Discovering Studio Views¶

Views are the primary resources of Rulex Studio. A view combines data and their graphical elements into a dynamic representation. In a view, users can create slides which are a series of display screens, or build interactions that open pop-up windows called dialogs, and even generate output PDFs called reports.

Views share the general features described in the Exploring Rulex Platform section. Here’s a sum-up:

A set of permissions can be defined to manage the resource itself (who can view, share, delete etc.).
Variables can be used to parametrize features and options of a view.
Versioning operations can also be performed on views.

To create a new view:

Procedure

Click the Explore resources icon to open the Explorer pane.
Hover over the Plus button.
Select Create View.
Enter a unique name for your view.
Click Create.

Once the view has been created, you will enter automatically in the just created view to modify its internal structure. All the created views can be visualized in the Explorer pane and can also be organized into environments inheriting their specific features. If the View filter located in the top right side of the Explorer is switched on, only the primary resources, views in this case, and the environments within the current environment will be displayed in the Explorer. The internal properties of a view are controlled by a unique User Interface called stage window.

To open an already created view, navigate through the Explorer, open the environment the view belongs to, and click on it, so the view stage opens. If the View permission for a view is set to ALLOW, then the user can open it.

Note

The view path is the path of the view within the user environment. The format of the path is "/RulexDesktop/Env_username/viewname".

View Status¶

When a view is selected for modification its usage is limited to a single user. The access for all the other users is prevented or limited to read-only operations. In particular, when a user opens a view through the GUI, then any other concurrent access is locked. In the Explorer pane, a lock icon next to the view entry line communicates to other users that the view cannot be opened.

Other status icons located next to the view entry line in the Explorer are used to show the versioning state of the considered resource. Refer to the versioning general overview for further information.

Status	Icon	Description
Locked		The view is already opened through Rulex Platform GUI by another user, and it can not be accessed.
Dirty		The view contains local modifications which are not pushed on the remote version.
Versioned		The view is versioned. No local modifications are present with respect to the last pull operation.

Important

In this section the term user refers to user session. This means that a view cannot be opened simultaneously by the same physical user on two different devices.

View Context Menu¶

When right-clicking on a single view or on a set of views (press SHIFT to select multiple views), a context menu opens. The context menu entries are:

Delete: it deletes the selected views (also available on multiple view selection).
Rename: it renames the selected view.
Permissions: it opens the permissions panel where the permissions of the view can be modified.
Preferences: it defines the layout options of the view (also available on multiple view selection).
Presentation settings: it opens the Presentation settings menu where the presentation settings of the view can be modified (also available on multiple view selection).
Export: it exports the selected views to the chosen destination (also available on multiple view selection). Available only if the user has Share permission on the resource.
Versioning: it opens the available versioning options for the selected view. The available versioning options change according to the versioning status of the selected view.
Copy: it copies the selected view, and allows to subsequently paste it in a different environment location (also available on multiple view selection).
Cut: it cuts the selected view, and allows to subsequently paste it in a different environment location (also available on multiple view selection).

A view can be imported in an environment by clicking on the plus button in the Explorer panel as described in its general introduction.

In Rulex Studio, the presence of the primary resource view leads to some modifications in the environment context menu adding some view dedicated entries. Here’s a general overview about context menu actions of environments in Rulex Platform.

The additional available entry is Export views, which exports the views belonging to the selected environment in a single bulk operation each one on a different file.

Importing Views¶

Instead of creating views from scratch, you can also import them into Rulex Studio. This is useful when you want to work on views that have been previously created by other users on different machines.

The import process is very easy and user-friendly, but you must have the Create permission on the selected environment.

Prerequisites

You must have created an environment (or use the default environment) and have the Create permission on it.
You must have a supported view file.

In Rulex Studio you can import files in RVW format, which are views exported from Rulex Studio.

Open the environment where you want to import your view, click on the plus button at the bottom right-side of the Explorer panel, select Import View, and the Import View pane opens allowing specific configuration options for the current import process.

Views can be imported from two different sources:

Filesystem local or remote containing a view in one of the supported file formats.
Repository where a remote version of the view file representation is selected and cloned into the system.

Once the connection to the filesystem has been established, the user needs to insert the desired connection to be used, which could be Saved or Custom as well as the relative path to the imported view file.

Once the connection to the repository has been imposed, you need to provide the unique hash name corresponding to the desired remote view to be imported and an optional tag name, if you do not want to import the latest version.

In the Import View panel, once the view has been selected, users can configure the Desired View Name: in case of single importation - if more than one file is considered, the name will be automatically assigned by the system - you can define the name of the view once imported in the environment.

Summarizing, to import a view in a selected environment you can follow this:

Procedure

Click the Explore resources icon to open the Explorer pane.
Hover over the Plus icon.
Select Import View.
Select if you want to import a view from a Filesystem or a Repository.
In the Filesystem case:
- From the SOURCE slider, select whether the imported view is coming from a previously saved location, or from a custom location you are going to specify following the instructions at this page.
- Click the SELECT button and browse to the location of the view file you want to import.
In the Repository case provide the hash name and eventually the tag name of the desired view remote version.
Enter a new name for the view, if required, in the Insert desired view name text box.
Click Import to complete the import operation.

Exporting Views¶

If you want to save a copy of your view to send it to other users or to store it, you can export an entire view in RVW format.

This exported file can then be imported on any machine where Rulex Platform is installed.

The Export View panel, opened from the Explorer context menu or directly from the toolbar for the current opened view, allows the configuration of export options, e.g. to decide its destination.

Exporting operations can be performed both to Local filesystem (i.e. your machine disk) or to any Remote filesystem supported. To configure the selected destination, you need to insert the desired connection you want to use (further information about Filesystem connection configuration available at this link), which could be Saved or Custom as well as the relative path of the destination folder.

Other important options you can configure from the Export View panel are:

Desired file name: the base name of the file you want to create (if empty, the view name will be used).
Additional options: it defines which additional information related to the exported view needs to be included in the final file. It accepts only Variables.
Export options: it defines the following general export options:
- Only current slide - instead of exporting the whole set of views, it considers only the selection performed on the stage when exporting.
- Add current date and time as prefix - it adds a timestamp prefix to the file name produced.
- Add current date and time as suffix - it adds a timestamp suffix to the file name produced.
- Add the last tag if the view has been versioned - it adds the tag name (if present in the latest commit) as suffix to the file name produced.
- Export externally used resources (share permissions on external resources are required) - it converts all Saved connections to Custom connections before the exportation on file.

Note

When importing a view which has specific Saved sources used for its external connection, and it has been exported from another environment, make sure to have the same Saved source within your environment, otherwise the next computation is going to return en error. If you want to produce an environment-independent view, please select Export externally used resources during exporting process. Take into account that to complete correctly the exporting operation, the Share permissions need to be available on any Saved resource used in the view.

To export a view to a file make sure to have the following:

Prerequisites

You must have created an environment (or use the default environment).
You must have a view within your environment, and own the Share permission.

Then follow these steps.

Procedure

Click on the Explore Resources icon to open the Explorer panel.
Select the view you want to export.
Right-click the view you want to export or click on the three-dotted icon next to it.
Click Export.
From the DESTINATION slider, select whether the exported view should be sent to a previously saved location, or to a custom location you are going to specify following instructions at this page.
Choose from the DESTINATION drop-down list if you want to export the view to your computer or to a remote connection (see filesystem description). If you are exporting to a remote connection, choose it from the list and then click on the pencil button to set the connection information required.
Click SELECT button and browse to the location of the folder where you want to export.
Write the file name in the Insert the desired file name edit box, define the Additional options and the Export options according to the description above.
Click Export. When the progress bar reaches 100%, your exported view will be saved in the specified location.

View Preferences¶

From the View Layout Preferences menu, users can customize the layout settings of the selected view(s). These options can be accessed by right-clicking on the view from the Explorer pane, or you can click on the Preferences icon in the toolbar of the view.

Here it is possible to customize the following options:

Aspect ratio: the monitor’s aspect ratio. Possible values are:
- 16:9 (default value)
- 16:10
- 4:3
- Custom
Lock aspect ratio: if selected, the aspect ratio always remains the same. This option is only available when Aspect ratio is Custom.
Height: it defines the height of the view.
Width: it defines the wight of the view.
Orientation: it defines the orientation of the view. This option is only available when Aspect ratio is Custom. Possible values of the orientation are:
- Landscape
- Portrait
Scale content if dimensions change: if selected, when inserting a specific value in Height or Width the value scales accordingly and vice versa.
Background color: it defines the background color of the slide. By clicking it, users can select Standard colors, otherwise they can use the color picker or choose the color code, which can be: Hex, Rgb, Hsl, Hsv. The default color is white.
Image opacity (%): it defines the opacity level of the image.
Background image: it allows defining a background image for the view which can be set by clicking the Select button and browsing through your local folder.
Show grid: if selected, gridlines are displayed in the main slide.
Snap to grid: if selected, views will be moved following the lines of the underlying grid and users will be able to line up the widgets in their views.
X axis step: it defines the width of columns on the slide grid.
X axis step: it defines the height of rows on the slide grid.
Show guided lines: if selected, guided lines are visible to allow you to align widgets on your slide.

The Presentation Mode
- Presentation Context Menu
- Data Refresh in Presentation Mode