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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.svg" alt="command link"> <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> |
| <h3 class="related">Related reference</h3><a href="ref-cheatsheets.htm">Working with cheat sheets</a> |
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