JBoss.orgCommunity Documentation

Chapter 5. Editors

5.1. Model Editor
5.1.1. Diagram Editor
5.1.2. Table Editor
5.1.3. Simple Datatypes Editor
5.1.4. Semantic Editor
5.1.5. Source Editor
5.1.6. Model Object Editors
5.2. VDB Editor
5.2.1. Overview
5.2.2. Problems
5.2.3. Indexes
5.2.4. User Files
5.2.5. Web Services
5.2.6. Execute

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Editors are the UI components designed to assist editing your models and to maintain the state for a given model or resource in your workspace. When editing a model, the model will be opened in a Model Editor. Editing a property value, for instance, will require an open editor prior to actually changing the property.

Any number of editors can be open at once, but only one can be active at a time. The main menu bar and toolbar for Designer may contain operations that are applicable to the active editor (and removed when editor becomes inactive).

Tabs in the editor area indicate the names of models that are currently open for editing. An asterisk (*) indicates that an editor has unsaved changes.

Editor Tabs

Figure 5.1. Editor Tabs


By default, editors are stacked in the editors area, but you can choose to tile them vertically, and or horizontally in order to view multiple models simultaneously.

Viewing Multiple Editors

Figure 5.2. Viewing Multiple Editors


Editors also contain sub-editors which provide different views of the data or parts of data within a model. These sub-editors, specific to model types are listed below.

In addition to general Editors for models, there are detailed editors designed for editing specific model object types. These "object" editors include:

The Model Editor is comprised of sub-editors which provide multiple views of your data. The Diagram Editor provides a graphical while the Table Editor provides spreadsheet-like editing capabilities. This section describes these various sub-editors.

The Diagram Editor provides a graphical view of the a set of model components and their relationships.

Several types of diagrams are available depending on model type. They include:

You can customize various diagram visual properties via Diagram Preferences.

Each diagram provides actions via the Main toolbar, diagram toolbar and selection-based context menus. These actions will be discussed below in detail for each diagram type.

When a Diagram Editor is in focus, a set of common diagram actions is added to the application's main toolbar.


The Table Editor provides a table-based object type structured view of the contents of a model. The figure below shows a relational model viewed in the Table Editor. Common object types are displayed in individual folders/tables. All base tables, for instance, are shown in one table independent of their parentage.


You can customize Table Editor properties via Table Editor Preferences.

These are the primary features of the Table Editor:

  • Edit existing properties.

  • Add, remove or edit objects, via the main Edit menu and context menu ( Cut, Copy, Paste, Clone, Delete, Rename, Insert Rows ).

  • Paste information from your clipboard into the table.

  • Print your tables.

When a Table Editor is in focus, the Insert Table Rows action is added to the application's main toolbar.

A few Table Editor actions are contributed to the right-click menu for selected table rows. These actions, described and shown below include:

  • Table Paste - Paste common spreadsheet data (like Microsoft Excel) to set object properties.

  • Table Editor Preferences - Change table editor preferences, including customizing visible properties.

  • Insert Rows - Create multiple new sibling objects.

  • Refresh Table - Refreshes the contents of the current Table Editor to insure it is in sync with the model.


A VDB, or virtual database is a container for components used to integrate data from multiple data sources, so that they can be accessed in a federated manner through a single, uniform API. A VDB contains models, which define the structural characteristics of data sources, views, and Web services. The VDB Editor, provides the means to manage the contents of the VDB as well as its deployable (validation) state.

  • The VDB Editor, shown below, contains six editor tabs, namely:

    • Overview - Manage/edit contents, description and indicates current deployable state.

    • Problems - Table view of any validation problems your VDB may have (i.e. Warnings and/or Errors).

    • Indexes - Provides viewable summary of various Index files utilized at run-time.

    • User Files - Provides importing or attaching additional user files to the VDB archive.

    • Web Services - When VDB contains Web Services models, this tab provides access edit and view WSDL specific information.

    • Execute - Manage source model connector bindings and actually test your data.