Structure pane

The structure pane is located in the lower left of the AppBrowser. When a file is open in the editor, this pane displays a structural analysis of the file. This structural analysis is in the form of a hierarchical tree. You can think of the structure pane as a table of contents for the file.

You can also use the structure pane as a quick navigation tool to the various structural elements in the file. For example, if you have a .java file open, you see classes, variables, methods, and interfaces in the structure pane. You can then click any of these elements in the structure pane and the editor will move to and highlight that element in the source code. This gives you a much faster way to browse and find the elements of a .java file than scrolling through it or searching for a word. You can also search for a particular element by moving focus to the tree in the structure pane and beginning to type. For more information, see "Searching trees."

Right-click in the structure pane to see the structure pane pop-up menu. Change the structure order of the elements by selecting Properties from the pop-up menu.

Drilling down

You can also use the structure pane for drilling down into other ancestor classes and interfaces. To drill down, just double-click the class or interface you want to drill into. The AppBrowser displays the file in the project pane, content pane, and structure pane.

Component tree

When you select a .java file and then select the Design tab at the bottom of the content pane, the structure pane displays the designable objects in the file and how they are nested and interrelated. This view is called the component tree.

UML and the structure pane

When you view a UML diagram, the structure pane provides a tree view of relationships by category. The structure pane can also be used for selection and navigation to a class or package.

EJB Designer and the structure pane

When you are working the EJB Designer, the structure pane displays the schema of a data source and allows you to import and add new data sources. By right-clicking elements that appear in the structure pane, you can modify the schema of a data source, then use that schema to create entity beans. You can also export a modified schema back to the data source.

Getting help

You can also view the Java documentation from the structure pane. If you're in the source code or a UML diagram, select a class, interface, or field and press F1. If you're in a designer (except the EJB Designer), select a component in the component tree and press F1.

See also