Result view of a reference search

This view displays the results of the reference search for the instance that is selected in the Design Explorer view or the result view of a Design Search. This search was requested from the References choice of the instance contextual menu.

References of an instance

The search follows the composition links of the instance. The view title indicates which type of references is currently displayed, according to your search request:
  • The super references: the instances that reference the current instance,
  • The subreferences: the instances that are referenced by the current instance.
Example: If you search for the subreferences of a Program (Pacbase facet), you see all the instances that this Program calls, down to the finest level: Data Structures, Segments, and Data Elements. Moreover the subreferences always include the Library that contains the generation parameters of the instance.
Example: If you search for the super references of a Data Element (Pacbase facet), you see all the instances that call this Data Element, up to the highest level: Segments, Data Structures, Programs, Screens, Database Blocks.

References of a generated file

If you started the subreference search from a generated file (.cbl file of a Program, Screen, or Server in the Pacbase facet), the result view displays the instances that were involved in the file generation.

For the .cbl files, the following information is displayed:
  • The design instance that constituted the entry point to generate the COBOL file,
  • The instances that are called with micropatterns,
  • The Data Elements that are inserted manually in the code of the PROCEDURE DIVISION. The number of usages of each Data Element in the COBOL file is indicated with usage(n), where n is the number of usages of the Data Element.
You can expand the subreferences down to the finest level.

Possible actions on the references

If you right-click an instance in the tree, you can do the following actions:
  • Open the instance in its design editor
  • Open the instance in its COBOL editor if the entity contains a COBOL description. Other editors are also proposed.
  • Search for its own super references or subreferences, which are then in turn displayed in the References view.
  • Publish the instance (Pacbase facet). A multiple selection is possible.
  • Add the instance to the publish session (Add to session choice in the Pacbase facet). A multiple selection is possible.

If you right-click a Data Element, you can select Usage search. This search detects the Data Element usages in the code that is entered manually in the PROCEDURE DIVISION of Programs, Screens, or Servers (files with a cbl extension). Selecting Usage search opens a dialog box where you can filter the cbl files on which the search is to run. When you click OK in the dialog box, you switch to the Usage Search view where the results of each usage are displayed.

Toolbar

This view contains a toolbar from which you can perform the following actions:
  • Cancel the current search (Cancel current search)
  • View the previous reference searches (Show previous reference searches). Click the symbol that is associated with the icon to display a menu that contains the following choices:
    • The previous instances from which you requested a reference search. Select one of these instances to see its references in the view.
    • The History choice. This choice opens a window that shows the previous instances from which you requested a reference search. From this window, you can carry out the following actions:
      • Select an instance and display its references (Open or Open in new view) or remove this instance from the history (Remove),
      • Change the number of instances that are displayed in the history (10 is the default) by clicking the Configure link.
    • The Clear History choice, to remove all the previous searches from the history.
  • Export the query result (Export the query result). This command exports the result in a CSV format that can be used in a spreadsheet program.
  • Switch from the super references to the subreferences of the current instance (subreferences),
  • Switch from the subreferences to the super references of the current instance (super references).
  • Modify the way that the instances are shown in this view. Click the triangle (View menu) and select one of the following choices:
    • Sort to specify a new sort criterion.
    • Display to display more information for each instance line in the tree: To remove some additional information from the line, select it again in the menu.
      Note: The relation is the name of the link between the source instance and the target instance. If this link occurs more than once (for example: if a Program calls the same Segment several times), the repetition number is displayed in parentheses, next to the relation name.
    This new setting is then automatically saved and associated with this view, until you change it again.

You can also filter the results by selecting a project in the Context field and by clicking one of the buttons that represent a hierarchic view of the projects in the design build path. Context only is selected by default. It means that only the instances that are found in the selected project are displayed. However, you can select another hierarchy (upper, lower, or whole) to display the instances that are found in the selected project and in the projects that are hierarchically higher or lower, or in all the projects of the hierarchy.


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