Thanks, I totally understand it now. I was applying my conceptual model of custom forms layout in Protégé to TopBraid custom forms layout and so neither the tool, nor documentation, nor your explanations were making any sense at all. Protégé's custom layout is WYSIWG and TopBraid's is declarative. I encountered a few issues with form inheritance not propagating properly, but I can live with that as I am delighted to be able to customize forms.
Note to other's more familiar with Protégé's layout editor: Protege displays the current layout of the form and lets you customize it in a WYSIWYG way. TopBraid organizes the form components in a hierarchy and displays the major form sections inherited from Resource the first time you customize a form, so the first time you customize a form will NOT see any properties in the custom layout view at all! The layout of these unseen properties are being handled by Widget Group's that handles rdf:Property's, annotations, and incoming references that are resolved at display time. So if you want to customize layout, you actually have to add widgets for properties and then use a hierarchies of Sections, Panels, property widgets, and number of columns to achieve a particular layout. The Basket proved to be very effective for customizing the layouts as you can drop the "Relevant Properties" from an instance of the class into it and then selectively drop them on the form, else you have to remember the properties declared as restrictions, as the layout editor does not filter properties that could appear on a class. You need to select an instance to see the actual results of the layout. On Jun 1, 7:33 pm, "Irene Polikoff" <[email protected]> wrote: > To add to this, the Form Layout editor can be opened from the Form Layout > tab at the bottom of the Resource Editor whenever a class is selected. > > Form layouts are defined on a per-class basis. For example if you have a > class Person you can change the layout associated with Person when the class > Person is selected in your Resource Editor. All instances of Person will use > the new layout. Instances of subclasses of Person would "inherit" the layout > from Person unless a more specific form layout has been defined. > > The layout of class and property forms can be changed as well, by means of > editing the metaclasses rdf:Property and rdfs:Class (or their subclasses > such as owl:Class), respectively. > > By default, there are three sections in a form used to display instances - > Annotations (all properties of type owl:AnnotationProperty - this is > identified using widget groups), Other Properties (all rdf properties, this > includes owl:DatatypeProperty and owl:ObjectProperty, but not annotations > since they have already been identified in a section of their own) and > References (all incoming links of any type). > > You can change the number and layout of the sections including specifying > the number of the columns. You can also control positions of properties by > specifying them individually (as a widget for property as opposed to a > widget group for property type). Right click on any item in the Forms > Hierarchy (such as the form itself or sections) to see the available > options. You can also drag and drop properties into the form hierarchy. > Sections and panels can be nested for additional control. As you edit, the > screen on the right of the hierarchy displays the preview of the form. > > For more information, please see the help page: TopBraid Composer > User > Interface Overview > Resource Editor >Form Layout Panel > > Regards, > > Irene > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Scott > Henninger > Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 8:15 PM > To: TopBraid Composer Users > Subject: [tbc-users] Re: Can TBC customize forms like Protege can? > > Arthur; Yes, the Form Layout Panel is an editor for form layout of > instances of classes. > > -- Scott > > On Jun 1, 7:03 pm, Arthur <[email protected]> wrote: > > Is there a capability analogous to Protégé's custom form layout in > > TBC? Protégé's allows one to very easily customize the location, size > > of display widgets, select alternative presentations, and hide > > displayed fields and these customizations are inherited. The TBC User > > manual indicates that there is a "Form Layout Panel", but does not > > give details on how to invoke it or exactly what its capabilities > > are. I have tried "Edit Form of Resource Type" but it appears to be > > a form editor for the class layout rather than and editor for form > > layout of instances of a class. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TopBraid Composer Users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/topbraid-composer-users?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
