8.1 Specifying the Workspace

A workspace is a directory on your local hard drive where your projects and settings are stored. You specify your workspace directory each time you launch Designer, unless you select the Use this as the default and do not ask again option to skip the Workspace Launcher window.

Figure 8-1 Selecting a Workspace Directory

A typical default workspace directory for a Windows* workstation is Documents and Settings\ username\workspace .

You can switch to another workspace by selecting File > Switch Workspace. Designer quickly restarts, loads the new workspace, and loads any projects and settings you have in that workspace. If the workspace doesn’t exist, Designer creates it.

You can have multiple workspaces.

8.1.1 Project File Format

All projects are stored on the file system in a directory. By default on Windows workstations, this is in the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\workspace directory on a Windows workstation. However, you can specify a different directory when you create the project. (See Section 6.0, Creating a Project.) All of your data and graphical layout information is saved in a directory corresponding to the project name. For example, the following files are stored under the \workspace\Blanston3 directory:

Figure 8-2 Local Directory Structure

The main file in the project’s directory is the .proj file. This file uses an industry-standard XML format called XMI (XML Metadata Interchange Format). You never need to directly edit this file.

What is XMI?

XMI enables easy interchange of metadata between modeling tools and between tools and metadata repositories in distributed heterogeneous environments. XMI integrates three key industry standards:

  • XML (Extensible Markup Language, a W3C standard)

  • UML (Unified Modeling Language, an OMG modeling standard)

  • MOF (Meta Object Facility, an OMG modeling and metadata repository standard)

The integration of these three standards into XMI combines the best of OMG and W3C metadata and modeling technologies. The integration enables developers of distributed systems to share object models and other metadata. XMI, together with MOF and UML, forms the core of the OMG repository architecture that integrates object-oriented modeling and design tools with each other and with a MOF-based extensible repository framework.

For more information about XMI, go to XML Metadata Interchange (XMI).

8.1.2 Editing by Using a Related Editor

The editors enable you to edit projects or other items listed in the Navigator view. Designer comes with a number of editors that you can use for editing, with a default editor designated for most file types. To select an editor other than the default editor:

  1. Expand a project in the Navigator view.

  2. Select the documentation\images or the resources folder.

  3. Right-click on any of the files, such as . docgen, . xml, . pdf, or . txt, and select Open With > Editor Name. The example below shows the file opening with the Text Editor from the Navigator view.

    Opening with the Text Editor

    The editor you choose depends on the type of file you click on.

The following figure illustrates a text editor. When you right-click the editor, a menu is available:

Figure 8-3 The Text Editor’s Menu

The Preferences window lets you set a text editor’s preferences. You get to this screen by selecting Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors.

Figure 8-4 Preferences: Text Editors

For information on the settings, see Text Editors.

Each file type you right-click brings up a list of editors.

  • . docgen extension:

    • Style Editor (default)

    • Text Editor

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . xml extension:

    • Novell XML Editor (default)

    • Text Editor

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . txt extension:

    • Text Editor (default)

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . pdf extension:

    • Text Editor

    • System Editor (default)

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . project extension:

    • Text Editor (default)

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . proj extension:

    • Modeler (default)

    • Text Editor

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor

  • . log extension:

    • DS Trace Editor

    • Text Editor

    • System Editor

    • In-Place Editor

    • Default Editor