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Basic navigation

The goal of this exercise is to switch between perspectives and see the features they provide.

  1. Open the epf-practices library by clicking File > Open > Method Library, then browse for the library and click Finish.
  2. The current perspective is displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the main toolbar. The two perspectives you will use most often are Authoring Authoring perspective button and Browsing Browsing perspective button. Click on the Open Perspective icon Open perspective and note the other perspectives available through this menu.
  3. You can also change perspectives by clicking on the Show perspectives symbol to the right of the perspective indicator. Try using this control to switch back and forth between perspectives.
  4. Switch to the Authoring perspective if you're not already in it. In the left-hand side of the main window you should see two panels with tree-navigators, one called Configuration and one called Library. If the Library panel isn't visible you should use the Window menu in the main toolbar and select Show View, then select Library. This control lets you show or hide the view panels.
  5. Explore the Library view. Note the Library view is only available while you are using the Authoring perspective. It is not accessible while you are in the Browsing perspective. The Library view shows you all method content in the current library. The highest level content unit is a plug-in plug-in icon when you are using the Flat presentation. When you are using the Hierarchical presentation, the highest level content unit is a package package icon. To switch between Flat and Hierarchical presentations, click the down arrow in the Library tool bar and select Method Plug-in Presentation, then choose Flat or Hierarchical.
    method plugin presentation menu
    Click on some of the + symbols and explore content in the plug-ins. Note the + symbols become - symbols. Expanded tree nodes can be collapsed by clicking on the - symbols.
  6. Drill down into a practice's base plug-in as follows: expand practice > tech > use_case_driven_dev > base > Method Content > Content Packages > use-case_driven_development > Use-Case Modeling > Tasks. The Library view panel should look like this:
    Expanded library view
    Note that individual tasks are represented by this icon: task icon
  7. Double-click on one of the tasks listed there. The task editor is displayed on the right of the screen. There are separate editors for the different types of content that you can create in a library. Each editor has a series of tabs and a number of form elements on each tab. You can find out more about these in the Create Method Content tutorial.
  8. Click the Preview tab. A preview of an HTML page is displayed. This is what the selected element will look like in a published Web site.
  9. Use the configuration selection menu to select the publish.openup configuration.
    publish.openup configuration
  10. Switch to the Browsing perspective. The Configuration view is now displayed. The Configuration view always has the same structure but the content changes based on which configuration is currently selected.
  11. Expand the Disciplines folder until you get to tasks and click on a task. The HTML preview of the selected item is shown on the right of the screen.
  12. Switch configurations. The current configuration is displayed in the selection box below the main menu bar. Select a configuration from the drop down list. You will see the Configuration view refresh when you do this.
  13. Switch back to the Authoring perspective. Expand the process > openup > base plug-in, then the Processes folder, then the Capability Patterns folder, then Phase Iteration Templates.
    expanded library view
    Capability patterns are represented by this icon: capability pattern icon
Note that not all plug-ins have capability patterns. Double-click on one of the capability patterns. The panel on the right side of the window shows the capability pattern editor and the properties view. You can find out more about these in the Working with Processes tutorial.
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