Attributes Editor

Introduction

The Attributes Editor is a tool to allow advanced users to view and edit global attributes and variable attributes that are not members of the ISTP/SPDF Guidelines (see https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp_guide/istp_guide.html) required or recommended set of attributes.
 
Note
The Attributes Editor is intended for advanced users only.  Its use requires knowledge of CDF that is not required to use the other parts of this application.  The Attributes Editor does not enforce ISTP/IACG guidelines like the rest of this application does.

Opening the Attributes Editor

The Attributes Editor is a seperate, modal window that is opened from the Tools menu.  The left side of the window contains a tree of all the attributes defined in the CDF file.  The top level of the tree list the global attributes and each variable.

Menus

The menu bar at the top of the editor provides access to the operations that a user can perform in the editor.
The following menus are available:

Window Menu

The Window menu contains the following item:
 
Close Closes the Attributes Editor window.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu contains the following items:
 
Cut Deletes the current selection and places it on the clipboard.
Copy Copies the current selection to the clipboard.
Paste Pastes the contents of the clipboard at the insert point.
Select All Selects all the text in the field that currently has focus.
Add New Attribute Creates a new attribute.
Global Attribute Entry Creates a new global attribute entry.
Delete Attribute Deletes the currently selected attribute.
Global Attribute Entry Deletes the currently selected global attribute entry.

Viewing Global Attributes

To view the names of all , expand the Global Attributes node of the tree.  Once the names of the global attributes are visible, the attribute's entry (or entries) can be displayed by selecting the attribute in the tree.  If an entry is defined for the selected attribute, its data type and value are displayed on the right side of the window.  For convienence, when all entries of a global attribute are of type CHAR, all entries are shown in a single text area and a preserve lines checkbox appears at the bottom of the area.  If the preserve lines box is checked, then each line of text is saved as a single entry.  If the preserve lines box is not checked, then all the text (possibly multiple lines) is save as a single entry.

Viewing Variable Attributes

To view the attributes of a variable, expand the variable's node in the tree.  Once the variable's attributes are visible, a specific attribute may be selected.  Once a specific attribute is selected, its entry is displayed on the right side of the window.

Creating a New Attribute

To create a new attribute, you must first select the Global Attributes node or a variable node in the selection tree at the left side of the window.  Next, select Add New/Attribute from the Edit menu.  This will present a dialog box in which the name of the new attribute is specified.  After a name is entered and the dialog dismissed, the new attribute appears in the tree.

Creating a New Global Attribute Entry

To create a new global attribute entry, select the global attribute node in the selection tree at the left side of the window. Then, select Add New/Global Attribute Entry from the Edit menu.  Now the data type and value of the entry may be set on the right side of the window.

Deleting an Attribute

Deleting a Global Attribute Entry

See Also