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| <title>Working with composite cheat sheets</title> |
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| <h1>Working with composite cheat sheets</h1> |
| |
| <P CLASS="Para">Composite cheat sheets provide guidance through a complex |
| problem by breaking that problem into a set of smaller tasks. Each task consists |
| of a series of steps which must be performed in order. Composite cheat sheets |
| are launched in the cheat sheet view and show two panels which will be side by |
| side or one above the other depending on the relative height and width of the |
| view.</P> |
| <P CLASS="Para"> |
| <img border="0" src="../images/cheatsheet_composite_running.png" alt="Picture of a composite cheat sheet"></P> |
| <P CLASS="Para"> </P> |
| <P CLASS="Para">The panel which appears on the left or on top (depending on the |
| view orientation) is called the task explorer and shows all of the tasks which |
| need to be completed and their state. The lower or right panel is called the |
| task detail panel and shows the task which is selected in the explorer.</P> |
| <h3>Launching a composite cheat sheet</h3> |
| <p>Composite cheat sheets are launched in the same way as any other |
| <a href="ref-cheatsheets.htm">cheat sheet</a> by selecting |
| <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.cheatsheets.openCheatSheet")'> |
| <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.png"> |
| <strong>Help > Cheat Sheets</strong></a> from the menu bar. |
| If this command is not in the menu, it can be added from <b>Window > |
| Customize Perspective > Commands</b>, and check <b>Cheat Sheets</b>. |
| </p> |
| <h3>The task explorer</h3> |
| <p>The task explorer is the tree view which shows the tasks and groups of tasks |
| in a composite cheat sheet. Each task will also have an overlay image at the |
| lower right corner it it is in progress, has been completed or has been skipped. |
| Selecting a task in the task explorer will cause that task to be displayed in |
| the task detail pane. Right clicking on a task in the task explorer brings up a |
| context menu which depending on the state of the task will allow the task to be |
| started, skipped or reset.</p> |
| <h3>The task detail pane</h3> |
| <p>The task detail pane will show different contents depending on the kind of |
| task and whether it has been started. A cheat sheet task which has not been |
| started will show a description and a button to start the task (or if it cannot |
| be started the reason why not). When in progress a cheat sheet task will show a |
| cheatsheet, and when it has been completed it will show a link to the next task.</p> |
| <h3>Task groups</h3> |
| <p>There are three kinds of task groups, "set", "sequence" and "choice". A |
| sequence represents a set of subtasks that must be performed in order, a set |
| represents a set of subtasks that can be performed in any order, a choice |
| represents a set of tasks only one of which should be performed. A set or |
| sequence is complete when all of its subtasks have been completed. A choice is |
| complete when one of its subtasks has been completed. </p> |
| <h3>Cheat sheet tasks</h3> |
| <p>A cheat sheet task represents a single |
| <a href="ref-cheatsheets.htm">cheat sheet</a>. When a cheat sheet task is first |
| visited the task detail pane shows a description of the task and gives the |
| option to start working on the task and possibly to skip the task. The picture |
| below also shows the images for task sets, sequences and choices. Note that some |
| images are shown in gray, that is because these tasks cannot yet be started |
| because prerequisite tasks have not been completed.</p> |
| <p> |
| <img border="0" src="../images/cheatsheet_composite_start.png" alt="Picture of a composite cheat sheet"></p> |
| <h3>Task dependencies</h3> |
| <p>A composite cheat sheet may have dependencies which require one task to be |
| completed before another can be started. An example of where this might happen |
| would be if one task created a project and a second task uses that project. In |
| this case the first task must be completed or skipped before the second task can |
| start.</p> |
| <h3>Skipping tasks</h3> |
| <p>The author of a composite cheat sheet can choose to make a task or task group |
| optional. If a task is optional it can be skipped, either by right clicking on |
| that task in the task explorer and selecting skip from the context menu, or by |
| clicking on the "Skip this task" hyperlink in the task detail pane. |
| Skipping a task will allow tasks which depend on this task to be started.<br> |
| </p> |
| <h3>Order of task completion</h3> |
| <p>The task detail area will provide hyperlinks which will walk through the |
| tasks in order. It is also possible to perform tasks out of order by selecting |
| the task in the task explorer and starting work on that task. This is useful if |
| you want to go directly to a task of interest without working through all |
| earlier tasks.</p> |
| <h3>Restarting tasks</h3> |
| <p>Right clicking on the root node in the task explorer shows a menu item |
| "Restart all tasks". If selected this will reset the state of every task in the |
| composite cheat sheet. Use this only if you want to reset all tasks. The context |
| menu for any other task will have a menu option to reset an individual task. Any |
| tasks which depend on this task will also be reset, and for task groups all |
| subtasks will also be reset.</p> |
| <h3>Closing the composite cheat sheet</h3> |
| <p>A composite cheat sheet is closed if the cheat sheet view is closed, if |
| Eclipse is closed or if another cheat sheet is opened. The state of each task is |
| saved so that when the composite cheat sheet is reopened its state will be |
| restored.</p> |
| |
| <p><img border="0" src="../images/ngrelr.png" alt="Related reference"><br> |
| <a href="ref-cheatsheets.htm">Working with cheat sheets</a><br> |
| </p> |
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