Appendix A Getting Started With TIBCO Designer : Working With Palettes

Working With Palettes
TIBCO Designer contains a small number of native palettes. In addition, each TIBCO application you install that uses Designer adds one or more palettes during installation.
Which palettes are displayed depends on:
Current Selection and Palette Panel Display
When the default view is set as your view preference, the current selection in the project tree determines which palettes are displayed in the palette panel. You can change your view preferences to change what’s displayed in the palette panel. See Customizing the Display for more information about how TIBCO Designer functions in palette mode.
Figure 6 Palette panel changes depending on current selection
For example:
Select the Adapter Services folder of an adapter in the project tree to see a palette of service resources. Drag any service resource into the design panel to add that resource to that adapter.
Using the Palette Browser
The palette browser allows you to manage palettes easily. You can explore palette groups, palettes and resource types, and enable or disable specific palettes to display in the palette panel. The browser includes a search filter that allows you to display only palettes that match a specific string. Click Palettes > Browse to display the palette browser.
The palette browser displays all available palettes grouped by palette groups in a hierarchy. Selecting a palette or resource in a palette displays its name, resource id and description in the right pane.
Clearing the check box next to a palette's name in the tree hides that palette in the palette panel. Selecting the check box shows that palette in the palette panel. You must close the palette browser to view the changes you have made.
By default, all palettes are visible in the palette browser. You can provide a filter in the Filter string/pattern field to limit the display. The filter uses regular expression matching. That is, if you enter JMS in the field, only palettes that have JMS in their name, description or containing palette are displayed. Matching is case insensitive. Entering a new expression and clicking Filter again performs a new search on all resource types and will not refine the current search.
To clear the filter expression and display all palettes either click Show all or remove the expression from the entry box and click Filter again.
Showing and Hiding Palettes
Palettes can be hidden by clicking the X icon next to the palette name. For example, the following diagram shows the palette panel with a large number of palettes displayed. You can disappear a palette by clicking the X icon.
To redisplay a palette quickly, click the Palettes menu and select the palette to display. For example, the next diagram shows that the FTP palette is not visible in the palettes panel (an X does not display next to FTP). After you select FTP, its palette will display in the palette panel. Note that you can hide palettes using this menu. Each time you select a palette, it toggles between appearing and disappearing.
Choosing Palette Mode or Non-palette Mode
TIBCO Designer allows you to change the palette panel display to use palette mode or non-palette mode.
In palette mode, each resource is shown in the palette it belongs to, and each palette shows all resources. In that case, unusable resources are grayed out.
While in palette mode, you can close individual palettes using the close marker (X) on the right. If you don’t see close markers, choose Palettes > Options> Show Close Boxes. To hide close markers, choose Palettes > Options> Hide Close Boxes.
To redisplay a closed palette, choose Palettes > Browse, then locate and select the palette.
Figure 7 Palette mode vs. non-palette mode
To Switch Palette Modes
Choose Palettes>Options>Switch Palette Modes.
or
Click the Switch Palette Modes button located in the tool bar.
Displaying Palettes in a Separate Window
You can display the palette panel in a separate window by choosing Palettes > Options > Show Palettes in New Window. You can also access this menu command from the right-button menu of any palette in the palette panel.
To restore the palette panel to its location in the main window, close the separate window in which the palette panel is displayed.
Working With User Palettes
User palettes allow you to save a collection of resources to a predefined location and either share it with other users or use it yourself at a later time.
To Create a User Palette
1.
Choose Palettes > My Palettes > New Palette.
2.
When you later save your project, the palette is saved to the location specified by the User Palette Directory General Preference.
3.
4.
When you save your project, the custom palette is then saved to the location specified by the User palette directory under the General tab in the Preferences dialog.
To Load a User Palette
1.
Choose Palettes > My Palettes > Reload Palettes.
To Delete a User Palette
1.
2.
Choose Palettes > My Palettes > Delete Palettes.
You are prompted for the palette(s) you want to delete.