Portal Entry
Portal Entry: Entries for items into Subsystems
When an Item enters a Portal, it needs a place to appear in the subsystem inside the portal. The portal entry is where the item will appear.
A Portal Entry is created automatically for every sub system screen, which in turn is created when a Portal object is added to a model.
The Portal Entry is much like a normal Entry, but instead creating new items, it introduces items that enter the portal object into the sub system screen it is on.
Portal Exits are for items leaving Subsystems.
All subsystems must have at least one Portal Entry and one Portal Exit.
No interaction editing is necessary for Portal Entries and Portal Exits.
Portal Entry States
Idle Portal Entries always appear as idle.
They can however have different icons selected for them.
Portal Entry Object Editing
The following object menu options are available in a Portal Entry.
Menu Item
Description
Up To Portal
Enables the user to switch the screen display "up" to the Sub-system screen containing the Portal Object that owns the current subsystem.
Attributes
Attributes can be added to a Portal.
Click on the Attributes option brings up a list of Attribute names for editing, or enables you to name a new attribute. This option is also at the Portal Exit and the Portal itself.
Tables
Tables can be added to a Portal.
Click on the Tables option to bring up a list of Table names for editing, or enables you to name a new table. This option is also at the Portal Exit and the Portal itself
Panels
You can add View Panels to a subsystem.
View Panels are screens where you display information only. Neither items nor objects are shown in a View Panel. They only show views of data like attributes, tables, graphs, and paint objects (buttons, images etc).
Panels are owned by Portals, and are copied with the portal as part of its hierarchy when you copy and paste a portal.
This option is also available at the Portal itself and the Object Edit Screen Background Menu.
You can view a list of the Shared Routines resident at this subsystem level.
This option is also available at the Portal itself and under Panel, in the menu bar.
Labels
You can add Label Lists to a Portal. These Label Lists are “Scoped” which means they are visible only to items and code within the portal’s scope (i.e. its branch of the model hierarchy).
As with attributes and tables, scoped label lists with the same name as lists higher in the hierarchy will "obscure" those higher up. This option is also available at the Portal itself.
Classes
This option is also at the Portal Exit and the Portal itself.
Connect To
This option lets you connect select from a list of objects the one you want to assign to this Portal Entry.
Items entering the Portal from this object will now appear always at this Portal Entry.
When you assign an object to a Portal Entry, its name appears above the Portal Entry.
Note that an outside object with a leading underscore in its name will not be displayed. Only one Portal Entry should be set to "Any".
Add Alternate Entry
Places a new Portal Entry on the screen for you to use.
Each can be assigned as the link to a specific object outside the subsystem, using the "Connect To" menu option.
A Portal Entry not specifically linked to an object (ie. linked to "Any") receives those items that have not been directed to a specific Portal Entry.
Naming Portal Entries and Portal Exits
Each Portal Entry and Portal Exit can be named independently.
However if you rename the owning Portal (the Object containing this subsystem), then all of the Portal Entires and Exits are automatically renamed according to a special renaming/numbering system.
All links to specific named objects are retained if you copy and paste the subsystem.
This enables you to perform Ctrl-Pastes, without having to re-assign the Entries and Exits.
If a specified object is not linked, or not present when the portal with multi entries is pasted, then the system will complain about:
- Being unable to form a link, when there is no object of that name present, or
- The absence of a link, (either Path or Track) where the object is present.