Table of Contents
Main Menu: Tools Menu: Entity Index
Quick Steps
- Press <Ctrl+E> at any time; or
- Choose 'Tools | Entity Index' from the main menu
- Choose from the functions listed under Detailed Steps in the Table of contents for this page:
Detailed Steps
The Entity Index (EI) is a table of all of the records that you have stored in a particular data folder in RIMMF.
Open the Entity Index
To access the EI, you can either:
- Press <Ctrl+E> at any time; or
- Choose 'Tools | Entity Index' from the main menu
Each RIMMF record in a database has one entry in this table.
Open a record from the Entity Index
There are 3 ways to open a record in the EI:
- Double-click on the record to open (this shows only the elements that contain data)
- Select the record to open and:
- Click the 'Open selection' button to open the record (this shows the record with only the elements that contain data); or
- Click the down arrow on the right of the button to choose a template in which to open the record (this shows the record with all elements included in the template, whether or not they contain data)
Open the R-Tree for a record from the Entity Index
To open the R-Tree for a record in the EI:
- Select the record to open
- Click the 'Open in R-Tree' button
- The R-Tree of records that are linked to the record will display
- Go **here** to learn more about the R-Tree
Delete a single record from the Entity Index
To delete a single record from the EI:
- Select the record
- Click the 'Delete selection' button
- If the Confirmation tells you that this record is linked to other records:
- and you think you might want to delete some or all of the other records that are linked to this record:
- then cancel this step (click <No>)
- open in R-Tree instead
- follow the
- then then follow the instructions to open the record and then go to the R-Tree and find each record and note down the RIMMF Identifier (RID) of those linked records, in case you want to delete all of the records in the set
- Confirm or reject deletion
- If you confirm deletion:
- and the record is not linked to other records, the record will be deleted
- and the record is linked to other records, then the links in the other records to this record will be deleted and this record will be deleted
- If you reject deletion (No), the process is canceled
Delete a set of records from the Entity Index
- You can delete an entire set of records by opening the R-Tree for a record in the set and using the <Delete> button in the R-Tree; see Learn about: The 'R-Tree' for more details.
IMPORTANT
Always use the 'Delete' button on the Entity Index to remove records, or open the record and choose <File | Delete> or <Ctrl+F11>. Deleting the record file itself (in Windows Explorer, for example) does not delete the record's links, and these links are very central to RIMMF's role as a visualization tool.
Export from the Entity Index
- Open the Entity Index <Ctrl+E>
- Click the down arrow beside <Export>:
- Click on <Select All>
- Click the <Export> down arrow again
- Choose <Zip (Rimmf, ie. R-ball)>
- Click the <Export> button again
- Enter a filename, or accept the one provided
- Click <OK>
- Click <OK> again (to include MARC source records)
- Find the file on your Desktop
Sort Columns in the Entity Index
The default sort order of the EI is by the 'shorturi' column, which is generally the same as the date the record was created.
To make it easer to scan a list and find a record, you can sort the list by any column, by clicking on the header of the column. The list above is sorted by 'Composite Key'.
After you click on a column header, a small triangle appears at the end of the column header. If it is pointing up, the column is sorted in ascending order; if pointing down, it is sorted in descending order.
You can sort on more than one column too. Follow these steps.
- Click on the header of the column for the primary sort (eg. Entity)
- Hold down the Shift key, and click on the header of the column for the secondary sort (Eg. Composite key)
- and so on
To undo a multiple sort, just click any column header without holding down the Shift key
Filter the Entity Index
The EI also supports filtering, both simple and complex.
To filter on Entity, for example, place the mouse over the Entity column header (but don't click)–a small icon representing a 'filter' should appear to the right1):
Click on the filter icon. A dropdown list that contains one item for each unique value in the column will appear.
Click on the value (or values) that you want to add to your filter:
If you click on Manifestation, only manifestation records will be displayed in the EI.
If you click on Person, only person records will be displayed.
And so on.
You can select as many values for the filter as you want.
Note that when a filter is set, an additional panel appears at the bottom of the screen. This filter panel serves a few purposes
- It serves as a visual notification that a filter has been set
- It tells you want the filter is
- It provides a quick way to turn off the filter (Click the red 'X')
- It provides an interface for setting a more detailed filter (Click the 'Customize' button)
Note: Filters are turned off as soon as the EI is closed, or whenever the EI loses focus.
For information on Custom filtering, visit this link: http://www.marcofquality.com/pages/html/devx-filtering.htm
Search the Entity Index
To find records in the EI that contain a word or words:
- Click in the Search box at the bottom of the screen
- Enter a word or words you would like to find
- Hit <Enter>
- All of the records containing the word(s) will be highlighted, but they are not grouped, so you may have to go up and down the page to see them all
- To clear a previous search, click the [X] button
For more details, see: How to: Search the Entity Index
Change Font
To change the Font setting in this table:
- Click the <Font> button
You have to close and re-open the EI to make the change to the font colour take effect.