The Catalogue Tool Toolbar functionality

The Catalogue tab of the main toolbar provides all functions and tools associated to the catalogue tool.

This section defines the functionality of each catalogue tab button:

1. Open catalogue – opens a browse window enabling you to select an existing catalogue file (XML format file, with extension “.xml”) to open.

   

2. New – Click to start a new catalogue. You will be prompted to select a template to define the structure of the catalogue. Only templates packaged with the Flood Modeller will be available to select from (see The Catalogue Template for further details.)

   

   Note:

   Flood Modeller won’t prompt for a name or save location for the new catalogue at this time. You will be prompted for this information when you first save changes to the new catalogue.

   The new catalogue will initially be setup with a default structure (as defined by the chosen template). On the catalogue tabs (of the map panel) you will see default names assigned to the different data types contained within the chosen template. As you add data to the catalogue, you will replace the default names with data from your project.

3. Save - Saves changes made to the loaded catalogue. If this is the first time you are saving a new catalogue, you will be prompted to provide a filename and location for your catalogue xml file.

4. Save As – Saves changes made to the loaded catalogue to a new catalogue xml file. A standard file browse window is displayed for you to define the filename and location.

5. Catalogue Properties – displays a popup window showing the current catalogue filename and location. A button is provided to open an explorer window at the catalogue file location.

   

6. Folder Connections – Click to access the list all folder connections defined in the current catalogue or to define new connections.

   

   To start associating data to your catalogue, you need to set up at least one folder connection (you are not prompted to do this). Folder connections are used to relate relative path definitions in model files to actual file locations on the host system.

   In the folder connections popup window:

   • Click Add Folder to browse to an existing folder on your system or to create a new one.

   • Click on a defined folder path to enable editing of entry. Either by typing directly into the table, pasting a new path into the field or by re-accessing the folder selection window using the button provided on each row.

   • Click Save to store the specified folders in your new catalogue

   • Click the Red “X” to close the Folder Connections window. If you try to close the window without saving, the tool will prompt you to ensure unsaved changes are not lost. If there are unsaved changes then the window header should be displayed with a “*” symbol

     

7. Data Scan - The data scan function is used to automatically fill in metadata from associated simulations. These data may be model input files, results data or simulation diagnostics (all located from references in simulation files).

   Each simulation will have associated metadata to be added to the catalogue. The data sections are defined in the selected catalogue template. They are displayed in the Simulations tab of the right-hand panel. This is a tree view that can be expanded to show metadata from all loaded simulations, though the data from the selected simulation in the main catalogue view will be visible by default. Some of these data can only be filled in using the data scan tool. Other entries always require manual entry and some fields have either option – they will have a padlock icon against them (click the padlock to release fields for manual entry).

   Note:

   You can also scan a subset of the catalogue by selecting the data scan option from the right-click menus of a catalogue section (scans all files in section) or referenced file (scans just the selected file)

8. Validate Catalogue - At any time, you can check what data are missing in a catalogue by running the validate function. This function generates a report summarising the missing data in your catalogue. In addition, fields marked as required in the template are highlighted in orange if missing and fields marked as recommended (but optional) are shown in yellow. Note, you have the option in the catalogue toolbar to turn off this highlighting (see below).

9. View Settings – provides a sub-menu of options for customising the look of the data displayed in the Catalogue Overview and Simulation Details tabs.

   

   The options provided are:

   • Show Status column – toggles the Status column on and off in both the Catalogue Overview and Simulation Details tabs. Status column will display “not set”, “file missing” or “folder missing” for the associated data entry

   • Show Notes column – toggles the Notes column on and off in both the Catalogue Overview and Simulation Details tabs. The catalogue tool allows you to add additional notes to describe any data entry, e.g. a model file, input dataset, etc. These notes can be typed or pasted into the notes field for the relevant data entry.

   • Show Treeview lines – by default the Catalogue Overview and Simulation Details tabs have the look of a table, with each field bounded by grey outlines. This option allows you to toggle these outline on or off.

   • Filename Options – change the detail shown for file reference data entries. You can show the file name only, the full path with the filename or the path relative to the associated catalogue folder connection.

10. Highlight Issues – toggles the orange (required data) and yellow (recommended, but optional data) highlighting on and off.

11. Show Issues Only – hides all rows that don’t have an issue. Click again to show all rows.

12. Expand All – expands all branches of the project tree so you can visualise all validation issues (note; currently there is no collapse all command).

13. Display Items – this section of the toolbar provides options to customise the catalogue displays. Tick the relevant boxes to determine which data types are visible in the interface (in the catalogue overview tab of the map panel and the simulation details tab of the right-hand panel):

    • Required (by software) – Prefix with (*); if not filled in, the tool cannot work properly

    • Required (specified in selected template) – Defined by template author to store key modelling information

    • Optional (specified in selected template) – Providing additional information. User decides whether they need to add data to these fields. Optional fields can be left blank with no consequences.

14. Simulation grid view options – The simulation grid tab (on the map panel) shows selected metadata from each simulation in a catalogue. The metadata displayed is customisable, the user decides which columns to show and which to hide. The following catalogue toolbar commands enable you to save a particular set of columns as a “layout”. This can then be re-used in multiple catalogues.

    • Load Layout – displays an explorer window to enable you to load a previously defined grid layout (combination of metadata columns)

    • Save Layout – saves current simulation grid layout (text file with “.lyt” extension)

    • Reset Layout – resets simulation grid in current catalogue to display the default combination of metadata columns (as seen when a new catalogue is started)