The Connector dialog is used to show properties of one connector and its connections to other model elements. The Connector dialog can be accessed from the Diagram view and the Navigator view by right-clicking the desired flow and selecting Set Connector Properties... from the pop-up menu.

 

The Connector dialog contains the following pages: General, Description, Information Items, Resource, Measures, Interface (when the connector is a cross-model interface), and Custom Attributes (when the flow contains custom attributes).

 

In the case multilingual modeling has been enabled, click the button to open the Translation dialog for adding translations for different languages. You can translate items which are inputted into the model, i.e. items such as element names, flow names, resource names, etc. The button opens the translation dialog with the translatable strings of the current tab included. Note that the fields display the values of the currently selected modeling language, i.e. in the case translation has not been provided for the active modeling language, the fields are empty.

 

For information on forking and joining connectors, see the connector topic.

 

 

General

The General page shows the name, symbol, connector type, transfer type, and the owner of the connector. All of these properties can be modified. The symbol is a unique identifier for the connector. When a new connector is created, QPR Modeling Client will assign it a unique symbol by getting the model object id and adding "MO" to its beginning. It is also possible to edit the symbol. Allowed characters in the symbol field are alphanumeric characters in upper case and lower case. The available connector types are those which have been defined in the modeling options (e.g. Association, Control Flow, Information Flow, Material Flow).

 

A connector of the type "Information Flow" can carry an information item. In this case the connector is automatically assigned the name of the selected information item. The properties of the selected information item and owner can be viewed and modified using the Browse button. This opens the Information Item dialog for the selected information item.

 

The lower part of the General page shows where the connector is coming from and where it is going to. The start and end model element can be changed using the Select button. In the case that the connector is an automatically drawn relation connector, these options are disabled.

 

 

Description

On the Description page, a large memo field for showing and editing description is shown.

 

Note that you can use also HTML formatting in the description, but the formatting is visible only in QPR Portal.

 

 

Information Items

The Information Items page shows the additional information items attached to this connector. The lower part of the page shows the description of the selected information item, which cannot be edited. Information items can be added, modified and deleted using the Add, View and Remove buttons. Double-clicking an information item in the list opens the selected information item at the location which has been specified in the information item properties. With the Default button you can define what information item will be opened if you have set Information Item as the link destination in the Web Style dialog. In addition, clicking the Default button and changing the information item will also change the information item in the connector shown on the General tab. Furthermore, if the default information item is deleted, the first information item on the list of information items is selected as the new default information item.

 

 

Resources

The Resources page shows the allocation of resources for the connector. The resources allocated are shown in a sheet with a column for specifying the amount of each resource allocated to this connector. Add button can be used to allocate more resources. The selected resource can be viewed and modified by clicking the View button. The Remove button removes the allocation for the selected resource.

 

 

Interface

See Cross-model Interface.

 

 

Measures

The Measures page shows measures connected to the current connector. The lower part of the page displays the "Values of the selected Measure" section, which shows values for all cases for the currently selected measure in the current connector. These values can be entered and edited. For inputting values, new measures can be connected to the  connector by clicking the Add button. The selected measure can be viewed and modified by clicking the View button. All values of the selected measure connected to this connector can be deleted by clicking the Remove button.

 

 

Custom Attributes

In the Custom Attributes tab, you can manage the values of custom attributes and view the descriptions of selected attributes. This tab is visible only if custom attributes have been defined for the connector. To define a value for the listed attribute, you can just type in the value directly to the field. The values for Boolean and enumerated attributes are selected from a drop-down list. You can also add new values for the attribute by selecting Add if the custom attribute is allowed to have several values (the attribute has cardinality N).

 

You can use the Remove button to remove individual values from attributes that have cardinality N. The button is enabled only when an attribute with cardinality N is selected in the list.

To clear the value of the selected attribute, select the Clear button. If the value is an attribute set, the action clears all sub-values of the attribute set. If the attribute is an attribute with cardinality N, it removes all values from that attribute.

You can click the View button to open the element properties dialog of the selected element. The button is enabled only for relation type custom attributes that have the relation defined.

For memo and relation attributes, you can use the Modify button to edit the values. Then a new window is opened where you can edit the values, or in the case of a relation attribute, Select Model Elements for Relation is opened for selecting the model element.

 

Connector dialog

 

Click the OK button to commit any changes you have made or click Cancel to close the window and abandon any possible changes. Click the Delete button to delete the connector. A confirmation is asked before the connector is deleted.