The Path Browser is similar to the Relationships Browser, and it shows essentially the same information. However, it offers a more concise layout and a larger context. The Path Browser is helpful when you need to work with nested elements or complex relationships, because it allows you to view multiple layers of navigation within a single browser.
The Path Browser shows the successive navigation of not just one relationship, but of up to four relationships, starting from the selected source element. For example, you can use the Path Browser to browse a protocol, its message specifications, the parameters of a selected message, and the type of a selected parameter, all in the same browser.
There are two ways to open the Path Browser:
The leftmost pane of the Path Browser shows the source element. If you opened the Path Browser from the Transcript window, the source element is a model (you can select any available model from the list). If you opened the Path Browser from a UML Designer browser or diagrammer, the source element is the element you selected before opening the Path Browser.
Each successive pane of the Path Browser shows the elements satisfying the selected relationship to the selected element in the previous pane. For example, if you select a model in the leftmost pane and the Contents relationship in the second pane, the second pane shows all of the elements contained in the model. You can then select an element in the second pane and use the third pane to follow another navigation (for example, you could browse the messages of a protocol).
The relationships available in each pane of the Path Browser are the same as the relationships available in the Relationships Browser, and all of the same filtering options are available; select the R push button beside the relationship drop-down list to select a filter. As with the Relationships Browser, the visible relationships are also affected by UML Designer global filtering options (see Filtering for more information).