Using the Object Browser

The Object Browser has a number of features which come in very handy during the development of a complex dashboard. In this section, we will discuss hiding, locking, and ordering of components.

Getting ready

Drag several components to the canvas.

How to do it...

1. Go to the Object Browser.
2. Click on the dot in the first of the two columns on the right side of the Object Browser for the component that you want to hide. The dot turns into a checkmark. As you can see, the component now disappears from the canvas.
   
3. Now click on the dot on the right for any of the components.
4. Try to move the component or make any other change to it.
5. As you'll see, the component is completely locked and doesn't change.
6. Make sure some of your components are on top of each other in the canvas. We now want to use the Object Browser to rearrange these overlapping components.
7. Select the component in the Object Browser that is on top of the list.
8. Click the arrow down button in the Object Browser multiple times until the component is on top of all the other components.
9. As you can see, the component shifts all the way to the top.

How it works...

As we have seen in this recipe, we can hide components and/or groups of components, which will make your life easier if you are using a lot of overlapping components. By checking Hide for some components, you won't be bothered by these and you can work with the others that are unhidden.

Note

There is one thing you should keep in mind. If you hide a component that is part of a group but the group itself is unhidden, the complete group will still be movable and its properties will be changeable.

Also, we saw that we can lock one or more components or groups of components. Doing this makes it impossible to select these components, so it won't be possible to move, change, or do anything else with them. In this way you can be sure you won't accidentally alter these components.

Note

Hiding and/or locking a component from the Object Browser only hides and/or locks that component during the development of a dashboard. When you preview or execute the dashboard, the component will appear again and function normally.

Finally, we changed the order of components on the canvas. This is an important feature when we are using overlaying components in our dashboard.

To move a component on top of all other components, you can also right-click on it and select the Bring To Front option. Send To Back will move the component all the way down. The options Bring Forward and Send Back do the same as the arrows in the Object Browser: they move the component one step up or down at a time.