This control panel is shown at the of any view pane Attribute Browser view. By default, all bar the first row of controls are hidden, accessed via a standard disclosure triangle to the left of the top set of controls. The labels in the top row refer to the controls in the second row of the panel.
attribute. This comprises a pair of pop-ups and a search box (the latter to the right of the label).
- Attribute group pop-up. The left hand pop-up selects a system or user attribute group.
- Attribute pop-up. The right-hand pop-up is populated based on the selection in the group pop-up. The attribute selected here is the attribute whose values are then summarised in the main part of the Attribute Browser view. Selecting an attribute here is the primary configuration task with this view.
- Search box. Placed in row #1 of the controls, to the right of the label. The search box autocompletes attribute names and clicking Return will auto-select both the above pop-ups for the attribute name matched in the search box.
container. More accurately this is the scope of the view.
- container selection pop-up. By default a view is whole document (or current container if the view is created by altering the tab view type of an existing tab. The items listed are both immediate children and any descendants of the chosen container.
- (container sort order). The button with a downwards-pointing chevron label controls the view sort order, in terms of sorting of the view's categories. Clicking the button toggles the sort order. When the sort order is reversed, the button label changes to an upwards-pointing chevron. The 'empty' category—no value assigned for the inspected attribute—is listed last in the default order (its position toggles to first in reversed sort). The sort order of value categories depends on data type:
- String-based (all types—including list-based—except: Number, Interval, Boolean, Date types). Alphabetical lexical order, case-insensitively. Numbers sort first, i.e. : 1, 10, 2, aardvark, ant, Ant, bee, etc. Note that numerical text values do not sort numerically.
- Number-type. Ascending numerical for Number-type (negative numbers first). However, see the section below on numerical value 'bins' as numbers are categorised slightly differently to textual values.
- Boolean-type. Default is
falsethentrue. Note that there is no unassigned group as a Boolean attribute can only betrueorfalse. - Interval-type. Ascending based on duration.
- Date-type. Earliest to latest. The 'no date' value, i.e.
"never", list lasts as for other types' defaults. By default dates are formatted using the OS' medium system date format (i.e. format "n"), as is inherited as the document default for $DisplayedAttributesDateFormat. The latter attribute may be set to a different format for the view either via prototype inheritance or by setting a local value in the container used to display this view.
summary. The controls are for per-category summaries. By default there is no summary. The first pop-up lists the $Name (default) plus an attributes shown in column view. The second control offers a choice of operation to apply to the choice. The default is no choice. The choices offered are:
- non-Number type attribute selected:
- none. (default)
- Count. This sums the number of items in that category with a value for the attribute. Thus in the basic Name/Count configuration the summary is a count of items in that category, as each note has a (single!) title.
- Count Fraction. For each category, this shows the category count as well as the total count (i.e. the total number of items in scope).
- Number-type attribute selected offers a larger range of summary types:
- none. (default)
- Count. (only option for non-Number type attributes)
- Total. The total value of all the category's items for the selected attribute.
- Mean. The mean value of all the category's items for the selected attribute.
- Minimum. The smallest value of amongst all the category's items for the selected attribute.
- Maximum. The largest value of amongst all the category's items for the selected attribute.
sort. Within a category, the items can be sorted on a chosen attribute. The default is $DisplayName. Attribute Browser categories are sorted by locale; thus, diacritical marks should not create unexpected sort orders. When categories are sorted by the summary, ties are sorted by the category name. A pair of group/attribute pop-ups allow the sort attribute to be selected.
- Attribute group pop-up. The left hand pop-up selects a system or user attribute group.
- Attribute pop-up. The right-hand pop-up is populated based on the selection in the group pop-up.
query. A query can be added to further refine the overall choice of included items. The query applies within the current container scope as set via the container controls (above). Clicking in the input box opens a query pop-up. The description entered in the pop-up is used as a label in this box.
action. Akin to an agent action this optional action code is applied to all items listed in the view. Clicking in the input box opens an action pop-up. The description entered in the pop-up is used as a label in this box.
bins. (Default: 0) Only displayed/used where the attribute analysed is of Number-data type. If a figure is entered the view divides the difference of the lowest and highest attribute value to the desired number of equally-sized bins. It is not possible to Set a floor or ceiling for the lowest/highest bins. There is no stated limit for the number of bins that may be defined.
See also—notes linking to here: