The graphical user interface

NetMaster is an application built on the Eclipse platform. This platform offers a

graphical user interface (GUI) which differs slightly from the standard Microsoft Windows GUI. A snapshot of a typical workspace in the NetMaster client

application might look like this:

If we take a closer look at the picture, we can see that the application is built from several standard objects which will always be present in the application:

Understanding these objects and how they behave will help you understand the other chapters in this manual.

In addition to the objects in this figure, NetMaster contains several dialogs, context menus, view dropdown menus and a set of preference menus. (Please note that some of the functionality described in the user manual will only be visible if the user has sufficient permissions for using the application).

Main menu

On the top left side of the application you will always find the main menu (marked with orange in the above figure).

 open most views (not the views that need data-input to open: these views can only be opened from another view or dialog)

 open and manage all perspectives  open the program preferences  open the help system

See chapters about each perspective , about each view or about the program preferences for more details.

Perspectives

A perspective is a collection of views (marked with green in the above figure), which reflects a certain working situation. Here are a few examples:

Within a perspective you can open and reposition all the different views you need. When you install NetMaster, it comes with a set of predefined perspectives that should help you get started when using the application for the first time. When you open a perspective all the views belonging to this perspective are displayed. The views will appear with the same position and scope as when you last opened the perspective.

The idea behind perspectives is that they provide you with a fast way of moving between different working situations. You can always reset a perspective to its default, and you can create your own set of perspectives. For more information about opening, moving between and managing perspectives, please see the chapter about objects in perspectives.

Views

A view is a "window" within the application (marked with blue in the above figure). NetMaster offers a wide range of functionality available within views, and you can open all your views in the application at the same time. Here are a few examples:

The views can be opened, closed, resized, moved or detached from the application as you want.

For more information about how to use views, please see the chapter about objects in views or how to reposition views within a perspective.

When you open a perspective, a set of views will be displayed. You can open more views by selecting Views from the main menu, or by using context menus or dropdown menus within the views that are already open.

Dialogs

A dialog is a window that requests information from the user - and must be closed before the user can take further action (as distinct from views - where you can operate all views in the perspective at the same time). The dialog appears on top of the application, and all other controls in the application become unavailable until the tasks in the dialog have been completed and/or the dialog closed. Here are a few examples:

Some dialogs are opened from the main menu, while others are opened from objects in views: context menus, dropdown menus or from the view toolbars. For more information about the operations available in each dialog, see the section of the user manual that describes each view or dialog.

Statusbar

The statusbar can be seen at the bottom of the application (marked with red in the above figure)

This bar gives you the following information:

 The User area on the statusbar displays the User name that is

logged on.

 The License area on the statusbar displays info about the

current license on server.

 The Fast View area on the statusbar is a tool to launch

views. Click the Fast View Launcher icon the left to select a view to be opened. The views opened this way is displayed by an icon on the Fast View area. Click this icon to open the view, and alternatively drag the view to reposition a view within the perspective. The list of views available under the Fast View

Launcher can be configured in the Customize Perspective dialog.

 This Connection Status area on the statusbar will always

tell you status of the connection to the server. See the chapter about Server Connection preferences for more details.

 The Progress area on the statusbar displays if the server is

busy with a background process. Double-click this area anytime to open the Progress view.

Preference menus

The preference pages can be found under Window | Preferences in the main menu. Here are a few examples:

Please note that all pages can be found in the same Preferences dialog, and that you can navigate by using the Navigation tree on the left in this dialog:

 Click a node in the Navigation tree to open its preferences

 Click this icon to expand a subtree with more preference pages  Click this icon to collapse a subtree with preference pages

For more information about the settings in the preference menus, see the section about the different areas covered by preference menus in the user manual.