Dialog Box Components

Dialog boxes have the following components:

  • Title bar
  • Icon area
  • Toolbar and menu area incorporating:

    – File, Generate, View, Preview, Refresh and other buttons (depending on the node)

    – Maximize/Normal size button

    – Help button

  • Status area
  • Panel area
  • Tab area
  • Button area

Each custom node needs a dialog box that is displayed when the user opens the node. Provided that your specification file includes a Node element containing a UserInterface section with a Tabs element, you will see all of the dialog box components listed above when you open the node. Depending on the node type, the minimum contents of the tab area and button area are shown in the following table.

Table 1. Minimum tab area and button area contents for different node types
Node type Tabs Buttons
Data reader Annotations (with Refresh button in toolbar area) OK, Cancel, Apply, Reset
Data transformer Annotations OK, Cancel, Apply, Reset
Data writer Publish, Annotations OK, Cancel, Execute, Apply, Reset
Model builder Annotations OK, Cancel, Execute, Apply, Reset
Document builder Annotations OK, Cancel, Execute, Apply, Reset
Model applier Summary, Annotations OK, Cancel, Apply, Reset

Node dialog boxes are initially positioned so that when the user opens the node, the node icon is superimposed on the node that it represents. The user can move the dialog box, but the new position is not remembered the next time the node is opened. If the user has moved the dialog box and it has subsequently been partially or fully hidden by another dialog box, double-clicking the original node on the canvas brings the first dialog box to the front again. The dialog box is modeless (that is, the same user input always causes the same action) and resizable.

All editable fields in the dialog box support the keyboard shortcuts shown in the following table.

Table 2. Keyboard shortcuts for editable fields in dialog boxes
Shortcut Effect
Ctrl-C Copy
Ctrl-V Paste
Ctrl-X Cut