ Launcher select Metamodel | Object
Tool or press the Object Tool button in the toolbar. The Object Tool is now
ready to define a new object type.
| 1) | If
you want the object type to inherit properties from another type, select
Object | New Subtype... (or hold Shift down and press New in the
toolbar) and select the desired ancestor type from the list of available object
types. |
| 2) | Type
the name of the object type into the Name field. Use unique names for the
types, because otherwise you might encounter difficulties in selecting the right
type from selection lists and
dialogs. |
| 3) | Select
the project for the new object type from the pull-down list of the
Project field. If the project you want is not yet open, you can open it
from the MetaEdit+ Launcher (Repository | Open Project...). Subtypes are
always in the same project as their ancestor, and once a type has been defined
its project cannot be changed; in these situations the pull-down list will be
disabled. |
| 4) | Define
the properties of the object type. Property types can be added with Add
Property... from the pop-up menu in the Properties
list. Select an existing type from the list, or choose
‘New Property Type’ to create and add a new property type. This
starts a Property Tool (see Section 2.6). Define the new property type there
and press the Save and Close toolbar button. The newly generated
property type will now appear in the Object Tool as the last property in the
Properties list, or, if there was a property selected in the list, before
that property.
|
| 5) | Document the
object type. Describe the object type in the Description
field. This is the text that will be shown to the user in
the help for the modeling
language. |
| 6) | Generate
the new object type. Press the Save toolbar button
to save the definition of the object type.
|
| 7) | A default
dialog for the new object type will be generated automatically at the same time.
If, however, you want to modify the default dialog select Edit
Dialog from the Property list’s pop-up menu.
This operation opens the dialog definition, and you can modify the appearance of
the dialog (see Chapter 4 for details of
dialog editing).
|
| 8) | Define the
symbol for the object type. If the object type is to be used as a direct element
in diagrams, it needs a symbol (if no symbol is defined, a simple square is used
as a default). The symbol can be defined by pressing the Symbol Editor
toolbar button or choosing Tools | Symbol Editor
from the menu bar. This opens a Symbol Editor where the new symbol can be drawn.
See Chapter 3
for details of using the Symbol
Editor. |
| 9) | A
default icon for the object type in toolbars, lists and the Matrix Editor will
be made from a scaled-down version of the symbol. If, however, you want to
override the default icon press the Icon Editor toolbar
button or choose Tools | Icon Editor from the menu
bar. This opens an Icon Editor, similar to the Symbol Editor and described in
Section 3.5. |
